Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

[Attica]

It really is, and it just goes to show how much joy the human race has gotten from hating Jar Jar Binks.  Lucas has given us a gift.

Edited October 24, 2015 by Attica

[Tyler]

New Japanese trailer has lots of footage we haven't seen before.

 

[John Drew]

"Hope is not lost today. It is found."

 

I'm thinking this is going to be a reference to Luke, and possibly why they're not showing him in any of the trailers (other than voice).

[morgan1098]

Thoughts:

• Assuming it's new score and not temporary filler from a hired hand, I'm really liking John Williams' music in these trailers, especially the quieter moments.
• So the desert planet even has those moisture vaporator things, again, just like Tatooine.
• The R2 droid has a very cutesy voice that almost--almost--makes me think of the prequels.  :/
• Tie Fighters in front of a lovely sunset=cool
• I agree... Luke is probably the "hope" she's talking about. Wait... A New Hope?

 

[Buckeye Jones]

I was surpised there was only *one* sun the TIE fighters were in front off.  So we're going to see 3 in-atmosphere spaceship battles (Jakku, the forest moon of not-Endor, and the Hoth-like Reifenstahl planet).  I wonder if any of the spaceship battles will be in, you know, space.

And Ryan, I don't really want to know.  No spoilers for me!

[winter shaker]

"Hope is not lost today. It is found."

 

I'm thinking this is going to be a reference to Luke, and possibly why they're not showing him in any of the trailers (other than voice).

 

• I agree... Luke is probably the "hope" she's talking about. Wait... A New Hope?

 

I wonder if it'll be like that scene in Fangorn Forest where Gandalf the White reveals himself to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli?

[NBooth]

Tie Fighters in front of a lovely sunset=cool

Agreed. The rest I remain "meh" on, but that's definitely a cool shot. 

[morgan1098]

I do find it interesting that SPECTRE is opening today and yet this new Star Wars trailer seems to be dominating the movie headlines everywhere I look. Or maybe I just keep seeing the Star Wars stories because Google knows I am likely to click on them.

[Attica]

Peter T Chattaway, you might be interested in this.

FWIW, I've been to the Saskatchewan Science Centre in Regina and it's a cool enough place from what I can remember.  

[Peter T Chattaway]

For the current release of Creed and the imminent release of The Force Awakens: a short of list of things that the Rocky and Star Wars franchises have in common.

[Attica]

This interview is kind of fun.

[winter shaker]

I wonder if J.J. Abrams will include some homages to the OT that will appeal to the knowing fans, such as having Admiral Ackbar say, "It's a trap!" or having some sort of scene where Han definitively shoots first. Also, I never realized this until a few weeks ago, but "I've got a bad feeling about this" has become one of those running-gag lines like "Shaken, not stirred," the appeared in most of the Bond films (until Craig's assumption of the role).

[NBooth]

4 hours ago, winter shaker said:

I wonder if J.J. Abrams will include some homages to the OT that will appeal to the knowing fans, such as having Admiral Ackbar say, "It's a trap!" or having some sort of scene where Han definitively shoots first. 

Well, this trailer Peter posted on Facebook has a bit of that:

 

Meanwhile, apparently posting a picture of a toy you purchased can earn the wrath of Disney:

“This morning I woke up to numerous DMCA takedown notices on the @starwarsunity Twitter account, the Facebook account, the Google+ Page, and my personal Twitter for posting the image of an action figure that was legally purchased at Walmart,” Conrad explains.

“My webhost also received a takedown email from them with a threat of a lawsuit of the image wasn’t removed.”

A lawsuit. For displaying an entirely legal photograph. The copyright to which is presumably owned by Justin at Star Wars Action News. But it didn’t stop there.

Acting on behalf of Lucasfilms, anti-piracy outfit Irdeto has been hitting Twitter, not only filing DMCA notices (below, edited) against people who posted the image, but those who dared to RE-TWEET those tweets.

Edited December 10, 2015 by NBooth

[NBooth]

First Man of Steel traded in Malicky vibes. Now, it's Star Wars.

 

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“Instead of just having Star Wars movies as a reference for this, I also went back and watched some of my favourite films,” Abrams told Reuters. “Obviously Seven Samurai … some of the John Ford films, because I knew those were also influences that George had.

Added Abrams: “Malick [is] not a director you would normally think you’d … go to for a Star Wars movie and yet … I don’t know of a more profound and emotional film-maker. It sounds very pretentious to say ‘oh I’m inspired by this person, that person’, it’s more about … seeing things that you can aspire to … and where appropriate [to] apply lessons that you’re learning from them.”

 

Edited December 10, 2015 by NBooth

[Peter T Chattaway]

Given that Super 8 was little more than a lame patchwork of films that "inspired" JJ Abrams, I kind of wish he'd stop talking about his inspirations now.

Yes, that trailer has Han Solo repeating one of his lines from the original film. And there's a moment in that trailer that reminds me of a spoiler I recently came across in a summary of one of the children's books out there (though it might not be the spoiler-y moment itself; suffice it to say that the spoiler I'm thinking of reminds me of a scene from the first Abrams Star Trek movie...).

