Official STAR WARS Thread

[Qu Hui]

If we get Thrawn and Mara I'll be happy! Also Chewie back is a huge bonus!

There is a (as of now) unnamed Imperial Admiral in the novels who is heavily suspected to be the new canon/EU's version of Thrawn, who was compared to Thrawn by the author of the book, and in the books was consolidating the Imperial Remnant/burgeoning First Order's power by eliminating admirals who were weak or useless to the cause. But we'll have to wait for more about him.

I am kind of thinking, that Kylo Ren will be a former Jedi Knight turned sith lord/commander.

Ren was part of an Dark Side-using organization called the Knights of Ren that only came about post-Endor, and Ren himself according to pre-release materials was born after Endor. He's also been confirmed to have been seduced to the Dark Side by Snoke, the leader of the First Order who is also a user of the Dark Side. Abrams has also stated that Ren and Snoke are not Sith.

I'm excited for this but as they release books in the new timeline I am sad to see the whole of the EU go up in flames.

Well, the Legends/old EU stuff was never really canon beyond broad strokes, and it's mostly just an alternate universe now. There probably won't be any new things created for it, though.

All that aside, I'm a little nervous as the release date approaches. From what we've seen, that there are a lot of similarities between a New Hope and The Force Awakens, and I'm hoping that TFA can do its own thing instead of just being a rehash of ANH.

[ky9ersfan]

Starwars Episode 7: The Force Awakens

This was my type of flick, I just love anything, and everything Starwars. Made me all nostalgic. A solid entry into the series.

[Ranbir]

I liked it.

[Sun Fin]

OK, I've seen it twice. I love it because it's Star Wars and it was beautiful however I do have some issues. First of it was breathtakingly fast. That was in some ways a strength but it also meant they didn't explore anything in any depth.

Next it was almost just A New Hope re-written:
Han's death is like Obi Wan.
Luke like Yoda is on a distant planet.
Tatooine and Jakku could be the same place.
Death Star and new one.
The recovery of a druid carrying information critical to the alliance.

The biggest problem I had with not exploring things properly was how powerful Rae became with her powers in a few hours. Force suggestion was something Luke struggled with hugely in the original trilogy yet she did it with no training. She then fought against Ben Solo and pretty much won. Again not realistic even if he had been shot in my opinion.

I thought Han's death was done well and was probably necessary to move focus on to the new guard. However the aftermath was appalling, we barely saw Leia's response to it at all let alone anyone else's!

However I'm glad that the Sith was a member of the Solo family even if he was named Ben and not Jacen. I also like the new cast.

The big question is who do we think Rae is? I'm torn between being Ben's twin and Luke's daughter. I'd say her connection with Han implies the first but that could be inherited from Anakin who was an awesome pilot.

On balance I liked it a lot, probably more than this post reflects, do I think it was worth sacrificing the EU for? Not yet but if the follow up films are good then it could be with time!

[Ayame]

Saw it on Monday. Liked the new characters, but some of them (Poe) should have more screen time.

Yeah, a lot of stuff reminded me of A New Hope. Pretty sure Rey is Luke's daughter. She's stronger in the Force, and there was the lightsaber vision. I have mixed feelings about Kylo Ren. Seemed cool when he first showed up. But then he's a Vader fanboy with anger problems. Want to know more about the Knights of Ren.

[Huang Bob]

I felt Poe's character was a bit forced. In terms of his relationship with BB8 first, then with Finn. Buddy-buddy thing reflected in his dialogue.

[Dong Zhou]

Saw Force Awakens over the weekend. Came into it as a casual fan, I like Star Wars films well enough but I don't love them, they aren't a nostalgia part of my childhood (bar the theme tune) and having watched the six films again, liked some, meh about others. I had heard good things about this film and was curious as to how they balanced needing to establish new characters+trilogy with pleasing the fanboys

Overall? It is nice, reasonably fun but patchy. Acton is competent but lacks oomph, exposition could be clunky, the emotional scenes tended to fall flat, does feel like it got the balance between old and new badly wrong but the pace has zip, good humour, some nice nods and two of the new characters have real chemistry.

-Felt they could have done a better job at theme to explain that the empire more morphed into it's successor rather then collapsed

-The death laser destroying the Republic was the one emotion scene with clout. Han Solo's death didn't click at all.

-The new Yoda character, Maz, was flat

-Rey and Finn were a very good combo, good chemistry, good individually, enjoyed their humour. The BB8-bot was cute and Solo seemed to go well with them. Poe I can leave.

-Far too many "this is remarkably like" moments. It felt like they wanted to do enough nods and creepy similarities to win the fanboys/girls over but they need to be bolder in next few films

-Needs a Darth Vader among the baddies. Ren is good with helmet on and some great temper tantrums, when helmet comes off he just seems whiny. Snoke looks fake rather then imposing, General Hux had potential though despite being the third wheel, felt he had the charisma to be a leader.

[Sun Fin]

I saw Rogue One a couple of days ago.

In lots of ways it was a very good film but I left feeling severely disappointed. I think more than with 'A Force Awakens' I was hit by what it means to have lost the EU. I think a few things in particular bothered me.

1) Where were the Bothans? Somebody else told me that it'd been annouced they wouldn't be in it but it really annoyed me for them to go against the established cannon in 'A New Hope' rather than just the EU. I also really enjoyed the tension between the main characters and Borsk Fey'lya in the books.

2) I just felt that having a film called Rogue One with limited X-Wings and no Wedge Antilles was a waste. I loved the X-Wing novels.

So yeah, a great movie, I guess but it left me feeling that we'd lost more than we gained.

[Ranbir]

I liked it.

Rogue One

[Huang Bob]

1) Where were the Bothans?

It was in reference to the 2nd Death Star and in Episode 6 where it was mentioned Bothans dying to bring information.