Star Wars: The Force Awakens [SPOILERS ABOUND]

Should I give it a try?

 

Yes.

 

It's been two days and still I feel like I've gotten the entire plot spoiled. Considering not seeing the movie as a result, the internet blows...

 

Kind of sucked to be honest.

 

As a science fiction writer: 3/5.

It is certainly a Star Wars movie. It is worth going to the theater and seeing. Barely.

IMO, it does not have the story, compelling characters, or groundbreaking impact of the first trio of movies. The main characters are not very fleshed out, nor do we know anything of their motivations. The bad guy is not a badass, but a petulant child. Again, all IMO.

I never watched the prequels, but trusted sources say it is much better than those movies.

 

I'm a Star Wars fan, but the carpet bombing of civilization over this is tiring. Thanks, Disney.

 

10000000000% agreed. What, did Disney pay literally everyone in the world to do tie-ins?

This is how Schiit would have marketed it: done nothing. You know it's Star Wars, you're gonna come and see it. Done. But then we couldn't trumpet how it "exceeded all other Star Wars movies on opening weekend, etc" or whatever dickwaving metric they use these days.

 

It is absolutely worth seeing. It's not a classic, but you will be entertained.

 

It's the fourth best Star Wars movie but isn't nearly as good as Return of the Jedi. If you've seen the Star Trek remake, you know exactly what JJ Abrams is going to do: MTV editing, Death Stars, random stuff happening, no character development, meta dialogue that almost expresses that the characters know they are in a movie. When the best performance in your movie is from Mark Hamill... The film starts off strongly enough but soon becomes a nightmare of Adderall pacing, random stuff happening with no tension or emotional reward for the audience, and the wimpiest Star Wars villains ever throwing toddler tantrums and whining on the hologram phone as they didn't get what they wanted. Not even the Stormtroopers respect and fear them and you shouldn't either as if the Empire was the Third Reich, these guys are a trailer park clan rally blind drunk on moonshine. Still worth a matinee by yourself as it's Star Wars.

Not nearly as good as Mad Max 4. Better than the prequels and Jurassic World as it's a real movie; not a shot, reverse shot interview on a couch with awful dialogue in between the cartoon or a Sci-Fi channel parody.

 

The only thing I'm looking forward to out of all this is what Red Letter Media has to say about it.

 

Guillermo Del Toro has directed some incredible films but he also did Pacific Rim which was terrible and the only movie I've ever walked out of. The Force Awakens was rubbish for all the reasons Jason mentioned above but id probably be less generous and give it 2/5.

 

I'm waiting for Rogue One. I think that should give us an idea how much the franchise has grown. The film description looks pretty promising, and the people working on it from behind the camera to the cast list looks pretty swag.

 

There's no reason not to see it. It's good, fun, entertainment. The 3d scenes are really good too.

 

There seems to be some kind of Disney-Jedi mind trick afoot with the near unanimous 5 star reviews this has received in the press/media over here in the UK.

Even reviewers I rate quite highly have suspended normal critical analysis in favour of column after column of over-excitement about it being a Star Wars movie.

Some of the backdrops - especially in the desert - are really quite stunning. Visually, its been put together with great care, no doubt.

Beyond that I found it a bit soulless at the core. I don't mind decent, feel-good entertainment. This all felt quite flat and limp to me. I struggled to get behind such poorly realised characters who weren't stylish or compelling enough for me to forget the gaping void in their backstories & motivations.

IMO, of course!

 

Mike and Jay loved it. Rich, not so much.
I thought it was a really fun movie and it reminded me of all the reasons I loved about Star Wars back in 1977.