Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I finally got around to seeing the movie (don't ask but I'm sure you know how). I want to start this off before I go into spoilers that I did like the movie. It was extremely entertaining and had quite a few awesome moments. However, this is not the Star Wars movie I feel we all deserved for what they threw away just to make it (20-30 years of extended lore was not worth this). I'm going to just call this an AU movie and consider all the original lore as canon because that will make me happy and prevent me from wanting to wish bodily harm on JJ and the heads of Disney.

The Good:

 

BB-8: I originally thought this droid looked stupid and was nothing more then a new set piece but I'm happy to say I was wrong. I love this little droid to death (as much as I love R2) and he was the reason for so many laughs.

 

Rey: Daisy Ridley did an amazing job with this character and I can't stress this enough. I originally thought I'd hate her for pretty much being the new Luke/Leia (main character/love interest character) but I was surprised to see how much of a great character she is. While I do find some of the stuff she was able to do to be extremely unbelievable I thought she was still an amazing character. I'm really hoping they flesh her out even more in the next film and we see just what becomes of her meeting and hopefully training by Luke because she has the potential to be what Anakin was supposed to be for the Jedi.

 

Poe: Okay I don't know what it is but I love this character. What little we saw of him in the beginning of the movie must of struck a cord with me because I thought he was amazing. Much like Rey I hope they flesh his character out even more with the new movie.

 

Han and Chewie: This was my jackpot moment for the movie and what kept me watching. It was great to see these two back in action and too see that Han hasn't changed a bit. The gags with the Bowcaster were priceless and I wish there were more. Han's death seemed to forced in my opinion but I understand that it was a major plot point for Kylo's character and was a necessity to move things into the next movie, I still shed manly tears when I saw the lightsaber blade go through him and heard Chewie's roar (I half expected him to jump the railing and tear Kylo's arms off since wookies are known for that).

 

The Falcon: I'm still surprised that old bucket of bolts flew but it was great to see it back and even better to see that it's in great hands now that we lost Han.

 

Captain Phasma: As much as we didn't get to see of her I like her character. To be able to wear badass looking goobertrooper armor and a sweet looking cape you know she's a badass. I really hope we get to see her in action in the next film.

 

The Bad:

 

Emo Darth Vader (aka Kylo Ren) - This character is just bad and badly portrayed by the actor they chose for him. Words can't describe how disappointed I am with this character and how disappointed I was that they reveal who he is and what he looks like. This is something that should of been covered in the second movie, much like the Vader is Luke's father reveal from Empire Strikes Back. I understand it was a plot point to keep the movie going and to give reason behind the actions Rey will most likely take going forward into the next movie and the last one but it just wasn't done right. He's just an Anakin rehash that was done even worse then it was the first time. Anakin's reasons for turning were more believable than Kylo's and we honestly don't know why Kylo turned to begin with. I hope they turn this around in the next film because as it stands he's a sucky heir to the Vader throne (Jacen was a much better heir and he was thrown out the window for this). Plus who uses a cheesy ass lightsaber like that. I kept hoping for the crossguard blades to cut him.

 

Snoke: Emperor wannabe? While I know we don't know much about who he is, what his motivations are, and whether or not he truly is a Dark Side user (none of this is really mentioned) I just get the feeling JJ wanted to bring Palpatine back. While he has a commanding presence and is quite intimidating I can't help but think Emo Vader could easily take him out with the way he looks. I hope they flesh him out more as we move forward because as of now he's really not that great of a character.

 

Starkiller Base: I love how they rip the name off of Vader's apprentice and use it as this Death Star wannabe's name (oh wait Starkiller never existed). While I like the concept of this weapon I just can't help but think the Death Star was a much better weapon. My major question is: How do you refuel the thing after it eats a sun? It's quite obvious that the planet can't move unless that's a plot point they failed to tell us. Does it just poop the sun back out once it fires? Honestly, how the fuck does this thing work. I'm all for unbelievable science I mean I love Star Trek but come on. If it literally needs to use a suns energy to fire and does so by sucking it in how the fuck does it get more energy once it fires (this is assuming it uses all of the suns energy to fire)? It's should be a one shot glass cannon but it isn't. I'll stop now but this just bugs the hell out of me.

