Official Star Wars Episode VII SPOILER Thread

[phattemer]

I read that the filmmakers INTENTIONALLY didn't reveal Rey's last name. Also she is now my favorite Star Wars character.

General Comments:

They unobtrusively fixed a lot of the stuff that was wrong with the earlier films. For instance, in A New Hope, everyone is white, and everyone who does anything is male. In The Force Awakens, obviously neither of the main characters are both, but more in the crowd scenes, the proportions are pretty much what you would expect. About half female, not all white, not all human( ). In re to Quiver's comment about the new effect with the lightsaber: that is because Kylo Ren used an unstable crystal in his hilt. That is also why he needs the quillions. I didn't notice if Luke's old saber looked different or not, but Kylo's was the main one shown in the movie.

Also, I loved that movie. I went in the afternoon Friday, and I really want to go again. Also to someone above, yes, the orange lady did say that Chewbacca was her boyfriend. And it is true at least that she likes him.

Luke at the end, when Rey holds out the lightsaber:

"Welcome to Tosche Station."

Also, what was up with Luke's hair?

Edited December 20, 2015 by phattemer

[+Slowswift]

I read that the filmmakers INTENTIONALLY didn't reveal Rey's last name. Also she is now my favorite Star Wars character.

General Comments:

They unobtrusively fixed a lot of the stuff that was wrong with the earlier films. For instance, in A New Hope, everyone is white, and everyone who does anything is male. In The Force Awakens, obviously neither of the main characters are both, but more in the crowd scenes, the proportions are pretty much what you would expect. About half female, not all white, not all human( ). In re to Quiver's comment about the new effect with the lightsaber: that is because Kylo Ren used an unstable crystal in his hilt. That is also why he needs the quillions. I didn't notice if Luke's old saber looked different or not, but Kylo's was the main one shown in the movie.

Also, I loved that movie. I went in the afternoon Friday, and I really want to go again. Also to someone above, yes, the orange lady did say that Chewbacca was her boyfriend. And it is true at least that she likes him.

Luke at the end, when Rey holds out the lightsaber:

"Welcome to Tosche Station."

Also, what was up with Luke's hair?

 

 

Well, he's on an island, on a planet that's mostly water, in some uncharted part of the galaxy. Probably not much opportunity for a haircut.

[Briar King]

I thought he looked great.

Anakins saber was still the same stability.

[Curious Anamaximder]

I cried for nearly 2 hours after I saw it.

I'm in shock. But I still liked it.

[Allomancy]

I have a theory.

I think Luke is Rey's father. I don't know I'd they said that, but I just think it is.

 

Wow. This thread is mostly spoiler tags...

Edited December 20, 2015 by Allomancy

[firstRainbowRose]

I'm not spoiler tagging because if you're in here, you've been warned. Josh and I (okay, Josh figured it out and I agreed completely) came to the same conclusion about Rey's parents. All of the foreshadowing is there: "That was Luke's lightsaber, and his father's before him. Now it calls to you." Also, from the trailer: "The force is strong in my family. My father had it. I have it. My sister has it. That same power lies in you."

[Full Metal Rithmatist]

Yes lukes blue lightsaber had a very straight clean beam, only Rens had the wobbly unstable blade with energy arcing along the beam.

[Briar King]

I hope she builds a purple one for herself in Ep 8. That saber is 50+ yrs old. It needs to be in a Jedi museum.

[Iarwainiel I]

OK, since this is a spoiler thread, I'm not spoiler tagging either - as has been said, if you're here, you know what to expect.

I loved some of the little things, like when K-Ren found out that Rey had escaped, and he began laying about with his light saber, and those 2 stormtroopers started coming down the hall, and they just did a 180 pivot and went back the other way - priceless.

(Please forgive me for the "K-Ren" - I have difficulties when people/characters have names that start with the same letter due to my grapheme synesthesia. Messed me up on my college professors' names loads of times...)

Rey might be a descendant of Obi-Wan Kenobi or Qui-Gon Jinn, but I thought all along that she might be Luke's daughter because of that quote in the trailer. My theory was that Luke's mother hid her children, but maybe Luke would choose to hide himself instead - to absent himself from his child's life in order to protect her - but that doesn't fit great with Rey's flashback in TFA. Then again, that quote from the trailer might be a flashback of Luke talking to a younger K-Ren when he was trying to train him, so we just don't know. Maybe a director's cut on a DVD will show us more.

