"Star Wars" Episode VII Cast announced/revealed

[Doctor Strange]

Saw it. Liked some parts, but not everything. Overall I have to agree with the critics who've pointed out that it is more about fan service than telling a story, and it's practically an event-for-event remake of the first film (plus a few things from Empire thrown in). Say what you will about Lucas's prequels, but at least they took the story in unexpected directions and showed us things that we'd never seen before. This film is VERY familiar... which is one of the reasons that it'll be the biggest hit of all time, but I wish it was a little more off the standard original trilogy storyline.

The good:

The cast is mostly excellent. But Oscar Isaac doesn't get enough time or development, he's a cocky ace pilot, period. Daisy Ridley is a find, she carries the new Luke role with grace and fire. Domnall Gleeson is totally wrong for his role as the new Grand Muff Tarkin character. (Peter Cushing wasn't so great in the first film, but he was Peter Cushing, and he could do sophisticated menace in his sleep. Gleeson simply isn't in that league.) And Harrison Ford is the acting MVP - he perfectly resurrects Han Solo and doesn't just go through the motions like he did in Crystal Skull. He's the highlight of the returning cast. The Kylo Ren character is a somewhat different villain/character from what we've seen before, and Adam Driver completely sells it.

The production looks great, especially the use of on-set practical effects and shooting it on 35mm FILM. The big effects sequences look great, but you expect that these days, and it's sometimes hard for me to get excited about sequences where virtually everything you see only exists inside a computer. And they've excellent with the background continuity - there are many familiar alien races/creatures and technology. Of course, this leads into my main criticism...

The bad:

The continual remake/redundant aspects. Orphan on a desert planet who finds adorable droid carrying hidden data and turns out to be a fantastic pilot and Force-enabled? Check. Battle for the soul of a Force user between good father and bad father? Check. Bomb run through trench on surface of enormous planet-destroying space station to get to the one vulnerable spot and blow it up? Check. Visit to intergalactic bar full of alien creatures that's a wretched hive of scum and villainy? Check. Villains that mostly look and sound like space Nazis with English accents? Check. Climactic scene on catwalk over gigantic chasm inside a city-sized construct? Check. And it goes on and on...

The music. Not a single new melody worth recalling, and endless callbacks to the themes for Luke, Leia, the Force, etc. Sure, it's effective, but Williams just phoned it in.

That 30 years later, the society-changing events of Return of the Jedi have already fallen into mythology, with characters continually surprised that the heroes of the rebellion really exist. (Of course, this first became a problem for the original trilogy once the prequels were made, because again, the monumental events of just 20 years earlier seemed to have been almost entirely forgotten.) Maybe young folks won't be bothered by this, but now that I'm 60 years gold, 30 years doesn't seem like all that long!

To sum up: definitely better than I was expecting from Abrams, and undeniably a crowd-pleaser... but there's a mostly redundant, frequently ersatz feeling to it, for me anyway.

 

[Bushman]

It's definitely a film that plays it safe, and with Star Wars, you don't have any larger a sandbox to play safely in. Even though I think J.J. Abrams is a bland director with no unique flare... the movie is good. It's well put together, it's well thought out, and yeah it plays on nostalgia a bit, but not as badly as Jurassic World did. It does it rather well, actually. The effects far surpass those found in the prequels, and many of the ones found in the originals. The story, while retreading some areas, breaks ground in others and even out performs many of the areas it retreads. The acting is fantastic, the themes and symbolism are Star Wars in every sense. Sure, John Williams botched this one, but let's not kid ourselves. Out of nearly 100 recognizable, iconic, and culturally ingrained scores the man has done, he does have some movies that fall flat sometimes. Jaws 2, Home Alone 2, Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, War of the Worlds, and many others. Just like The Force Awakens, they each have technically well written scores, but frankly fall flat in the "theme" department. The characters are well thought out, bits of the film leaves spots open for personal interpretation (which is NOT a bad thing - there's many many great films that leaves far more open to far greater interpretation), the plot, while on the surface, appears to redo A New Hope, also is very very different from it in many many aspects. It's not a bad movie at all, and certainly not a bad Star Wars movie. I'm still not thrilled with Disney owning the franchise, in fact at first I deplored the idea. They didn't help win me over when they removed the Extended Universe from the canon. I was initially very critical of J.J. Abrams. I was familiar with his work, and I honestly wasn't entirely thrilled. I thought he was bland as a director and lacked a unique flare, instead choosing to try to cheaply replicate other directors who had already worked in the areas he had chosen to now work with. In some ways, I can see this still in The Force Awakens. However, I chose to to put my critical eye in neutral, and look at everything that Disney/LucasFilm was doing with a bipartisan view. I, a self proclaimed anti-Disney viewer, liked what Disney did with this movie. I still don't like Disney. I think they're a monopoly that needs to be at the receiving end of an anti-trust lawsuit. I dislike that they attempted to build a theme park on a Civil War battle field. I dislike them for a great many many reasons. However, that did not come into play when I watched The Force Awakens. In The Force Awkens, I saw a film that was well made, and deserving of the hype it's been given and the praise it's received.

