Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

For those who've seen it, how much X-wing stuff is there? I'm in it for the dogfights and not much else.

Seaward wrote:
For those who've seen it, how much X-wing stuff is there? I'm in it for the dogfights and not much else.

Like most scenes it is very brief. Nothing like the previous ones.

Spoiler for more detail:

Swas, it sounds like you're describing the pacing problems from Into Darkness. Does SW7 have pacing issues similar to STID?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Are the space battles closer to RotJ or RotS ?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Swas, it sounds like you're describing the pacing problems from Into Darkness. Does SW7 have pacing issues similar to STID?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Are the space battles closer to RotJ or RotS ?

Im trying to remember the plot to Into darkness, I saw it at the theater but it's a bit hazy in my memory. Ill get back to you on that after I refresh my memory.

The space battles are not close to either. Perhaps more like Naboo? But even the space battle in Naboo had more in it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I found this review of Into Darkness and I think The Force Awakens suffered from this:

Less a classic "Star Trek" adventure than a "Star Trek"-flavored action flick, shot in the frenzied, handheld, cut-cut-cut style that’s become Hollywood’s norm, director J.J. Abrams’ latest could have been titled "The Bourne Federation."

Replace Star Wars with Star Trek. The cut from shot to shot scene to scene was really noticeable. You sort have all this stuff thrown at you all the time but never get a good look at much nor can you let any of it settle in. However there wasn't too much shake cam from memory.

Thanks! That helps me know where to set my expectations.

Thanks for the quote, Swas, that's what I was trying to say earlier.

No problem guys,

I know it sounds a bit Negative Nancy, but I can safely say that at the least it isn't boring. So it's not going to be a Phantom menace.

The most unique Star Wars cover I've ever seen...

Just out. I think it broke me. :,)

Just got back from the cinema - first midnight release i've ever been to and it was worth it.

I still dislike that new lightsaber and there were a few moments where i thought "well we've been here before..", but the plot was decent, the character development was excuisite and all the tech felt new but not unfamiliar.

I think JJ Abrams did good; plenty of room for sequel storylines while still feeling like a rounded event in it's own right.


My personal problem was every time the term 'supreme leader' was stated i kept thinking of 'the supreme being' from 'time bandits' or 'glorious leader' from 'papers, please!'

I watched he midnight showing last night, and sort from people applauding the start and end of the film I really enjoyed it.

My biggest problem is some of the visual choices for the first order, mainly their uniforms, they don't look as clean and refined as the old empire ones. I dunno maybe it's just me

I mean the use of the planet destroying base thing again wasn't the most creative choice for the story but all in all I did enjoy it and would happily see it again if the opportunity came about

I spoke to somebody who attended a special screening and their verdict is this:

If you liked the new Star Trek films, you'll like the new Star Wars. If you didn't like the new Star Trek films, you'll probably be disappointed with TFA.

He thought it was alright...

Great. So far I have heard nothing but bad things. I hated the new Star Trek movies. Dog fights and space battles to me are the most iconic part of Star wars and I hear they are minimal in this one. The bad guy isn't bad enough. They should have stuck with the Thrawn trilogy and simply rebooted the series. Still going to see it but my expectations are already low.

Col. Dash wrote:
Great. So far I have heard nothing but bad things. I hated the new Star Trek movies. Dog fights and space battles to me are the most iconic part of Star wars and I hear they are minimal in this one. The bad guy isn't bad enough. They should have stuck with the Thrawn trilogy and simply rebooted the series. Still going to see it but my expectations are already low.

If you like JJ's previous works, you'll be fine. If you didn't...

Col. Dash wrote:
Great. So far I have heard nothing but bad things. I hated the new Star Trek movies. Dog fights and space battles to me are the most iconic part of Star wars and I hear they are minimal in this one. The bad guy isn't bad enough. They should have stuck with the Thrawn trilogy and simply rebooted the series. Still going to see it but my expectations are already low.

So you didn't bother reading my comment then?

Since you already have a massive opinion about the film without even having seen it, i'd say don't bother going - you've already decided it's rubbish so save your money and give that seat to someone who actually wants to go see it.

Col. Dash wrote:
Great. So far I have heard nothing but bad things. I hated the new Star Trek movies. Dog fights and space battles to me are the most iconic part of Star wars and I hear they are minimal in this one. The bad guy isn't bad enough. They should have stuck with the Thrawn trilogy and simply rebooted the series. Still going to see it but my expectations are already low.

Are you just skimming the topic for the parts that reinforce your grumpfest?


My partner and I went, and he enjoyed it greatly, having seen all of the first six in the cinema. His "...but" was purely a reliance on homages to New Hope. If that's the only thing to complain about out of acting, effects, casting and characters, it can't possibly be as bad as you're deciding it is.

Personally I loved it, and the interactions from the actors, especially Ford, were on point, especially his non verbal responses.

