The first trilogy was nonsense but was played and told with such conviction that it didn't seem nonsense. You can pick holes in all of the films but one of the things that was special about Star Wars was that it was so fresh. The special effects took your breath away and the attention to detail was fantastic. The latest films cannot compete with that as it is much harder to wow in the days of CGI. It is probably impossible to. If you watch and enjoy the film, it has done it's job. If you are looking for the same impact the first films had, you will always be disapointed.
Saw it last night - it wasn't perfect but I enjoyed it.
I think Kylo Ren was brilliant, the stuff with him and Rey was gripping every time and I love that the story of how he turned on the Jedi wasn't as simple as Snoke turning him and so him killing everyone.
He's a fascinating character and Adam Driver is nailing it for me. He's everything Hayden Christiansen/Anakin should have been in the prequels - powerful but immature, confused but so angry and selfish that he's being seduced by power. I cared so much more about him turning back to the light - if I-III hadn't been sequels and we'd not known he was becoming Darth Vadar, I'd have been happy for Obi Wan to just kill Anakin. I wanted Kylo Ren in this one to come back to the good side (even if I thought deep down he couldn't or Episode 9 would be a bit easy for the Resistance!).
A lot of the action worked for me too, the opening scene, the highlight of Kylo Ren and Rey v Snoke's guards, the stuff on the red salt planet, the Luke not being there reveal etc.
And I enjoyed most of the comedy bits - Poe 'holding' for Hux was brilliant.
That said, there were definitely flaws, most of which others have covered even with me only skim reading this thread:
- Leia having Laura Dern's scenes would have been much better. We like Leia, we like Poe, an argument over the best plan between them would have been much more interesting than a predictable 'Laura Dern was good all along' thing. And might have meant Leia not doing the dodgy floating in space bit.
- Finn sacrificing himself would have been a good twist and a shock moment. Should have followed it through.
- Luke milking the Loch Ness monster was so unnecessary.
- Benecio Del Toro didn't really work for me and that bit was very overlong - it took away from the tense stand off for far too long.
- Rey's clicking mirror bit needed to reveal something to us to have been worth it.
We all went last night to watch it in stevenage cineworld 4Dx the movie is a great family evening out and to watch it in the way the 4DX works was excellent, kids loved it as did most adults in there , like being on a roller coaster
I've never been a great fan of the Star Wars film franchise and I went last nigh with my brother in law who is (or better, was). I mention this to give some perspective.
I personally found this a mildly entertaining film, but so overlong my initial impression was 'how boring was that!!!'. I generally like the new characters - I have no real Brand loyalty to the older generation who are all dying off. As usual, lots of action and bolts of light - some of those laser weapons must be the least effective since humanity moved on from bows and arrows. But there were long bits where so little was happening! Most of Rey's life with Luke on the island could have been scrubbed. They had some more cute animals, and thankfully they weren't as involved as the dire JarJar Binks, but they looked stuck in to move merchandise in the Disneystore later. As I've not seen all the films, I don't know if Grand master Yodi was a ghost, but he seemed to have mumps.
Kylo Ren was good, and his relationship with Rey was I suppose one of the pivots of this film. I like a bit of carácter exploration and characters who are not entirely good or evil, and I liked the enecio Toro carácter too. But in the end I found this way too long to make me want to see another one in the future. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was much more fun.
My brother in law was a big fan of the original trilogy and his view was the new generation have nothing of the carisma of the original group. Apart from that, he coincded with me that it was too long, but went way further to say he didn't really like it at all, and found it very boring.
5/10 from me and that's fairly generous as Charlton good a good point at Wigan while I was in the cinema.
Comments
I think Kylo Ren was brilliant, the stuff with him and Rey was gripping every time and I love that the story of how he turned on the Jedi wasn't as simple as Snoke turning him and so him killing everyone.
He's a fascinating character and Adam Driver is nailing it for me. He's everything Hayden Christiansen/Anakin should have been in the prequels - powerful but immature, confused but so angry and selfish that he's being seduced by power. I cared so much more about him turning back to the light - if I-III hadn't been sequels and we'd not known he was becoming Darth Vadar, I'd have been happy for Obi Wan to just kill Anakin. I wanted Kylo Ren in this one to come back to the good side (even if I thought deep down he couldn't or Episode 9 would be a bit easy for the Resistance!).
A lot of the action worked for me too, the opening scene, the highlight of Kylo Ren and Rey v Snoke's guards, the stuff on the red salt planet, the Luke not being there reveal etc.
And I enjoyed most of the comedy bits - Poe 'holding' for Hux was brilliant.
That said, there were definitely flaws, most of which others have covered even with me only skim reading this thread:
- Leia having Laura Dern's scenes would have been much better. We like Leia, we like Poe, an argument over the best plan between them would have been much more interesting than a predictable 'Laura Dern was good all along' thing. And might have meant Leia not doing the dodgy floating in space bit.
- Finn sacrificing himself would have been a good twist and a shock moment. Should have followed it through.
- Luke milking the Loch Ness monster was so unnecessary.
- Benecio Del Toro didn't really work for me and that bit was very overlong - it took away from the tense stand off for far too long.
- Rey's clicking mirror bit needed to reveal something to us to have been worth it.
I personally found this a mildly entertaining film, but so overlong my initial impression was 'how boring was that!!!'. I generally like the new characters - I have no real Brand loyalty to the older generation who are all dying off. As usual, lots of action and bolts of light - some of those laser weapons must be the least effective since humanity moved on from bows and arrows. But there were long bits where so little was happening! Most of Rey's life with Luke on the island could have been scrubbed. They had some more cute animals, and thankfully they weren't as involved as the dire JarJar Binks, but they looked stuck in to move merchandise in the Disneystore later. As I've not seen all the films, I don't know if Grand master Yodi was a ghost, but he seemed to have mumps.
Kylo Ren was good, and his relationship with Rey was I suppose one of the pivots of this film. I like a bit of carácter exploration and characters who are not entirely good or evil, and I liked the enecio Toro carácter too. But in the end I found this way too long to make me want to see another one in the future. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was much more fun.
My brother in law was a big fan of the original trilogy and his view was the new generation have nothing of the carisma of the original group. Apart from that, he coincded with me that it was too long, but went way further to say he didn't really like it at all, and found it very boring.
5/10 from me and that's fairly generous as Charlton good a good point at Wigan while I was in the cinema.