Does anyone know where they filmed the island scene with Luke? I'm guessing somewhere off Ireland or Scotland, because of the beehive stone huts. So beautiful!

Oscar Isaac, who played Poe, is sure getting a wide range of acting roles: He's the big-bad in the next X-Men film, and I remember first seeing him as Joseph in "The Nativity Story" (great movie!).

And General Hux was Bill Weasley from HP7 ?!?

Speaking of which, and I am totally being sarcastic here, did anyone else wonder if K-Ren created a horcrux when he killed his dad?

Edited December 21, 2015 by old aggie

[Quiver]

I hope she builds a purple one for herself in Ep 8. That saber is 50+ yrs old. It needs to be in a Jedi museum.

 

 

 

As for Rey... I wouldn't be surprised if they revealed her as Luke's daughter or something in a second film. I did read some speculation that maybe she's related to Obi Wan instead, which would certainly be a surprise... even if it's hard to see exactly how she could be connected to him.

 

Personally... I don't know. I kind of like the idea of Rey being, effectively, adopted into the Skywalker family; that way, it still keeps her backstory as traumatic as it is, while making sure the "Episode" movies are still "about" the Skywalker family.

 

[Argent]

In short - I loved it. 

 

One of the best things about it, I think, is how much it felt like a Star Wars movie - visual style, plot, special effects, worldbuilding. From the mandatory things, like the opening text and the camera panning down to a planet, to the more subtle ones, like the way some people understand non-human races and droids with no effort, while others are rightfully confused.

 

A lot of thematic parallels with the older movies too. Rey, like Anakin, is an orphan from a desert planet who is Force-sensitive and has to run away from her home because of the Empire First Order. Kylo Ren walking on that bridge with Han Solo following him reminded me (visually) of the scene where Luke lost his hand. Rey kicking Ren's butt reminded me of Obi-wan defeating Anakin. There was a scene just before the final bombardment of the not-Death Star where the x-wing pilots were flying through what was essentially a metal ditch, and it looked very much like the scene where Luke was flying through a similar ditch in the Death Star to bombard whatever he was going to bombard to blow it up. A few other scenes too. 

 

Rey was definitely a highlight. The trash compactor reference was gold. BB-8 won all the things. I was not a huge fan of Finn though, his role didn't feel as fleshed out as Rey's. I liked how Kylo Ren's lightsaber was poorly controlled, either because he was so prone to rage or because he wasn't properly trained.

[AndrewStirlingMacDonald]

I really enjoyed it. My best friend and I watched the prequels three times in a row on opening day as they came out, and we decided to uphold the tradition, even though we now have wives and children and real jobs and whatnot. It was definitely the best experience I had watching a Star Wars film in the theater three times in a row on opening day. It felt like a much smaller film than the prequels or RotJ, which I believe worked in its favor. It allowed for more humor and subtle personal moments, and it gives the story a lot more room to grow in later installments. It left a lot of questions open-ended, setting up arcs that one hopes will have satisfactory payoff down the line. One of the mysteries to which I'm referring is Rey's backstory, of which we only get tiny glimpses and hints towards.

 

Right off the bat, the minute I saw Rey, I was struck by how much she reminded me of Padme and her handmaiden decoy. Throughout the picture, an implication seemed to be clear to me that Han, Ren and Leia all recognized something in Rey that they could perhaps not quite put their finger on. My theory is a lot of conjecture, based quite a bit off of "that COULD work in the Star Wars galaxy" and "that sounds like something JJ Abrams would want to do," with just a pinch of "It would be waaaaaay too obvious for Rey to be the kid of one of the original trio, but she clearly has some connection with them." So here is what I think happened.

     THE ORIGIN OF REY

              (a theory by Andrew Stirling MacDonald)

 

She's a clone of Padme Amidala.

 

During the events happening at the end of "Revenge of the Sith," Palpatine takes a genetic sample from Padme. Believing that he could use it as some measure of ensured loyalty from Anakin, Palpatine clones Padme. Shortly after her birth, the clone is frozen in Carbonite, halting her aging process.