 

Goobertroopers: I'm sorry I just hate the way these guys look. They took my beloved stormtroopers and turned them into goobers. Why Disney? Why would you kill such an iconic look for something so ugly. I, however, do love the new Snowtroopers. Plus these guys are too freaking accurate, not true stormtroopers.

 

Finn: I'm sorry but you just don't have a sudden change of heart in the middle of a battle after watching an ally's death like that especially if you've been brainwashed and conditioned since childhood to follow the orders of the First Order. Out of all the unbelievable things in this movie this is the most unbelievable especially when he says he's witnessed terrible and horrible things in his past with the First Order. The death of an ally should be a normal, everyday occurrence for a stormtrooper (given their aim and what not). Honestly I feel they could take him out of this movie and we wouldn't be missing much. He sucks as the comedic relief, he sucks as the new sidekick (I'm assuming, it's obvious he's not the main character), and he just made me cringe everytime he was on screen. I will admit the whole trash compactor joke was hilarious, more so because it's a nod back to A New Hope but that's honestly the only time I found him funny.

 

Not enough Captain Phasma: This doesn't need any clarification, there just wasn't enough of her.

 

Honestly, as a whole, this movie was pretty much a redone Episode 4 and felt more like JJ and Disney were trying to reboot the series for the younger generations. While that's all fine and dandy couldn't we of just made this new trilogy an alternate universe much like the new Star Trek films (which I hate) and left the original lore and everything intact. I really wanted this to be a proper sequel to the original movies but I feel Disney has killed Star Wars for me. I admit there was no right way to do this movie, they were pretty much screwed from the get go but I was just hoping for so much more. I'll watch the other two movies, mostly because I really want to see where they take Rey's character and see just what will happen now that Luke has been found. Plus, much like everyone else I'm curious to see if Rey is Luke's daughter. It does and doesn't make sense for this story but I feel there's more going on here then they let on. That look of recognition on Luke's face was more then a "Oh it's the girl I've had visions about" face. That was a look as if he's known here prior to being left on Jakku.

Its a shame Disney threw out all that extended lore, but at the same time I can understand why. Lucas did the same thing all the time. When he made the prequel movies, all those different novels had to retcon a bunch of stuff. It makes me think about manga to anime productions. If you read the manga, you don't need to watch the anime, since you already know whats going to happen. That thinking is the main reason why The Walking Dead is a separate production from it's comic counter part. If they followed the comic, everyone would already know the outcome of some fights and there would be spoilers galore. At least with the new Star Wars movies you'll never know whats going to happen and thats a bit refreshing.
 
Back to the plot of the movie.. Since my last post I looked up a bunch of Star Wars the force awakens facts and bits of info that I might have missed, or I wanted to know more about. Yay for wookipedia having info the movie was very lacking on. Heres some really good info to read now that you've seen the movie:

1) First off, a major plot line was glossed over in the movie. Remember when that general was doing that big speech right before their big starkiller base attack? I figured he was just showboating to his soldiers. But no.. it was a major event. Their target was the hosnian system. And its significance was only mentioned in few lines that Leia said before the movie moved onto the next scene. The Hosnian system was housing the galactic senate. The empire literally destroyed the entire galactic senate of the new repulic. All the politicians are now dead. I hope Jar Jar Binks was there representing Naboo. This was such a major attack and I didn't realize the significance at all when I first watched the movie. Heres a good wookipedia article about it:

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Hosnian_system

 

2) The Starkiller Base made no sense to me. How could it suck up a sun? According to this, it was sucking up dark energy, which I guess was interconnected with the energy of the sun itself? Its a good read.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Starkiller_Base

 

It also says that Starkiller Base was mobile. It doesn't say how, but it would obviously make sense that it would have to be. It destroyed the Hosnian system and was about to do a second shot to finish off Leia's resistance group altogether. Which means it must have moved to a different star to start that second round of sucking / firing. The only way I could see it possible to move that fast is if the planet had a massive hyperdrive system. A planet with a hypderive did in fact exist in the novels. I forget the name of it, but that small planet and it's moon could travel thru hyperspace as if it made a warp bubble around it or something.

