And it is a worthy one.

DH, oldest son and I went to see it earlier today. My son was about a year old when the very first Star Wars movie came out.

The new movie is a highly worthy successor. My son suggested seeing it in 3-D (I had seen only one movie before in 3-D and wasn't sure about it. For this, it made the movie MAGICAL.)

I won't put in any spoilers, and this isn't really even a review. But it grabbed my heart throughout every moment, and it felt like being reunited with old friends, and meeting new ones.

May the Force be with you all in the New Year, especially with the Master Jedis who have kept us strong, such as Eric K, Susan I/S, and CZ.

I went to see it for the second time last night. I wanted to put together a few things I missed the first time. Great movie! I haven't seen the 3-D version but I want to.

As a hardcore SW lover and esp.a lover of the good old ones and Darth Vader admirer I was a little disappointed by the movie.
I highly welcome that they finally have a woman and person of color as strong main characters but it is actually a 3D makeover of ANH, ESB and ROJ. And you feel the Disney flavor. ): And because of that I'm a little afraid, that they will ruin Rey with "Disney-Princess-Romance-BS" in VIII
But BB-8 is my new love....I could watch him and Artoo forever.
It is a good movie, but for me even the Prequels were better.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2015 08:36PM by newnameabigail.

newnameabigail Wrote:
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>
> It is a good movie, but for me even the
> Prequels were better.
>


Okay, that was just mean!!

elderolddog Wrote:
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> newnameabigail Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > It is a good movie, but for me even the
> > Prequels were better.
> >
>
>
> Okay, that was just mean!!

+1

The prequels were full of terrible acting and things that were way out of sync with "facts" that were established in IV, V, and VI. The whole Anakin was a product of a virgin birth was laughable. I don't blame the actors so much as Lucas. Mark Hamil wasn't exactly a great actor in Star Wars, but he got better along the way.

That said, I still managed to enjoy the prequels in good fun..except for Jar Jar Binks.

Episode VII does contain many parallels with IV, V and VI, but I don't think that was due to a lack of ideas or creativity. I think they wanted to start with some familiarity. Also, history tends to repeat itself. The empire is defeated only to be replaced with something that is just as bad or worse. It'll be interesting to see how it all develops. I would imagine there will be some pretty good plot twists along the way.

I agree. It was entertaining, but it felt like a J.J. Abrams reboot. He takes the key events of the original series and then flips the characters a bit and calls it a new movie. It is Sci-Fi Chiasmus. It was very derivative and predictable and didn't really enlarge my understanding of the Star Wars universe. I wonder if there will be prequels to tell Kylo's backstory. I am guessing his is all pissy because he missed his mom and he had his heart broken by a princess.

Yes, I think you hit on the main flaw.

Princess Leia was a main and strong character from the original three movies. She totally held her own against Vader and Governor Tarkin on couple of scenes. And she single handledly killed Jabba The Hut, and was instrumental in destroying the Death Star shield in Return of the Jedi!

You got to need to know your fiction!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2016 04:35PM by zero.

zero Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
... blah, blah... was instrumental in destroying the Death
> Star shield in Return of the Jedi!
> You got to need to know your fiction!

Youse fiction freaks come off as dweebs who got to need to find a life.

newnameabigail Wrote:
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> And you feel the Disney flavor. ):

I'm a former Lucasfilm employee. On the ex-employee facebook group, we were all joking that the new movie, being "Disney-owned," would have a chorus line of stormtroopers break out in song, with animated animals joining them.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case!

I enjoyed the new movie. It carried on the tradition of the first three, while being its own.

Still, I'm partial to the first of the prequels, Phantom Menace...because I'm an extra in it :) Otherwise, it's just ok.

I enjoyed it too! As a reboot, filling in the back story is important before moving forward. I hope Star Wars VIII has a new and interesting plot. My daughter said that the Episode VIII, including the VFX production, will likely be filmed in London due to some pretty hefty film incentives. She's disappointed because then she might not get to work on VIII. :(

I was surprised to learn that George Lucas had nothing to do with it. Disney and he had different visions of where to take it

And pleasantly so because the prequels sucked. JJ Abrams knows how to create a good story, dialogue and characters. Lucas failed with the prequels.

Haven't seen it yet. I'm too cheap to pay full price for a movie so I'll wait until it hits our second run theatres....or wait 6 months until it's on my satellite movie channels.

RB

In fact, it's the last movie on Starz's contract with Disney. Movies from Disney from 2016-? go to Netflix now.

I don't have netflix either....

RB

I saw the original at the cinema in 1977, I was 9. I only have vague memories of the trip into Liverpool, it was dark. I remember the garbage compactor and a silly little K9'type robot.
DH and I took our 3 teen boys and my mum to the latest installment. Mum recalled that her n dad had won the tickets some how, back in '77.
All good fun.

