Thoughts on new Star Wars (No Spoilers, I Promise)

[bennyboy]

I'll be reviewing all 6 of the previous movies on my blog. I can tell you right off-the bat that I consider Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back to be 5-star movies. I need to critically re-evaluate Jedi, but suffice to say it's still a great movie just not a 5-star one.

And I don't think even Attack of the Clones - the weak point of the prequels - is worse than Force Awakens.

After I've done that I will then do another article on sequels and remakes/reboots.

While, it's not perfect, I think it's very good for what it is, and the story lines hint at themes deep enough for artistic consideration.  I think you're just getting old, and you have a resistance to anything that's new.  Try and watch it again, but consider themes and variations of the things you've seen already.

[Aractus]

I think you're just getting old, and you have a resistance to anything that's new.

Bullshit. The movie is fucking awful. As bad as Terminator Genisys, worse than Jurassic World. If Jurassic Park didn't exist I would say Jurassic World is a good movie, but it does and it tries to tell nearly exactly the same story with a few exceptions (the main character is an animal handler rather than a mathematician, etc). However, Jurassic World is by no means the worst of the sequels - that honour goes to The Lost World for removing Bison, for making Malcolm an "unwilling" participant, for still stating that the T-Rex's vision is based on movement (contradicting the book), and for that awful T-Rex in San Diego shit that ruined the third act of the movie.

Terminator, the original, is a solid 5-star movie. I'd say T2 is 3.5-4 stars - I'd have to critically re-evaluate it - but I wouldn't give it more than 4 stars because it repeats 90% of the T1 story. Which makes it predictable and less interesting than it could have been. I would have liked it if Skynet sent back a terminator, and the resistance didn't send anyone - that would have been interesting... John would have had to have survived on his own then (with the help of Sarah once freeing her from the hospital of course!)

The Dark Knight, I'd probably give that film 5 stars. It's incredibly well made. The Dark Knight Rises, probably a 2.5 star movie. It's barely passable because we barely see Batman in action and that's what we need in a Batman film. And also for introducing Robin when no sequel was ever going to be made!

Both [Rec] 1 & 2 I'd give 5-stars to. I'd probably give 3 4-stars or so, and [Rec]4 probably 2 stars - it was pretty terrible.

Now remakes, there are some really great remakes out there. Let Me In is better than the original (Let The Right One In) in almost every way. The change I like most in LMI is that they removed the sub-plot of the adults and focused squarely on the kids. What a great idea, it works so well. The Ring - much better than the original. The Hills Have Eyes - probably about equal to the original, or the original may be a bit better - but the remake is still very good. Never Say Never Again - at least equal to Thunderball, and in my opinion the better movie.

And then there are fucking terrible remakes like "The Musketeer", "The Omen (2006)", "Planet of the Apes (2001)", "Psycho (1998)", "Godzilla (1998)", "Robocop (2014)", and of course "The Force Awakens".

[Redbeard The Pink]

I mean...good and bad is really subjective when you're talking about film. Personally, nothing ruins Star Wars for me quite like the performances Hayden Christensen gave in episodes 2 and 3 (especially 3). While I didn't think episode 7 was the strongest installment in the series, there was absolutely nothing in this move that fucked it up as bad as emo kid Anakin.


My main issue was that this movie felt like it sort of didn't matter because the plot was recycled (and therefore predictable), meaning the only real points of interest were things being saved for movie 2 in the new trilogy.

[Anomalocaris]

I'll be reviewing all 6 of the previous movies on my blog. I can tell you right off-the bat that I consider Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back to be 5-star movies. I need to critically re-evaluate Jedi, but suffice to say it's still a great movie just not a 5-star one.

And I don't think even Attack of the Clones - the weak point of the prequels - is worse than Force Awakens.

After I've done that I will then do another article on sequels and remakes/reboots.