 

[Worf]

Loved it, very good. Don't take things too seriously fellas, it's still just a movie even to a slobbering fan like myself. So un-pucker those butts and go see it, or wait til it's on video and save yourself the 6 bucks, or wait til it falls in your lap, but see it. I took my family out for some Thai food, the movie, and dessert after for 70 bucks and it was worth every penny. If I were to overthink the whole thing.......well lets just say I prefer to remain young at heart as long as possible.

"Loved it".... LOL that's a surprise. Glad you had a good time...

Worf

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Haven't seen it yet (nearest theater 55 miles away), but my memories of the series go back farther than most of yours. I was at the World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City in 1976, a brand-new SF writer new to the fan scene and conventions. On the last day of the con I wandered into the Star Wars exhibit and was stunned to see the display of costumes and props including the Darth Vader outfit. The walls were lined with the wonderful Ralph McQuarrie concept paintings. I chatted with the guys manning the display and learned a bit about the film, then one of them told me, "There's one of the stars." Mark Hamill had just walked in. He was on his way to the airport, carrying his luggage. I'd never heard of him, of course, and I stammered something intelligent like, "Ï think you've got a real hit movie here"or something of the sort. He was friendly and gracious. About ten months later I went to the film's premiere in Albuquerque and was blown away like the rest of humanity. Next August I'll be going to the Worldcon, once again held in Kansas City, 40 years since my first one there. I expect it will be fun, but it sure won't have the impact of that first one.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I never got the Star Wars thing. Didn't enjoy it in 1977 or the two times I've seen it since. Will probably pass on the new one. Curiously people were talking about it at work and I was surprised by the number that had never seen a single Star Wars film and weren't interested. Mostly women.

 

[Edward]

Doesn't really surprise me: the last of the originals was 32 years ago; there's at least a generation of adults who were too young for those but too old for the kiddie films Lucas made at the tail end of the 90s.

 

[Bushman]

Science fiction fandoms like Star Wars, and Star Trek often get a bad wrap from feminists who claim they're exclusive to men, but the reality I have found is that most women frankly just aren't into them. It's traditionally more of a men's interest, like hunting or fishing. In the same way, yes there are many women out in the world that enjoy hunting an fishing, but not nearly as many as there are men who enjoy it.

 

[Doctor Strange]

While you're essentially correct, Star Trek actually had an important cohort of female fans from the start. From Wiki:

While many stereotype Star Trek fandom as being mostly young males, and more men than women watch Star Trek TV shows, female fans have been important members since the franchise's beginning. The majority of attendees at early conventions were women over the age of 21. The two most important early members of fandom were women. Bjo Trimble was among the leaders of the successful effort to persuade NBC to renew the show for a third season, and wrote the first edition of the important early work Star Trek Concordance in 1969. Joan Winston and others on the female-dominated committee organized the initial 1972 New York convention and several later ones; Winston was also one of the three female authors of "Star Trek Lives!"

