Episode VII (spoilers)

[Anomalocaris]

I snuck in and watched it for free.

No.

I paid $15 for 3D IMAX at the national air and space museum annex near Dulles international.

[thesummerqueen]

Going again tomorrow. I don't expect my opinion to change.

[Whateverist]

May the force be with you once more.

Just in case, said in a Jedi mind-fuck voice: *You will not see in any gaps in plot or character development. You will have a good time. You will tell others.*

[thesummerqueen]

Have I ever seemed easily influenced?

[Whateverist]

Well I did say "just in case". I'm covered.

[thesummerqueen]

My mind hasn't changed. In fact, now that I'm no longer distracted by references and things, I found it even more enjoyable.

[Edwardo Piet]

I don't watch much movies otherwise I would watch it.

[I_am_not_mafia]

I think the Finn character was totally unbelievable from the moment he appeared on screen.  He is suppose to have been snatched from his family as an infant or very young child, and raised in a brutal, merciless camp geared to produce efficient, merciless, regimented killers.  He is suppose to be the incarnation of the ancient Spartan warrior.   It is not credible that people like that would abandon their entire upbringing, find their conscience the first time they are told to actually do what they have been trained for a life time to do.  Experience shock and hesitation during first battle, perhaps.  Not find his conscience so quickly.  It is also not credible such a person would have any conventional social skills or would fit easily into any society other than the cohorts with whom he was raised and trained.  The story of Fin in TFA is childish, no, infantile, character development for a movie perhaps not consciously meant for infants.  John Boyega might have some acting talent, but it is not as a trained killer without any context to socialize with anyone outside his unit, finding his conscience or not.

The way I understood that is he was actually in a gay relationship with another storm trooper, the one that dies at the beginning and leaves the identifying bloodied hand print on his helmet. That way it could be that he's had doubts all along but conformed because he had too much to lose otherwise. But even without this, what choice would he have? Why a gay relationship? I was only judging by the hand that reaches out to leave the hand print and the gait of the other storm trooper, but it's not much to go on. Also there is a hint of an unspoken budding love relationship with him and Poe to keep the gay male audience interested.

The Rey character was slightly less unbelievable at the start, up to the point she took off in an half crewed millennium falcon.   She had been a scavenger eking out the barest of living on a god forsaken outback planet since maybe 6 or 8 years old. It would be out of character for her to have experience flying spaceships.  In fact, it would be in character for her to have never even been in a working spaceship since 6-8 years old.  If she had the opportunity to practice flying spaceships, she could probably find a better living than trudging through desert and rappelling off wrecked star destroyers scavenging small scrap for a quarter portion of a shrink wrapped meal each.   Yes, she maybe familiar with the layout of the inside of a wrecked star destroyer.  It is one thing to know the way.  It is another to pilot a high performance, Nonstandard spaceship she has never flown before, having in all likelihood never flown any sort of spaceship before, as fast as the beat up ship would go through a maze chased by a higher performance fighter craft.  Also, As a scavenger, she may know which parts goes where in some parts of some spaceship, mainly from ripping them out to sell them as scrap.  It is hardly plausible she should know how to actually keep them running, especially in an emergency, and how to conduct emergency repairs.  That's not what scavengers do.   The only thing she should credible be able to repair is her beat up smoke belching speeder.

I wondered about this as well but it's not implausible that she would also have been fitting components, maintaining ships and flying them to test them. It's the scenes where she sells the components for portions of food that suggests that she is nothing but an independent scavenger, but in another scene she is told to get back to scrubbing when she gazes off into the distance, so it is plausible that she has a boss and could well have other duties.

[I_am_not_mafia]

But the character I'm still having the most trouble with is the new #2 bad guy.  His light saber dustups with control rooms strikes me as odd.  Aren't dark side guys supposed to have all the Jedi training plus a dispassionate something more?  He just seems way too emotional and unfocussed to me.  But I'm withholding judgement until future episodes backfill his story.

I think this actually works. The Jedi order are gone so the new recruits for Sith Lords are relatively untrained. Kylo Ren is also not fully trained by the dark side either. He's a troubled teenager looking for an answer who has been manipulated by the dark side (analogy for Muslim extremism anyone?). If he had the self control then there wouldn't be a question of whether Leia and Hans Solo could save him.

[Faith No More]

I think this actually works. The Jedi order are gone so the new recruits for Sith Lords are relatively untrained. Kylo Ren is also not fully trained by the dark side either. He's a troubled teenager looking for an answer who has been manipulated by the dark side (analogy for Muslim extremism anyone?). If he had the self control then there wouldn't be a question of whether Leia and Hans Solo could save him.

Yeah, but it just wasn't believable that Kylo Ren was a total badass for the entire movie until he gets into a lightsaber fight with a woman that has just discovered she even has Force powers. He was able to break Poe's will with the force, but then he struggles in a lightsaber fight against a stormtrooper and a noob? I'm with Anomalocaris on this one. It just wasn't consistent and left me with a bad taste in my mouth.