The Force Awakens would severely benefit from an extra hour.

So much this.

Room to breathe.

I reckon they have the extended Bluray and directors cut already scheduled for release...

No one has commented on Poe's amazing tallon rolls...in atmosphere no less.

or Rey's Sloop...in a YT-1300, in atmosphere.

The possibilities for XWM from this game are just staggering.

Overall, pretty enjoyable movie. Better combat with Stormtroopers, and dogfights. Will see it in 3D tomorrow to get a better perspective. Best improvement was the dialogue. Liked the lightsaber's action in the snow. I know what it is like to be in the military with a boss who throws...tantrums. No destroyed government property but that awkwardness "holy crap" moment. Liked it. The little dictator.

BUT here are my disappointments

1. For me this was HUGE DOWNER. HUGE DOWNER. Only X-Wing (T-70), TIE/FO, Kylo Ren Command Shuttle, and Millennium Falcon. Where were the new replacement for Y-Wings on a BOMBING run. Did they buy into our modern day F-16 is a CAS platform instead of an A-10 or F-15E Strike Eagle. It is not. This is my biggest disappointment. I expected to see some versions of B-Wings, A-Wings, and Y-Wings or better yet their replacements. What about Capital Ships. Wow....what the heck is FFG going to bring out now. Is Wave 8 the completion of Force Awakens? I am going to go pout and stare at my LEGO B-Wing on my dresser and mourn it's passing in Star Wars lore.

2. Movie Mash up. Didn't feel like much original material added. Saw a review that said too much going on, but it felt more like too much put into the movie and some lacking perspective. Who are these factions and what has been going on with them. Missing some serious plot. See #4

3. Starkiller. Wow. I can think of so many different movies and series that have something better....like E4 and E6. This really was a downer point for me to include the whole look and feel. All that energy and yet did not affect the atmosphere. Talk about climate change issues. Couldn't resist. Seriously thought it felt like a Star Trek moment. Otherwise the planet looked cool from a distance. Have to give it something.

4. Ummm....So we have a base smaller than Yavin? Lots of faces in the scene...but....that is it for military might? Need more back story. I guess that I need to read the comics and books. Not getting anything in the movie. Why didn't they evacuate to capital ships. Was that it...all in the same location. My tactical hairs rose up on what was going on there.

5. Didn't know Gollum was an actor in the movie. If you don't get it, nothing to see. I keep expecting to see the real guy and he is 3 feet tall in a miniature chair.

6. Desert. I hate the desert. Could have spent just a little bit more time on the ship to show loneliness (now that is just being picky). Ok....just being a dork on this one but I really hate the beginning of E4 and E6 because of the desert. Lived in several of them. Not a fan.

7. How is it that Finn and Rey just seemed to know how to use a lightsaber so efficiently. Really. Even Luke had to have training. And Rey, so strong in the Force even with the evil mind control. Just saying.

But even with all this negative I really enjoyed the movie. I hate the ewoks and have grown to like some parts of E3...so debating where it fits. But initial reaction is E5, E6, E7, E4, E3, E2.

I only disagree with you on 7.

Finn? FO 'troopers were clearly trained to fight light-saber wielding opponents, at least IMHO.

Rey? She's force-sensitive. It, to this day, drives me to distraction that Dooku implies that wielding a lightsaber is a skill apart from the Force. Was that line a nod from Lucas to video game-enthusiasts? I just don't know why that line was included. The Force allowed one to see things, react faster, read minds, et cetera...

I thought it was a good film by itself, but I felt it re-used too much from Ep VI. It's not the film I was hoping for.

2.) Too many quick cuts. If they would have just slowed that crap down it would have felt more like the original trilogy. Especially during the fighter sequences it was too fast.

They did not hire JJ Abrams to just mimic George Lucas's style. Kathleen Kennedy has been pretty clear about letting directors having freedom and not having to conform to a company style.

Eh kinda what I expected from a hack like jj average really is the best he can manage.

Won't see it till Monday but this isn't the only place I've seen the "it's a remake of hope" comment can't say I'm even mildly surprised.

Man I loved every time a saber was pulled out in this movie.

Because every single time, it mattered. It really meant something.

I think the saber fighting was the perfect blend of the OT and PT. They looked raw and almost unrehearsed(in a great way), backed up by great special effects. The way the sabers seemed to bite into objects made them feel much more realistic and brutal. I also loved Ren's fighting stance, often using an upwards diagonal sweep to both parry and attack. I'll have to see it again, but Ep7 might have my favorite saber fights thus far.

