Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and some folks will never be pleased, but I really LOVED this movie. Yes, there were parallels to ANH, and yes there was ANOTHER-DEATH-STAR-THING-OMG, but y'know what?

-The new characters were different from the old characters and I think I may even like them better.

-The star killer thing rings true in real life... The "bad guys" use the same old tired stuff over and over and over again, and unfortunately - it works.

-Yes, it starts on a desert planet, but we pretty quickly move on to some really interesting locales.

-The X-Wing/Tie fights over the water and in space might have been worth the price of admission alone.

-Kylo Ren is an emo-*ss who I dislike WAY more than Vader. Vader was competent and stoic and probably the baddest guy to date in the galaxy, but Ren is dangerous because his little "feels" get hurt and does stuff like <spoiler deleted>

-We get to see the Falcon do a K-turn

Rey using downed AT-AT as home= 200 likes

Yes. Cheered when I saw that.

Just got back from seeing it. Overall: very entertaining, quite good, but not quite great. In the continuum of Star Wars material I’d put it behind Star Wars and ESB, just ahead of RotJ, and well ahead of the prequels, in quality. Specific opinions:

The Great

- Starfighter & Falcon battles rock. Great to see a good pilot who’s a good pilot, not a jedi (I miss Wedge).

- Atmospheric combat (can I get some love in X-Wing for in-atmo now, please? I want to do Hoth, and now whatever the name of the green water planet is).

- BB-8 stealing the show, and a practical effect to boot. I loved that little droid. One flaming thumb up!

The Good

- Character development, done early, but succinctly. Really enjoyed the three new heroes.

- Hits the major Star Wars themes

- The repeated theme of “family” echoing through the series

- Lived-in universe (well, except the First Order)

- Cantina filled with weird creatures, check.

- Subtle throw-backs to the originals (“I’ve got a bad feeling”, the trash compactor, etc)

- Humanized Stormtroopers

- Some great mysteries. Who is Rey? Who is Snoke? How’d Kylo get corrupted? Who was Max Von Sydow’s character, and what was his relationship with Luke?

- Han/Leia motivations and relationship.

- Han being pirate/smuggler-y

- Ren punching himself in his wound to get his Dark Side mojo up. Clearly, he’s conflicted. And yet nicely psychotic.

- No bouncing Jedi fights? I’m looking at you, Yoda.

- Admiral Ackbar, back in the saddle. Wish he’d said “It’s a Trap!”

The Bad

- How’d Poe come back? Jarring Deus-Ex, when he was wearing his jacket flying (assuming he ejected).

- Captain Phasma is “Boba Fett in RotJ” competent

- Some missing links. What’s going on in the New Republic, and can we learn a little more about the relationship to the Resistance? Why isn’t the Republic publicly resisting?

- Sometimes, this universe is just too small. Map to a location in the uncharted Unknown Regions of the galaxy? Check, we’ll be there in 15.

- Luke pulling a Yoda, running and hiding for 20+ years. Such wusses, these Jedi.

- Rabid octopuses on a freighter scene … pretty unnecessary.

- My wife saying “Look, it’s Gollum!” when Snoke is introduced. Guess they need a different mo-cap actor than Andy Serkis, ‘cause he only does one character.

- We blew up the New Republic Senate (I think … seemed vague) and basically no one notices.

- Cliffhanger … you just leave it there and we have to wait how long for resolution?

The Ugly

- First Order as mustachio-twirling eeeevil. Some depth, or at least development, please? Why are they obsessed with order? Tarkin had more depth.

- Yet Another SuperWeapon trope. Really, we break into the Death Star to rescue the girl and then blow it up after a major character dies on a lightsaber …again? Especially when combined with RotJ’s “blow up the shield generator so the attack can proceed” subplot.

4 stars out of 5.

Quick question. The Starkiller base, when it fires does it keep tapping its own Sun over and over again each time it fires? In which case does the Star need time to recover between each shot? There was only a matter of days between the first and second use which seems a short timeframe if this is the case.

Or does it totally consumes a star each time it fires which would require it moving from system to system each time it gets used, thus destroying two systems, its target and its energy source?

Fyn described its power source as 'the sun' not a star, which indicates the first, but the battle implies that the Star is totally drained each time it base is charged, which points towards the second.

Kylo Ren was scary til he threw a hissy fit.

I forgot, we're still in the archaic school of thought where we expect villains only to brood.

I see Kylo's rages described as "hissy fits" and "tantrums" a lot, and I don't quite get it. He's not throwing a strop on the floor, he's flying into a dark side fuelled violent rage because that's what the dark side does to you. It feeds off of negative emotion, and when you give in to a negative emotion it only grows stronger. This leaves dark side practitioners unable to completely control those emotions, and most of the developed darksiders give into them at some point.