While, it's not perfect, I think it's very good for what it is, and the story lines hint at themes deep enough for artistic consideration.  I think you're just getting old, and you have a resistance to anything that's new.  Try and watch it again, but consider themes and variations of the things you've seen already.

Soap operaish, how-dysfunctional-can-one-family-get style, gotchas are not "themes".   A few long telephoto shots through heat haze are not "artistic consideration"s.   Reusing the Death Star a groan inducing third time, still without a tight defense against fighters, and still without the ability to prevent a small band from taking down its shields, in just seven movies is not "anything that's new".    The only thing new is the fact that the mystique around the Jedi, the force, and the light saber that the new hope and empire had laboriously built up, and that every other movie in the series have exploited, has now been totally trashed by the shoddy plot device and cheap crowd pleaser of having fin and Rey seemingly being able to fight on equal terms with a presumably somewhat trained former Jedi apprentice the very first time each of them tried to do so. One could not but think Kylo ren ought to have disposed the each of them with two slashes of the light saber.

Unlike aractus, I think this movie ranked about third in Star Wars.  But that mainly because I think return of the Jedi was just as hasty and unimaginatively done tying up of potential laden loose threads from empire within a framework of rehashing the plot of a new hope, while the prequels were basically unwatchable.   Out of the 7 movies, only the new hope and empire had any merit as movies.

I think daisy Ridley put on the best acting of any actor or actress playing a core character throughout the 7 movies.   That is the only redeeming quality of this movie as a part of the Star Wars series.

[bennyboy]

La la la la, I can't hear you.

The Star Wars movies have never been about the plot. They're about themes, and about setting up an alternative universe sufficiently detailed as to carry one away from every day life for a couple of hours. There STILL really isn't much of an alternative in big-budget sci-fi movies when it comes to immersing you in that fantasy.

People who argue about light-sabre reality or many missed laser-blaster shots are missing the point completely.

And yeah, they are themes. There are certain types of conflict that recur in the movies over and over, so frequently that you could call them leitmotifs.

And then there's the music. I suppose you're going to tell me that Williams' orchestration was bland and predictable as well?

[Aractus]

The score didn't have any rhythm to it Benny in this latest flick - and yes it was bland.

[Anomalocaris]

La la la la, I can't hear you.

The Star Wars movies have never been about the plot.  They're about themes, and about setting up an alternative universe sufficiently detailed as to carry one away from every day life for a couple of hours.  There STILL really isn't much of an alternative in big-budget sci-fi movies when it comes to immersing you in that fantasy.

People who argue about light-sabre reality or many missed laser-blaster shots are missing the point completely.

And yeah, they are themes.  There are certain types of conflict that recur in the movies over and over, so frequently that you could call them leitmotifs.

And then there's the music.  I suppose you're going to tell me that Williams' orchestration was bland and predictable as well?

The leitmotif of star wars is the same old crap repeated over and over again, without noticeable additional meaningful input on the part of the swindler, can go on separating more and more fools from their money, time and time again. I find it hard to immerse myself in this kind of alternative universe, it's too icky.

[TheRealJoeFish]

I didn't like the score in this one.

But, like... Dark Knight Rises 2.5/5?

Your rating system's just calibrated too low.

[TheRealJoeFish]

I didn't like the score in this Star Wars.

But, like... Dark Knight Rises 2.5/5?

Your rating system's just calibrated too low.

*edit: I meant this to be an edit*

[ignoramus]

Maybe it's just me, but like to escape in the movie.
I want to love it, hence why I really enjoy most big block busters.( with some exceptions).

I really enjoyed the The Force Awakens.
A million things wrong with it, but who cares, it's just mild entertainment.

Not a fan of JJ. His style is starting to bore me and give me the shits actually.
He's probably wrecked more movies than anyone.

One silly thing stuck in my brain is when they mention the star killer gets its energy from the sun.

They didn't mention which sun, whose sun?
It made me think like they were talking about "our" sun?

Good to see Mark Hamill back. He was down and out for a while.