 

For decades, the clone is stored in a secure facility unbeknownst to Vader.

 

Some time after Palpatine's death, the clone is unfrozen. The people who unfreeze the girl decide to raise her as their own.

 

The First Order rises. They come looking for the clone of Padme. The girl's adopted parents leave her on Jakku, hoping to throw the First Order off of her trail. They succeed, but are unable to shake the First Order themselves. They die protecting her location.

 

How is she force-sensitive? Perhaps Palpatine tampered with her DNA? Or perhaps it is just the Force itself, working its mysterious will on the galaxy. Honestly, the weakest part of this is that she is specifically a clone of Padme. The main thing that made me think it was the uncanny resemblance. But she could also totally be a clone of Shmi - Maybe Palpatine was trying to produce a backup Anakin? In any case, I got a strong feeling from Rey that she was displaced in time, and we certainly know that her past is shrouded in mystery, even from herself.

 

That's all I got, so far. Feel free to build on my theory/speculation, or poke some holes in it. I can't wait to see how it all actually pans out!

Edited December 21, 2015 by AndrewStirlingMacDonald

[Delightful]

Loved it.

I loved how it reflected back on the old movies with what I felt was fresh characters and life and ideas.

I loved Rai, I loved how the beginning set her up. In contrast to Quiver, I thought the holding hands thing was perfect. Finn was being super classic hero "let me save the damsel in distress" and she's like dude, you're the one out of your depth here.

She is awesome. And I actually don't want her related. I think she's much cooler as a random junk collecter from a desert planet.

In the scene with Phasma (she's Chewies girlfriend right?) I was kind of expecting Groot to come along.....

And Hans son who's name I've forgotten, I loved that he was more complex than generic Evil Bad Guy.

How/what do we know he was thinking when he killed Han? When Han was stabbed through and still puts his hand on his sons face.....that's was beautiful.

When the storm troopers turned around while he was busy slicing up the wall was amazing. Also, I loved how the troopers had slightly different uniforms and capes and things for ranks.

Basically,

Edited December 21, 2015 by Delightful

[ThirdGen]

Re: Andrew,

 

JJ sure does love magic blood as a deus ex machina.

[Kestrel]

Saw this today, loved it. To death. The entire thing was great and I basically couldn't stop screaming until the very end (but that was like... three hours after it was over.)

 

They did a really good job, I feel. I liked it better than the reboots of Star Trek JJ did. It felt more like Star Wars. (compared to my feelings about the Trek reboots, which to me don't really capture the spirit of Trek, if that makes sense)

[Orlion Blight]

They did a really good job, I feel. I liked it better than the reboots of Star Trek JJ did. It felt more like Star Wars. (compared to my feelings about the Trek reboots, which to me don't really capture the spirit of Trek, if that makes sense)

 

Absolutely. With the Star Trek movies, it seemed they were trying to force it into a mold that would appear to the more general movie going public. With Force Awakens, they just made a Star Wars movie.

[Briar King]

Seeing it again Wednesday I hope. 2nd time will hopefully sit better with me. Hopefully Finn won't be so annoying then except for his convo with Phasma. That's going to be annoying 30 yrs from now to me.

[Mckeedee123]

The ending felt a little awkward to me, but the rest of it was just awesome! I had no trouble relating to Rey and Finn. Great characters. The beginning was dark and mysterious, the middle was... mysterious. Actually, the whole thing was kind of mysterious. What exactly is the political situation here? How Is the First Order existing alongside the Republic? Ah well, nevermind. I suppose I did feel as if there were a bunch of older characters (maybe just three or four, but still...) that had to be shoehorned in, but overall it felt pretty natural. The whole thing flowed well... It was very Star Wars.

 

Kylo Ren reminds me of my brother, and it's nice to know what he was thinking. I don't think I've ever really been able to relate to, or get inside the head of, any of the corrupted force users in the saga. I just feel as if I get him.

[azninvasion99]

I had a question/theory about Luke's location. And I might not be remembering this correctly, since I saw it a few days ago and I already need a rewatch, but did it say that Luke was looking for something about the origins or history of the Jedi? Because if so, wouldn't he be looking for Tython? I know that Tython was considered the Jedi home world for the old EU which Disney did away with, but I just couldn't help but get excited at that prospect of them including that planet in the movies. 

