The Force Awakens – Spoilers in the Comments
We saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens over the weekend. I won’t put spoilers in this blog post, but will be talking about and spoiling things in the comments at http://www.jimchines.com/2015/12/the-force-awakens-spoilers/
Nonspoilery thoughts? We enjoyed it. Definitely better than the prequels. Finn & Rey are great — both the characters and the actors. My son loved it and immediately wanted to watch it again when it was over
If you’ve seen the film, or if you don’t care about spoilers, feel free to jump into the discussion. I’ve got much more to say…
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:01 pm
The opening shot of the star destroyer’s shadow slowly cutting through, then enveloping the planet of Jakku? Very nice. I thought it captured the feel of that very first shot from Star Wars, echoing the size and intimidation factor in a new way.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:01 pm
What is it with Jedi running away into self-imposed exile? Yoda fought Palpatine and came very close to winning. He could have teamed up with Obi-Wan for a rematch and taken the old guy down. Instead, he runs off to Dagobah. Luke abandons his friends and family for thirty years, while the galaxy slides back into war? What the hell, Luke? I hope we get more of an explanation in episode VIII, but right now, this left me feeling pretty angry at Luke. Not to mention the disappointment of only seeing him for maybe 30 seconds in the whole movie. (And then at the end, having to suppress my instinctive, “Look, it’s the Trickster!” response.)
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:01 pm
Loved the humor. So grateful they moved away from the slapstick and back to more character-oriented humor. Chewie was great. Finn’s enthusiasm and dialogue as he gets more and more in over his head. Han’s trash compactor suggestion. It worked for me.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:01 pm
The sequence with Han and Chewie and the pirates on the freighter, on the other hand, felt like the most pointless part of the film. I wish we could have traded that part for a bit more backstory and development.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:02 pm
I have two significant complaints. One is that this felt too much like a point-by-point remake. From the droid with the important message to the planet-destroying weapon to the old mentor character’s death. Han and Chewie are back to being smugglers. So many beats in the movie came straight from the original trilogy, particularly from episode IV. It blunted the impact in some ways, because even if you didn’t know what was about to happen, it still felt like something you’d seen before.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:02 pm
My other frustration is that it feels like the movie basically resets everything back to the beginning. The Republic is destroyed with almost no buildup or emotional impact. We don’t know who those people are or learn much of anything about those planets until they’re gone. There’s a Resisitance that’s separate from the Republic for some reason, and the First Order in place of the Empire. Basically, it felt like everything that had been accomplished in episodes IV through VI was just erased. There’s no talk about what the Republic had accomplished, or how the galaxy had changed … it felt like we were right back where we started.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:02 pm
Kylo Ren is who Anakin Skywalker should have been. He’s definitely not as intimidating as Darth Vader, but that’s part of the point. I liked seeing him lose his temper and destroy various rooms. (Loved the two Stormtroopers looking at one another and getting the hell out of there, too.) I wish we could have seen a bit more of Ren’s conflict. Maybe a little more between him and his father toward the end.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:02 pm
Han. Oh, Han. I loved every moment he was on screen. His obvious respect for Rey, to the point of offering her a job. Finally trying – and loving – Chewie’s bowcaster. His reunion with Leia. His death made sense from a story perspective, and for Kylo Ren’s character development. And I know the new trilogy is focused on new characters. But damn, I’m gonna miss him.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:02 pm
Finn and Rey were great. I love the idea of the stormtrooper deserter. I love his determination to do the right thing, his blatant terror and fear, his obvious affection for Rey. And it’s chilling to realize he was taken from his family as a young child, and that the stormtroopers are mentally conditioned and reconditioned as needed. (Wasn’t there another group that took candidates as young children? Hm…) The stormtroopers are as much victims of the First Order as anyone else. And Rey is a wonderful badass. I’m assuming she’s a Skywalker, given her untrained strength with the force. It seemed a little cheesy that she could just close her eyes and master the force enough to beat Kylo Ren at the end, but you know what? I’m gonna just go with it, because it gave us moments like her force-snatching Luke’s lightsaber right past the bad guy’s face, or her escape in the starkiller base.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:02 pm
Also, these stormtroopers actually seem more dangerous and, dare I say, competent? Not sure what was up with the one dude who had the lightsaber-proof electroclub thing. And they were less effective against our core heroes. But in general, especially after the opening scenes, they were far more intimidating than we’ve seen before.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:02 pm
Captain Phasma needed more to do. I wish she’d been more of a challenge to capture and control on the starkiller raid.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:03 pm
It felt like there was an improvement in the number of women and characters of color in the film, both in prominent roles and in the background. I hope that trend continues.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:03 pm
Finally, Snoke is a ridiculous name, especially for a Grand Supreme Evil Bad Guy.
