SimplyScripts Discussion Board
Blog Home - Produced Movie Script Library - TV Scripts - Unproduced Scripts - Contact - Site Map
ScriptSearch
Welcome, Guest.
It is March 28th, 2024, 10:07am
Please login or register.
Was Portal Recent Posts Home Help Calendar Search Register Login
Please do read the guidelines that govern behavior on the discussion board. It will make for a much more pleasant experience for everyone. A word about SimplyScripts and Censorship


Produced Script Database (Updated!)
One Week Challenge - Who Wrote What and Writers' Choice.


Scripts studios are posting for award consideration

Short Script of the Day | Featured Script of the Month | Featured Short Scripts Available for Production
Submit Your Script

How do I get my film's link and banner here?
All screenplays on the simplyscripts.com and simplyscripts.net domain are copyrighted to their respective authors. All rights reserved. This screenplaymay not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
Forum Login
Username: Create a new Account
Password:     Forgot Password

SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board    Reviews    Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  ›  Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Moderators: Nixon
Users Browsing Forum
No Members and 4 Guests

 Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 » : All
Recommend Print
  Author    Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  (currently 7330 views)
Scar Tissue Films
Posted: December 17th, 2015, 9:43pm Report to Moderator
Of The Ancients


Posts
3382
Posts Per Day
0.63
I'm a huge Star Wars fan. It defined my childhood, and,  in common with so many people whom work in the film industry, it is the reason I make films.

Directing films, writing scripts, is merely an extension of the time spent playing with Star Wars figures.

There are no other films like it, nor will there ever be. It was a transcendental experience in a way I don't honestly believe it's possible to achieve any more.

One of the strange things about Star Wars is that there is the dichotomy between the films that actually exist and the trillion different subjective experiences that represent Star Wars for everyone else.

This is partly because it's a very strange Universe. In George Lucas's mind it' always been a fun little kid's adventure, and so much of Star Wars output fits that model... but he invested it with a very deep mythology and despite the light tone, they contain some of the darkest stories ever committed to film.

Which other films, even the most gory horrors, contain the destruction of entire planets? Or the massacre of dozens of innocent children?

It's hard to think of another series that's so soft in tone on screen, but so bloodthirsty off screen.

Off screen Star Wars is one of the most violent series imaginable. Whole villages are wiped out in acts of genocide. People have their limbs chopped off, and their bodies burned to within an inch of their life.

This odd disparity has existed in all the films. They are clearly geared for children, yet the stories contained within them are dark, violent and uncompromising.

This latest iteration continues that trend and it's pretty good.

Not as good as most reviews are saying, and it can never be as good as the Star Wars that exists inside the heads of those of us who fell in love with the series all those years ago.

But it's pretty good.


MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS:



MAJOR:


Hard to get away from the fact it's literally the first film remade, from secret plans inside a droid, to killing the Death Star to the confrontation between Han Solo and his son which mirrored that of Ben Kinobe and Vader from the first film.

They just changed a few people's names, gender and colour.



But it's still pretty good.

Even though:


EVEN BIGGER SPOILERS:

DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN IT!!!!!!!'

BE WARNED:


Having read all the books...that's not how Han Solo died, or should die.    

And if you're going to play it like that, at least make it all a bit more emotional. That's Han Solo, man.

Revision History (1 edits)
Scar Tissue Films  -  December 18th, 2015, 6:00am
Logged Offline
Private Message
AnthonyCawood
Posted: December 18th, 2015, 10:09am Report to Moderator
January Project Group



Location
UK
Posts
4319
Posts Per Day
1.14
Have to say that I loved it...

I agree that some elements are re-tellings of things from other episodes, but I didn't have an issue with that particularly as I thought there was a knowing reverance to it.

I though the cast were universally excellent, in particular Daisy Ridley who was just great as Rey.

What made this work for me was, I think, purely down to JJ... and the same thing he somehow managed to do with Star Trek too... he made it feel like it was tonally, directly connected to it's predecessors. Despite the improvement in CGI and effects he has crafted a film that felt that it could have been a couple of years after Jedi.