 

3) The Resistance. I thought the empire kept calling their enemies that as a throwback to "rebels" but I was wrong. The Resistance is actually Leia's own personal army. Wow.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Resistance

 

 

4) Actor cameos and easter eggs:

 

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-the-force-awakens-easter-eggs/

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/star-wars-surprises

 

5) And this video got me laughing pretty hard:

 

 

 

Problem is that thinking also makes you miss out on some stuff with anime based on manga. While most anime filler or original episodes aren't that great you still miss out on stuff some of which might improve the original story (it's rare, I know but that type of thinking also makes you miss things) but that's neither here nor there I just wanted to point that out.

Now for spoilers again.

I already knew about the Hosnian system and the Senate being based there. I tend to watch a lot of youtube fact videos and I found an awesome series that goes over Star Wars. One of the videos was on this point so when I saw the planets explode I knew what significance that held (though they do mention it in the movie that the Senate and most of the New Republic fleet are destroyed when that system went out).

 

If Starkiller base was mobile then where the hell were the engines (even a hyperdrive requires engines)? And dark energy? Good lord the bullshit they pulled out for that base. The Death Star was mobile and actually, as far as I know, was not Hyperspace capable (I only know this due to Empire at War since you can use it to win the Imperial campaign easily by destroying 5 planets). How it moved I do not know (I'm assuming through the use of Star Destroyers or through engines we never saw) but it moving was much more believable since it was a man-made structure. Also 30 years between RotJ and TFA, how in the hell do you construct a weapon in a planet in 30 years? The original Death Star took 20 years to construct with plans having been formulated prior to the Clone Wars (all in secret with no one but Sidious and those closest to him knowing about it). It took three years to construct what they had built for the 2nd Death Star. Now considering the size of the planet, the amount of work needed to remove the required amount of land and what not, and the amount of materials needed there is no way the First Order could of constructed this in 30 years, especially without the notice of the New Republic and Leia's spies/agents. I understand, based off the little bit of information provided that Imperial remnants went to the Unknown Regions after the armistice was reached and very little is known about that region but you honestly can't expect us to believe that the First Order had the financial backing for this or the resources to get this going. The cop out here would be to say Palpatine or some other Imperial higher up was constructing this in secret during the war but I can't honestly think of a good reason to design a planetary weapon when you're already constructing a moon-sized death laser. I don't know this just bugs me.

 

That leads me to another problem I had with this story. What actually happened to the rest of the Imperials at the end? We know for a fact that plenty of the Senators that sat on Palpatine's Galactic Senate backed him, there's multiple Moffs and Grand Moffs still around, and what happened to Thrawn? What we see of the First Order is hardly an Imperial remnant, in fact the only thing I can see that would tie them to the Empire is the goobertroopers and the Star Destroyers. I honestly can't see any of the Moffs/Grand Moffs following Snoke readily and we know most of the senators that backed Palpatine are either dead or in hiding so where is the Empire? I know, for the most part, Thrawn was an EL character that's never mentioned in the main canon but you know there were Admirals like him so where are they? I honestly can't see what was left of the Empire following this man or forming the First Order. I get the feeling that the First Order was already around under Snoke's control and was a military power in the Unknown Regions prior to the movie and just took in what Imperials wanted to join (much like the Eternal Empire in the new TOR expansion, sure it was set up by the Sith Emperor 100's or years before KoToR even happened but none-the-less an already existing entity).