Michael Phillips
December 20, 2015 @ 2:12 pm
I liked that his instinct was property damage, not kill the messenger.
Michael Phillips
December 20, 2015 @ 2:15 pm
I’d actually have liked to see Han pull a Darth Maul on Ren. Han and Leia warring in the background in the face of the new order’s threat.
Hayley
December 20, 2015 @ 2:17 pm
Yes to all these points! Luke obviously inherited some of his Father’s poor old me genes! My 8yr old son cried when Han died whereas I snivelled at the end when Leia and Rey embraced. I have overlooked the negatives and totally enjoyed the movie, so much like the originals compared to the modern three. Am somewhat concerned that JJ is not involved in the next one and George Lucas has been brought back in as a writer. I will hope the strong characterisation will continue.
Heather Urbanski
December 20, 2015 @ 2:20 pm
I’m not convinced he’s been gone for the whole 30 years. One of Han’s lines says that he was training the next generation of Jedi then one turned on him (Kylo Ren/Ben Solo). That is when he disappeared. I’m looking forward to seeing Leia take him to task for disappearing, though. I definitely want to see that sibling relationship in Episode VIII.
Rich Bowers
December 20, 2015 @ 2:20 pm
I really enjoyed the movie and agree with most of your points. My nit-picky thing is the “movie magic timing” near the end. As the characters stand looking at the starkiller, he says the entrance is “over that ridge” – an obvious 20-30 minute hike away. Cut to the control room where they say the machine will finish charging in 15 minutes. Then they arrive at the complex, do about 10 minutes of running around and it is stated that the machine will be charged in 10 minutes. And it just keeps getting more and more dragged out. Somebody should have had a better sense of continuity there and some idea of how long it takes to travel from one place to another – especially while being sneaky about it.
Heather Urbanski
December 20, 2015 @ 2:22 pm
This felt, to me, like the love letter/goodbye to Han Solo before the saga focuses back on the Skywalker family. And I’m okay with that.
Catherine Shaffer
December 20, 2015 @ 2:23 pm
Agreed all around. I felt like I needed more support for the thesis that a well-loved child of Han and Leia could turn out to be such a psychopath. What went wrong there? We were also confused by the Resistance. What are they resisting? The Republic? I couldn’t believe in all of the coincidences and the destruction of the death star thingie was a disappointing plot choice. But overall lots of fun, and I hope this means the recycling is fine and episode 8 will be all new ideas.
Heather Urbanski
December 20, 2015 @ 2:24 pm
My pet theory is that she has been trained, but her memory has been altered. When she says, “The Force,” that is when she assumes calm before becoming Jedi Badass….looks like a conditioned memory response to me.
Oh, and if she’s not the granddaughter of Anakin Skyywalker (what with the engineering knack and piloting skills), then the movie better have an even better explanation.
Teri Sears
December 20, 2015 @ 2:25 pm
Loved your comments! I agree with nearly everything.
I’ll add that while many aspects of Episode VII seem like a remake of Episode IV, it is very realistic in that, as humans, we have a tendency to repeat the same actions, having not learned from our mistakes the first time around.
Chris Hoving
December 20, 2015 @ 2:26 pm
I actually liked that part. It was campy and silly, but then so we’re the originals. Felt very tongue-in-cheek to me. The nostalgic aspect was almost overdone, but I thought it was pretty close to the right balance. I just hope they got it out of their system. Hoping for a more original storyline in the next movie.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:29 pm
You’re right. He didn’t disappear for the full 30 years. It was after Ben turned. My bad.
But yeah, I want to see Leia grabbing him by the beard and saying, “While you’ve been chilling on your own private island, some of us have been running the resistance and dealing with planet-killing weapons!”
Anakin
December 20, 2015 @ 2:29 pm
Rey looked so much like Leia that I expected her to greet her a as long-lost daughter. As for Rey’s extremely strong force abilities, look at her background. She’s a scavenger, barely getting enough to eat. Living on the knife-edge between survival and starvation forces a person to use every ounce of their energy to survive, every day.