Edited December 22, 2015 by azninvasion99

[Argent]

Han said that those who knew Luke best believed he was looking for the first Jedi temple, or somesuch. Doesn't mean they were right though.

[Delightful]

A lot of the setting reminded me of Jedi Outcast/Jedi Academy.

[What's a Seawolf?]

Hey all, first post.  Guess it's kind of fitting Star Wars finally gives me the push to register.

 

I'm very conflicted about the movie.  As just a movie, I would say it was okay.  Not good, not great.  But entertaining.

 

However, (to me) it's not just a movie.  It's a continuation of the greatest trilogy and story ever.  And I have to look at it in that light.

 

With that said, my biggest problems (AND MASSIVE SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY):

 

1.  Luke.  Not that he wasn't in the movie.  (Though he obviously could have been included more in some fashion.)  It's the reasoning for him vanishing.  This is LUKE SKYWALKER.  The man who strode up to death star 2.0 knowing his friends were going to blow it up, in order to confront/save Vader and beat Palpatine.  The man who left training against the wishes of his master to rescue his friends who otherwise would have died.  It is BEYOND out of character for him to sit around doing nothing while new dark jedi rise and create a superweapon capable of blowing up SOLAR SYSTEMS.  I don't care what sort of trauma he experienced.  That is more out of character than him turing to the dark side.  He would NEVER sit around and do nothing.

 

Now that being said, my hope, HOPE, is that all the talk of Ben killing the other jedi is false.  That Luke has a group of jedi hidden off somewhere and he's been training them in secret/faked their deaths.  But even then, there better be one hell of a reaons he went MIA as a huge threat was rising and tens of billions died.

 

2.  The jedi.  If the narrative is to be believed, Luke was training other jedi, ben turned and killed them all.  Really?  After RotJ we're back to square one?  Not only should there be more jedi out there, but there should be more skywalker and solo kids running around too.  30+ years, the last known lineage of jedi?  Sorry, I'd expect (both for in unvierse reasons and narrative purposes) more skywalker/solo children. 

 

Granted, this could all be solved in Ep. 8 with the reveal of more children and other jedi.  Understandable not to clog Ep. 7 with all of them.  But if there were more jedi...I feel like Rey should have seen at least a couple on her way up to meet Luke.

 

3.  Speaking of Rey...it's kind of obvious she's Luke's daughter, right?  The only thing holding me back from being 100% is that it IS so obvious, and if it is, why wait a year and a half for the answer?  Just have Luke say it to her as the last line in the move.  ('The force runs strong in my family.  My father had it, my sister has it...you have it.')

 

She's obviously a Skywalker or mind-wiped Solo.  And the latter makes more sense with the lack of reveal.

 

4.  Han's death.  I get killing him off.  I never bought into the main characters have to die in all stories to keep them interesting thing, but fair enough.  But his death was meaningless, pointless and 100% obvious the moment Kylo stepped onto a random long-pit-crossing balcony with no guardrails.  Ben was too new, there was almost no father/son dynamic shown on screen, not a touch of heroism in the death, for it to have an impact.  (Could have had him at least die on the Falcoln, but that''s more a preference and minor quibble.)

 

Perhaps even worse, THERE IS NO ON SCREEN IMPACT FELT OVER HAN'S DEATH.  Leia sits down when she feels it, Chewie roars.  No touching moments, no remorse or reminscing, no funeral or touching moment as Resistance fighters learn of the death of one of the most famous leaders of the rebellion.  And yes Finn and Rey screamed, but they barely knew him and doesn't add any emotional weight.  (What was up with Leia walking right by Chewie as well and hugging Rey instead?)

 

5.  Starkiller base is used...so what?  I'm not even going to complain that's it's Death Star 3.0.  There was no emotional impact or meaning behind destroying that planet(s) or killing billions.  Sorry, there wasn't.  At least in ANH we had Leia there to witness her home's destruction, plus it was the first time seeing something of such magnitude.  Why should we care about that system?  Home of the Republic?  That's nice, we knowing nothing about it and are only shown the resistance anyway.  So it looks like the galaxy will be fine?  There's just no meaning or ramications behind the destruction.  (Granted, ramincations could come next movie, but I can only deal with what's been shown.)

