[ezekiel77]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015): 8/10

I echo your thoughts exactly. Its a very good film with a very big but...

 

[Hutnicks]

I echo your thoughts exactly. Its a very good film with a very big but...

Think I'm gonna hold out for the inevitable time travel episode where Luke goes back in time to become Annakin's father only to find out Han did it first and was his actual father
 
You know it's coming.

 

[WraithApe]

 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

My primary worry is this: that Disney will basically turn this into its Avengers films--a dense, serialized, complicated, and interconnected series of films that generally tell the same stories as one another and are tonally almost identical. It could happen with Star Wars, and that'd be a real shame to see. I don't see any evidence of this new trilogy becoming the train wreck that the prequel trilogy was, but its future is a minefield, and I'm rather concerned about it.

 
Quoting just this section because it's not a spoiler in any way for TFA - it's about the direction Disney will take the franchise in - something I share your concerns over. I was discussing it with friends last night in fact, and one of them mentioned that Disney intend a series of back-story spin-off films for all the major characters; the Marvel Studio template exactly. If true, it's not really a shocker - the model has proved phenomenally successful for Marvel in box-office terms, but it's a blatant move to rake in the fanboy $$ that could dilute the power of the main trilogy for the more discerning movie-goer: familiarity breeds contempt.
 
With the exception of the first Iron Man film, I don't rate many of the Marvel one-character films particularly highly and they've only really served to dampen my enthusiasm for the main attraction of the Avengers arc. I've said it before, but to me, Marvel now seems like little more than a movie assembly line of identikit superhero parts and plot points which I find hard to get excited about. I hope Disney don't choose to go down the same route with Star Wars.

 

[vwinter]

I know this is a bit off topic but I'm watching Gone Girl and I don't even know what to think. I had to pause. There are more tropes in this movie than I care to count. And the script reads like a poor novel transfer. Then again, there's another 1:40 left so...

I have a feeling that the first 10 minutes foreshadow the entire movie and it's just going to drag on and on, but I'm hoping that's not the case.

Edit:
had to pause again. I thought it was getting better, and then it became a train wreck. And there is another frickin 40+ minutes. I don't know how this is going to claw its way out of this gigantic hole.

Edit 2:

Can't in good conscience give this more than a 6, but it's realistically a 5/10. Not for bad acting or anything, except our dearest Emily, who left little to the imagination and much to be desired.

I don't know how the book was, but I think the story and the script really let this one down. There was almost nothing original about this and there was very little depth. You could see pretty much everything coming a mile away and would just hope it wouldn't, but it did.

The only thing that kept this interesting is thinking about what other cliched crap they could put in here as the hours went by, and Rosamund Pike who was intriguing to watch, mostly.

One of the few times my rating has been in such disconnect with IMDB.

 

[Hutnicks]

I know this is a bit off topic but I'm watching Gone Girl and I don't even know what to think. I had to pause. There are more tropes in this movie than I care to count. And the script reads like a poor novel transfer. Then again, there's another 1:40 left so...

I have a feeling that the first 10 minutes foreshadow the entire movie and it's just going to drag on and on, but I'm hoping that's not the case.

Edit:
had to pause again. I thought it was getting better, and then it became a train wreck. And there is another frickin 40+ minutes. I don't know how this is going to claw its way out of this gigantic hole.

Edit 2:

Can't in good conscience give this more than a 6, but it's realistically a 5/10. Not for bad acting or anything, except our dearest Emily, who left little to the imagination and much to be desired.

I don't know how the book was, but I think the story and the script really let this one down. There was almost nothing original about this and there was very little depth. You could see pretty much everything coming a mile away and would just hope it wouldn't, but it did.

The only thing that kept this interesting is thinking about what other cliched crap they could put in here as the hours went by, and Rosamund Pike who was intriguing to watch, mostly.

One of the few times my rating has been in such disconnect with IMDB.

You missed the warfare over this one some pages back then
 
I simply did not get all the hype. Cliche'd rainy Sunday afternoon free on TV watch at best IMHO.

 

[vwinter]

You missed the warfare over this one some pages back then

I simply did not get all the hype. Cliche'd rainy Sunday afternoon free on TV watch at best IMHO.

That's pretty much my assessment. Wish I watched it on a rainy Sunday.

I remember there a brouhaha of sorts some time ago about whether or not it was a dark comedy.

 

[tdockweiler]

Star Wars - The Force Awakens - 4/10
(no spoilers)
 
Sorry guys, but I really didn't enjoy this one and found it painful to sit through. I wanted to like it but it wasn't fun or entertaining to me despite nearly non-stop action scenes.
Visually it looked good, but I didn't really like any of it's characters. I really did not even care what happened to them. My brain felt like it was on hold the entire movie and felt like I was just bombarded with action sequences.
I actually went to see this because the script was written by Lawrence Kasdan, but he must have not had a big role in writing the script.
 
