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That's getting good reviews. I regret not seeing the first one yet and will have to see if it is streaming on netflix or amazon for free.


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 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I haven’t seen Hal much at all in years.

Admittedly, my information/experience is 1-2 years out of date.

This thread's getting hard to read with all the spoiler boxes...

I keep hearing about some big moment where the force is used to do something. I really hope it's not a resurrection... please don't let it be Rey bringing Kylo back to life after she kills him during the final fight, and suddenly he's good...

(NB: I have read no leaks, nor any spoilers in that thread - the above paragraph is not a spoiler but rather just pure terror speculation)

7-7.5 out of 10.

Good pace, ace visuals, character dev.

Nice way to round things off.


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Also? Reviews saying there’s a lot of threads to follow etc? Got that odd feeling I’ve once again somehow a different film to others, as I found it very easy to follow?

Well if you squint hard and tilt your head slightly you can kinda make out what JJ may have intended as the original story before someone squeezed out a giant steaming log in the middle section of the trilogy.

I think that while TLJ will always be gak that given some time RoS could become one of those cult classics that people get gak faced and go watch to laugh at or get turned into a drinking game(a shot for every swipe)

Anyway my visit to the cinema was worth it for the audience participation if nothing else. I have been to comedy’s that got less laughs than RoS also some legend at one of the “emotional “ end scenes shouted “he’s the lucky one” a sentiment the actor apparently echos.

The front row appear to have all been together and there responses kept me going as I knew I was not the only one thinking wtf a lot.

So final ranking this is hard but worse than the ewok movies but better than the SW Christmas Special and TLJ

Looks like the rotten tomatoes score went up since I checked early yesterday and bounced between 58 and 59 this morning. Reading some more of the reviews, it really seems like many of the reviews are taking issue with the fan service in the film with some articles by media pundits flat out blaming the fans for the quality of the film. The only thing fans will be at fault for is the final box office take. Yup, it's our fault that Disney didn't have a coherent direction in 2014 for this trilogy.

I’ll never understand how fan service is a criticism?

Not having a go at peeps on Dakka, but reviewers.

End Game and now Rise of Skywalker. Both are event films, pay offs decades in the making.

WTF were they expecting? Both to suddenly be Rocky Horror Show style high camp musicals? Sudden dark and gritty noir in a Bogart style? Some god awful ‘The Future Is Disco’ Buck Rogers campfest?

What exactly is wrong with fan service? People who’ve followed the respective series through thick and thin getting a cinematic thank-you for ultimately making it all possible?

Again, not attacking anyone on Dakka, but how is ‘fan service’ a valid criticism in the circumstances?

Sorry, I can't seem to stay way from this thread. If I get spoiled it's my own fault. I have an addition.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
What exactly is wrong with fan service? People who’ve followed the respective series through thick and thin getting a cinematic thank-you for ultimately making it all possible?

Again, not attacking anyone on Dakka, but how is ‘fan service’ a valid criticism in the circumstances?

I agree. In a franchise as long as this one, fan service isn't just expected, it practically mandatory. Once you get to sequel territory (which SW has been for nearly 4 decades now), no further movie can be self contained and they will always carry expectations.
RoS and Endgame are not movies to watch one their own. They are built on the foundation of other movies, so the assumption is that people buying their tickets are not casual movie-goers who have never seen a SW movie. Therefore, "fan-service" should be perfectly acceptable

And if it's anything like Endgame, I'm gonna love it

-

 Galef wrote:
Sorry, I can't seem to stay way from this thread. If I get spoiled it's my own fault.

Wow! They do exist.

Someone that clicks on a thread with pages and pages of discussion and potential spoilers about a movie/game/TV show that They haven't seen and doesn't blame people for spoiling it.

You belong in a zoo or some kind of protected habitat where you can be studied.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’ll never understand how fan service is a criticism?

Not having a go at peeps on Dakka, but reviewers.

End Game and now Rise of Skywalker. Both are event films, pay offs decades in the making.

WTF were they expecting? Both to suddenly be Rocky Horror Show style high camp musicals? Sudden dark and gritty noir in a Bogart style? Some god awful ‘The Future Is Disco’ Buck Rogers campfest?

