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 #138380  by Cult
 
I agree, Zaluk. I mean a decent amount of stuff also made no sense post-ROTJ, example being the cloning of the Sidious and such. Also, I like new content, as long as Disney is creating fresh stories, no complaints here.

And Kitiro, I don't think Disney just gave everyone the middle finger in terms of the EU. There's still Rebels, whether you choose to watch it or not, that can reference EU material. For example Tarkin is still awesome in the series. I mean we still have Dave Fiolini working on the show from the Clone Wars series, that established Bane and referenced Old Republic material. I'm pretty sure bits and pieces will be happily inspired from EU, and the good material that is. I would even bet we're getting a Thrawn as a main antagonist later down the line.

Although you say Ben Solo makes no sense, they didn't have to use that name. I'm very sure it was intentional to reference the fact that the EU had great content, and is a nod to it.

I would highly recommend looking at these few articles.
Link
Link
 #138406  by Kirito
 
Cult - I agree, I don't think they meant to do that either. And to be honest, your probably 100% correct on the "reference" to the EU. And tbh, it doesn't discount everything written in the EU. AKA the old republic story line. These are awesome and I'm happy they remain intact. I'm not even saying that ALL the EU books are good, aka the cloning of the emperor. It's the fact that the story line of Luke's legacy(about 20 years of work) is mostly gone. The Yuzhan Vong war, Darth Caedus(Jacen Solo).... gone. Don't even get me started on grand admiral Thrawn. If you pick up any SW book, written in the last ten years, and open the first couple of pages you will see a very vast timeline of about 95% of every SW book ever written and when they take place in the timeline. Many of this is now "canon" in the eyes of Disney.

That's all I'm sayin. But I also hear what your saying. I just feel some of these things were overlooked, when in all reality, they could have added these very simple measures (such as correct names) and the movie would have sat A LOT better, regardless of the story change.

I liked the story. It was a very enjoyable movie, it just also just felt at the same time my childhood and teenage years of hard reading and enjoyment were crumbling before my very eyes is all haha.

Maybe I'm bias, since these are my favorite stories.
 #138408  by Frog
 
I view it like this: The EU is not destroyed. Authors have said they will continue the books no matter what, and the way I see it, why care about what Disney said? it was only to give J.J Abrams some more breathing room in the movie. I mean, can you imagine working at a factory, and there's this shelf full of boxes, and your boss says " Try and fit another box in here ". It's be near impossible, and if I was J.J Abrams, I'd want to make my own story and have my own creativity. It makes story telling extremely narrow and could possibly be boring, since all you can do is film and edit.

That being said, sure, let the movies be their own thing, and let the books be their own thing. I've never gotten into trouble about talking about EU as if it's cannon, have I? I still get into debates about Kyle Katarn vs Luke Skywalker and such and no one gives a flap about that. In fact, it's more of a context thing telling us exactly why the new movie doesn't follow the books. It's totally fine with me.

And yes, personally I loved the movie. I just wished there was more screen time for each scene. It just seemed to move too fast for me. like, I wished it took more time for Finn to decide to leave the Empire. I wish that it took more time for Poe and Finn to become friends-- it was kind of unnaturally fast for me. Han and Chewie kinda just '' showed up '' to get the Falcon. It didn't take very long at all and was extremely abrupt. I also wish Poe had more screen time as well, I just loved him.

That being the cons ^ let's look at the pros v
- Great story telling, just faithful to the originals.
- Great acting, perhaps even better than the originals' actors.
- Outstanding CGI and Practical effects. As a matter of fact, to me, the Practical effects looks more fake than the CGI!
- The Sound design is just flawless. The saber sounds get a Gold Star, as I could '' feel '' them igniting in the IMAX theaters.
- The artists get a definite plus, as I could stare at Kylo Ren's, The First Order's, The Resistance's, and Misc uniforms, blasters, clothing and such for hours on end.
- The Lightsaber choreography, though not as pretty looking as the prequels, felt raw and real, as if two people were fighting to survive and win at all costs.
- Harlious moments are all throughout the movie, just balanced with serious and gritty moments. I literally doubled over in laughing at BB8's '' Thumbs up '' moment.

All in all, I would give the Force Awakens no less than a 9/10, which makes me like it WAY more than the prequels, and POSSIBLY more than the Originals. It's straight and true to the Star wars franchise and will no doubt to me be the start of something truly groundbreaking.
 #138410  by Yama
 
well said, Hear hear
You just described how i felt about the movie.
Seen it four times now and let me tell you re-watching helps you pick up alot of the backstory you seemed to somehow miss the first time. I'm superhoping for a extra cut or directors cut with DVD release. hers hoping we don't have to wait ten years for the half hour left on the floor.
 #138638  by Buffy's Shadow
 
The thing to remember about the EU is that it was merely stricken from the official canon. There was nothing stating that that all that was already published prior to TFA wasn't in a seperate universe/timeline altogether, much like what JJ Abrams did with Star Trek's canon. Henceforth, why the older books/comics/games/etc, still exist, but are under the 'Legends' banner. They still exist, just not in the new official timeline, where 1-7 exist thus far.

Regarding TFA, I enjoyed it much more than I initially thought I would. I'm still bitter about all that went down after Disney obtained the series, but that's beside the point. The movie they presented us with was far better than anything that was in Episodes I, II, or III. The feel that was there in IV, V, and VI is there, granted not at the same quality. The characters thus far are solid, and I'm sure they will only continue to get better with the upcoming films. It takes time to develop these things, just as it did with the OT. Luke, Leia, and Han weren't 100% developed in the course of one film. The same should be expected with Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo. Things will only continue to get better. Out of the new core three that were introduced, Rey's my favorite.