Saw it a few days ago without reading any reviews. I also saw it with high hopes, but unfortunately I thought it sucked!

It's New Years Eve so I don't have enough time to give my full review of the movie. But I have on more than one occasion gone off on extended rants to friends and family about the movie. Fortunately because it's only a sci-fi movie nobody gets too offended, as compared to if I had gone off on a particular piece of religious fiction : )!

Anyway, I am a literal child of 70's and "A New Hope" is a defining piece of literature/movie for me. Unfortunately, J.J. Abrams screwed this new movie up as bad as he screwed up his crappy reboot of Star Track in 2008.

This review has a lot of links that sum up my issues with this movie:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/12/star-wars-the-force-awakens-nostalgia-and-expectations/422154/

Now, there is a reason I'm complaining about this movie on this website. Growing up the 70's and 80's THE FORCE seemed like so much of a cooler mystical power than the Aaronic priesthood ever did. It was like Darwin's Theory of Evolution (Creationism vs. Evolutionism) in that it gave me an alternate theory of thought.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2015 10:03PM by zero.

Apparently, George Lucas is butthurt by the success and hates it. JJ Abrams made the quality movie Lucas failed with for the prequels. Cry me a river, George. The prequels sucked and 7 is awesome. Deal with it.

I thought Revenage of Sith was great! Very satisfying story of how Analin Skywalker became Darth Vader!

The main problem with episode 3 (among other problems) was that the character Anakin doesn't act anything like the Darth Vader in the original trilogy. So it fails on that transformation too.

Much better than the prequels.

My husband and son are, atm, on the way to seeing it in I-Max 3-d format. I have to work, or I'd go to.

I saw the first one at the theater when it orig. came out. Yeah..I'm getting old----ish. lol

I would like them to try to think up a new plot for the next movie. After 38 years, they can't do that?

I was annoyed, while watching a trailer, to notice although they while they have advanced so much technologically, in warfare they still had not yet devised a way for projectiles from a moving gun platform to hit a moving target. But the US Navy has gone a long way towards solving that problem with their shipboard radar-guided CIWS Gatling guns.

Bad guys = bad shots

Good guys = good shots

movies are now franchises.

I hear the next star wars movie will have jar jar binks as the main character.

I also prophesy that they will maybe make at prequel with an 8-year-old Keylo Ren throwing a tantrum because Han or Leia tried to discipline him.

The Death Star in the next one will be "a globe like a sea of glass and fire, [where (the Sith) reside] where all things for their glory are manifest, past, present, and future, and are continually before the Lord." D&C 130.

Also, and this is some sage advice, if you want to know if it's a good Jedi or someone on the dark side who is visiting you just ask to shake their hand!

Simple but effective method for determining who is good and who is EVIL!!

D&C 129

it can't get much worse than this ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIBkRs3pPKI

http://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2015/12/60-unforgivable-plot-holes-in-star-wars.html?m=1

That's a lot of plot holes!

I'd hoped for more. The movie was enjoyable, but...

Apparently you can now write a Wizard of Oz follow on with a guy as the main character and a Ruby city <rather than the Emerald one>. And it is a TOTALLY "new" and fresh story according to 7/8 of the human race. Argg. I guess it saves on screenwriting. Just grab that old script and shove in about 10 new pages.

Let's hope for the next movie. And it they don't deliver, we'll hope for the next one and the next and the next. Either way, I'm sure Disney will continue to be the happiest place on earth ($).

I guess when you have a few hundred million dollars riding on the outcome of the movie and the hopes of BILLIONS of people looking at you, you might tend to play it safe. I think this movie played it safe. I like that they retrieve the original look and feel of the original "universe" of Star Wars that we all loved. I'm disappointed in the plot. I think they wimped out on that. Yeah yeah yeah Joseph Campbell blah blah blah. BS. There are plenty of new stories. Write one. Film one. Take a chance. Everyone is giving them a pass on this. Can I do it? Probably not - didn't claim I could. But these guys are more talented than this (hope so anyway).

PLEASE do better in the next episode. PLEASE.

Once in 3D IMAX, although I do admit I fell asleep for a few moments each time. I'm on some pretty strong meds. But I liked it. It was entertaining. I'm not looking for anything life-changing.

Personally, I didn't like the first Star Wars when I saw it the first time. I was waiting for a missionary and he wanted me to go see it and tell him how it was. I was bored for the first how long of the movie. It grew on me. My favorite episode is the second one--can't think of the name right now. I barely remember the prequels.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2016 08:10PM by cl2.

it's a steaming pile of sith