What exactly is wrong with fan service? People who’ve followed the respective series through thick and thin getting a cinematic thank-you for ultimately making it all possible?

Again, not attacking anyone on Dakka, but how is ‘fan service’ a valid criticism in the circumstances?

The implication is that it's giving fans kewl stuff to 'oooo' and 'ahhh' over at the expense of telling a good story.

I think Endgame qualifies. It bears some resemblance to a fireworks display...cool to look at, thrilling and sometimes emotional. Entertaining. Still worth the price of admission. But it's not good storytelling so much as an studio-driven assembly of moments and nods and thank yous and farewells.

You're entitled to say 'who cares?' But it's well within the job description of the critics reviewing these things to explain that if your jam is plot and theme and introspection and character development and such...Endgame isn't for you. Right?

read the synopsis discussion at Space Battles. This is a hard pass for me, but I hope people going to it really enjoy it!

 nels1031 wrote:

 Galef wrote:
Sorry, I can't seem to stay way from this thread. If I get spoiled it's my own fault.

Wow! They do exist.

Someone that clicks on a thread with pages and pages of discussion and potential spoilers about a movie/game/TV show that They haven't seen and doesn't blame people for spoiling it.

You belong in a zoo or some kind of protected habitat where you can be studied.

Normally, I eat spoilers for breakfast. I basically knew the whole plot of Endgame days before I actually saw it in theaters. And it didn't affect my experience at all.
But since this is the biggest SW event we'll get for a while, I'm trying to go in blind.

They feeling I got at the reveal of Baby Yoda in the Mando was awesome. I want that on a grander scale

-

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Some god awful ‘The Future Is Disco’ Buck Rogers campfest?

Hey now.

But seriously.

Fanservice is such a broad term that good forms of it (as narrowly defined by the viewer) get lumped in with the bad, or the truly awful. In this case though, I don't think anybody complaining about it being a fanservicy movie are talking about a scene where the wind blows somebody's skirt up as they make v-signs to the camera - more likely they're talking about continuity porn.

And I for one am perfectly fine with that - because I'm more interested in the setting than the plot. It's not entirely unfair to say that relying on your audience to have seen and remember the previous movies locks a portion of that audience out of the experience, but this is the third movie in a trilogy, never mind that it's a Star Wars movie besides - its not a risky bet.

Someone clearly hasn’t the spandex clad horror of the Buck Rogers Roller Disco Entertainment?

The future may have totes lied to us, and have somehow contrived to be a dystopian dystopia, but at least it’s not that bloody awful!

Punk is not dead!


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CHOKE ON IT!!!!!!! You brought this entirely upon yourselves.

Well. He did. Blame him.




Worse. It’s Roller Disco Smooth Jazz.

 Captain Joystick wrote:
but this is the third movie in a trilogy, never mind that it's a Star Wars movie besides - its not a risky bet.

More specifically, this is the 3rd movie of a trilogy that is the 3rd trilogy in a trilogy of trilogies (I think I just summoned a Tzeencth daemon somewhere), so it is the culmination of 9 movies over 4 decades. I'd be upset if there isn't fan service.

In fact, the lack of the "right" kind of fan service is probably why I'm kinda 'meh' about TLJ. I want to like that movie, but it just doesn't hit the right chords for me

-

 Alpharius wrote:
And yet, what are the odds that everyone in this thread will see it no longer then one month after release?

I’d even bet that Frazz has already bought his day one tix!

You'd be wrong. At least one of us - me - has no intention of seeing this movie, PERIOD. Disney got their money out of me for TLJ. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME.

On a serious note, I cannot wait to dive into the Nerd Minutiae of TROS.

There are specific things I want to pitch and hear you speak your brain on.

But I shall find a biscuit tin in which to contain myself for the next week or so. Then start a specific, clearly spoilerific thread.


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 Vulcan wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
And yet, what are the odds that everyone in this thread will see it no longer then one month after release?

I’d even bet that Frazz has already bought his day one tix!

You'd be wrong. At least one of us - me - has no intention of seeing this movie, PERIOD. Disney got their money out of me for TLJ. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME.

Saw it last night. Much as I enjoyed TLJ, this is nothing like it.

Some have mentioned retcon. I politely disagree and argue it adds context.

But, you do you.