Storyline wise, I thought the writing was excellent, although my only complaint is that the movie relied too much on trends that ANH set in place. But that's to be expected, especially considering its the start of a new trilogy. It's a much better start than TPM was for the Prequels. It's a solid start, albeit with a few problems here and there. No movie is perfect, and none of us should have expected this movie to be any different. Overall, it's a solid plot, and does a good job of setting the stage for the movies that are still to come.
 #138853  by Buffy's Shadow
 
Found an interesting story today. Apparently Anakin's ghost is showing up in the next movie, since Hayden Christensen (Anakin in Episodes II and III) is working with the production of VIII already
 #138861  by Hiicrop
 
It might not be that bad. If directed right he could be an entirely different Anakin. We can only wait. I heard a rumor about Boba Fett being in The Force Awakens. He wasn't. and we have 500+ days before Episode VIII. A lot can change.
 #138865  by Buffy's Shadow
 
I think they're gonna keep Boba for when he gets his own film

As for Hayden, he's a good actor, it's just Lucas used some really bad takes in the final cuts. The outtakes showed he put some actual good takes in during the filming
 #138866  by Falcon
 
I'm with TEH on that. I actually really liked Christensen in the prequels. I've seen him in other films and he's a good actor...just not good enough to survive bad directing.
 #138868  by Buffy's Shadow
 
Falcon wrote:I'm with TEH on that. I actually really liked Christensen in the prequels. I've seen him in other films and he's a good actor...just not good enough to survive bad directing.
Exactly. An actor can be amazing, but bad directing can ruin anything. Harrison Ford's had a couple movies like that sadly :(
 #138870  by Hiicrop
 
I'm glad Ewan Mcgregor lent his voice for this movie. I thought that was really cool. He was the best thing about the prequels. He said if they ever needed a force ghost of Kenobi he'd be want to do it.
 #138882  by Frog
 
I kinda view The Force Awakens as the bridge between the Prequels and the Originals--- Mixing up great action and special effects with story and character development. It makes for a truly majestic work of art :D
 #138897  by Hiicrop
 
I really appreciate what was trying to be accomplished with the prequels even though the execution was bad. The video games, comics, and novels are mostly great. No one can forget that Genndy Tartakovsky Clone wars animated series.


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 #138900  by Buffy's Shadow
 
Definitely. The thing with the prequels is that although they have excellent ideas, their execution often was done badly.

I've heard people are complaining that the lightsaber duels in TFA aren't as good as the prequels trilogy. In TFA's defense, they look more realistic, making them an even middle ground between I, II, & III, and IV, V, and VI
 #138903  by Hiicrop
 
The Emperor's Hand wrote:Definitely. The thing with the prequels is that although they have excellent ideas, their execution often was done badly.

I've heard people are complaining that the lightsaber duels in TFA aren't as good as the prequels trilogy. In TFA's defense, they look more realistic, making them an even middle ground between I, II, & III, and IV, V, and VI
They have more emotion in them. The prequels saber fights were well choreographed dances with little to no feeling in them. Closest was Revenge of the Sith but they dragged that fight out for 45 minutes. The hack and slash of the force awakens fight felt so much better to me.
 #138904  by Buffy's Shadow
 
Hiicrop wrote:
The Emperor's Hand wrote:Definitely. The thing with the prequels is that although they have excellent ideas, their execution often was done badly.

I've heard people are complaining that the lightsaber duels in TFA aren't as good as the prequels trilogy. In TFA's defense, they look more realistic, making them an even middle ground between I, II, & III, and IV, V, and VI
They have more emotion in them. The prequels saber fights were well choreographed dances with little to no feeling in them. Closest was Revenge of the Sith but they dragged that fight out for 45 minutes. The hack and slash of the force awakens fight felt so much better to me.
Especially when taking into account what had happened mere minutes before the fight in TFA. Emotions certainly were going to be high, and I'm glad that was shown throughout the fight.
 #138906  by Frog
 
And boy, J.J Abrams really knows how to keep his movies from being found out.. I really thought Finn was the main protagonist, but no-- It was Rey! :D
I also found out that the actors used FX blades, real glowing, real sparks and such. The only complaint from John Boyega was that they didn't have sounds!
But man.. I am really liking today's generation of Lightsabers. Battlefront and TFA makes a kind of '' Thump Hisss '' as opposed to '' Snap hisss '' ignition sound. Maybe only I like this or notice this because I am extremely autistic, but still!
 #138912  by Buffy's Shadow
 
In the case of Kylo's, it would be understandable that his would sound different, considering that his crystal isn't stable in the slightest bit. You could tell by looking at it that it was hardly keeping itself together
 #138913  by Frog
 
Yeah I know 'bout that. But flash to Battlefront: '' You will now the Power, of the Dark Side! '' ( THUMP-hissss )

I cannot stress enough on how powerful that scene is-- or how many times I have re watched that video. Perhaps just about as enough times as I have seen the Old Republic cinematic trailers |:D ( roughly around 100,250,132 times )
 #138918  by Zaluk
 
Agreed with Fal and TEH. The prequels had excellent casting. Ewan Mcgregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Samuel Jackson, Ian Mcdiarmid, Hayden Christensen, etc.... It's not their fault the script wasn't great.