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

[Tonitrus]

Maybe the new trilogy will have a mourning, revenge-filled Princess Leia turning towards the dark side and having the Resistance take over the Republic as a tyrannical, militaristic regime.

[Berkut]

I can't say I disagree with much of what he is saying here, in the broad strokes:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/12/star-wars-the-force-awakens-nostalgia-and-expectations/422154/?utm_source=SFFB

I don't know how it will shake out, the overall cultural assessment of the movie. I suspect his conclusion is right on though:

Eventually, a critical consensus will emerge, as it did with The Phantom Menace and its sequels. But that consensus will almost certainly depend on subsequent installments of the new trilogy: If they break new ground, and send our younger generation of heroes spinning off in novel directions, The Force Awakens will likely be seen as a much-needed reset, one that cleansed the palate of the prequels and rediscovered the cinematic flavor of the original trilogy. If, on the other hand, we again find our heroes lassoing AT-ATs on a snow-covered planet, the darkest predictions of our cultural decline may be vindicated.

[Caliga]

Shouldn't Luke get a giant "Best Hide and Seek" trophy?

I still don't get how the map ended up on Jakku. Let's see of that's explained. Why not give R2 the whole map?

Because Ming had it.

...and he likes to play with things a while before annihilation? 

[Monoriu]

Just saw the movie.  Absolutely fantastic!  I love this movie and I can't wait to see more.  Good balance of showing what the old gang is doing and introducing the next generation of heroes.  The Han Solo death scene was really well-done.  Lots of call-backs to the old series.  Fast-paced, non-stop action.  The comedy works and I laughed out loud on multiple occasions.  The new villain is miles better than Darth Maul in Episode 1.  Love the new heroes.  I greatly enjoyed the show and this is a worthy successor to the franchise. 

Some nitpicks -

Too many coincidences.  Escaping in the Millennium Falcon then bumping into Han Solo in the universe?  Infiltrate a planet and bump into the girl you are looking for randomly?  Bump into Luke's light saber?  These aren't convincing at all. 

Taking down the shield was way too easy. 

The general political situation was not well-explained.  What is the relationship between the republic and the resistance?

The Starkiller planet consumes a star then shoots it?  Unless the planet can move at warp speed to another system, it can only shoot once. 

[Admiral Yi]

Don't read this post if you're emotionally invested in the movie and you're very sensitive.

I didn't like it.  Celery mentioned plot holes, but, although I saw plenty, was not bothered by them.  The movie is a sequence of set pieces, and how they move you from set piece to set piece is not all that important.  But the set pieces don't work.  All the scenes with Harrison Ford looked like Classic Tunes of the 80's infomericials.  All the scenes with Ford and Fischer look like badly lit Love Boat scenes.  X Wings go in and it was like Inside Llewynn Davis channelling Pearl Harbor the Awful Remake.  Han getting ginzued was too much like Sigourney Weaver taking the blame for the crapitude of Aliens 3 and diving into a vat of molten steel to atone for her sins. 

On the other hand, I think the mentats at Disney have figured out some magical formula for repeat viewings.

[Monoriu]

If I have to rank the 7 movies, it will be -

5, 4, 7, 6, 3, 2, 1.  3 and above are greats.  1 is a little bit disappointing, but still ok.  2 is merely good. 

[Jaron]

1 is crap (saved barely by Liam Neeson)
2 is crappier
3 swings by on its action sequences. You have to ignore the horrible misuse of two major villains, weak dialogue, and ridiculous action scenes.

4 and 5 is a classic
6 was lazy. "We're building a SECOND Death Star!"

7 was good but its definitely manufactured to trigger nostalgia. Its finale is a mix of ROTJ and ANH.

[Barrister]

Don't read this post if you're emotionally invested in the movie and you're very sensitive.

I didn't like it.  Celery mentioned plot holes, but, although I saw plenty, was not bothered by them.  The movie is a sequence of set pieces, and how they move you from set piece to set piece is not all that important.  But the set pieces don't work.  All the scenes with Harrison Ford looked like Classic Tunes of the 80's infomericials.  All the scenes with Ford and Fischer look like badly lit Love Boat scenes.  X Wings go in and it was like Inside Llewynn Davis channelling Pearl Harbor the Awful Remake.  Han getting ginzued was too much like Sigourney Weaver taking the blame for the crapitude of Aliens 3 and diving into a vat of molten steel to atone for her sins. 

On the other hand, I think the mentats at Disney have figured out some magical formula for repeat viewings.

I'm not offended, but I think you're crazy.

[celedhring]

I personally didn't think the action scenes in Ep VII were all that. Serviceable, but nothing truly remarkable. The only noteworthy one was the escape from Jakku and it's Rey and Finn's interplay what lights it up.

The saber fight at the end too, and that's because the film manages to get me invested in the characters. But the whole attack on the Death Star 3 for example was actually meh.

[katmai]

Go to hell Yi.

[Jaron]

Burn with your dark master.

[The Brain]

Some nitpicks -

Too many coincidences.  Escaping in the Millennium Falcon then bumping into Han Solo in the universe?  Infiltrate a planet and bump into the girl you are looking for randomly?  Bump into Luke's light saber?  These aren't convincing at all. 

They are guided by the Force.

[Martinus]

1. The flashback scene was confusing but isn't one implication (possible?) that Rey was being trained at a very young age.  That would explain her quick force learning on the fly.

2. At risk of taking the SW "theology" too seriously . . . it always seemed to me that one narrative theme of the prequels is the hubris of the Jedi Order being the cause of its tragic flaw.  The Jedi have this constitutionally awkward position as unelected guardians in a Republic that respects democratic ideals; even worse their bizarre monastic lifestyles and suppression of emotions renders them kind of inhuman and fundamentally cutoff from the people they are supposed to be protecting.  There are scenes at the prequels that hint at popular resentment of the Jedi, which makes sense.  Throughout the prequels Palpatine is running rings around the Jedi - even the great Yoda - they are constantly falling into his traps, even incredibly obvious Ackbar size ones like the convenient clone army of mysterious provenance that happens to arrive just when needed.  They are out of touch, consumed by their own "prophecies" and mumbo-jumbo and their inhuman codes of conduct.  The obvious lesson is that there does need to be balance - but not as between "Light Jedi" and "Dark Sith" but balance within each person.  Of course a balanced human with Force powers would raise the problem Malthus alludes to - such a person is just too dangerous to society at large.  An institutions like the Jedi Order exists not to control the force, but to control force-users to reduce their danger to everyone else and make them useful to human society - the paradox is that can only be achieved by rendering them one-dimensional and inhuman - so that the effort is doomed to fail.

Really liked your analysis. 

[The Brain]

There was a brief moment during the movie when I hoped (not really expected though) that they would build Darth Emo as a doubting but major threat over time, and likewise build the Death Star as a threat into the next movie and do something else as climax here. When I realized they would destroy the Death Star a 3rd time already in this movie I was disappointed. Now the situation going into the next movie is that New Order took their best shot and were humiliated in general (and Darth Emo personally). They are the laughing stock of the galaxy. Yawn.

[Martinus]

I love this kind of analysis, even when we all know it is likely we are reading much more into the entire thing that than the people who actually wrote it intended.

Well, isn't that the power of a true myth - being able to read more into it than its authors consciously intended?