And speaking as one of the from-day-one Trek fans (I wrote to NBC, own a copy of the Concordance, and attended the earliest NYC conventions), I can attest that there were lots of female Trek fans back then.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Science fiction fandoms like Star Wars, and Star Trek often get a bad wrap from feminists who claim they're exclusive to men, but the reality I have found is that most women frankly just aren't into them. It's traditionally more of a men's interest, like hunting or fishing. In the same way, yes there are many women out in the world that enjoy hunting an fishing, but not nearly as many as there are men who enjoy it.

Yeah I think women aren't into it generally. I wonder if it's about the special effects. I don't think Feminism need come into this but I hear you. I guess I never enjoyed the '77 film because it had a dull hero, bland dialogue and a corny plot. Han was cool but there wasn't enough for him to do. From memory Empire was much more interesting. I never counted Star Wars as sci fi, it was more of a fantasy flick. Blade Runner: now there's a film.

 

[Zombie_61]

My sister, who is 11 years older than I am, was responsible for introducing me to Star Trek back in September of 1966, and there are a lot of women of all ages who attend the movies and conventions (some in costume), so that fandom is most definitely not exclusive to men. Star Wars is no different, though I'd say there's a slightly larger percentage of men (versus women) who are interested; when I saw The Force Awakens last week the men waiting in line outnumbered the women by four or five to one.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yeah I think women aren't into it generally. I wonder if it's about the special effects. I don't think Feminism need come into this but I hear you. I guess I never enjoyed the '77 film because it had a dull hero, bland dialogue and a corny plot. Han was cool but there wasn't enough for him to do. From memory Empire was much more interesting. I never counted Star Wars as sci fi, it was more of a fantasy flick. Blade Runner: now there's a film.

Yes, it can't be stated often enough that Star Wars isn't science fiction. SF is generally set in the future and extrapolates from our own society and technology. Star Wars is set elsewhere in the distant past (i.e., "once upon a time") and while it takes place in cultures/settings that use advanced technology, it's primarily about warring wizards battling over control of a mystical force. It's fantasy, not SF.

Not that that makes it any less entertaining!

 

[Zombie_61]

Yes, it can't be stated often enough that Star Wars isn't science fiction...

Several years ago someone on one of the forums I frequent posted the following: "Star Trek is science fiction; Star Wars is space fantasy." I think that describes the basic difference between the two in the simplest terms possible.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Several years ago someone on one of the forums I frequent posted the following: "Star Trek is science fiction; Star Wars is space fantasy." I think that describes the basic difference between the two in the simplest terms possible.

Let's just say that 'Star Wars' is SF & everyone is happy.

 

[Zombie_61]

Let's just say that 'Star Wars' is SF & everyone is happy.

I don't disagree, and I don't particularly care how anyone chooses to "classify" Star Wars (or any other form of entertainment media, for that matter). But, believe it or not, there are people who think Star Wars doesn't qualify for their particular definition of "science fiction", so they wouldn't be happy. Yep, some people have far too much spare time on their hands and concern themselves with stuff like this.

 

[Edward]

George Lucas said last year "I don't even like science fiction". Which is probably just as well, given that he really isn't good at it.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Actually, don't forget that before American Graffiti Lucas made TXH-1138. Quite a respectable serious SF film in its day.

 

[Edward]

Thx was grand, but the more tripe Lucas writes and directs, the more it looks like anything passable was an accident.

 

[MisterCairo]

Nothing will ever top that.\! The closest anything will get is to remind us of what it was like that first time!

I just thought of something! For those of us old enough to have watched the original Star Wars on the big screen in 1977. Will there ever be a scene that tops the opening, with the little space craft flying over, then the big one filling the entire screen?

 

[BobHufford]

My son (now 27) and I traditionally see a movie together around Christmas time. We have tried to catch the early matinee twice this weekend only to have those attempts aborted (I was called into work yesterday and when I went to pick him up this morning we had to deal with storm damage to his house instead). Hopefully we can make the afternoon show ...

 

[a2jacketpatches]

"Loved it".... LOL that's a surprise. Glad you had a good time...

Worf

Just a movie Worf, just a movie......."Loved it" for a couple of hours and haven't given it much thought since. Now it's fun to watch the boy playing with all of his new Star Wars toys and the video game Battlefront. That happens to be a lot of fun as well, yes, fun, LOL. Too much other good stuff going on in my life to let this thread sink in too deep.