Spoileriffic Force Awakens Thread

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Saw it on the 27th, loved it. I'll be seeing it again this afternoon. Rey is fucking awesome and the bromance between Finn and Poe is just so cool.

[Coalition]

I was expecting Kylo to release the blaster bolt so Poe was shot by his own weapon. Or just interrogate Poe, walking back and forth in front of him, between Poe and the blaster bolt. Perhaps have another civilian behind Poe so if Poe ducks, the civilian gets shot.

Finn should have shown some combat ability. He was a trained stormtrooper, let's see some hand to hand capability.

Instead of seeing the Starkiller shots with the naked eye, have announcements coming in over television, emergency alerts, etc. A transport sends off its recordings as it jumps to lightspeed away from the exploding planets/moons.

How does Finn know that the location is a weak point? Because he saw a lot of maintenance personnel going there when he was stationed on the base. Lots of maintenance means a weak point.

The name of the weak point should have been "Energy stream regulator". When someone asks what it does Han would Gibb-smack the person and say, "it regulates the energy stream you moron. Now shut up and pay attention."

Captain Phasma should not have had the access to shut down the shield grid. Instead she should have punched a key sequence to make it look like she was shutting down the shields, and instead alerting every trooper in range to her position.

When Han asks why was Finn in Sanitation? Have Finn reply that according to the recroom rumor mill, a high-level political prisoner escaped through a garbage chute a few decades ago. Finn thinks that is just a bunch of bull that the senior staff made up to keep stormtroopers like him busy.

Finn's plan to destroy the Starkiller base is to rescue Rey. He doesn't know enough to destroy the base, but Rey knows tech. So rescue her, and let her figure out a way to blow the regulator up.

Rey was able to find Solo, Finn, and Chewie because she was listening to the Force to know which path was safer. This allowed the Force to lead her to her friends. She is startled because this is the first time she has had guns aimed at her, but quickly recovers.

At the end, Chewie should have gone off to the forest and roared that Han is dead, and his godson is the villain. A combination of rage and sadness.

[sunnyside]

I was thinking that it might have helped the whole Rey thing along if the touching the lightsaber weirdness resulted in her being helped by one of those force spirits, probably Vader/Anakin most appropriately. James Earl Jones, David Prose, and Hayden Christensen are all still around so they'd have had some options in how to portray that.

However what occurred to me with that, and pretty much all the Rey comments we've been making here, is that it'd take away from, well, her Mary Sueness. Which, to be fair, is much more acceptable in original characters. Disney knows what they're doing. I've been seeing a fair number of comments and links in Facebook and elsewhere to news articles and blogs about feminists/parents/kids/etc raving about Rey. Contrast that with Hasbro getting beat up a little with the whole #WheresRey thing.



On a separate note, if Finn had actually been a highly competent solider we'd all be talking about why he gets to be so much better than the rest of the rank and file storm troopers. As it is it seems like they're treated more like a militarized work crew. I took it from the scene with the speech to the assembled ranks that the Storm Troopers literally were the ones who built the Starkiller base, and I thought the implication was that Finn actually worked in sanitation as opposed to just being a guard there. In any case at least he was pretty consistent in asserting that the only weapon training he had was with a blaster.

[Atekimogus]

Bit late to the party but finally got around watching it and...I was mildly disappointed.

Yes..I noticed the Mary Sueness of Rey...but since she is a likable person I didn't mind all too much. Yes, the plot was a rehash of A New Hope..but even that didn't bother me, not really.


Strangely...and that is maybe something which only bothered me.....it is the age of certain actors and how they affect the movie. What do I mean by that? Well...let's take Finn for example. I think he had potential being a hugely interesting character. Now let's assume he were not in his early 20s but more in his early 30s, he isn't a battle virgin but actually has already seen lots of combat...he's a veteran but at some point he just can't do it anymore. His concience and inherent "goodness" finally breaks through the training and conditioning and he decides to defect.

Instead we get a soldier who almost literally pisses his pants during his first combat action and runs away "because it is the right thing to do". Now I am not saying that wasn't the case and that he couldn't tell right from wrong...but being incapable of just being a soldier seemed to have played a greater part. He's basically a civilian thrown into combat and some can deal with it, and some cannot and he just seems to be the later case. I am not judging him for that (no idea how I would hold up under fire) but as a character it makes him slightly less interesting than if he'd be a hardened combat veteran deciding to do "the right" thing after already having done plenty of wrong.


Continuing on to the first order...sigh. They are - at least to me - never a credibly threat. I just don't buy it. Maybe it is a bit simplistic but the Empire were basically space nazis. Very german, very prussian and say what you like apart from their stormtroopers marksmanship at least they looked and behaved like professionals.

So we had evil space nazis........and now we have evil EMO-space nazis. They try to hard. I don't even remember the name of the ridiculous red headed Hitler wanna-be. The one delivering his "rousing" speech before firing the death star thingy. He tries being militarisitc but comes off like having something shoved into his backside. Seriously....look at his stance....there is having a certain way to hold yourself coming from military training and then there is trying at it......he sadly is the later and it bothered me to no end. And he also IS WAY TO YOUNG. At least in the original triology all the Generals, Admirals and even Captains had a credibly age. Are we supposed to believe that a guy in his early to mid twenties (and who isn't touched by the force) is somehow in control of the whole First Order military? Why? What makes him qualified?

Which brings me to the evil jedi VAder equivalent of the movie...well he is literally a teenager throwing temper tantrums. While sometimes being quite funny (like when he has another hissy fit and the two stormtroopers see it turn around like "nope...not my problem today") it still doesn't change the fact that he is not a credibly threat imho. (Evenmoreso after having his ass handed to him by a woman who weighs maybe 100 pounds soaking wet with no lightsabetraining whatsoever)

I am not even talking about the giant holograph thinky...Snooke? Snorke? Whatever....I mean...why? The movie looked really good...and then they throw in such a cheap ridiculous looking CGI alien?


So yes..it was a nice and enjoyable movie with some funny and nostaligc moments...........but there was - at least for me - never any tension. The first order comes off as some children who try to imitate the empire and fail horribly no matter how many people they kill.......as I said...emo-space-nazis.

Watching A New Hope for the I don't know how many times...I am still at the edge of my seat during the death star trench run...........I never felt any kind of tension in this one.

[McAvoy]

'Battle Virgin'

Excellent term for me to use.