Star Wars Discussion Thread contains spoilers (and may contain nuts)

[FunkMonk]

Apparently Poe Dameron was set to die in the original draft of the script, which would explain the really clumsy way in which he "reappears".

http://www.gq.com/story/star-wars-the-force-awakens-character-death

Poe is pretty cool and badass and I'm glad they didn't kill him off yet.
They'll probably do it in one of the next movies and I'd be fine with it at that point though. Let us get attached to him before you kill him in spectacular fashion.

[Ender]

I think war is evil and this movie promotes warlike behavior in young kids. The bloodless desensitized battles from this movie are preparing the future generations of soldiers to be sent to fight and die for the wimp of the corporations.

[lustindarkness]

Amen

[celedhring]

My daughter seemed to like the Rey character.  I'm generally okay with her but the instant-expert at swordfighting thing bugged me.

She wasn't an "instant expert" though.  She had already proven herself as a more than capable melee fighter with her staff.  Plus Rey had, at that point, had been shot by Chewie, had already had a gruelling fight with Finn (whose instant fighting skills are much more suspect, even though he ultimately lost), and had his confidence shaken by Rey when she resisted him / could out-force-pull the lightsabre.

The lightsabre duel actually kind of impressed me.  Again after the prequels, where Lucas just tried to out-do each prior lightsabre battle with more blades, more spinning, and more jumping, this battle actually seemed much more realistic and not just delibertaely hitting the blades against each other.

I think the whole duel is set up well. As you say, the movie has already shown Rey is a capable hand-to-hand fighter, Kylo has been wounded twice (by Chewie and by Finn), and she's doing the "trust in the force" boost that Luke does at the end of ANH too.

Wasn't too miffed that Finn can hold up against Ren for a while, too. I presume hand-to-hand combat is part of stormtrooper training. The duel with that melee stromtrooper earlier in the movie actually establishes that.

I liked the duel too. After all the circus act duels in the prequels, it was a welcome change.

[Pedrito]

- Rey is Han and Leia's daughter. And she's a badass and I love her character.

That would be super lame. How could she be their daughter without them knowing they had a daughter?

Leia could have discovered she was pregnant after having sent away Han, and she could have left the baby on Jakku and did not recognize her once they met again.

L.

[celedhring]

Something that sorta bugged me is that once they find out Luke's location, they apparently send just Rey (+Chewie), who's kinda still a nobody. I'd have thought Leia, for example, would have gone there to talk to Luke and get his help.

[lustindarkness]

BTW, regarding that last scene. I have a new place I have to visit, whatever that Irish Island is called. I'm sure it will not be exactly the same as shown in the film, but it sure looked awesome.

[Berkut]

- Rey is Han and Leia's daughter. And she's a badass and I love her character.

That would be super lame. How could she be their daughter without them knowing they had a daughter?

Leia could have discovered she was pregnant after having sent away Han, and she could have left the baby on Jakku and did not recognize her once they met again.

L.

Yes, that would be the very definition of "Lame". She had a daughter and abandoned her? Why would she do that? Why would she never mention her when talking to the daughters father? Why would she never check up on said daughter?

[Barrister]

Something that sorta bugged me is that once they find out Luke's location, they apparently send just Rey (+Chewie), who's kinda still a nobody. I'd have thought Leia, for example, would have gone there to talk to Luke and get his help.

I think this is more of a "we don't have enough information", rather than "gaping plot hole".

Maybe they figured the chance to train a new powerful force-sensitive, one who already fought Ben Solo to at worst a draw (who was seemingly Luke's failed padawan / trainee), would be more of an incentive to get Luke to come back?

I can almost guarantee that although they found Luke, he's not just walking easily back to the galaxy he left behind years ago...

[Barrister]

Dammit - I find myself wanting to go and see that movie again.  Maybe sometime after Christmas I'll sneak out to a late showing.

[celedhring]

Still, it's weird that Leia - his sister - doesn't run to him after he's been gone so long.

Anyway, not a biggie.

[Berkut]

Dammit - I find myself wanting to go and see that movie again.  Maybe sometime after Christmas I'll sneak out to a late showing.

Me and Jake saw it Saturday morning, and my sister and her family is visiting this weekend, so we are taking my brother in law to see it this coming Saturday.

However, this is not a ridiculous waste of money seeing the same movie again, since we are going to see it in Imax 3D this time...

[Barrister]

Dammit - I find myself wanting to go and see that movie again.  Maybe sometime after Christmas I'll sneak out to a late showing.

Me and Jake saw it Saturday morning, and my sister and her family is visiting this weekend, so we are taking my brother in law to see it this coming Saturday.

However, this is not a ridiculous waste of money seeing the same movie again, since we are going to see it in Imax 3D this time...

Good point.  Because I took the kid, I made a point of seeing it on regular 2d so we didn't have to fiddle with glasses...

[celedhring]

I have seen it twice; once with friends and once with family. I will certainly go again at some point.

[Berkut]

Dammit - I find myself wanting to go and see that movie again.  Maybe sometime after Christmas I'll sneak out to a late showing.

Me and Jake saw it Saturday morning, and my sister and her family is visiting this weekend, so we are taking my brother in law to see it this coming Saturday.

However, this is not a ridiculous waste of money seeing the same movie again, since we are going to see it in Imax 3D this time...

Good point.  Because I took the kid, I made a point of seeing it on regular 2d so we didn't have to fiddle with glasses...

That was a noble sacrifice you made for your family. It would not be at all unreasonable to reward yourself for that selfless act by going and seeing it again in 3D.