SPOILER - SPOLIER - SPOILER

Personal opinion re Han, I didn't need anymore emotional build up, it's Han fucking Solo and they killed him. The packed screening I was at were in total shock and involuntarily I grabbed my sons arm, at the same time as he was grabbing mine

So my summary, I think it worked better for me tha Scar, but each to their own...

I'll be going to see it again next week if I can get an IMAX ticket again!

Anthony


Anthony Cawood - Award winning screenwriter
Available Short screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/short-scripts
Available Feature screenplays - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/feature-film-scripts/
Screenwriting articles - http://www.anthonycawood.co.uk/articles
IMDB Link - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6495672/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Logged Offline
Site Private Message Reply: 1 - 62
Scar Tissue Films
Posted: December 18th, 2015, 10:48am Report to Moderator
Of The Ancients


Posts
3382
Posts Per Day
0.63
I think he did a better job with this than Star Trek, tbh.

I really don't think he got Star Trek at all right. It's too generic, and has lost the feeling of wonder that the original Star Trek had.

It'll be interesting to see where this goes. I've read all the Expanded Universe stuff, which, of course, is no longer canon.

This era was actually the worst over all because it became quite dispiriting...seeing everything they'd all fought for and achieved in the classic era just falling apart around them.

It'll be interesting to see how, or if, they attempt to overcome that. They've made a good start by skipping over the New Jedi Order part, which was particularly downbeat at times.
Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 2 - 62
Scar Tissue Films
Posted: December 18th, 2015, 10:55am Report to Moderator
Of The Ancients


Posts
3382
Posts Per Day
0.63

RE: The Major Spoiler discussed above.


CRAZY HORRIBLE SPOILERS BELOW


AVOID IF NOT SEEN THE FILM


AVOID


AVERT THINE EYES

I think it would have helped the scene to know more about how Ben Solo had become so isolated from his father.

As it was, it felt contrived to me, essentially just there to crowbar a shock into the story because Harrison Ford didn't want to play the part any more, rather than a real plot point.

I also think it came a film too early. I think there should have been at least one point where all the old crew got together one last time on the Falcon. It should have ended with them all in the Falcon finding Luke.

Would have been a far better buzz.


I sort of feel bummed out about it now, tbh. Like I've been permanently robbed of what should have been a perfect moment.
Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 3 - 62
TonyDionisio
Posted: December 18th, 2015, 12:07pm Report to Moderator
Been Around


Damnit, get to the point!

Location
Tennessee
Posts
768
Posts Per Day
0.20
Great beginning. Great Rey character. Great chase scenes. Great villain until...

... the villain gets unmasked.

Shit saber battles. Shit job from a script perspective (was widely anticipated from the rushed job). Enough death stars already, can't think of any other doomsday weapons, guys?

Failed closure with the whole Solo thing. One of my all time favorite characters dispatched poorly.

Great job setting things up for what's to come. Here will lie a great challenge.

Act 1 = Amazing. Act 2 = Good. Act 3 = ho hum.

I had fun, but I knew I would. Will be interesting to read the script dissections.

Tony.

BTW, I didn't get a Star Trek preview (lol, they musta panic stripped it)

The Independence Day preview looked great in Imax.
Logged Offline
Site Private Message Reply: 4 - 62
Equinox
Posted: December 18th, 2015, 1:23pm Report to Moderator
January Project Group



Location
Germany
Posts
345
Posts Per Day
0.10
JJ is a genius really. I've never been a big Star Wars fan, I'm more a Trekkie - so the new episode is not anywhere near the top of my movies-I-have-to-watch-list, but I might give it a try for Abrams alone. Initially the new Star Trek movies felt strange, but by now I'm used to the new tone and actors and I think those films are not bad at all. It's a bit difficult to get used to an established franchise which gets modified that extremely, but if you watch the films as a stand-alone movie series, I can really enjoy them. I still miss the TNG universe though.

About Star Wars, To me it always felt more like a fairy tale for kids than a SciFi blockbuster. The same story would work equally well with trolls and elves, the SciFi setting is just secondary here. Also the creatures in Star Wars are a tad too eccentric and unrealistic for me. Hell that rabbit-like thing made me leave the cinema in Episode I because I couldn't stand the idiot brabbling any longer. Skipped episode II and III after that, never seen them yet and don't think I've missed much. If kids seemed like the target audience of episodes IV to VI, episode I seemed as if it was meant for 2-3 year olds.