 Vulcan wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
And yet, what are the odds that everyone in this thread will see it no longer then one month after release?

I’d even bet that Frazz has already bought his day one tix!

You'd be wrong. At least one of us - me - has no intention of seeing this movie, PERIOD. Disney got their money out of me for TLJ. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME.

God, you're brave.


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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Some have mentioned retcon. I politely disagree and argue it adds context.

I haven't seen it, and won't for another week or so. But yeah, I can totally see how that could be the case.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’ll never understand how fan service is a criticism?

Not having a go at peeps on Dakka, but reviewers.

End Game and now Rise of Skywalker. Both are event films, pay offs decades in the making.

WTF were they expecting? Both to suddenly be Rocky Horror Show style high camp musicals? Sudden dark and gritty noir in a Bogart style? Some god awful ‘The Future Is Disco’ Buck Rogers campfest?

What exactly is wrong with fan service? People who’ve followed the respective series through thick and thin getting a cinematic thank-you for ultimately making it all possible?

Again, not attacking anyone on Dakka, but how is ‘fan service’ a valid criticism in the circumstances?

The problem is the Critic Mentality. These are people who watch a ridiculous amount of films, so over time they come to value novelty above every other attribute, particularly novelty in form or meta-commentary. It takes an exceptional degree of self-awareness to maintain perspective when you watch that much material, and the fact is the vast majority of "critics" aren't capable of it. As a result they lose touch with the general audience who typically watch a handful of movies a year, and tend to prefer the franchises they enjoy to retain the qualities and attributes that attracted them to them in the first place - to someone who is, in essence, bored of movies, but has to keep watching and commenting on them all because it's their job, that's simply anathema, because they crave change in the way most people enjoying entertainment usually crave familiarity.

That mentality in critics is also, I suspect, why the movie industry's PR spindoctors had such an easy time creating the narrative that people who disliked a new entry in a beloved franchise for [insert entirely valid reasons here] was really, deep down, motivated by one or more atavistic hatreds or phobias; "everyone who disagrees with my desire for novelty above all else is a monstrous -ist or -phobe" is a lot more soothing to the ego than admitting that the reality is you're just an out of touch snob that would much rather be lecturing on a film studies course with fellow rabid film-geeks than struggling to explain why all the things they like are bad to the reeking proles fahfahfah etc.

Well put and better expressed than I could have done myself. Yeah, I'm admittedly biased but I see a continuation of the vitriol against the fandom in the negative reviews of the film when they specifically reference fan service as a main issue. JJ and Disney have somewhat reversed course (not actually apologizing of course but simply not continuing to offend) and this is the Revenge of the Critics who have done their bidding in this proxy culture war for years only to be not catered to in the finale. Disney really was in a no win situation of their own making (so no sympathy from me) with this final installment. I'll be very curious to see the 4 day opening "weekend" box office total on Sunday night to see just how much damage they did to their own actual customer base (the fandom.. not the critics).

 Captain Joystick wrote:
We never needed to see how the Rebellion got the team back together between movies so I don't feel the need to do that for the Resistance, that's strictly comic book and novel faire, and it just so happens comic books and novels are coming out right now to cover it.

The Rebellion was never as thoroughly trashed at the end of a movie as the Resistance was at the end of TLJ.

Let's break it down to cases, shall we? At the end of ANH: yes, the Rebellion lost a bunch of stub fighters. We see over a thousand Rebels, in uniform, at the award ceremony for Luke and Han. There's clearly a lot more to the Rebellion than Gold and Red squadrons.

At the end of ESB: yes, the Rebellion lost quite a bit at Hoth, and things aren't looking all that good, but then we see the Rebellion has an actual FLEET, and not just a bunch of ground troopers and stub fighters.

At the end of TLJ: The ENTIRE Resistance fits into the Millennium Falcon, which is not a large ship. There's twenty of them, max. Leia's mysterious allies are not part of the Resistance and apparently they don't care if the New Order takes over.

So.... where DOES the capability to resist the New Order come from? And more to the point, given the vast organization needed to resist, how do the two dozen surviving Resistance members remain relevant among tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of outsiders happen?

So it very much DOES need to be covered in IX if you're going to have a hope of retaining the audience.