Ren was raised by leaders of the Republic. He was always cared for, always looked after. He was seduced to the dark side because it offered him power and control, but his command of the Force was less than Rey’s because he hadn’t been using the Force’s intuitive guidance every day since he was a small child.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:30 pm
There was a moment where you could see the First Order messenger bracing for whatever happened next. I liked that the filmmakers made a clear choice to show that Kylo Ren was *not* Darth Vader with that scene.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:31 pm
I wondered about the memory thing. Or maybe she was just too young to remember, but the training is there in her blood. (Or in her midichlorians…)
LauraElle
December 20, 2015 @ 2:31 pm
No!! George Lucas is going to help write the script for episode VIII? Oh god. That gives me a definite sinking feeling I’ve only experienced when thinking about the prequels.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:31 pm
What do you mean by pull a Darth Maul?
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:32 pm
Oh, yes. I remember thinking, “This is the longest 15 minutes in history…” And it seems like it would have been a pretty easy thing to fix in a few lines of dialogue.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:36 pm
Yes! I mean, Anakin was one thing. Raised a slave, taken from his mother who’s then tortured and killed, and growing up in the midst of a war? Yeah, that’ll mess someone up. But Ben had good, if flawed, people for parents. When he was taken for training, it was with an uncle who knew the importance of family. I can definitely see Han, Leia, and Luke making mistakes with family, but to that extent? That needs more explanation. And did Luke never bother to mention, “Oh, by the way, Darth Vader turned back to the light and destroyed the Emperor at the end.”
The separation of the Resistance and the Republic was weird.
Definitely a fun movie, but yeah…
Chris Hoving
December 20, 2015 @ 2:37 pm
My guess is that someone figured out that the clones were right hand, left eye dominant. It would explain why every single one was such a poor shot. Training over genetic engineering is what makes an effective warrior.
Kathy Lehman
December 20, 2015 @ 2:39 pm
I didn’t have a chance to recover from his death, so I could not enjoy the victory at all. I was still crying through the credits. If it had happened earlier, and there’d been a moment to reflect before the final battle (as there was for Obi Wan, even though we hadn’t had 40 years to love him, even), maybe I could have gotten into the rest of the movie.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:39 pm
IMDB has him credited as a writer with (characters) in parentheses for Episode VIII, but it looks like he’s listed pretty much the same way for The Force Awakens. Maybe that’s just an acknowledgement that he invented some of these characters? Or has there been an interview or article somewhere that he’s going to be more involved in the next one. I’d gotten the impression he was done with Star Wars, and happy to wash his hands of it at this point.
Andrew Betts
December 20, 2015 @ 2:40 pm
I honestly expected when Rey and Luke met at the end the movie would end with the line of “I am your father.”
Kathy Lehman
December 20, 2015 @ 2:42 pm
She didn’t look too young to remember in that lightsaber flashback of being left on Jakku. I vote conscious mindwipe but unconscious memories coming back after the lightsaber encounter.
Kathy Lehman
December 20, 2015 @ 2:43 pm
Episode VIII
Tsana
December 20, 2015 @ 2:43 pm
My theory is that in real life (rather than hologram) he’s actually tiny. Hence overcompensating and making himself giant.
Rich Bowers
December 20, 2015 @ 2:45 pm
Yep – all they need to do is stop trying to drive up the tension with specific time beats. “The charging is at 85%” – that leaves the flexibility and still builds tension.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:45 pm
He is an EVIL SITH SMURF!!!
LauraElle
December 20, 2015 @ 2:47 pm
That was my impression as well, that he’s done with Star Wars. And who can blame him? When I think about Star Wars from a writer/creator’s point of view, I can understand being more than ready to move on and explore other things after thrity years.
I do hope his writing credit is just that, acknowledging that he created the characters.
Jason Sanford
December 20, 2015 @ 2:47 pm
I also loved the two Stormtroopers looking at each other and running the hell away from an angry Kylo Ren. My sons and I think JJ Abrams must be a fan of Troopers on College Humor. http://www.collegehumor.com/troopers
judith mortimore
December 20, 2015 @ 2:50 pm
This was my major concern (I gave the movie 8/10 for what I saw as lazy plotting) – why were there rebels when the Empire had been defeated? Surely they should now be republican troops?
Jason Sanford
December 20, 2015 @ 2:53 pm
Emotionally, what got me the most was Chewbacca’s reaction to Han Solo’s death. Very powerful.
