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

[Tamas]

Saw it yesterday. Really liked it despite some caveats.

Caveats: Uber Death Star was way over the top and felt tacked on. Kerry Fisher should be dropped. If she can't care to act at least on her 70s level, she can go and don't give a damn without the salary. Mark Hamill acted twice as much in that one moment of looking rugged into the camera than she did the whole movie, and having Hamill and "acting" in the same sentence is quite something.

I wasn't particularly impressed with Harrison Ford either.

But I guess the best you can hope for from this movie is what happened to me: I'd be happy to see the old cast sidelined/dropped and see what happens to the new ones.

As for Kylo Ren, I believe him being a relative weakling was the main point and what probably impressed me most about the story: based on trailers and his initial schenangians he seemed to be just Vader Mark 2 which would have fitted in the fan-servicy feel of the movie.

But instead he turns out to be this troubled young lad who is trying desperately to fit into some pretty huge shoes he chose for himself, and failing more than not.

[crazy canuck]

I thought Han's son was a bit weak. He could barely contain a Storm Trooper in battle, and the chick gave him the fight of his life. He should have killed them both with ease.

That is because he is still weak.  he still needs to finish his training.

[Josephus]

I thought Han's son was a bit weak. He could barely contain a Storm Trooper in battle, and the chick gave him the fight of his life. He should have killed them both with ease.

That is because he is still weak.  he still needs to finish his training.

He had more trainng than Rey and Finn combined

[celedhring]

He was wounded and of unsound mind. I think it's fine.

[Berkut]

I thought Han's son was a bit weak. He could barely contain a Storm Trooper in battle, and the chick gave him the fight of his life. He should have killed them both with ease.

That is because he is still weak.  he still needs to finish his training.

He had more trainng than Rey and Finn combined

You don't know how much training either Rey or Finn has had...

[Josephus]

We can assume not much, especially with saber rattling.

[MadImmortalMan]

Yeah but Finn is a trained soldier, obviously. I'm sure that includes hand-to-hand.

[Admiral Yi]

Hey, did the original stormtrooper laser rifles look like Christmas edition AR-15s, or is that new?

[katmai]

Hey, did the original stormtrooper laser rifles look like Christmas edition AR-15s, or is that new?

this is what they looked like in 1977.

[crazy canuck]

We can assume not much, especially with saber rattling.

Based on the fight between Finn and the other storm trooper (who pulled out a melee weapon) I think we can assume that storm troopers receive training with melee weapons.  Also, based on Ren's inability to deal with frustration, I think we can assume he has not been particularly committed to his training.

[Berkut]

We can assume not much, especially with saber rattling.

Based on the fight between Finn and the other storm trooper (who pulled out a melee weapon) I think we can assume that storm troopers receive training with melee weapons.  Also, based on Ren's inability to deal with frustration, I think we can assume he has not been particularly committed to his training.

We do know he kicks ass when up against consoles and chairs though.

[Syt]

Based on the fight between Finn and the other storm trooper (who pulled out a melee weapon) I think we can assume that storm troopers receive training with melee weapons.

There's a tie in book with stories about Finn, Rey, and Poe that take place before the movie that depicts them actually training melee combat with those batons. Fans found that the way he shouts "TRAITOR!" seemed very personal and nicknamed the stormtrooper TR-8R. Disney meanwhile have said that he's FN-2199 a buddy of Finn's with whom he trained in the story.

[Malthus]

Watched it again, with a friend, his kids, and mine; it holds up.   

Just for a refresher, we watched Return of the Jedi before it. It was a Star Wars Sunday. 

We all agreed that the new movie was better than RoTJ. Jabba the Hutt was great (particularly that little laughing parasite creature!), but the Ewoks were just so wrong - the kids were all groaning in places at that sequence (just how menacing can the Empire's Troops be if they can be taken down by primitive teddy bears? No wonder the Empire fell  ). In the new movie, the kids were riveted to their seats the whole time. Not a single groanworthy spot. 

Some of the sequences were just breathtaking - particular favorite: the downed wreckage on that desert planet.

Bad guy armor still seems utterly pointless, though.

[katmai]

[Malthus]

Based on the fight between Finn and the other storm trooper (who pulled out a melee weapon) I think we can assume that storm troopers receive training with melee weapons.

There's a tie in book with stories about Finn, Rey, and Poe that take place before the movie that depicts them actually training melee combat with those batons. Fans found that the way he shouts "TRAITOR!" seemed very personal and nicknamed the stormtrooper TR-8R. Disney meanwhile have said that he's FN-2199 a buddy of Finn's with whom he trained in the story.

We know Rey is good at it, because we are shown in the movie her beating up a couple of mooks with her staff - and indeed, taking down Finn.