 Vulcan wrote:

 Captain Joystick wrote:
We never needed to see how the Rebellion got the team back together between movies so I don't feel the need to do that for the Resistance, that's strictly comic book and novel faire, and it just so happens comic books and novels are coming out right now to cover it.

The Rebellion was never as thoroughly trashed at the end of a movie as the Resistance was at the end of TLJ.

Let's break it down to cases, shall we? At the end of ANH: yes, the Rebellion lost a bunch of stub fighters. We see over a thousand Rebels, in uniform, at the award ceremony for Luke and Han. There's clearly a lot more to the Rebellion than Gold and Red squadrons.

At the end of ESB: yes, the Rebellion lost quite a bit at Hoth, and things aren't looking all that good, but then we see the Rebellion has an actual FLEET, and not just a bunch of ground troopers and stub fighters.

At the end of TLJ: The ENTIRE Resistance fits into the Millennium Falcon, which is not a large ship. There's twenty of them, max. Leia's mysterious allies are not part of the Resistance and apparently they don't care if the New Order takes over.

So.... where DOES the capability to resist the New Order come from? And more to the point, given the vast organization needed to resist, how do the two dozen surviving Resistance members remain relevant among tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of outsiders happen?

So it very much DOES need to be covered in IX if you're going to have a hope of retaining the audience.

So, my outlook on this, TLJ took place immediately after TFA, right? The galaxy is still reeling from the loss of the New Republic's capital systems from Star Killers attack.

There just hasn't been time to mobilize assets yet. Everyone who took part in the Rebellion knows the game. You start small, you get assets rolling. If ROS takes place some years later, then more and more assets can become involved, now that the real threat of the First Order is understood. Mon Cal can start cranking out cruisers again, old mothballed ships can be reacquired, etc. We're talking an entire galaxy here, thousands and thousands of populated systems. Sure, a huge blow was dealt, but as the Rebel's tv show showed us, destroy one cell doesn't kill the entire rebellion. Others are out there, others will rise up.

 Vulcan wrote:

 Captain Joystick wrote:
We never needed to see how the Rebellion got the team back together between movies so I don't feel the need to do that for the Resistance, that's strictly comic book and novel faire, and it just so happens comic books and novels are coming out right now to cover it.

The Rebellion was never as thoroughly trashed at the end of a movie as the Resistance was at the end of TLJ.

Let's break it down to cases, shall we? At the end of ANH: yes, the Rebellion lost a bunch of stub fighters. We see over a thousand Rebels, in uniform, at the award ceremony for Luke and Han. There's clearly a lot more to the Rebellion than Gold and Red squadrons.

At the end of ESB: yes, the Rebellion lost quite a bit at Hoth, and things aren't looking all that good, but then we see the Rebellion has an actual FLEET, and not just a bunch of ground troopers and stub fighters.

At the end of TLJ: The ENTIRE Resistance fits into the Millennium Falcon, which is not a large ship. There's twenty of them, max. Leia's mysterious allies are not part of the Resistance and apparently they don't care if the New Order takes over.

So.... where DOES the capability to resist the New Order come from? And more to the point, given the vast organization needed to resist, how do the two dozen surviving Resistance members remain relevant among tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of outsiders happen?

So it very much DOES need to be covered in IX if you're going to have a hope of retaining the audience.

ANH doesn't help your argument. A thousand Rebels couldn't take and hold Green Bay, Wisconsin, let alone pose a threat to a Galactic Empire. Nevermind that at least half those Rebs are probably maintenace and support staff, not combat soldiers. And all we see of their space capabilities are the Tantive and a handful of fighters. They have next to no resources in that film, and we're led to believe the Yavin base represents most of them.

For those planning to see the film today (or have already), is the space horsey charge across the Star Destroyer in an atmosphere/gravity or in space? It's in the trailers so it's not a spoiler.

 djones520 wrote:
There just hasn't been time to mobilize assets yet. Everyone who took part in the Rebellion knows the game. You start small, you get assets rolling. If ROS takes place some years later, then more and more assets can become involved, now that the real threat of the First Order is understood. Mon Cal can start cranking out cruisers again, old mothballed ships can be reacquired, etc. We're talking an entire galaxy here, thousands and thousands of populated systems. Sure, a huge blow was dealt, but as the Rebel's tv show showed us, destroy one cell doesn't kill the entire rebellion. Others are out there, others will rise up.