I also think this film forever ends the debate over whether or not Han Solo fired first. Of course he did b/c only a person who fired first would toss an unarmed man straight into the mouth of a ravenous alien monster to save his own skin. #SoloLives! 🙂
Andy Taylor
December 20, 2015 @ 2:55 pm
No one commented on Finn’s passable light saber skills when he’s likely never fenced before in his life?
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:57 pm
I thought about it, but mentally wrote it off to the fact that the First Order seems to actually *train* its stormtroopers, both with guns and with melee weapons. Finn wasn’t going to win, but he might be able to keep himself alive for a minute or two.
But yeah, it seemed odd.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 2:57 pm
Oh, yeah. Poor Chewie…
Michael Phillips
December 20, 2015 @ 2:58 pm
Establish a threatening villain, have him do awful things, then have him struck down early. In this case you have the additional emotional impact of his parents dealing with it, and Han having back slid all the way to Episode 4.
It would have required more set up of Ben as a badass.
Rich Bowers
December 20, 2015 @ 2:59 pm
If destroying one system (full of diplomats) ends the Republic, it wasn’t very strong in the first place. They’ve had 30 years to solidify their power base.
It would be like someone nuking DC – the United States would be disorganized for a while but probably would survive the blow.
Rich Bowers
December 20, 2015 @ 3:01 pm
If she survived the planet blowing up…
Damiana
December 20, 2015 @ 3:02 pm
I’ve been trying to figure out just how long it *was*… because Ben/Ren looks like he’s maybe 18 and behaves like he’s several years younger. (Gotta admit, Darth Emo does take after his grandfather that way, and what the HELL was Leia thinking, to allow him to grow up thinking that kind of behavior was at all appropriate, hmmm?)
Maybe they were trying to hint at the time dilation effect, somehow? And doing it really badly.
Madstuart
December 20, 2015 @ 3:05 pm
I was SO EXCITED when a female voice came out of a Stormtrooper. Not Phasma, just one of the random Stormtroopers. I’d been thinking that the waist-to-hip ratio on some of them was a bit suspect, and it was great to see it confirmed that no, Phasma was not an outlier, she was just one among many.
At least 20% of the background characters in any given scene were female. And it was SO EXCITING. (It’s a little sad that I’m so excited by something that isn’t complete gender parity, but I suppose that’s a reflection of just how bad things are in many movies.)
Both sides had humans of all colors in the background, and it was incredible.
Michael Phillips
December 20, 2015 @ 3:06 pm
My assumptionis that the First Order is much smaller than the Empire. Think of it this way, Storm Trooper Blasters in the age of the Empire were outfitted on a galactic scale. Billions of weapons made in a rush by the lowest bidders in a galaxy of low bids to take. Ben remembers the Storm Troopers from the Clone Wars, who were equipped with a stockpile that had been built up. Storm Trooper Blasters in the New Hope era are crap. First Order blasters were made in smaller numbers over more years, so even if their training is so so, they are using much better equipment.
Damiana
December 20, 2015 @ 3:10 pm
Yeah, it felt like Disney didn’t trust the fans to love a real sequel, so they went–HARD–for the nostalgia factor. Like, they didn’t think we’d notice if they didn’t use a great big hammer, over and over and over.
(Also? Why the hell would you pay to hire Lawrence Kasden, if you’re just going to overwrite his work with big flashy smashes of the nostalgia hammer?)
Tansy Rayner Roberts
December 20, 2015 @ 3:10 pm
I got the impression that she got a lot of the idea *how* to use the Force from Kylo Ren in their brain battle. I like that she’s still experimenting as they go along and I *love* that when faced with the lightsaber and her obvious destiny, she runs like hell away from it at first.
I saw a quote somewhere about how these movies were about getting back to basics and a focus on emotion rather than explanation, which allows us a lot of figuring out and is fun for all the conversations and theories we can come up with between this and the next movie!
Teri Sears
December 20, 2015 @ 3:11 pm
That is the exact thought I had! I bet in reality he’s the same size as Yoda, and projects his image so huge to compensate for his… shortcomings. 😎
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 3:11 pm
I remember that stormtrooper, and that moment! Yes. It was refreshing.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 3:12 pm
Rey and Finn both were allowed to be scared, and I loved that. It made both of their characters feel so much more human and real.