 

6.  Speaking of Starkiller, the final aerial fight scene was terrible.  No tension, almost no conflict.  Looked like they were going for a homeage to ANH, which is fine, but did not work at all.  No real goal besides shoot things 'til they explode.  Didn't even have any good dogfighting scenes.

 

That's it for major, Star Wars as a whole complaints.

 

Minor quibbles.

 

R2-D2's magincal awakening, No Big Three reunion on screen (perhaps more of a major one,) would have liked Han and Chewie's entrance to be more heroic, could have used a few more familiar races just to feel more like Star Wars, some of Finn's lines and over the top actions took me out of the movie, Rey's magical jedi mind trick and saber skills.  (The last probably to be explained in Ep. 8, but as of now we have nothing to go on.)

 

Again, most of all, they better have a damnation good reason for Luke.

 

Likes:

 

In general, the five new characters were great.  Rey, despite the flaws mentioned above, definitely held her own.  As did Finn, despite a couple out of place/non Star Warsish lines.  Poe was great in limited time, though wasn't a big fan of him showing up in an X-Wing with no explanation.  It was obvious he survived (typical rule of off screen death=not dead,) but for such a new character with limited screen time, just showing up was a tad, 'wait, is that the pilot guy?'  BB-8 and Kylo were great as well.

 

Loved that there were no ballerina-esque lightsaber duels.  It didn't carry the weight of ESB or RotJ battles, but was far superior to the prequals.  Han was pretty good.

 

All in all, I WANT to like the movie.  But I can't.  Not yet anyway.

[Blaze1616]

I'm writing this not having read anything already said in this thread, so apologies for repeating anyone should that happen.

 

I...liked the movie. I feel very similarly to how I felt for Episode III, it was a good action movie, and a meh Star Wars movie.

 

First and foremost, WHERE ARE THE TWI'LEKS? Actually I'm kidding, I felt the older movies used Twi'leks too much as a standard alien race, but the movie really didn't include many familiar races. I don't recall seeing a Rodian, I only recall seeing one Sullustan, again no Twi'leks, and the Mon Calamari I assume was Ackbar (who apparently doesn't age), and that was really it. I didn't recognize anything else. That's a very minor complaint though.

 

My two big complaints, and they're the only ones I'll bother detailing, are 1) whiny villain and 2) Deathstar.

 

1) Another whiny villain? Really? Why? Did you decide to just forget about all the complaints about Anakin in Episode III? REMOVE THE ANGST FROM STAR WARS! I'm tired of it. Ben was snively, indecisive, constantly on the verge of tears, and just so un-Sith like that it bothered me. Han saying he "has too much Vader in him" is just plain wrong; he's nothing like Vader. Vader was calm and collected. He didn't raise his voice. He didn't lash out physically. He didn't tolerate failure. He didn't offer excuses. He didn't complain. No, Ben is nothing like Vader. Ben is like Anakin, and it's beyond aggravating that the series' second worst character gets a spiritual clone for the new movies.

 

2) Who in the world thought it was a good idea to make the threat just another DeathStar? All you did was make it bigger, and more deadly. Where's the innovation? The creativity? You've got the entirety of the Star Wars universe, and you decide to just make another DeathStar? Seriously? I'm more disappointed about this than angry, and all I can really say is; Why? It boggles my mind that they could put so much money and time into this, and they clearly didn't really try. "Oh, I need to come up with some big threat. Ugh, I don't feel like working. What's the easy way out? Oh, I know, another DeathStar! But they've done that twice...okay, let's make it bigger! And...and more dangerous...I know, let it blow up more than one planet! Hey guys, why don't we just retread everything that the original trilogy did, and sell it as throwbacks to the originals, like we're trying to do parallels or something! People will think it's art! Man, what a great idea, I'm a genius! Who wants a margarita?"

 

My other complaints are things that I need to see the rest of the trilogy before I voice them. Things like "Why has Luke done nothing to stop this new Dark Side group?" or "Didn't the New Galactic Senate cover all of the galaxy, so where is this group stationed where the Senate is not doing anything? And why are the people opposing them called the Resistance, like they're some small group of rebels, when it should be that this new group is the small outcasts? And why would Leia send FiN to the outer reaches of the galaxy, when that's where the brotherhood has to be set up because THE GALACTIC SENATE IS IN CONTROL OF THE GALAXY?" Anyways, like I said, I have to give the trilogy a chance to answer before these things become legitimate complaints.