 

The real gripe I have with this movie, one that bugs the living hell out of me, is how in the hell did Maz get Anakin's lightsaber? We all know that Luke lost it on Bespin when Vader cut his hand off and baring that it didn't fall completely through the city and into Bespin itself how does a little old alien on some back water planet come across such an important artifact like that? Besides being a major plot device there is no reason she should have Anakin's lightsaber and outside of some Cloud City resident finding it and selling it on the Black Market (or there version of it) it should still be there. This bugged me from the minute Rey found it and will continually bug me until we get a straight answer.

 

I could go on with the major plot holes this movie left and the questions it raised and didn't answer. Like what actually happened during this 30 year time span, why did Ben (Kylo) slaughter Luke's padawans (and how the hell does he do it, it's quite obvious he's still a padawan himself), why didn't Luke stop him or put him down there (besides being his nephew and what not), how does Snoke meet and eventually corrupt Ben, how the hell does Snoke do this behind Luke's back (who was apparently watching over him on Han and Leia's wishes), who the hell is Snoke and why is he leading the First Order, why did Luke pussy out and run to some faraway planet to find the first Jedi Temple (which is on Tython damnit, fuck you JJ and Disney for throwing that lore out the door), why isn't the Galactic Senate still housed on Coruscant and why did they switch to rotating where the senate would be housed, why isn't Leia one of the Republic's new leaders and is instead the leader of whats pretty much a PMC, why was Han still a Smuggler (given how he was and still is considered a Hero you'd think he'd be doing something else), who are the Knights of the Ren and how did Kylo become their leader, and many many more. I'm sure these will all be answered in an upcoming "Disney Approved" books but this is a lot of information to leave out. I feel they should of made a bridge movie first before TFA to help us transition between RotJ and TFA. At least then I wouldn't feel like JJ/Disney weren't trying to insult my intelligence and confuse the hell out of me.

 

Also I loved that HISHE video. I would of instantly loved this movie even more had Luke actually showed up and stabbed Kylo in the back. Plus that whole interaction between Luke and Rey at the end was hilarious.

Those are all great points and I agree with all of them. We were given so little info and so many open plot lines that I just hope these things actually get answered. The starkiller base really seems implausible for all the reasons you said. It would have made alot more sense if the first order had made the sun crusher from one of the novels. A single 1 person ship instead of a giant planet, dark energy nonsense, etc.. a single ship and they could have gotten the same amount of destruction done.

I can only guess about Snoke and his rise to power. Maybe he used the force to bend the wills of the remaining admirals of the empire to serve him? Thats the only conclusion I can come to. I'd have preferred Thrawn rising to power, it would have been so much better.

 

And yeah, Luke's lightsaber just so happens to be in possession of that alien. wtf.They need to explain how that lightsaber got there. And if they say some BS like how religious people say: "The force/(god) works in mysterious ways." or "A force spirit/(coughangelcough) must have guided its path back to Luke." I'll be extremely pissed off.

I can see Snoke doing something like that (I mean it's not mentioned outright but it is obvious he can use the Dark Side since he has been training Kylo) but that really doesn't explain the absence of the Moffs/Grand Moffs or for that matter Admirals. The Empire was pretty much a naval based military so having a General at the head of the First Order doesn't exactly seem right unless they shifted to a more "Army" based military. Plus (I just looked this up on wookiepedia) there were 12 Grand Admirals in the service of the Emperor, all serving as the most senior military advisors and officers in the Imperial Military and all of which had the right to step up and take control of the Empire in the Emperor's absence (which is what happened with Thrawn and his series of books). I find it really hard to believe Snoke could bring them all under his control (especially Thrawn, we know for a fact he was headstrong and power hungry). Then again we really won't know more until the next movie or they release a book explaining all of this. As much as I'd of loved for Thrawn to seize power and lead the Empire it would of never happened considering the general feelings towards Aliens in the Empire. Being Chiss would of required him to rule with an iron fist beyond repute (which he does do in the books) and while he has some of the best Imperial forces under his command (all of which were extremely loyal) I just don't think he could of brought them all under his control (though it would of been glorious and we would all be shouting "Long Live Thrawn!").