I'll have to see it again, but Ep7 might have my favorite saber fights thus far.

For me, nothing comes close to the Empire one, lightsabers or no. The pacing, the story they told, what the characters revealed about themselves (and I don't mean the "I am your father" bit), everything about it was almost perfect.

I'm waiting for Bad Astronomy guy Phil Plaits to complain about being able to see faster than light energy blasts destroying interstellar targets in real time from a planet's surface. Empire, which most people say is the best, had some really shaky interstellar travel without a hyperdrive, among oth per thjngs that took it out of sci fi and directly into fantasy.

I find character death as motivation obnoxious. Han's story is now heartbreaking. He gets just... Nothing good happens for him. At all. And it left me feeling empty. That one of the greatest characters of all time basically gets no happiness ever. And then he dies to motivate other people. I get that he's old. I get that he could bog down later movies. But there's a whole lot of ways to fix that without leaving his whole life as a pit of suck.

Otherwise it's great. But Hans death is more to fit narrative structure than anything else and I HATE that.

Kylo Ren scares me.

He scares me. Not many people scare me outright, but he does. He's... Everything Anakin could have become, and yet... So much more powerful. A quiet, calculating, voice... Looks at people with the same, unwavering stare... The hair, even. He's everything Anakin was... But...

He's all the worst things about Anakin. Not in acting or something- no... He's the dark side of Anakin.

And he's frightening. Terrifying.

You Vader, Maul, were scary..?

Nobody's as terrifying as Kylo Ren.

Nobody.

Yes - all the single mindedness of Vader and Maul, ruthless and calculating - and yet the same time managing to be utterly conflicted and chaotic - fantastic characterisation from Driver

It occurred to me that for Ren, this movie was his Empire Strikes Back, and hes a Dark-side Luke:

Incomplete training, yet he impulsively attempts to take on his enemies

Confronts his father(rip)

Is ultimately defeated, left scarred, and forced to retreat to complete his training

I feel like Luke was naturally a Dark-sider, but tried his best to join the Light. Kylo Ren is naturally a Light-sider, but wants nothing more than to be a Dark-side badass. They are two sides to the same coin.

I enjoyed it. As others have said, the villains were over-all disappointing. I had no idea that the First Order would be run by Zombie-Voldemort.

It's not a remake of Hope but it does totally raid the original in many ways. Cantina fun, desert nobody becomes the pivot of the galaxy, friendship can beat anything, striking down your loved ones, Death Star Killer, etc. But impresivley, what the film ends up as is a hyper-exciting love letter.

It's like Armada and X-wing - they share features, and even some mechanics, but when it comes down to it they are very different beasts.

Personally, given what I knew about JJ, his Star Trek fumbles, and the Dark Mouse, I am very very impressed with what they've pulled off. It had a lot of negatives hanging from it, in my opinion, and they've managed to make a great Star Wars film. I can ask for no more!

PS really glad to hear others were worried about killing off Kylo! That who fight scene I was **** worried that JJ was about to do a Maul and wipe out the most interesting character int the film. Adam Driver smashed it.

It occurred to me that for Ren, this movie was his Empire Strikes Back, and hes a Dark-side Luke:

Incomplete training, yet he impulsively attempts to take on his enemies

Confronts his father(rip)

Is ultimately defeated, left scarred, and forced to retreat to complete his training

I feel like Luke was naturally a Dark-sider, but tried his best to join the Light. Kylo Ren is naturally a Light-sider, but wants nothing more than to be a Dark-side badass. They are two sides to the same coin.

Good call, that's a nice comparison!

A big thing to note is that Disney has been going crazy on the extra content, EU stuff, books, comics, etc. I think any holes left in the movie are going to be filled up by this extra stuff. It's good bc fans love more content, but bad because if you ONLY watch the film, there's a lot that leaves you guessing.

Also, thought I'd post this and let Driver have his say on Kylo:

“I feel there’s a recklessness about him that’s maybe not normally associated with the Dark Side. You normally think of order, and structure, and full commitment and no hesitation…he’s just a little bit more unpolished. It’s in his costume, in his lightsaber – how you kind of get the sense that it could just not work at any moment; that it could just blow up. That’s kind of like a big metaphor for him.”

I'll say this much. I loved the movie, and Poe is now my favorite pilot ever.

But anyone who thinks this was a rehash of ANH... clearly there were things in common, but it was not the same story. Star Killer base was fairly incidental to the story, which was not true of the Death Star in ANH.