Like I said way back when, a lot of this is covered in the intervening EU material (because if anything, the sequel trilogy is being tackled by Lucasfilm like they did the Shadows of the Empire project) and in particular we get a lot of nuggets out of resistance reborn:



But a lot of the central plot of that book is about how they go about rebuilding their forces after the end of the last movie.

... I should probably finish it, now that I think about it.

 warboss wrote:
For those planning to see the film today (or have already), is the space horsey charge across the Star Destroyer in an atmosphere/gravity or in space? It's in the trailers so it's not a spoiler.

Spoilering all the same.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

 warboss wrote:
For those planning to see the film today (or have already), is the space horsey charge across the Star Destroyer in an atmosphere/gravity or in space? It's in the trailers so it's not a spoiler.

Spoilering all the same.

Spoiler:

Takes place in atmosphere.

Thanks. So.. the First Order could have defeated the charge of the durp brigade by

 Easy E wrote:
I am looking forward to going to the theater with my family and watching Jumanji 2 instead of this.

Good choice, it is as good as the first one

 Galef wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:

 Galef wrote:
Sorry, I can't seem to stay way from this thread. If I get spoiled it's my own fault.

Wow! They do exist.

Someone that clicks on a thread with pages and pages of discussion and potential spoilers about a movie/game/TV show that They haven't seen and doesn't blame people for spoiling it.

You belong in a zoo or some kind of protected habitat where you can be studied.

Normally, I eat spoilers for breakfast. I basically knew the whole plot of Endgame days before I actually saw it in theaters. And it didn't affect my experience at all.
But since this is the biggest SW event we'll get for a while, I'm trying to go in blind.

They feeling I got at the reveal of Baby Yoda in the Mando was awesome. I want that on a grander scale

-

 warboss wrote:
Well put and better expressed than I could have done myself. Yeah, I'm admittedly biased but I see a continuation of the vitriol against the fandom in the negative reviews of the film when they specifically reference fan service as a main issue. JJ and Disney have somewhat reversed course (not actually apologizing of course but simply not continuing to offend) and this is the Revenge of the Critics who have done their bidding in this proxy culture war for years only to be not catered to in the finale. Disney really was in a no win situation of their own making (so no sympathy from me) with this final installment. I'll be very curious to see the 4 day opening "weekend" box office total on Sunday night to see just how much damage they did to their own actual customer base (the fandom.. not the critics).

I think "fan service" is one of those phrases that has become almost meaningless. Respecting the original films, getting the details right, and striving for continuity should never be dismissed as fan service. I prefer Jahn's term "memberberries" for low-effort "look, I did a thing you liked the first time" inclusions in a film. For my tastes, TFA was a worse movie than TLJ because at least TLJ tried to do something newish (and also, despite his weaknesses as a writer, RJ understands that a movie is not a collection of scenes with no connective tissue, giving him a commanding lead over Abrams). TLJ might make me angry; TFA doesn't make me feel anything.

I disagree with you on the motivations of the critics, but I do agree that Disney deserves the blame.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 gorgon wrote:

 Vulcan wrote:

 Captain Joystick wrote:
We never needed to see how the Rebellion got the team back together between movies so I don't feel the need to do that for the Resistance, that's strictly comic book and novel faire, and it just so happens comic books and novels are coming out right now to cover it.

The Rebellion was never as thoroughly trashed at the end of a movie as the Resistance was at the end of TLJ.

Let's break it down to cases, shall we? At the end of ANH: yes, the Rebellion lost a bunch of stub fighters. We see over a thousand Rebels, in uniform, at the award ceremony for Luke and Han. There's clearly a lot more to the Rebellion than Gold and Red squadrons.

At the end of ESB: yes, the Rebellion lost quite a bit at Hoth, and things aren't looking all that good, but then we see the Rebellion has an actual FLEET, and not just a bunch of ground troopers and stub fighters.

At the end of TLJ: The ENTIRE Resistance fits into the Millennium Falcon, which is not a large ship. There's twenty of them, max. Leia's mysterious allies are not part of the Resistance and apparently they don't care if the New Order takes over.