 

I really hope they don't take that route with how Maz got the lightsaber. I can live with her buying it off someone who happened to either have found it on Cloud City or from someone who bought it from said person but if they say the Force brought it to her I will instantly quit these movies, no matter how much I want to see how Rey's character develops. They'll probably say "Oh this little green dude who spoke funny showed me where to find it" or some jazz like that. To use Yoda in such a way would be a travesty to his pure awesomeness but I digress. I just really hope they don't go this route.

The thing about Thrawn tho, it wasn't just that he lead with an iron fist. His subordinates highly respected him. I remember a couple scenes in the novels as examples of it. There was one time one he ordered a lacky to tractor beam a ship, that ship did some shrapnel manuever to break the tractor lock and the subordinate broke the initial lock and tried doing some new algorithm to focus the beam or something and tried again, the ship got away (it had luke on it unbeknownst to them) and Thrawn called the guy out on his tractor strategy, instead of reprimanding him for breaking his order of the initial tractor beam, he praised the guy's ingenuity in front of the rest of the bridge crew because it was an example of someone trying to fulfill his order to the best of his ability. The other general on the bridge at the time served under vader and thought to himself something along the lines of.. "this is why the empire loves thrawn. He is what we need to lead us. If this was vader, that subordinate would be dead right now. Instead of following Thrawn out of fear, we follow him out of respect." and thats how awesome he was. Even as an alien he got everyone's respect. Gotta love that.

btw, I know you've mentioned Thrawn a couple times now. Did he actually survive the reboot of Star Wars lore? The chiss actually still exist too? If so, thats awesome.

As for Snoke, you make very valid points. All those grand admirals would have been the next in line to take over and then after them, all the grand moffs would have outranked the generals. Snoke's rise to power needs to be explained because its a bit lazy to make a new star wars movie and 'poof - heres a new emperor palpatine character'.

Honestly I don't know. Considering Thrawn was the only Chiss that served in the Empire (well Palpatine's Empire, there were plenty that served the Sith Empire during TOR's time) and considering he was the only Chiss we'd ever met prior to The Old Republic being released I'm pretty sure his species and Thrawn himself were thrown out with the rest of the EL (also, Thrawn was never mentioned in the movies so as far as Disney would be concerned he doesn't exist in the new canon. He was only in the books and games (serving under him in Tie Fighter was awesome)). It'd be completely awesome if Thrawn just randomly shows up in the next movie, bitch slaps Snoke, takes control over the First Order and then completely wipes the floor with the Resistance (yea, I'm an Imperial groupie). Yea it won't happen but a man can dream can't he?

I've never really read the books so I only know his personality and characteristics from Wookiepedia and what my friend told me about him. I know his men followed him unconditionally due to the respect they had for him, he was a true Imperial and would do anything to bring it back to prominence and his men understood this. Plus he always rewarded those who tried, as you said, to follow there orders to the best of there ability. He never outright killed anyone for disobeying or failing him like Vader did (which is why Vader had complete control, as awesome as Vader was he wasn't exactly the more inspiring man in the galaxy). My thing is that considering how the EL was thrown out the door the Empire at the time of it's defeat was extremely xenophobic which is why you never saw any alien officers or stormtroopers (Thrawn was the one exception). By the time of his rise to power what was left of the Empire was more accepting and allowing aliens to freely join which is why I think he became the figurehead they all were drawn too (plus the whole being awesome thing helped a lot). Hell the 501st legion, a legion made up of entirely clone troopers that had served with Vader during the Clone Wars and after, started letting in aliens and rank and file humans into it's ranks around this time but that's neither here nor there. At the time of Palpatine's and Vader's deaths no one would of followed him except those under his direct command which is why he'd of had to of been more ruthless then he actually was to take control of the Empire.