So... I guess Coruscant (and the core of the Republic) is gone now? That's kind of a big deal that I'm surprised more people aren't talking about. People complain about the Yuuzhan Vong, but this movie takes elements of that story that people hated and goes a step further with Han getting incinerated in a star instead of Chewie getting crushed by a moon (both related to actions by Han's son, except in the books Anakin was at least trying to do the right thing) and Coruscant getting wiped out (at least it recovered from the Yuuzhan Vong attack).

Not trying to divert the conversation into an argument about the books vs. the movie, but I just found that really interesting.

Okay, one thing that confuses me still, though:

The Starkiller shot out 5 or so beams that reached out over the galaxy and destroyed a planet each. But the Resistance base could see each of the planets explode? But one of those planets was Coruscant, right? So did the First Order just take out a few planets in the same system?

Also, I guess it's beam ignores the speed of light. It moved pretty damned quickly!

I don't think Coruscant was affected, it was another system

Okay, one thing that confuses me still, though:

The Starkiller shot out 5 or so beams that reached out over the galaxy and destroyed a planet each. But the Resistance base could see each of the planets explode? But one of those planets was Coruscant, right? So did the First Order just take out a few planets in the same system?

Also, I guess it's beam ignores the speed of light. It moved pretty damned quickly!

Between this and the Trek movies, it is pretty clear that JJ does not understand how space works.

Okay, one thing that confuses me still, though:

The Starkiller shot out 5 or so beams that reached out over the galaxy and destroyed a planet each. But the Resistance base could see each of the planets explode? But one of those planets was Coruscant, right? So did the First Order just take out a few planets in the same system?

Also, I guess it's beam ignores the speed of light. It moved pretty damned quickly!

I don't think Coruscant was affected, it was another system

No, but it sounds like Coruscant wasn't the seat of the Republic government, because it's definitely stated that's what they destroyed. I'm imaging we'll get some more information on the state of the galaxy in VIII, very much like the first movie this one sort of dropped you into the middle of the conflict with minimal information.

Okay, one thing that confuses me still, though:

The Starkiller shot out 5 or so beams that reached out over the galaxy and destroyed a planet each. But the Resistance base could see each of the planets explode? But one of those planets was Coruscant, right? So did the First Order just take out a few planets in the same system?

Also, I guess it's beam ignores the speed of light. It moved pretty damned quickly!

I think the MST3k mantra applies to stuff like this, in any case, "repeat to yourself, "it's just a showmovie, I should really just relax." Star Wars has never been a particularly grounded series when it comes to the big picture stuff and physics. This sort of thing is very much one of the "it's a fantasy movie... in SPAAAAACE" aspects.

Okay, one thing that confuses me still, though:

The Starkiller shot out 5 or so beams that reached out over the galaxy and destroyed a planet each. But the Resistance base could see each of the planets explode? But one of those planets was Coruscant, right? So did the First Order just take out a few planets in the same system?

Also, I guess it's beam ignores the speed of light. It moved pretty damned quickly!

Between this and the Trek movies, it is pretty clear that JJ does not understand how space works.

Neither does Kasdan then, but then again between the asteroid field(they're not really that dense without coalescing into a planet) and the Falcon somehow getting to another system in reasonable time without FTL, that was already clear in Empire. Everyone seems to forget that JJ didn't make this whole thing alone out of some desire to hate on JJ Abrams.

I think the MST3k mantra applies to stuff like this, in any case, "repeat to yourself, "it's just a showmovie, I should really just relax." Star Wars has never been a particularly grounded series when it comes to the big picture stuff and physics. This sort of thing is very much one of the "it's a fantasy movie... in SPAAAAACE" aspects.

I mean, there is that. But mostly I just didn't have an idea where anything was or what they were shooting at. I kinda liked the idea that they were shooting from systems away, but then the Resistance were right there when it happened, so maybe they weren't.

I find character death as motivation obnoxious. Han's story is now heartbreaking. He gets just... Nothing good happens for him. At all. And it left me feeling empty. That one of the greatest characters of all time basically gets no happiness ever. And then he dies to motivate other people. I get that he's old. I get that he could bog down later movies. But there's a whole lot of ways to fix that without leaving his whole life as a pit of suck.

Otherwise it's great. But Hans death is more to fit narrative structure than anything else and I HATE that.

Han completed his character arc. I knew that as soon as the trailer came out where he said 'it's all true' because the one time skeptic was now the Obi wan telling a new set of kids about the larger world. Confronting his son and saying one last goodbye made sense for his character. It wasn't just for Finn and Rey or even kylo ren. This was, in many ways, Hans movie.