Damiana
December 20, 2015 @ 3:18 pm
I thought it was interesting that the messenger just *stood* there, with sparks falling all over him, and didn’t even take a step back. He looked a little nervous, and visibly winced several times, but he wasn’t afraid enough to even edge backward out of range.
Now, the movie started with Darth Emo ordering the deaths of an entire village, just because he felt like it. So, gratuitous murder is definitely a big part of who he is… and yet, the messenger wasn’t particularly afraid of him, even when Ren/Ben grabbed him by the throat for mentioning Ray.
Inconsistent storytelling is inconsistent. (Really, the entire script felt very patchworky to me; as if Kasden had written a nicely subtle story, but then the producers told Abrams “but it needs more obvious Dark Side, and hey, my 14-year-old nephew thinks it should be like this” so Abrams sorted through their idiocy to decide what needed to go in, and then hired the third writer to apply plaster to his changes.
Teri Sears
December 20, 2015 @ 3:19 pm
The actor is in his early 30s, but looks much younger. I’m not sure how old his character is supposed to be. Han only says 30 years ago Luke started training Jedi, until one destroyed it all. We don’t know how long that took. I’m guessing Ben/Ren is supposed to be around 25.
Rich Bowers
December 20, 2015 @ 3:23 pm
Any thoughts on whether Finn is Force Sensitive? On first watch I got that feeling, but nothing in my second watch solidified that.
Teri Sears
December 20, 2015 @ 3:24 pm
I’m okay with the messenger only being slightly afraid of Kylo Ren. After all, they’re supposed to be on the same side in that fight, so I’m sure the messenger has the (mistaken) belief that he’s safe from Ren’s immediate wrath. And he did get increasingly afraid to add additional information as that scene progressed.
Hayley
December 20, 2015 @ 3:25 pm
Well I hope that’s the case I was going on IMDB listing him as a writer for VIII.
Teri Sears
December 20, 2015 @ 3:28 pm
I expect that’s the opening line of the next movie.
After all, when Kylo Ren was trying to read Ren’s mind to get the map, he says she dreams of oceans, with an island in the middle… and that’s exactly where she finds Luke Skywalker.
Jeannie
December 20, 2015 @ 3:29 pm
Given the hints Max Von Sydow was saying to the press on the red carpet? I’m fairly vertain that old mentor character isn’t dead at all.
Teri Sears
December 20, 2015 @ 3:29 pm
I have a friend who thinks Finn is force-sensitive. I never thought that. But I think he’s just a well-trained fighter.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 3:31 pm
I think the previews tried to suggest that, possibly as a misdirect away from Rey? None of the previews ever showed her picking up the lightsaber. I don’t get the sense from the movie that Finn is force sensitive, though.
Dave
December 20, 2015 @ 3:33 pm
I think that sequence would have been much more satisfying if the monsters weren’t such pointless exercises in CG and had a little personality or even a simple relationship, like the Rancor with its beast master and its position as ultimate entertainment in Jabba’s palace.
Darren Radford
December 20, 2015 @ 3:34 pm
It felt to me more like a civil war setting – the Rebellion took some territory and set up the Republic government but couldn’t penetrate everywhere, so the Imperial remnants eventually reorganized into the First Order and became a competing government. A bit like the Confederacy and the Union.
Dave
December 20, 2015 @ 3:35 pm
While I agree that’s an issue, lazy plotting and pacing are my significant complaints.
Apart from my complaints, though, I loved the old cast, the new cast, the combination of old and new style witty dialogue, the humor, and the most brutal lightsaber duel we’ve witnessed in the saga.
Overall, loved it more than I admired it, but I loved it.
Damiana
December 20, 2015 @ 3:36 pm
I dunno…
First, it seemed like Han’s character hadn’t evolved even slightly, no matter what had happened in the elapsed time.
Second, pointless dramatic sacrifice has NEVER been Han’s style, and that’s what it was. If you want to save your violently unstable offspring and give them a chance to heal, you *don’t* do it by effectively baring your chest and saying “oh shoot me now”… especially if the lives of millions of other people depend on getting him removed from where he is. Not to mention the fact that if his primary goal was to get his son back to the one love of his life, arranging to let that son kill him was not exactly a path to success. Knocking him out and dragging him back to the Falcon by his feet, muttering curses all the way? (And then having something go disastrously wrong, of course.) Now *that* would have been the Han we all knew and loved.