Revision History (1 edits)
Equinox  -  December 18th, 2015, 1:33pm
Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 5 - 62
Equinox
Posted: December 18th, 2015, 1:36pm Report to Moderator
January Project Group



Location
Germany
Posts
345
Posts Per Day
0.10

Quoted from TonyDionisio

The Independence Day preview looked great in Imax.


Really looking forward to this one. Loved ID4 when it was made, the effects really were jawdroppers for me back then. I think I was 17 or 18 when it came out, if the new one is only half as good, I'll have to see it.


Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 6 - 62
Scar Tissue Films
Posted: December 18th, 2015, 4:46pm Report to Moderator
Of The Ancients


Posts
3382
Posts Per Day
0.63
I thought this was a particularly good review.

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/12/16/star-wars-the-force-awakens-review


Only thing I'd slightly disagree with is about Kylo Ren. I liked him, but he needs to be seriously pimped if he's to become a serious threat. He was too easily overcome by an untrained Jedi...which makes him seem extremely weak at this point.

An easy fix, but a necessary one.
Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 7 - 62
Logan McDonald
Posted: December 20th, 2015, 12:43pm Report to Moderator
New



Location
Astoria, NY
Posts
56
Posts Per Day
0.02
Kylo Ren was by far my favorite character in the film. The choice to have him unmask at times was brilliant as it shows him as a vulnerable character and not up to snuff with Vader yet.

I read his character is actually supposed to be in his late teens so it makes sense that he was defeated by Rey and that he's not in complete control of his emotions as shown with his little temper tantrums to where the years of Rey waiting for her parents on Jakku (which was basically a long mediation exercise) helped her greatly. I’m excited to see where they take his character in the next two films.  I’m sure he’ll be much more of a threat in the next one.

I didn’t get a ST3 trailer either. I was really looking forward to laughing at it with the rest of the audience.


Logged Offline
Private Message Reply: 8 - 62
ghost and_ghostie gal
Posted: December 20th, 2015, 6:39pm Report to Moderator
Old Timer



Location
A helluva long way from LA
Posts
1565
Posts Per Day
0.29

Where is George Lucas when we need him?

Ghostie


Logged
Private Message Reply: 9 - 62
TonyDionisio
Posted: December 20th, 2015, 8:23pm Report to Moderator
Been Around


Damnit, get to the point!

Location
Tennessee
Posts
768
Posts Per Day
0.20

Quoted from Logan McDonald
Kylo Ren was by far my favorite character in the film. The choice to have him unmask at times was brilliant as it shows him as a vulnerable character and not up to snuff with Vader yet.


Kinda disagree with that. The Vader mystery was money. When Ren took off the mask I was let down. They copied everything else from '77, why not Vader?
Logged Offline
Site Private Message Reply: 10 - 62
JonnyBoy
Posted: December 20th, 2015, 9:28pm Report to Moderator
January Project Group



Location
London, England
Posts
994
Posts Per Day
0.18
SPOLERS THROUGHOUT (naturally)

Just came back from seeing it - I walked out feeling elated that JJ Abrams had managed not to fumble it, and deliver a film that hits a lot of the Star Wars notes people wanted/expected. After Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull I felt 'I wish they hadn't', after this I thought 'I'm glad they did.'

Expectations were sky-high, and this didn't disappoint - so in that regard, the team behind it deserve credit. I even understand why they played it quite safe; as people have said above, this is very close to the plot of the original Star Wars - the desert planet where our hero lives opening, hiding documents inside a droid, the cantina scene, the Death Star and the bomb run down the trench, etc. I could honestly have done without a couple of the nods to the camera - 'There's a way to blow it up, right? There's always a way.', the parsecs gag, etc. i mean I get why they were there, so whatever.

