Force Awakens just like Into Darkness (Some Spoilers)

[StCoop]

So JJ does it again. Instead of creating something new he makes a film that consists of a bunch of homages strung together.

Here's your desert planet. Here's your jungle planet. Here's your ice planet. Here's your father and son confronting each other over a gaping hole. Here's your lightsaber being force-pulled out of some snow. And on and on and on.

Seriously, you have an infinite number of story choices available and you decide, let's blow up the Death Star again!

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't know, it had a bit more substance than STID, though the homages, callbacks and outright winking at the camera was overdone.

The Starkiller battle actually kind of reminded me of the battle against the Evil Spaceship in Guardians of the Galaxy in that it's a foregone conclusion the good guys will win and save the day. There was no real tension which even both Death Star battles in the OT continue to deliver even after the zillionth time watching them.

 

[BillJ]

So JJ does it again. Instead of creating something new he makes a film that consists of a bunch of homages strung together.

Here's your desert planet. Here's your jungle planet. Here's your ice planet. Here's your father and son confronting each other over a gaping hole. Here's your lightsaber being force-pulled out of some snow. And on and on and on.

Seriously, you have an infinite number of story choices available and you decide, let's blow up the Death Star again!

You don't have an infinite number of story choices. You have to make choices that will bring people that will spend money on tickets. Beyond that, Star Wars is the story of the Skywalker family.

I enjoyed the nods to what came before and plan on going to see The Force Awakens again next week. I also enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness.

 

[{ Emilia }]

The Starkiller battle actually kind of reminded me of the battle against the Evil Spaceship in Guardians of the Galaxy in that it's a foregone conclusion the good guys will win and save the day. There was no real tension which even both Death Star battles in the OT continue to deliver even after the zillionth time watching them.

Wait, really?

The Death Star battles made you think "Hey, what if the Rebels lose?"
I mean, really?

Of course the heroes weren't in "danger". Just like I never expected Luke or Han to die in A New Hope.

 

[BillJ]

The Starkiller battle actually kind of reminded me of the battle against the Evil Spaceship in Guardians of the Galaxy in that it's a foregone conclusion the good guys will win and save the day. There was no real tension which even both Death Star battles in the OT continue to deliver even after the zillionth time watching them.

Wait, really?

The Death Star battles made you think "Hey, what if the Rebels lose?"
I mean, really?

Of course the heroes weren't in "danger". Just like I never expected Luke or Han to die in A New Hope.

Gotta agree with Ms. Snow here.

Very few movies have any real sense of jeopardy for the heroes, including Star Trek and Star Wars.

 

[The Wormhole]

Well, no, obviously I never expected the Rebels would lose in either Death Star battle, its just those fight scenes are much more absorbing and exciting and when the Death Stars do get blown up it feels like a victory. Starkiller just wasn't all that exciting, and the destruction is just expected and doesn't feel like victory. Hell, even the Gungans fighting the battle droids was more exciting and cool than the Starkiller battle.

 

[{ Emilia }]

I'm afraid that's you, though. Not the movie.

Feelings, eh?

 

[StCoop]

You don't have an infinite number of story choices. You have to make choices that will bring people that will spend money on tickets.

And people wouldn't have spent money to see a film that wasn't 80% recycled material?

 

[DarKush]

True that very few movies put heroes in real jeopardy but there is that suspension of disbelief, if movies create compelling enough villains or dangerous enough situations you can allow yourself to believe that maybe this one time the hero won't make it out.

Plus when you look back at the original trilogy at least I have to wonder when I first saw them, when I was much younger, if I didn't worry about the fate of these characters. I don't really recall but I likely did wonder what was going to happen to some of the characters.

 

[{ Emilia }]

I'm sure I worried about the characters when I saw the OT as a kid. But I'm also sure I would've worried about TFA's characters... if I were still a kid.

I just don't think there's a significant difference and I love both the OT and TFA.

 

[DarKush]

To each his own, as a kid I likely would've worried about the TFA heroes, particularly Finn and Rey when they took on Ren. I might not have even realized what was going to happen to Han, as a kid at least.

Yes, there isn't much of a difference in terms of TFA and the OT, but that's on purpose. TFA is very much in serving up more of OT, for good or ill. The difference is me, and now stuff isn't new anymore, it doesn't wow me. I can appreciate certain things but I can't be enthralled by them anymore. TFA didn't enthrall me, didn't take me to that place. Even I got more into AOTC and ROTS and you pretty much knew how the prequels weren't ultimately going to go. Just a different experience in learning the how those things came to be.

 

[BillJ]

You don't have an infinite number of story choices. You have to make choices that will bring people that will spend money on tickets.

And people wouldn't have spent money to see a film that wasn't 80% recycled material?

I believe Abrams delivered the exact movie Disney wanted. A film that felt familiar, yet nothing like the prequels.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

It obviously paralleled, but I think it was sufficiently different (as opposed to STID which had a full-on Khaaan scene). Even the prequels did that to a degree with the first movie having both Tatooine and a final space battle where the space object had to be destroyed for the good guys to win.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I actually went to the restroom during the Starkiller battle, because once the gang was united I knew what was coming for the next few minutes: ships fly, ships explode, lots of chatter ("Gold Leader to Gold Five, there's one on your tail!"). I came back before anything substantial happened.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

How would you know nothing substantial happened if you weren't there to see it?

 

[Greylock Crescent]

He used the Force.

 

[Ithekro]

One thing is that the space battle is more or less background to be the main characters where they need to be. It is almost not important that it is happening other than to give the characters time to change locations between scenes.

At least Starkiller base was not exactly easy to blow up. It took a lot more than one lucky shot to take out...they had to work for it. But even then the story was what was going on with Rey, Finn, and Ren.

 

[The Doctor]

I'd say that TFA was much better than STiD at remixing the old material into something magical and it fell entirely to the new cast. It's impossible not to like Finn, admire Rey or want to be bros with Poe. This new cast is fantastic and it's their stories that drove the film, not quibbling over 'yet another Death Star.'

 

[StCoop]

It's impossible not to like Finn, admire Rey or want to be bros with Poe.

Coward.
Mary-Sue.
Smug Git.

Easy.

 

[The one that is]

Star Wars was about the characters and how they react to their situation. While it can be argued that TFA superficially resembles a New Hope. The characters are quite different from any other Star Wars characters. Superficially Rey is like Luke because shes is on the heroes journey. However shes nothing like Luke in that she initially is scared to death of her calling.

Finn is nothing like any character in a Star wars movie. You may call him a coward. But people are not brave because they lack fear. They are brave because in spite of fear they master it. Finn was afraid but in the end he mastered that fear.