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[Aractus]

SPOILERS...

On the charm and enthusiasm of this film...

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There's none. None whatsoever.

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On the cinematography of this film....

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Total utter shit. Put it this way, it's like "Man of Steel" compared to the original Superman films directed by the the Dicks (Donner & Lester). I saw MoS once and I never, ever, will watch that piece of trash again. With little exception, there is no sense of atmosphere in this film.

JJ made use of extreme close-ups all throughout the film, but this film is in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which isn't suited to close-ups the way that academy ratio is. Furthermore the camera constantly moves to follow the action; the simplicity and elegance of the cinematography of the originals and even the prequels too in this regard has been totally thrown out. It just didn't look like a star wars film - there were no grand planets to explore because you were constantly looking at an extreme close-up of something.

There is one point in the film where a General is making a speech to the troops of the First Order and the camera - starts close on his face, and then zooms right in, cuts away to show the audience, then cuts back to repeat the exact same zoom from the same starting position again. Utter shit, that's no way to use the "zoom" function, and it's completely overused throughout the entire film.

Say what you want about Lucas at least he knew how to balance depicting the various worlds with the action. In fact the final scene in the film is just about the only time we actually get to see a reasonable depiction of an interesting looking planet before we meet its inhabitant; much like how we're introduced to Dagobah really; however none of the other planets got this treatment in this film.

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On the sound...

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The worst of all the Star Wars films, hands down. For once thing, sound doesn't travel in space - and although the other SW films certainly break this law of physics, this film is by far the worst in terms of inventing sounds you might hear when seeing something IN SPACE, from which sound cannot travel, explodes. For another the subtly and elegance of the score of the previous films is just totally absent from this movie - the music just blasts away.

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On the effects...

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Hideous. Can someone explain to me why Kylo Ren's lightsabre doesn't look like a lightsabre and instead looks like it's jetting out flames? But no, really there is no regard at all for trying to marry practical effects with special effects in a seamless way; the special effects are obvious and overused just as Lucas himself would have done.

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On the story...

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We hear about how the "death planet" let's call it is a multitude of times larger than the "death star" one minute, and in the next minute they go and destroy it easily with no meaningful resistance from the First Order. Go figure. It's quite literally like the original SW story, just dumbed-down further and made more ridiculous.

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On the characters...

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Pretty two dimensional. No real character development from the leads. Solo lets himself die in a completely emotionless scene for no good reason. In the original Star Wars Ben sacrifices himself so the others can escape.

And why does Kylo Ren keep taking his helmet off? He looks like Anakin from Episode 2 when he's whining relentlessly "Waa Waa, I couldn't save my mamma, Waa, so I slaughtered all the Tuskans, Waa, they're ANIMALS and it's all Obe Wan's fault, Waa, Waa, Waa"

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All in all it was an OK film, but if you're expecting something "better" than the prequels you might want to give it a miss.