It's also well-directed - the dogfights are visceral and exciting, the camera sweeping and swooping around with a kineticism that surpasses anything in the prequels. The landscapes are used to great effect, and JJ Abrams does a really good job of conveying the relative size of things in this universe - Rey standing in front of the downed Destroyer was a great shot. The action is breathless and brilliantly handled, particularly at the start. The Millennium Falcon escape through the Destroyer, particularly that last flip to bring the TIE Fighter into the path of Finn's gun, had me whooping and cheering - best bit of the film, for me. We know JJ Abrams is a master choreographer of action sequences - look at the opening of Star Trek, or the crash on the beach sequence in the pilot of Lost, or the helicopter flight through the power turbines in MI:III, or the train derailment in Super 8. He gets how to convey the nervous, 'what's going to happen next' momentum of those, and so from that point of view, full marks from me.

But.

As this is a board of screenwriters, naturally it's the writing we ultimately focus on. And as far as the script goes, the more I thought about it on the way home the less of an unqualified success it became. On an emotional and adrenaline level, it delivers. But on a thinking level, I sort of get the feeling it doesn't want you to look that hard - not because, as with the original, it's fundamentally simple (in a good, fairy-tale way), but because there are plot conveniences and pacing issues that make you think this could have done with another draft.

(This is going on a bit, but you don't have to keep reading! )

The first third is really good. Up until the end of that awesome Millennium Falcon escape sequence, when they escape Jakku, I had no complaints whatsoever. Characters introduced well, mysteries set up which you wanted answered, pacing spot on. But after that, the issues begin. I've covered what I feel are the main one below - I know there are ways to answer them if you really try hard enough, and indeed JJ Abrams has tried to do that a bit already, and having only seen it once I await someone to sweep in and point out blink-and-I-missed it lines of dialogue that fill in entire backstories, Steven Moffat-style, but here we go:

---

- is it not mightily convenient that Han Solo and Chewbacca find the Falcon so quickly? I think there was a line suggesting that there was some sort of tracker on the ship, and once Rey switched it back on (useful that it was fully fueled, btw), that led Solo to it. But he still would have had to be in the vicinity of Jakku to get there so quickly. And also very convenient that two rival gangs, both of whom Han owed, were also immediately nearby to simultaneously board his freighter. Just how small is this galaxy? I think the crazy sequence with the escaped aliens is supposed to distract us at that point, but sorry, nu-uh. I'm still wonderin'.

- I know to have over-done this would be to veer into Prequels-type territory, but was anybody else really clear on the political situation in the galaxy, 30 years on? In the original trilogy, it was straight-forward: Empire huge, everywhere, evil; Rebel Alliance small, plucky, trying to survive long enough to inflict meaningful damage. Here, the First Order emerges out of the Empire... but is it now the Empire? How do they have so much stuff? The silly added scenes in the Special Edition of VI show seemingly the entire galaxy - including Coruscant, seat of the Senate and presumably the capital of the Empire - celebrating the downfall of the Emperor. And yet the First Order have seemingly massive armies, and have built a weapon far bigger than anything the Empire managed at its peak. The Resistance - what are they resisting? The First Order? When Starkiller Base's weapon is fired, and blows up those planets - is that the Senate it's just destroyed? So does that mean they've wiped out the New Republic and thrown the galaxy into chaos? I respect that they wanted to keep the focus tight and may have wanted to avoid anything even remotely political for fear of comparisons with the trade embargoes of Phantom Menace. But the lack of context meant I was never clear what the stakes were. Who has the upper hand in this fight?

Was Starkiller Base the entire home of the First Order, or was it just one superweapon like the Death Star (in which case, expect to see it re-built by Episode IX)? The Stormtroopers don't seem to be occupiers as they were in the original trilogy, they seem to hang out on Starkiller Base and attack Jakku, wherever Maz Kanata's bar was, when necessary. So how did no-one know about their MASSIVE space station? You surely couldn't keep that a secret. And I think that the First Order knew where the Resistance headquarters was, unlike in the original trilogy where they're always looking for the Rebel base (which is constantly on the move, the rebels by necessity having to keep moving 'cos, y'know, they're rebels). So why have they not tried to take it with their enormous army and ships before now? Are they evenly matched? And if so, are you really a 'resistance' if you're on an equal footing with what you're resisting? What are they resisting, exactly? The First Order, on behalf of the Senate? In which case, why aren't they just the Republic?