So.... where DOES the capability to resist the New Order come from? And more to the point, given the vast organization needed to resist, how do the two dozen surviving Resistance members remain relevant among tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of outsiders happen?

So it very much DOES need to be covered in IX if you're going to have a hope of retaining the audience.

ANH doesn't help your argument. A thousand Rebels couldn't take and hold Green Bay, Wisconsin, let alone pose a threat to a Galactic Empire. Nevermind that at least half those Rebs are probably maintenace and support staff, not combat soldiers. And all we see of their space capabilities are the Tantive and a handful of fighters. They have next to no resources in that film, and we're led to believe the Yavin base represents most of them.

This is just wrong.

We see that the Rebellion has a senator on their side as well as the implied support of a core world (Alderaan) with Leia clearly coordinating between cells. We know the rebellion was capable enough to steal the plans of the Desth Star. There's no reason to assume the entire Rebellion is at Yavin; Tarkin makes it clear that he expects the threat of the DS to scare the rebels further underground and dry up support for them among planetary populations and governments. That's how blowing up Yavin ends the rebellion, not by literally vaporizing every rebel.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

I disagree with you on the motivations of the critics, but I do agree that Disney deserves the blame.

I'm not sure I follow on the first part. You don't think anti-fan rhetoric is behind some of the bad reviews? Here's one prominent detractor who has repeatedly attacked fans over the years and was one of the first to give it a bad review.

Review: ‘Rise Of Skywalker’ Is The Worst ‘Star Wars’ Movie Ever

The Rise of Skywalker is a bad movie and a miserable finale that serves no purpose other than to reassure adult fans of the original Star Wars that they are still the “chosen ones” of the pop culture galaxy.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/12/18/review-disney-and-lucasfilms-star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-is-a-terrible-end-to-the-skywalker-saga/

You'd think a financial magazine/organization like Forbes would be a bit more even handed in their approach but no such luck. His synopsis blurb right under the article title is devoted to insulting fans of the original trilogy. His motivation isn't subtle especially given his preview night tweet below...

So, #TheRiseOfSkwalker... in the end, it was STAR WARS "fans" that killed #StarWars

https://twitter.com/ScottMendelson/status/1206826229992583168

I'm not saying that it's the only thing behind his negative review but it certainly is one of the main factors. The fandom shouldn't IMO play such a prominent role in his review of a film that it makes it to the top; at best, it should be a single sentence buried somewhere in the middle and not mentioned above things above things like plot and characters. Professional critics are sadly anything but nowadays and view themselves equally as activists and I think that's why the fandom figures both so prominently and negatively in his review.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I think "fan service" is one of those phrases that has become almost meaningless. Respecting the original films, getting the details right, and striving for continuity should never be dismissed as fan service. I prefer Jahn's term "memberberries" for low-effort "look, I did a thing you liked the first time" inclusions in a film. For my tastes, TFA was a worse movie than TLJ because at least TLJ tried to do something newish (and also, despite his weaknesses as a writer, RJ understands that a movie is not a collection of scenes with no connective tissue, giving him a commanding lead over Abrams). TLJ might make me angry; TFA doesn't make me feel anything.

I agree with you on the current misuse of the term fan service. It's being used to broadly as a scape goat by the media (you don't seem to agree with that part) to describe bad plot that side references older canon, blatant pandering, and actual intelligent fan service. I haven't seen this movie obviously but I didn't enjoy the shallow remaking of ANH in TFA. I walked out of that with family who thought it was good (not great but just good) and they were surprised that I didn't like it. When I told them that it was basically a mediocre and forgettable remake of the original movie, they didn't believe me until I did a short synopsis and asked them to tell me which movie I was referring to and why. i.e. A supposedly unimportant orphan on a desert planet encounters a droid with great significance in the fight against the galactic overlords ends up escaping the planet on the millenium falcon, meeting up with the freedom fighters who lost the droid, discovers that he or she has secret mystical powers, loses their impromptu surrogate father/mentor to an evil space wizard dressed in black, and helps destroy the tyrannical regime's massive planet destroying base. Are they identical beat for beat? No, of course not... but I don't think you can tell which movie I was referring to. That to me wasn't fan service but unoriginal derivative story telling.