• Vader and Kylo's primary negative emotion is rage. Vader throttles his men to death if they fail him and his first dialogue ever is him losing it with a Rebel captain and crushing their neck with his bare hands. Kylo's response is primal fury, lashing out at anything nearby, which is more extreme than smashing up a console.
• Palpatine is more hatred than fury, and this actually gets him killed: when Luke defies him and professes to be one of the hated Jedi Palpatine tries to torture him to death with Force Lightning: you can see the malice in his face and he completely ignores Vader (who he just told Luke to kill).
• The Inquisitor from Rebels is another good example, and one of the few I can think of who channels fear. His motives centre around not failing Vader (he expresses no other motives for Jedi hunting), and while he appears ever confident (he's got no reason to fear any of the Imperial minions and until the final battle he considers Kanan his inferior in skill and Ezra a joke) his martial ability falls apart when Kanan terrifies him and he chooses death over facing Vader.
• Maul is able to survive bisection on hatred, and he's fairly irate in almost all of his TCW fight scenes. His brother is pretty much all brute rage (albeit mostly channeled) and not much else.

- Some missing links. What’s going on in the New Republic, and can we learn a little more about the relationship to the Resistance? Why isn’t the Republic publicly resisting?

One of TFA's failings as a piece of Star Wars (but not as a standalone film) is how little it fleshes out the state of the galaxy. If you're interested, here's the current galactic dynamic:

The Empire died much as it did in Legends: the Emperor was the keystone that held it together. Uprisings and infighting stopped it from marshalling its strength in which time it suffered defeat after defeat, the playing field rapidly becoming much more level. Everything comes to a head at the Battle of Jakku, a fleet engagement rivalling Endor with the Empire committing everything they can spare in hopes of a grand victory to revitalise them. The Empire has the advantage in numbers but their tactics are predictable and uninspired. Their command ship, the Super Star Destroyer Ravager, is destroyed, falling into Jakku's atmosphere. With their command structure decapitated the Imperial fleet is crushed in a repeat of Endor. The Republic and Empire sign a peace accord known as the Galactic Concordance, which limited the Empire to its remaining systems and largely demilitarized both. We don't know how the Empire ultimately died (presumably without its image of indomitable power and the iron boot of its Navy it simply couldn't control its systems any more) but soon enough it was gone, with the military junta known as the First Order rising from some of its ashes like the Third Reich rising in demilitarized Germany.

The Republic has no desire to go to war with the First Order so long as it continues to abide by the terms of the Concordance (which publically it does, building its new navy in secret) and it isn't considered a threat. The Resistance is to the Rebellion what the First Order is to the Empire, a military faction that refuses to accept the changed state of the galaxy. The Resistance operates in First Order space to try and topple the regime. The Republic secretly funds it but publically does not attack the FO.

Quick question. The Starkiller base, when it fires does it keep tapping its own Sun over and over again each time it fires? In which case does the Star need time to recover between each shot? There was only a matter of days between the first and second use which seems a short timeframe if this is the case.

Or does it totally consumes a star each time it fires which would require it moving from system to system each time it gets used, thus destroying two systems, its target and its energy source?

Fyn described its power source as 'the sun' not a star, which indicates the first, but the battle implies that the Star is totally drained each time it base is charged, which points towards the second.

I think the name Starkiller says it all, plus I think they mentioned that it consumes the whole star.

I thought it was really good, I only have 2 gripes, one minor and one major.

The minor is that Kylo Ren outside of his mask looked like a friggin DORK. I couldn't take him seriously at all with his teenager angst face.

My major gripe is that Phasma (whatever thesuper cool looking stormtrooper's name is) did NOTHING. And they hyped her up as a super bada** trooper that everyone feared. When she was finally confronted I was expecting a long drawn out battle between her, Finn, Chewie and Han. But nope. They just throw her in the trash compactor.

My reaction? Poe Dameron is not pilot skill 8.

Too much plot convenience. Ending felt rushed. Wish they had cut the scene on Han's freighter, some of the jokes, and some of the call backs to slow things down and explain the universe a bit better. The storytelling didn't feel like Star Wars.

Better than episodes one and two, but episode three and the originals felt like stronger films.

My reaction? Poe Dameron is not pilot skill 8.

I know right! Poe should be a 9 easy! Or there should be no FO pilots higher than like 3, because he owns them like they're all rookies.

Also I just saw it again. I think this is the kind of movie you like more as you see it more. I actually like Ren this time, whereas last time he bugged me.

Also if you haven't voted on my other thread yet, or if you have but now you want to change your vote(up or down) after seeing again or rethinking it, please go and vote on a scale of 1-5(1 is bad). I really want to get a feel for what the Xwing community thinks of TFA!

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/196159-the-force-awakens-unofficial-poll-thread-maybe-spoliers/?p=1942256

T-70 has back arc, its shown in first 5 mins of film, I need it implemented now!