One final thing: Hux and Kylo Ren seem to be zealots (is Snoke in charge here? In which case I get Ren's loyalty, but why is Hux taking orders from him?), but the general level of fanaticism seems to be changeable depending on what the script requires to happen at that moment. Everyone seems to hate Finn - Hux balks at the suggestion that one of his soldiers, trained at birth, could have gone rogue, and there was a contradiction about his track record - 'he's shown insubordination before', 'no this was his first offence', which was confusing. Maybe that's supposed to be seeding a strand in his backstory, I don't know. When that Stormtrooper spies Finn outside Maz Kanata's bar he certainly seems to hate the 'traitor', and attacks him with gusto. But when Captain Phasma - who was ABSURDLY underused, really quite prominent in the marketing but she had maybe three whole scenes, perhaps ten lines of dialogue in the whole film, and I don't think even got to fire that blaster - has a gun put to her head, she's more than happy to power down the shields to save her own life. So is she less committed to the cause than the soldiers she leads? In which case, somebody somewhere promoted the wrong person.

- you can't just not explain how Maz Kanata got Luke's lightsaber. I know they'll be keeping that for the sequel, but a) that's lazy, acknowledging the existence of a plot-hole doesn't make it not exist, and b) having been so let down by the ending of Lost I'm now wary when JJ Abrams sets a mystery up about what the payoff will be. If his track record is anything to go by, the secret to the Force will be that there's a mysterious room with a massive cork in it that you MUST NOT PULL OUT. Or you must pull out. I can't remember.

So, yes, I know you need ongoing story threads that will be explored over future films. But that was my issue with Avengers: Age of Ultron. I don't want to see you moving the chess pieces into position for the next instalment. Give me plot development, not holes that need filling.

[Continued in Part 2 as apparently this is too long!]


Guess who's back? Back again?

Revision History (4 edits; 1 reasons shown)
JonnyBoy  -  December 20th, 2015, 10:15pm
Logged Offline
Site Private Message Reply: 11 - 62
JonnyBoy
Posted: December 20th, 2015, 9:29pm Report to Moderator
January Project Group



Location
London, England
Posts
994
Posts Per Day
0.18
PART II (spoliers continue)

- Han and Leia's relationship is pretty underwritten. I understand having them estranged at the start creates narrative conflict that can be resolved, but I don't think the script really delivers on that. Han seems to suggest that the reason Leia doesn't want to see him is because when she looks at him she sees their murderous son (dunno why mate, he looks nothing like you). But Leia doesn't seem to be very angry or cold towards him when they're first reunited - in fact General Organa doesn't seem very much of anything in this film, Carrie Fisher picking one facial expression and sticking with it throughout. Even when she senses Han's death she doesn't seem particularly bothered, break down or something lady! He's supposed to be the love of your life, and your son just stuck a lightsaber through his chest! The Han-Leia relationship doesn't so much arc as sort of flat-line, the screenwriters apparently thinking referencing their sparring in the original trilogy will make up for them retaining any sort of spark in this. There's no kiss, no argument, no nothng. We get one hug. One. That's it.

The moment when Han dies has a sort of blunt-force emotional impact given the iconic status of his character, but for me it happens too quickly. We don't know enough about their relationship - and they DID have a relationship at one point, unlike Luke who never knew Anakin - to understand the way they speak to each other. When did they last see each other? Did they get on? Did Ben Solo have a happy childhood? Is Han angry about what his son did, is he able to forgive him or is he doing that for Leia's sake?

I think you needed a socking great argument between Han and Leia once he arrived at the base where thirty-odd years of estrangement, and hurt, all suddenly blow up. Maybe they're icily civil to each other during their initial meeting, something is said with others present, and then Han takes her aside and they have a HUGE fight. There's been a complete misunderstanding - Han thought the best thing to do was leave Leia alone, but what she needed more than anything was for him to stick around and help her through it. She lost both her brother and her son, dammit, she didn't want to lose him too! And then an argument turns into some sort of romantic reconciliation, a suggestion that, if he returns with their son, maybe they can rebuild their family. Han will pack in the smuggling, settle down. So when Han dies, we're sad because what's lost is his and Leia's potential happiness, as well as obviously his life. Nothing in that particular set of relationships had any real weight or significance for me, because they hadn't worked hard enough to establish how those three felt about each other.