 

Pretty much everything else I either liked, or was at the very least okay with. There was a lot of things that they threw at the viewer but never bothered explaining, which I fear will become a ploy to force you to buy external merchandise, such as the comics, which is total bull****, but only time will tell in that regard.

 

As for predictions, I predict that Rei (Rey? Ray? Rae? Rai?) is either Luke's daughter, or Ben's long lost sibling/twin (the later will take some major explaining as to why the Solos don't know). Given they made Ben the Solo's son, it seems they're trying to put their own spin on the EU's original story for this time frame in the Galaxy, plus Rei's extreme sensitivity to the Force, both point to her having Skywalker blood.

 

Only time will tell!

[Moogle]

Just saw it today! I was very conflicted.

 

Most of all, I'd appreciate it if the writers took the time to make villains less incompetent. That would be nice.

 

Spoilered because they're more of a rant than anything:

• No prisoners were guarded very well, and they kept on escaping. At what point does it not become obvious to you that you should lock the door on prisoners and make sure the door can only opened with your permission? Or perhaps have more than one guard on duty? It's like the evil guys don't really have minds/intelligence of their own which would want to improve their security systems to be good, which makes one question how they find engineers to build superweapons.
• What, do they not have security cameras in their super-expensive planet-destroying weapon? How the heck did Rey avoid being found?
• Why do ships not require ignition keys? Weird alien merchant on the sand planet's got the Millenium Falcon, but he doesn't lock the front door? The First Order doesn't even lock their tie fighters, but puts leashes on them because that's better?
• What's up with Ren not killing Finn in half a second with a force push and instead lightsaber dueling him? What's up with Ren not force pushing Rey repeatedly when it worked so well the first time?
• What's up with Ren not deflecting Chewie's crossbow bolt when he showed a clear ability to do it in the first scene of the film?
• Since when was Rey, a scavenger, good with weapons? Did she fight people before? How did she pick up Jedi mind tricks in ten seconds without being capable of hand motions? How did she fight Ren and win with no training? Luke learned over years, but Rey learned in the span of ten minutes?
• How did Finn, a janitor, also have immense lightsaber skill? (Why was he good in combat but the other Stormtroopers were all awful?)
• How can Ren be so incompetent that he can't fight Finn/Rey off, but apparently killed all of the other Jedi?
• The heck was going on with Phasma? "Hrm, clearly if I help these guys bring down the shields, they will totally leave me alive? And if I do, and my superiors find out, they will clearly not murder me?" The inconsistent characterization was questionable.
• Luke apparently just headed off to some planet and left behind a treasure map to find him? While the First Order is around? Did the writers miss the part in the first films where Luke was a champion of good?
• Rey and Finn just stand there, dumb and stupid, while Han is about to be killed by Ren? Neither, I note, knew Han was Ren's father. ???
• REN LIVES BECAUSE A RANDOM FRICKIN' CHASM OPENS UP BETWEEN HIM AND REY? ?????????????
• Maz... I don't know what to say. I was struck by the sheer panache the writers had to re-introduce Luke's (and Anakin's) old lightsaber which, y'know, fell from Cloud City and then not-explain it, saying "WELL THERE'S THIS REALLY COOL STORY ABOUT HOW I FOUND THIS LIGHTSABER AFTER IT DROPPED INTO A CLOUD GIANT BUT LET'S NOT GO INTO IT". Calling it now: never explained because the writers couldn't think of anything that made sense but really wanted it in.

 

Overall, I loved a lot of what they did. The film was gorgeous, the characters were interesting and had depth. I just feel like the plot holes every two minutes detracted a lot. I want to love the film, but I'm just so conflicted when it had obvious errors that could have been fixed by a good editor. Almost none of the plot holes were necessary to the film's story, so it just seems sloppy and lazy.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Moogle

[Briar King]

I'm with you especially in regards to Finn and Phasma. That was the single biggest cringe moment for me and I practically put my head in my hands then.