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I loved it. It looks awesome and it rhymes very well with A New Hope. My only two serious complaints are that the Big Bad's name is Snoke &damsh; It threw me straight out of the movie; how can you take a guy named Snoke seriously — and that the First Order uses Anvillicious Nazi imagery. I'm also sad that there no Y-Wings, but eh.
Overall I had lots of fun!
Also, speculative question: who's the old guy who told Poe Dameron to scram at the beginning of the movie? He looked like a Jedi to me.

Spoilers, probably

They make the point that 'Mary Sue' is now a vague term which at times approaches meaning 'any female main character' - which is an excellent point.

Actual spoilers follow, after a quick break.

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Is Rey a Suvian by PPC standards? Multiple characters trust her very quickly without much reason - BB-8, Finn, Chewie, Han. She gets new abilities as the plot demands (specifically I'm thinking of 'oh, I speak Wookiee now'), and becomes proficient in various Force-related disciplines very quickly.

But no, she isn't. Two key reasons:

1/ The villain never treats her like one. She receives exactly the same treatment as his previous prisoner. Given that he's the one person she would have needed to warp, that's a big one.

2/ While people like her, they don't really do things for her. Finn and BB-8 get rescued by her. Han agrees to help BB-8. Maz responds to the will of the Force, not any particular liking for Rey (and my pet theory is that Maz tries to fob that lightsaber off on someone every year or so, but they never take it.) Kylo Ren captures her because she has something useful to him. Finn goes to rescue her - but she doesn't actually need it, so I don't think it counts.

Good guys in Star Wars films are pretty much always immediately trusted by other good guys. You can't pin that on Rey. And the Force is a mysterious and powerful ally.

hS, museful

The film was pretty interesting to see, and hooks us up pretty well in my opinion, since I want so much to see the next parts. I've got to see the end of this. Even if you can really see the parallel to Episode IV, it's not unbearable, and a good thing. It's not the best of series, but it's a thing to watch. But before I go back to my cave to play/mourn with Revan and Meetra Surik

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They. Threw. A. Dead. Herring. At. Our. Face. With Meyer-grade subtlety. Hope it will be an only child...

And for the 'speculation'... 1 grand on 'Rey Skywalker'.

Also to remain spoiler-free:

Movie was good; it felt a bit like a recycled "A New Hope", but I still enjoyed it. One of the characters seemed to pick up skills too quickly to be plausible, but I think that's really my only complaint.

Also, fabulous hair. That is all.

(I'm not sure what you're talking about with the opening: that's, um, how every single Star Wars movie starts? What was different here?)

Um... basically my comment is 'squeeeeeeeeeee!'. There aren't many movies I want to see twice in cinema - this is one of them.

One thing I really liked (on thinking about it) was the new protagonist trio. They managed to be at the same level as the protagonists of A New Hope, without being carbon copies of them. Without spoilers, I can say:

-A New Hope featured a naive farmboy who lost his family, a disreputable smuggler, and a princess who immediately got captured. All three are at a pretty low ebb in the early parts of the movie, and we get to see their struggle to actually impact the world around them.
-The Force Awakens trio (actually it's a bit more complicated than that, but still) also all hit that level of 'low' early on. None of them start the main plot in positions of strength, which makes it interesting to follow them climbing back up. But while, arguably, one character is similar in summary to one of the original three, the other two fall into entirely new categories.
-In stark contrast, the four protagonists of The Phantom Menace are: a pair of galaxy-renowned Jedi, a ruling queen, and a superpowered slave boy. While Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Amidala all get into difficulties, none of them lose their positions of power. The Jedi just needed to find a ship; Amidala just needed to reach Coruscant. Anakin is the only one who's ever 'weak', but he is immediately told he'll be rescued by deus ex Jedi.

Compare the prequel's 'bother, our ship is a bit broken, we'd better stop to fix it' with ANH's 'my family are dead and the planet I was supposed to go to is dead and now my mentor is dead too!'; which one sounds like a more interesting character arc? If you said the second one, you're right - and that's the sort of thing you'll see in The Force Awakens.

(Though not those specific troubles. Obviously.)

I loved the various ways the film paid homage not just to the original movies - lots of lines and visuals in there - but also to the dear departed EU. Unnnnfortunately they're all spoilers. ;) But I spotted things that felt like references to everything from the X-Wing books (a certain character is clearly ex-Rogue Squadron) to... er, what was the last thing we had? That, anyway. ^_^

(There were also a lot of older actors who got inexplicable closeups; I really have to wonder if they were original/prequel actors. If you watch it, look for the woman who tends someone's injury; who is she?)

As Superfluity says, it was also gorgeous. You could absolutely tell that the outdoor sequences took place in actual, physical environments, and it did wonders. A few of the 'matte paintings' (which I assume were digital) looked a bit off, but other than that: stunning.

So what didn't I like? Mostly three things:

1/ Sadly, the X-wing sequences were less good than they should've been. Partly because they were the most obviously CG (even if they weren't CG!), and partly because... well, remember how in ANH you actually felt bad when Porkins and Biggs died? Yeah, I can't name any of the pilots in this one (other than one we'd already met), and have no idea which of them survived the film. The way we flashed between them felt like I was supposed to care, but I... didn't. (Makes me wonder if there's a deleted scene where we meet the squadron.)
2/ There's one sequence which seems to indicate you can see planets in other star systems in real-time from the ground. That's... wrong. :-/ (The alternative is that there are seven worlds in close proximity in the same system, which would work, but doesn't seem to be what they were aiming for.)
3/ There's no easy way to say this, but... one character is totally Voldemort, in his bald-snake-face period. I don't know what he's doing there, but I'm sure it isn't good.

Overall? I said in advance that I wanted this to be to ANH what Jurassic World was to JP.

It isn't.

It's better.

hS

PS: And I am ridiculously pleased that it's possible to summarise about half the plot in one incredibly spoilery word. ~hS

I really enjoyed the movie! I wasn't sure what to expect going in, because I'd done a very good job of staying away from spoilers. I'd rewatch it, it was super fun.