Madstuart
December 20, 2015 @ 3:43 pm
I keep going back and forth on that. It seems like he’s got the potential to be Force Sensitive, but there’s no compelling evidence either way… though the fact that he managed to buck whatever Stormtrooper indoctrination he’d gone through in order to make choices he considered the “right” thing to do might point in the direction that there’s something like that going on.
Jeannie
December 20, 2015 @ 3:43 pm
I have to agree with your last bit. Brian Brushwood recently was saying what’s great about this over the prequels is they’re raising questions we want answers to instead of giving us answers to questions we never asked. The questions are more important than the answers. And they’re so much FUN!
Damiana
December 20, 2015 @ 3:45 pm
Not to mention… one of the things I really loved about the first and second acts were that the bad guys were SMART… but apparently it hadn’t occurred to them to install a silent alarm that can be triggered in an unobvious manner if someone is taken captive.
Damiana
December 20, 2015 @ 3:51 pm
I think they had some fairly serious problems with timing all along. Like… remember in the very first movie, how getting from Tatooine to wherever it was took *days* (during which time Ben trained Luke in how to use the Force), but now the Falcon just drops into hyperspace and then drops out again a couple seconds later, on the other side of the galaxy? Please, writers, at least give a SLIGHT nod to time passing!
Jason Sanford
December 20, 2015 @ 3:57 pm
I agree with Jim’s earlier comment that Finn is merely a highly trained Stormtrooper. That’s why he could fight with a lightsaber. But I don’t think he has any particular ability with the Force.
Damiana
December 20, 2015 @ 4:05 pm
Yeah, that bothered me too. I mean, clearly Ben takes after his grandfather, right down to the overwhelming whininess, but seriously? Unless they’re positing that it’s an inherited mental illness that they didn’t bother to, you know, *treat*, Ben/Ren is… kinda unbelievable.
Starting with how old he is. How old IS he, anyway? ‘Cause he looks like he’s *maybe* 18-20… but that would mean that he “destroyed everything” with the new generation of Jedi causing his uncle to run away only a few years ago (or else when Ben was about 5) and…
Then the First Order puts this uncontrolled kid who keeps destroying their stuff and screwing things up in charge of things. How does that work, again?
It just doesn’t make sense, and even the most fantastical movie universe needs to have *internal* logic, or it just doesn’t work.
Jacquelyn
December 20, 2015 @ 4:06 pm
It’s already confirmed that Gwendoline Christie is in it.
Damiana
December 20, 2015 @ 4:08 pm
Except that he’s a sanitation engineer, and the thing at the village at the beginning of the movie was, as he admitted, his first battle (where he didn’t actually use his blaster). And he kept being surprised when he actually scored a hit.
I think he’s force-sensitive, and doesn’t know the first thing about it.
Jacquelyn
December 20, 2015 @ 4:08 pm
I work with kids, and while teaching at a day camp over the summer, I talked to the kids about the new Star Wars movie. They were super, super excited, but sort of baffled about Supreme Leader Snoke. There were many jokes about that name over the course of the week.
Jacquelyn
December 20, 2015 @ 4:12 pm
I would really love to know the timeline of events and ages for everyone. I think that would help a little.
Jacquelyn
December 20, 2015 @ 4:16 pm
It could go either way, in my opinion. They made a point of having Ren notice his conflict, but it might just be that Ren is a bad ass telepath (something they showed over and over again). It could also be Ren noticing that SOMETHING.
Jacquelyn
December 20, 2015 @ 4:18 pm
So a friend of mine saw the movie last night, and he said he noticed Luke standing over a tomb stone in the last scene. I was too busy crying my eyes out, so I may have missed it. Did anyone else see it?
Pangolin
December 20, 2015 @ 4:30 pm
I wondered about the light saber skills of both Finn and Rey, but I’m willing to take a little hand-wavium for explanation. I did notice that Rey’s style with it was very different, she made a lot of thrusty-stabby motions which I’ve not notice anyone else ever use.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 4:32 pm
I didn’t catch that, but it would be an interesting detail…
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 4:33 pm
Me too! It was nice to see that the different characters had their own styles.
Nanci
December 20, 2015 @ 4:39 pm
It looks very much like a grave marker. It’s probably just a random rock from Skellig Michael, but it’s the sort of thing Abrams, a very deliberate director, would remove in post. My theory is that Luke is Rey’s father and he thought she was dead all these years. That’s why he looks so haunted and heartbroken when she shows up. He wanted to be the father he never had, and that was taken away from him. It’s a complete inverse of Vader never knowing he had a child, with a much happier (but still bittersweet) ending.
