Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

[Softguitar]

I don't care for puns.

[ScottyMcGee]

I find your lack of puns disturbing.

[LOOT]

Only imperial nerds make puns that precise.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

It's a pun!

[X-3]

It's treason then.

[MEDIA=youtube]ve1889zS030[/MEDIA]

[Softguitar]

Gonna watch it today instead of Saturday.

[Deepfake]

[QUOTE="LOOT, post: 1577461, member: 21459"]Only imperial nerds make puns that precise.[/QUOTE]
beam me up mr scot

[Softguitar]

Beam or beam not, there is no try.

[Valigarmander]

Damn it R2, I'm a protocol droid, not a miracle worker!

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Ruuun C3PO, ruuun.

[Softguitar]

These aren't the VGF'ers you're looking for.

[Apiary Tazy]

Thank you, Luke. But your princess is in another Death Star.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Vader has died of dysentery.

[CaptHayfever]

Han Solo cup, I fill you up, proceed to party.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Bomby]

[MEDIA=youtube]yURRmWtbTbo[/MEDIA]
The force... it's got a lot of power... it make me feel like...

OOOOOHHH!!!

[ScottyMcGee]

A message from yours truly:

[MEDIA=youtube]V2bK6ENB01Y[/MEDIA]

[Softguitar]

Saw the new one yesterday. A New Hope Part II.

[The Missing Link]

My non-spoilery, five-word review (which I'll put behind spoiler tags for the sake of it):

[spoiler]Fun, but undaring and copycatted.[/spoiler]

[The Missing Link]

As far as a deeper analysis, definitely spoilered:

[spoiler]
- Jakku is basically Tatooine, right? Except not Tatooine because that would be too coincidental.
- Oh hey look, the BB-8 is carrying a secret mission thing just like R2D2 did, oh how clever is that!? How amazing is that!?
- Oh the guy who owned the BB-8 got captured, just like Leia. How clever! Except he's not the main character; how innovative!?
- Ren or whatever his name is equals Vader. Wow, how amazing! How clever! ... oh wait, he has the helmet not because he has to but because of his character development. Okay, okay, I'll give you credit for that one Jar-Jar Abrams; that one's a little bit deep. Kudos.
- Ren is Solo's boy? Okay, that's cool I suppose. And he's the one that made everything go awry? That's kind of neat, though I certainly wasn't surprised by that big reveal. I hope you weren't expecting me to be surprised...
- Oh hey, an excuse to have the Millennium Falcon back. And Han and Chewie.
- General Leia is pretty badass.
- OH HEY WE MADE A GIANT DEATH STAR EXCEPT IT'S A PLANET. OMG SUCH CREATIVITY. MUCH NEW. MANY INNOVATES. WOW.
- Oh hey we pretty much replicated the final battle of Episode VI in Episode VII. Except it's mixed with pieces from the Death Star invasion and Battle of Endor of Episode IV.
- So... who exactly is this Supreme Leader guy? Why did the First Order get created if it wasn't because of Solo's kid? What's going on here? How'd the Empire become this First Order thing? Kind of leaving a lot of details pretty scant, JJ.
- I feel the middle of the film got kinda muddied by a world geography tour from Place A to Place B to Place C. Everything from Solo's ship-carrying ship carrying ships all the way to Leia's planet, I just felt it became and "and then and then and then" story.
- So... Luke needed Obi-Wan's help to unlock any scant bit of Force powers, but Rei can just do it through the magic of plot development?
- I kind of feel that Fin's backstory is a little bit... dry. I mean, it's cool for a Stormtrooper to have second thoughts... and that this isn't exactly an isolated occurrence, but he just feels a little weak of a character. Also the script forces him to overplay the role.
- So Mark Hamill takes second billing above Carrie Fisher, and he didn't even have a speaking role? He literally just shows up at the end? I guess I have to wait for VIII.
- Okay, you killed Harrison Ford at the end. That's a bit daring.
- Also commendable is that Fin isn't happy and awake and kicking at the end of the film; I like having that small bit of drama unresolved. Daring.

Overall, I liked VII but wasn't blown away by it. I just feel mixed. Granted, III killed practically all the love I ever had for Star Wars (yes, I was affected that much for it), and while it's at least a half-step to redeeming the missteps of the prequels, I didn't feel it entirely. Yes, it's definitely Star Wars; the humour pacing is mostly on cue, the adventure is mostly there, and the new character arcs are so far interesting. But at the same time, I feel that the magic of Star Wars--or at least the original trilogy--was the mystery of the unfolding of what the Force is and how the Light and Dark Sides work. That magic of explanation is practically expended and cannot be recreated as such, so I realise that the sequel trilogy will never be exactly like the original trilogy, and it's hard to be completely fair and objective on it. I've also tried very hard to keep my expectations down, and while I'm not disappointed I'm not dashing through the streets proclaiming its glory.

All in all, it was a safe movie. It felt like fanfiction of a sort given the repetition of themes and even scene-by-scene beats that were pulled from Episodes IV and VI. While this is leaps and bounds above JJ's previous work on Star Trek: Into Darkness, more and more I feel that JJ is generally an average writer/director. He's not bad, but he's not this auteur that people make him out to be.

But then again, this one apparently feels like it's for the fans.[/spoiler]

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

I shouldn't have read the spoilers there but I expected the [spoiler]Han Solo death[/spoiler]. Kinda disappointed with the lack of [spoiler]Luke[/spoiler].