It was a bit sad to see nobody has progressed as a character in 30 years. What did they go through the original films for, then? Han Solo out there smuggling with Chewie, getting into trouble over unpaid debts - this is exactly where he was at the start of ANH. I thought he learnt something from the trilogy, learned some things were more important than his own small existence, learned not to run away from stuff? And Leia - she's become a general now, but otherwise she doesn't seem to have changed at all. This is a mistake the writers of How I Met Your Mother made with Barney in the series finale: by dismissing a character's growth and putting them back exactly where they were, for me you dismiss and undermine the growth, and experiences that cause that growth, we enjoyed watcing first time round.

I also agree that Han Solo's exit felt rushed. Presumably Harrison Ford only agreed to do one more film? With so much going on, and new characters to introduce and set up, his 'arc' (such as it was) didn't really have space to breath. I know a character should have died, but perhaps it should have been Chewie. Someone we care about, but not someone whose departure leaves big unresolved business behind.

- I know this will be answered, but it's still irritating in its current form: how does Rey become so Force-adept in the space of thirty minutes that she's able to beat Kylo Ren, who's been studying this stuff for ages, in a lightsaber battle? I liked the scene with the interrogation and her finding the power to fight back, that was fine. But as soon as she did the mind trick thing, I thought 'oh. That was easy.' It took Luke three films to learn how to do that, and she's doing it ten minutes later? I know she had been told she had gifts by Maz Kanata, so maybe she was just accepting those, but how did she know the Force even had that ability? And then she has a close-y eyes moment, and suddenly she's destroying Kylo Ren.

Which at the very least diminishes him as a villain for any future appearances - if Rey, who didn't even know Luke Skywalker was real at the start of the film, can beat him before she's even trained, then it's a foregone conclusion if they ever face off again. Or if he faces off against Luke. And I know you can argue 'oh he's distracted by the death of his father, oh he's been shot and clearly in pain so he's not at full capacity', but that's like how people often have to engineer a situation where there's Kryptonite so that Superman doesn't immediately beat anyone. It's narrative convenience, nothiing more. Kylo Ren was comprehensivley beaten by a complete Force amateur. In fact, when did he actually do anything apart from tantrum and whine? I know that was his character, and seeing someone with the Force just lash out rather than be cool and calculating was enjoyable and different. But as we all know, screenwriting is about choices, and he doesn't walk away with much credit at the end. More so than Hux, I guess, who Vader would totally have killed by now.

What does Rey have left to learn over the next few films? She's already beaten Kylo Ren in their first encounter, who appears to be (joint?) second-in-command of the whole First Order. When Luke faced Vader at the end of ESB, he was warned he wasn't ready - and he wasn't, he lost a hand and had to jump down a massive hole to escape with his life. At this rate, Rey will be Neo-flying, Matrix Reloaded style, by Episode VIII (oh God, please don't let that happen...)

- but my biggest issue was the ending. R2-D2, having been dormant for 30 years and with no-one, even his close (or at least old) friends C-3PO and Leia, able to coax him back to life, chooses the exact moment when our characters are assembled at the end to switch back on. What triggered that? JJ Abrams has said in an interview that BB-8 comes up to him and says 'hey, I have this bit of a map. Do you have the rest?', and that somehow reaches R2 in his robo-coma and switches him back on (and whaddaya know! R2 had the map all along). Which is all well and good, but we don't speak droid! How are we as the viewers supposed to know that?