Nanci
December 20, 2015 @ 4:42 pm
I’m pretty much the biggest Luke fan in the galaxy and hated the idea of him being a hermit when I heard those rumors. However, I think the film explains that he’s actually being proactive, not just hiding away like Yoda and Obi-Wan. (Although Obi-Wan *was* looking after Luke.) Luke went looking for the first Jedi temple for a reason–probably a way to save his nephew/the galaxy. I’m also not convinced he hasn’t been secretly training Jedi all this time, or that there aren’t other Jedi in the galaxy waiting for his signal to reappear.
Emily
December 20, 2015 @ 4:46 pm
I admit, I liked this. Very “here comes the new boss, same as the old boss…” and it might have been the closest thing in the film to “real life.” (A woman general! Perish the thought!) If we glance at the stuff going on in the Middle East right now (the most recent and obvious example) we see huge revolutions where people force real action in the upper levels of government, sometimes leading to an election. But, hey, wait, a few years (or months) later, it’s a new face, but the same old s*#!. Why would the SW universe be any different?
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 4:48 pm
That’s true – I completely forgot he’d been searching for the first Jedi temple, and not just playing hermit. I still think we need a damn good explanation for what he’s been doing, but that opens up at least the possibility of hope there…
Emily
December 20, 2015 @ 4:54 pm
Unless, of course, Luke IS the bad guy and trained him perfectly, causing him to freak out and become evil. And the hologram bad guy is that way because he’s really Luke, too.
Ramón Peña
December 20, 2015 @ 5:01 pm
Honestly, I was expecting an “I am your daughter”.
Nanci
December 20, 2015 @ 5:01 pm
I have a theory that Kylo Ben always resented Han Solo for not being a Jedi and basically diluting his gene pool. Notice Kylo never says anything negative about Leia, who’s Force sensitive, only Han? It’s sort of like Tom Riddle hating his muggle father. Ben Solo wants to be a strong Jedi, you know, being the grandson of Anakin Skywalker and nephew of Luke Skywalker, but always feels like he’s not good enough. He starts to think maybe using the dark side will make him stronger. He runs into Snoke who fuels this belief. And, if Rey is Luke’s daughter, wouldn’t that give Ben a huge inferiority complex? Especially if Rey’s mother was also a Jedi? Ben could feel like the only way he can live up to his legacy is by using the dark side. I mean, Rey says it right in the interrogation – Kylo fears he’s never going to be as strong as Darth Vader.
He’s such a twisted, vulnerable villain. It upsets me that I like him so much. I was prepared to hate him. 😛
Erik de Bie
December 20, 2015 @ 5:06 pm
I didn’t interpret that as the messenger not being afraid. I interpreted that as “oh shit, don’t move–don’t draw his attention so he sliced up YOU instead.” Like a mouse staring at a cat that’s playing with a ball of string right in front of him.
That’s how I would have felt, anyway.
Jim C. Hines
December 20, 2015 @ 5:06 pm
Yeah, I’m not buying that theory at all.
Brita Long
December 20, 2015 @ 5:06 pm
That’s pretty much exactly how my husband described it. We saw The Force Awakens Friday afternoon, and we’ve been watching the originals this weekend. It’s definitely interesting to see the parallels. I really want to see the new one again, though, just to catch more of the details.
Nanci
December 20, 2015 @ 5:07 pm
I liked the stuff in the beginning with Han. Once the action starts, that’s my pee break. 😀
Brita Long
December 20, 2015 @ 5:12 pm
I mentioned to my husband how important diversity in your extras/background characters is. While watching the originals this weekend. I noticed that pretty much all of the background characters are white men. But in The Force Awakens, the background characters were diverse both in ethnicity and in gender. It was amazing!
Dee
December 20, 2015 @ 5:16 pm
My only (minor) disagreement with this is that it gave us a moment of Han Solo throwing a guy into the monster’s mouth, which felt to me like JJ Abrams’ statement on where he stands on the who shot first (not even a) question.
Andrew Betts
December 20, 2015 @ 5:32 pm
I think that would have been even better. I think it was pretty clear that Han knew that fact. I mean why would it suddenly cut away when he talks to the cantina owner about her. Also the whole calling of the lightsaber and visions of herself clearly near the slaughter or whatever actually happened with Ben.