Felt like it was a Star Wars movie directed by Michael Bay. I don't like JJ Abrams as a director so maybe this had something to do with it.
His only really good film was "Cloverfield".
 
Feel like a big party pooper but what can I say. I actually found it worse than "The Phantom Menace".
I wanted to walk out several times.
 
Most everyone will like it. I do like the first 3 Star Wars movies but am not a huge fan of them. Probably have only seen them 3-4 times each.
 
 
Heart of the Sea - 6/10
 
Did I rate this one here yet? Not sure. Didn't like this one much either. One I wish I had skipped.

 

[Hutnicks]

   
Quoting just this section because it's not a spoiler in any way for TFA - it's about the direction Disney will take the franchise in - something I share your concerns over. I was discussing it with friends last night in fact, and one of them mentioned that Disney intend a series of back-story spin-off films for all the major characters; the Marvel Studio template exactly. If true, it's not really a shocker - the model has proved phenomenally successful for Marvel in box-office terms, but it's a blatant move to rake in the fanboy $$ that could dilute the power of the main trilogy for the more discerning movie-goer: familiarity breeds contempt.
 
With the exception of the first Iron Man film, I don't rate many of the Marvel one-character films particularly highly and they've only really served to dampen my enthusiasm for the main attraction of the Avengers arc. I've said it before, but to me, Marvel now seems like little more than a movie assembly line of identikit superhero parts and plot points which I find hard to get excited about. I hope Disney don't choose to go down the same route with Star Wars.

Well now with the Han Solo "Origins" film in pre pre production I fear you are right and the House of Mouse has let its Marvel McFilm factory loose on the Star Wars franchise. Eagerly awaiting the reboot of "Good Times" with Jar Jar taking over the Jimmie Walker role.

 

[metalsonata]

  Star Wars - The Force Awakens - 4/10
(no spoilers)
 
Sorry guys, but I really didn't enjoy this one and found it painful to sit through. I wanted to like it but it wasn't fun or entertaining to me despite nearly non-stop action scenes.
Visually it looked good, but I didn't really like any of it's characters. I really did not even care what happened to them. My brain felt like it was on hold the entire movie and felt like I was just bombarded with action sequences.
I actually went to see this because the script was written by Lawrence Kasdan, but he must have not had a big role in writing the script.
 
Felt like it was a Star Wars movie directed by Michael Bay. I don't like JJ Abrams as a director so maybe this had something to do with it.
His only really good film was "Cloverfield".
 
Feel like a big party pooper but what can I say. I actually found it worse than "The Phantom Menace".
I wanted to walk out several times.
 
Most everyone will like it. I do like the first 3 Star Wars movies but am not a huge fan of them. Probably have only seen them 3-4 times each.

 
I liked the film more than you, but nonetheless agree with some of your sentiments. Character development for the new leads was lacking, which resulted in some moments being much less powerful than they should have been. As for the Michael Bay comment--yeah, I sort of agree, at least whenever CGI dominated. I felt like there were some really annoying moments of disconnection when the film switched from scenes cobbled together with a lot of practical effects and design and those that were primarily stitched together with CGI--not wholly unlike the 'enhanced' versions of the originals. Not that bad, but still irritating. Found myself wishing they had minimized the use of CGI even further. Still a significant improvement over the prequels I feel, where sets were almost entirely eschewed in favor of green screening everything, not unlike the new Hobbit films.

 

[351Cleveland]

Hard to describe what a massive disappointment The Force Awakens was for me.  It's an endless parade of easter eggs and happy coincidences tacked on to a screenplay that was lifted almost entirely from A New Hope.  I suppose I should've expected as much from a JJ Abrams film.  In Star Trek Into Darkness, he took the entire Spock death scene from The Wrath of Khan, swapped Kirk for Spock, and planted it near the end of the movie.  This time he's taken almost all of A New Hope, changed some names and faces, and called it The Force Awakens.  What little new story there is feels shallow and contrived.  Sadly, plot and character development have been abandoned for the sake of fan service.  It's too bad, because I thought the performances, especially those of Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver, were generally quite good.  Thankfully, this is the only Star Wars movie that JJ Abrams is going to direct, so hopefully Star Wars VIII will be what I hoped for in Star Wars VII.

 

[WraithApe]

Can't in good conscience give this more than a 6, but it's realistically a 5/10. Not for bad acting or anything, except our dearest Emily, who left little to the imagination and much to be desired.

I don't know how the book was, but I think the story and the script really let this one down. There was almost nothing original about this and there was very little depth. You could see pretty much everything coming a mile away and would just hope it wouldn't, but it did.