And then the final journey to Luke. Rey doesn't have to work to find him. She's given a map with exact co-ordinates. Personally, I think they could have ended with a shot of Luke on that planet looking out into the distance - maybe he senses the awakening too - and have Rey's quest to find him be part of the plot of Ep VIII. Or, alternatively, I wondered if he might show up in the woods to save Rey from Kylo Ren. After years and years of hiding out, he's felt the awakening Snoke has felt, and so finally emerges from hiding, facing off against his former mentee (like Vader and Obi Wan at the end of ANH). Perhaps that would have been too early in the arc of this trilogy - we may not to get to see that showdown until Episode IX - but I think it could have worked. Luke appears - but perhaps we don't know it's Luke - saves Rey, and maybe they disappear together, back to his hideout planet. Finn wakes up, alone in the forest. No-one knows where Rey is - did she survive? He mourns her loss, thinking her dead (and will do so for most - or perhaps all - of Episode VIII). Meanwhile, at the end of the film, Rey wakes up in a strange hut on a strange island, walks outside, and the figures turns, drops the hood, and BOOM. It's Luke.

I dunno. Just ideas. And I know it's a cardinal screenwriting sin to start rewriting someone's movie for them. But as it is now, Rey is simply handed the complete answer to how to find Luke, which for me happens WAY too easily. I pulled that in a script once, and everyone here called me out on it. And rightly so.

---

That's a lot, but I did actually enjoy it. Overall, I'd probably give it 4 out of 5 stars - but that in itself is a bit sad, when did we collectively agree that logic and storytelling aren't really that important in modern-day blockbusters? Big picture great, but details hazy; it's like in Star Trek Into Darkness, where they revive Kirk: well done guys, you just destroyed death! No-one can ever die in a Star Trek film now, there's no jeopardy as none of our characters need ever be in mortal peril! Oh wait, unless we all agree to conveniently forget about that once this film is over. Let's all just do that, yeah?

So execution of the visuals, performances (particularly of the young leads, John Boyega in particular was good and I look forward to spending more time with Poe Dameron, even though his name invokes memories of Nicolas Cage's character in Con Air), music, overall tone: spot-on. Great work from many, many departments. But that script is flimsy, for me. Some scenes try to get by on referencing the old stuff, and the narrative requires you to not look too closely lest you stop and say 'waaaaait a minute'. Overall, I wasn't disappointed, very much enjoyed it, and left the cinema smiling. But as with the unnuanced delirium surrounding Skyfall - which again, when you actually look at it, doesn't make a lick of sense - I think people are being over the top in their praise.

It's great it's back, and JJ Abrams did a fantastic job of safely and competently handling a near impossible task. But I hope this kind of narrative sloppiness doesn't become the new norm.


Guess who's back? Back again?

Revision History (3 edits; 1 reasons shown)
JonnyBoy  -  December 20th, 2015, 10:03pm
Logged Offline
Site Private Message Reply: 12 - 62
TonyDionisio
Posted: December 20th, 2015, 10:11pm Report to Moderator
Been Around


Damnit, get to the point!

Location
Tennessee
Posts
768
Posts Per Day
0.20
Nice heart-felt review, JonnyBoy. I think you nailed it on the head. Great film that made long-time fans feel like a kid again. And that's fantastic. GJ JJ Abe'rams.

As a script though, once the euphoria wears off, it is clear to me that after 50 mins, this thing was rushed. THey needed .5 to 1 more year to nail this like a prostitute.

But, can't wait for the next 2. Don;t drop the ball on part 2, Johnny-Abrams.
Logged Offline
Site Private Message Reply: 13 - 62
stevie
Posted: December 21st, 2015, 4:20am Report to Moderator
Of The Ancients



Location
Down Under
Posts
3441
Posts Per Day
0.61
Great review JB!

I had thoughts of gong to see this over the last few months. I saw the original Star Wars in the cinema in 1978 and it was huge.

But I read some early reviews of this one and learned it was basically a rehash of ANH , I couldn't be bothered seeing it and read all the spoilers etc so I know everything that happens lol!

Think I'll stick to watch the original every now and then and pass on these modern films. Like the music industry, the films nowadays are pretty average by what I read about them. The problem is the acting. It ain't like the old days...



Logged
Private Message Reply: 14 - 62
 Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 » : All
Recommend Print

Locked Board Board Index    Movie, Television and DVD Reviews  [ previous | next ] Switch to:
Was Portal Recent Posts Home Help Calendar Search Register Login

Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post polls
You may not post attachments
HTML is on
Blah Code is on
Smilies are on


Powered by E-Blah Platinum 9.71B © 2001-2006