This is why I think the First Order was an already established organization by the time the Empire was defeated, hiding in the Unknown Regions waiting for a time to strike the Galactic Core. It would also explain why Starkiller Base was already a functioning weapon by the time of TFA, they were probably already done building it or mostly done building it by the time the Second Death Star was destroyed (why they never acted or used it though is really the only hole I find with this theory). Snoke has complete control over these guys which would be hard for him to do with a rigid organization like the Empire. It would also explain the absence of the Grand Admirals and anything that resembles the Imperial military. Then again I could be completely off but its really the only way to explain why the First Order has a weapon of such magnitude and why these so called Imperials serve him willingly (and lets not get started on the theories behind who Snoke is. The prevailing theory is Darth Plagueis but that's just complete hogwash in my opinion. There are only a few Sith who were ever capable of doing what these people say he did and he was not one of them).

You make a good point about the First Order already being an established organization. The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to believe that the First Order might have a been a separate imperial faction from the rest of the empire to begin with. It could be Snoke's own personal army like the Resistance is Leia's. When Palpatine died and the war ended, the rest of the Imperial grand admirals were, possible still are, fighting over territory and having power struggles in the Empire's systems all while Snoke's First Order was already established and declared itself the rulers of the Empire. The fact that he has no grand admirals or Moffs, could indicate that Snoke actually has no backing from the majority of the Empire itself. Hell, he might have had that starkiller base and a few other major WMDs as his trump card to prevent other imperial forces from trying to negate his claims. Snoke is starting to remind me of Cronal from the Shadows of Mindor novel. (amazing standalone book I highly recommend). That guy was extremely old, used a different kind of dark force power and in that novel he was considered a warlord. Not a general, admiral, moff or even a sith. Just a warlord that had his own faction of the Empire under his control. Damn good novel. If not for Snoke being an alien, I'd actually think he could be Cronal under an alias.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cronal

I thought it was decent. Didn't feel that 'WOW' factor seeing it. Highlight of the movie for me was seeing Rama and Mad Dog for a quick second. The rest was 'ehh'. The sloppy lets not make anything that's actually original writing actually makes me respect Lucas in a very very small way about how he tried to show (and failed) something original in the prequel trilogy - all the political stuff, etc. - it would've been easy for him to slap another similar looking trilogy, story-pattern-wise. 

http://io9.gizmodo.com/all-the-major-star-wars-secrets-revealed-in-the-new-nov-1774819531

This is a good read. The new book establishes the canon and explains details about the events that take place between the Return of the Jedi and the Force Awakens. I'll get this book at some point, but instead of buying or even reading it, check out the link to read the major highlights / spoilers from the book. The part about the creation of the first order and it's quick rise to power makes alot more sense now, but there is no mention of Snoke or how he then gained control of everything.

It's a very good read and thankfully it saves me from having to read the book myself (I've got to much other shit to read and I honestly don't want to touch this new canon with a 10ft pole).

Crazy theory just for fun.

Heard it and pfft (it's better then the other 5 or so theories I've heard but still cringe worthy). As much as Mace treaded the line between light and dark (due to his fighting style) he would never fall to the Dark Side of the Force and it was confirmed in the novelization of Movie 3 that Mace died. Snoke is much older then Mace and a lot more powerful in the Dark Side than even Palpatine (or so the current theory has it, it changes on a weekly basis by what I've seen for youtube videos on the subject). I'd believe Snoke was Darth Plagueis or even Palpatine (yea there is a theory going around that it's old Palps) before I'd believe he's Mace.

In the end I think its going to be something lame. I could be wrong. After all The whole Bucky killing Stark's parents in Civil War was a pretty decent twist. I just hope the future movies will find a better balance between humor and action... the humor in VII got a bit redundant and excessive. Fin wasn't funny to me, as the original films had smarter humor mostly based off Han Solo's sarcastic nature.

The Boba Fett is Snoke theory is actually pretty good, but theres no way it'd be him.

https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/4z99n0/star_wars_supreme_leader_snoke_is_boba_fett_no/

basically same info except with pics:

http://www.dorkly.com/post/80381/boba-snoke

lol. Rey's face when the arm gets torn off.

I saw this the other day. It's def too violent for the film. getting your arm cut off by a saber is one thing, but getting it brutally ripped off is another. It was a nice tribute to A New Hope tho.