We just need a way to allow T-70's an illicit slot to equip a "Hot-Shot" blaster.

I'd like a tech slot (T-70 Only) that was a range 1, 2 dice attack outside of your arc. It would give some forgiveness if you overshot your target or they arc-dodged you.

One of TFA's failings as a piece of Star Wars (but not as a standalone film) is how little it fleshes out the state of the galaxy.

Is it a failing though? You obviously know what the current state of the galaxy is through reading and studying various media. The story of Star Wars is the whole deal, movies, books and comics. The movie is a visual window into that story and was really enjoyable, exciting and funny in a way people who follow the whole story can enjoy or people who are just along for the base level ride can enjoy. It's a crowd pleaser but more depth behind it thanks to other content.

T-70 has back arc, its shown in first 5 mins of film, I need it implemented now!

We just need a way to allow T-70's an illicit slot to equip a "Hot-Shot" blaster.

I'd ask if you really expected a stormtrooper-killing caliber of blaster to kill a fighter but in the exact same scene we saw some stormtroopers just light it the f*** up.

So I guess yeah have a tech upgrade that allows a baby blaster, why not.

Luke, THE last, most powerful jedi of a time, ****** up, lost his very first pupil, whole school failed, no jedi trained, he succluded to a hermit life of a failure in a new zealand island distant planet, located in THE only sector of galaxy somehow missing from the map.

lol what a failure.

I am happily surprised that they kept this bit of the EU !material.

One of TFA's failings as a piece of Star Wars (but not as a standalone film) is how little it fleshes out the state of the galaxy.

Is it a failing though? You obviously know what the current state of the galaxy is through reading and studying various media. The story of Star Wars is the whole deal, movies, books and comics. The movie is a visual window into that story and was really enjoyable, exciting and funny in a way people who follow the whole story can enjoy or people who are just along for the base level ride can enjoy. It's a crowd pleaser but more depth behind it thanks to other content.

We have the info that we need. We know about as much as we do about the state of the galaxy in ANH. The little details are what the EU stuff is for.

I mean, it is pretty clear that there is a new Empire and there is a Resistance. And the movie makes clear that there is a new Republic and that they are "seperate" from the Resistance. It all screams Cold War to me.

T-70 has back arc, its shown in first 5 mins of film, I need it implemented now!

We just need a way to allow T-70's an illicit slot to equip a "Hot-Shot" blaster.

Undercover Poe Dameron in an Illicit T-70?

Muahahaha

with even more OP ability and a jacket.

The thing about Finn breaking:

That's actually something that real SS storm troopers experienced when told to destroy a village, or even just stand on a firing line against (non-Ayran) civilians. Some of them just... Couldn't.

So to the extent we can say anything is "historically accurate, we can say Finn's inability to massacre a population is.

I've been calling TFA a Star Wars "Greatest Hits" album. If you enjoyed a scene in any of the previous movies, you'll enjoy it again in this one. It was a fun movie, and probably the second best 2.5hrs of new Star Wars I've seen in 2015.

- First Order as mustachio-twirling eeeevil. Some depth, or at least development, please? Why are they obsessed with order? Tarkin had more depth.

Tarkin? Really? In ANH? I love his character, but there was not that much more depth or exposition to him.

yay just saw it

fortunately, far and above the prequels (couldn't have handled another failure)

the sheer convenience (especially Falcon related) almost catapulted me out of my suspension of disbelief, but at least it was in service to moving the plot along

as was the conspicuous absence of the FO fleet around its planet killing weapon

fortunately, our lovely little Tie Fighters seem to have some **** back-bone this time

storm troopers, not so much, but you basically expect that from them

decent enough flick about par with the marvel movies imo, which is appropriate given the force behind it

This is so far above the MCU on multiple, multiple fronts, that it isn't even funny.

.

This is movie 4 with slight variations in theme. Literally the same movie with different twists on the same plot.

Fun, but guess I think about star wars often so not as novel to me as some friends who are blown away by being immersed in star wars again.

Good show worth watching. Guess I will watch it again in Imax 3d with wife when shes feeling better.

I do hope the next movie is better though. I have a feeling it will be.

oh, and favorite scene!

Finn and Poe escaping the Death Star in the Special Forces Tie/FO, especially when Poe asks Finn his name (and gives him his name) and the two are just cruising on an adrenaline + accomplishment high

there's a **** likable pair of characters there

2nd favorite scene is angry chewie wasting no time putting a bowcaster bolt into Ren's side after Han goes off the edge. The subsequent rage and destruction and the mostly-quiet mourning after were far more than I expected of him this movie; great stuff!

So to the extent we can say anything is "historically accurate, we can say Finn's inability to massacre a population is.

he's a plumber, not a soldier