The only thing that kept this interesting is thinking about what other cliched crap they could put in here as the hours went by, and Rosamund Pike who was intriguing to watch, mostly.

One of the few times my rating has been in such disconnect with IMDB.

 
Spot on. Over-hyped bog-standard thriller; plodding, superficial and in terms of its inflated run-time alone, harboring delusions of grandeur. Especially disappointing coming from a director of Fincher's calibre. Interesting what you say about IMDb ratings: I quite often find there's a disconnect myself... though not usually in terms of wanting to rate something higher!

 

[eke2k6]

  Hard to describe what a massive disappointment The Force Awakens was for me.  It's an endless parade of easter eggs and happy coincidences tacked on to a screenplay that was lifted almost entirely from A New Hope.  I suppose I should've expected as much from a JJ Abrams film.  In Star Trek Into Darkness, he took the entire Spock death scene from The Wrath of Khan, swapped Kirk for Spock, and planted it near the end of the movie.  This time he's taken almost all of A New Hope, changed some names and faces, and called it The Force Awakens.  What little new story there is feels shallow and contrived.  Sadly, plot and character development have been abandoned for the sake of fan service.  It's too bad, because I thought the performances, especially those of Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver, were generally quite good.  Thankfully, this is the only Star Wars movie that JJ Abrams is going to direct, so hopefully Star Wars VIII will be what I hoped for in Star Wars VII.

 
 
Character development? In the first installation in the series in 23 years? Do you know how much ground there was to cover? Would you have preferred the movie go past the 3 hour mark?
 
I was personally quite satisfied with the development of all characters. Both Finn and Rey grew quite a bit, and Rey was the pinnacle of a very strong female character, and she only gets better. 
 
Remember that this is a trilogy. Darth Vader wasn't born in a day.

 

[vwinter]

...Darth Vader wasn't born in a day.

Hmmmm... that would explain his obsession with being cloistered in a giant womb-like structure.

Spot on. Over-hyped bog-standard thriller; plodding, superficial and in terms of its inflated run-time alone, harboring delusions of grandeur. Especially disappointing coming from a director of Fincher's calibre. Interesting what you say about IMDb ratings: I quite often find there's a disconnect myself... though not usually in terms of wanting to rate something higher!

I'm usually easy on movie ratings, like 8th beer at 4am easy, and am usually within like10-15% of any high number of users rating, (sometimes marginally higher because of my personal giddiness with certain things in movies, as just a fan of the "art"), but this was something else. Not that I take it personally, It was borderline insulting, if you know what I mean.

Looking forward to better movies is all I can say.

 

[bavinck]

Inland Empire - as recommended on this thread.

Boy, this guys knows how to build and develop mood and a sense of losing grip. The cinematography and music work brilliantly together to truly make the viewer have the feeling of losing grip with reality. First half just feels confusing and even scary at times, as I image it would feel to be losing your mind. The second half offers a little bit of clarity on what exactly is happening as one might get when sorting through confusing and malignant thoughts. The finale is very satisfying and provides huge payoff for the whole 3 hr odyssey. Absolutely amazing movie, highly recommended.

Do you guys think Lynch was influenced by Red Desert in his topic and approach? Both films have common themes and even some similar cinematic techniques to illustrate the point. What da ya think?

 

[351Cleveland]

  Character development? In the first installation in the series in 23 years? Do you know how much ground there was to cover? Would you have preferred the movie go past the 3 hour mark?
 
I was personally quite satisfied with the development of all characters. Both Finn and Rey grew quite a bit, and Rey was the pinnacle of a very strong female character, and she only gets better. 
 
Remember that this is a trilogy. Darth Vader wasn't born in a day
 

I'll go ahead and assume you meant 33 years.

As for Vader not being born in a day, of course that's true, but Vader, after Luke, was the most central character of the original trilogy. It was always going to take a long time to fully flesh out Vader's character.  Still, who Vader is and his role in the story is largely established in A New Hope, even if we don't find out that he's Luke's father until Empire Strikes Back and doesn't ultimately redeem himself until Return of the Jedi.  Finn, on the other hand, seemed entirely superfluous to me.  He's supposed to be a major character in the new trilogy, and all I know about him at the end of the movie is that he's a stormtrooper who's had a crisis of conscience (a plot device I always hated) and that he's starting to have eyes for Rey.  There's a long way to go in the next 2 movies to make him into someone I actually give a damn about.  That said, I really did like Rey and Kylo Ren (I didn't mean to imply that there was absolutely zero character development of any kind in the entire movie).  Anyway, character development is by far the least of the problems with this movie.  Help me, Rian Johnson. You're my only hope.