It is supremely annoying to hear that Lucasfilm is going after fans for posting legal photos of legally purchased merchandise. If this sort of copyright fascism is a necessary part of JJ Abrams' "mystery box", then I say screw the mystery box. We should start spreading spoilers far and wide, and begging for people to share them. If Lucasfilm is going to attack the fans for enjoying what Lucasfilm and its merchandisers have already put out there, then we owe them nothing, and we certainly shouldn't be enabling them. We have seen the Empire; now we need a new Rebellion.

[Rushmore]

7 hours ago, Peter T Chattaway said:

It is supremely annoying to hear that Lucasfilm is going after fans for posting legal photos of legally purchased merchandise. If this sort of copyright fascism is a necessary part of JJ Abrams' "mystery box", then I say screw the mystery box. We should start spreading spoilers far and wide, and begging for people to share them. If Lucasfilm is going to attack the fans for enjoying what Lucasfilm and its merchandisers have already put out there, then we owe them nothing, and we certainly shouldn't be enabling them. We have seen the Empire; now we need a new Rebellion.

I'd post an applause smiley here if I knew how to do it in the new board theme.

[NBooth]

The reviews are all embargoed until tomorrow morning, but THR is already talking Oscar. For best picture:

 

Quote

We'll have to wait and see how the film goes over once more people get a chance to watch it. But for now, as I mull over my own thoughts and conversations from the premiere of The Force Awakens and read tweets from Academy members to the effect that it "might be the best blockbuster since the original... delivers on every level" (doc branch member Brett Morgen) and that it "totally delivers... just wow" (acting branch member Elizabeth Banks) and "Great. Nothing more to say. Just go." (short films and feature animation branch member Andrew Stanton) and that it's "a movie that DELIVERS... cried like a baby, whooped like a teen" (acting branch member Rob Lowe), I think the film stands a great shot of firing up a lot of people.

 

Edited December 15, 2015 by NBooth

[Mr. Arkadin]

There are detractors out there, too, who note that once the initial euphoria fades, it seems slight and flimsy in retrospect.

[NBooth]

Yeah, I've seen those too. My previous post should come with an implied eyebrow raise. 

[Peter T Chattaway]

Ryan H. wrote:
: There are detractors out there, too, who note that once the initial euphoria fades, it seems slight and flimsy in retrospect.

If Star Trek into Darkness taught us nothing else, it should have taught us to expect *this* much at least from a JJ Abrams franchise film.

That being said, the fact that Devin Faraci, who *hated* STiD, says The Force Awakens is "ok" despite having a "sort of shitty, dumb story" indicates that this film may be better than that one, at least.

[NBooth]

Matt Zoller Seitz:

 The film ultimately runs up against the limitations of its own nature: like the James Bond films, the “Star Wars” movies are pretty much obligated to revisit certain elements, to the point where they might feel played out even if they hadn’t been raided by other films, TV shows and books (including Harry Potter). But it’s still an exhilarating ride, filled with archetypal characters with plausible psychologies, melodramatic confrontations fueled by soaring emotions, and performances that can be described as good, period, rather than "good, for 'Star Wars.'" 

[snip]

Lucas' prequels balanced light with gathering darkness, and repeated scenes, situations and shots from the original trilogy to create a sense of history repeating and inverting itself; Abrams and company have done something similar in “The Force Awakens,” but at the level of characterization and scene-building. This is a subtler way to revise (or recycle) elements in a popular franchise while finding something new in them, and it explains why this film feels more fully realized than any "Star Wars" movie since "The Empire Strikes Back"—it's certainly warmer than the prequels, which often failed at characterization and plot even as they served up intricate sequences and haunting images.

[John Drew]

So the big news here in Hollywood is that Disney has apparently forced ArcLight Theatre's Cinerama Dome location to break it's contract with the Weinstein Co., and play Star Wars Episode VII though New Years, and push back the The Hateful Eight until January.  The Cinerama Dome was one of the 50 locations that was going to play The Hateful Eight roadshow edition beginning Christmas Day.  You can watch his interview from earlier today on the Howard Stern Show.  Definitely NSFW...
Hateful Eight interview - 12/16/2015

[Buckeye Jones]

So I've seen it.  Really enjoyed it.  Definitely feels apiece to the OT.  I don't think I can put together a spoiler tag on the mobile version of this.  I'm a pretty good prognosticator, though.  That's all I'll say.

[Attica]

I had posted this in a facebook group.

"I really enjoyed it. For the most part it hit the nostalgia buttons and tugged at the heartstrings in the right places. It is probably close to the film that they needed to make this time around, but they really need to start going futher into new territory in the next films.

There were a couple of places in the story where things didn't line up and I found myself thinking "Reallllly??", but overall it was quite satisfying. Han Solo really did steal the show, how they handled that character was fantastic.

Oh, and I knew the plot twist was coming but I still really liked how it was handled. The heart and themes around it made it well enough earned, IMO."

 

I'll probably go further into the head scratching moments as the conversation develops.  It will also be interesting to see how this film stands up after awhile.  I mean is this film only seeming this good because it's touching so many nostalgia buttons?

Oh.  Also, connected to this, I noticed that my theatre was full of fans who were whooping when the film started, which I kind of expected, but what I did find really interesting is that many in the audience were laughing too hard at some of the jokes.  They weren't that funny.  It just furthers my question of whether or not those of us who really liked this film are seeing it as it really is.  But that aside, there's little doubt that it's better than the prequels.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2015 by Attica

[kenmorefield]

I dissent. 

Okay, you can all go back to your party.