by braiko » Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:30 pm
So who else has seen it?? Amazing movie. There is a LOT of nostalgia, almost TOO similar to A New Hope in parts, but that is my only criticism, because it is glorious! [spoilers to follow, you have been warned - if you haven't seen it, what are you in this thread for? do yourself a favour and stop reading]
1. Kylo Ren, great villain. There was always a bit of a disconnect between Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader... I could never picture Hayden Christensen in the suit with the deep James Earl Jones voice. But in this... there he is, Ben Solo unmasked and the voice fits.
2. Rey is fantastic. Who would have thought she was Jar Jar Binks' daughter (jokes). But by the end we still don't know her last name. Rey Solo? Rey Skywalker? Rey Ackbar? She fit the Falcon like a glove and had instant chemistry with Han and Leia, so I'm leaning toward her being a Solo still, though you would have thought that Han/Leia might have noticed something? It would make me happy if Rey is Ben/Ren's sister, which would roughly mirror the way the extended universe went, but I'm sure there are alternatives. Having an affinity with the Skywalker lightsaber may be the telling thing though... Time will tell.
3. How about all of the misdirection / trolling from the trailers? We only see Finn (and not Rey) with the lightsaber, and assume he's the Jedi - nice one Lucasfilm.
4. There is so much lore to be filled in between Episode 6 and 7 it is mind-boggling. But in particular will be the story of Luke beginning to train the Jedi, Ben Solo falling to the Dark Side, and the fallout that comes from this to Luke / Han / Leia. And where did this Snoke come from??? So much unexplained. Like who was the guy at the start that Poe got the map piece from??
5. One of the things the prequels got right was having a main theme piece of music for each movie (ala Duel of the Fates). There may have been one here that I missed, but it certainly wasn't as memorable. I guess this fits in with almost too much nostalgia as there was much borrowed from the original trilogy.
6. Overall, clearly better than the prequels and better than I had expected! Though with so much reliance on classic trilogy nostalgia it would be difficult to claim this is the best of the lot. It's not far off though.
YNWA