My main question, and I don't think it's a spoiler:

Col. Dash wrote:
Great. So far I have heard nothing but bad things. I hated the new Star Trek movies. Dog fights and space battles to me are the most iconic part of Star wars and I hear they are minimal in this one. The bad guy isn't bad enough. They should have stuck with the Thrawn trilogy and simply rebooted the series. Still going to see it but my expectations are already low.

That's weird because the Star Wars film which is widely regarded as the best is The Empire Strikes Back, which features one big battle at the beginning (Hoth) and no dog fights, unless you count the Millennium Falcon running away from the entire imperial navy a dog fight.

It also has the most iconic scene of the whole trilogy with the climax of Luke and Vaders duel.

I have always felt that the most iconic and best scenes in the films were those which showed the emotions of the characters and the conflicts those emotions created, rather than big flashy sequences. In A New Hope you had the binary sunset scene, with Luke looking out dreaming of joining the rebellion, in Empire you had the Vader/Luke duel and Han and Leia in the carbon freezing chamber, In Jedi you had Yoda's death and then Luke/Vader/Emperor scenes and Vader's funeral.

Definitely has the pacing issues from Into Darkness. All over the place and very little room for characters to have honest to good conversations with one another. Movie was so fast paced and frantic that eveything felt very shallow, even the action sequences could have done with time to flesh them out a little let alone the characterisation and world building. Very very disappointed.

The film is currently rating 81 on Metacritic and 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Going regardless, already have tickets for Sunday in an IMAX. If I go in with low expectations then I wont be disappointed. I have heard it was better than the prequals so that's something and I look forward to seeing the new storm trooper variants in action as I like trooper costuming. I just wish they could have brought us another Darth Maul-esque character(the coolest bad guy they developed yet for SW who like every cool bad guy, gets chumped.)

I think the two Death Star battles and the Hoth scenes are by far the best parts of the original series and always enjoyed the SW flight sim games over the walking around and doing stuff games. Its why Rebels ticks me off when they introduce fighters that weren't even developed yet as being part of the Rebellion and Empire while other niggling things don't even phase me. While I mostly dislike the jedi, I am still interested in seeing how all three characters get killed off before Episode 4 time frame starts.

Nothing spoiling here, but just proof that karma exists (warning: some language in written form):

HAHA That was great. We got a good laugh at that one.

Col. Dash wrote:
Going regardless, already have tickets for Sunday in an IMAX. If I go in with low expectations then I wont be disappointed. I have heard it was better than the prequals so that's something and I look forward to seeing the new storm trooper variants in action as I like trooper costuming. I just wish they could have brought us another Darth Maul-esque character(the coolest bad guy they developed yet for SW who like every cool bad guy, gets chumped.)

I think the two Death Star battles and the Hoth scenes are by far the best parts of the original series and always enjoyed the SW flight sim games over the walking around and doing stuff games. Its why Rebels ticks me off when they introduce fighters that weren't even developed yet as being part of the Rebellion and Empire while other niggling things don't even phase me. While I mostly dislike the jedi, I am still interested in seeing how all three characters get killed off before Episode 4 time frame starts.

Yes it's better than the prequels, but I think you will find the movie average based on what you are saying. At the very least I can say you won't be bored (hard to be bored when everything happens so fast I guess).

The space ship battles seemed like they tried going for a New Hope... but with little to no focus on it. It was like the movie ignored them, only showing us a bit of it to remind us that "hey, there is still the X-Wing battle going on, don't forget". What we do see of the battles feels like it's in fast forward so there is little you can take in. You will also be annoyed at the villain in this. Honestly he is the most pathetic one yet and the main role is (in my opinion) the weakest (in terms of quality) one yet. Both of which come down to the fact that the pacing is off in my opinion.

However unlike watching the prequels recently this movie is certainly not boring. It's really like a big budget action film. It's got lots of humor (even when not appropriate), heaps of action, every setting is quickly discarded after some action to go to the next and there is plenty of carnage. But it's not the kind of movie that you will want to watch more than a couple of times.

I will say there is hope though, from what I can gather people loved Poe and Fin a lot. Im pretty sure they are gonna end up being more prominent later, which I hope too because after the beginning (the films strongest part) I thought the 2 went well together as actors. Their scene was a little over the top in terms of action and it was somewhat fleeting by, but after seeing that scene along with the intro I was pretty excited for the movie. I would say the high point is

All in all, no harm in seeing it, but it's not the starwars you want by the sounds of it.

As a massive star wars fan, it's a really good film. Far better than any of the prequels.

I want to say more but...




On Buttery Commissar's spoiler question.

Better than the prequels and it has moments that are worthy of the Original trilogy.

It also has some saggy bits (you could cut out vast chunks and not lose anything important) but at no point does it feel like a bad film, just maybe not a great one.

Daisy Ridley was the stand out newbie. Not a great actor yet, but lots of energy and enthusiasm, like a young Mark Hamill. She actually carried the film rather well.

EDIT - I liked the villain when he has the helmet on. When it's off... hmm

I did have a theory during the film that the actor will become the next Robert Pattinson with legions of fangirls.

I thought Rey was pretty poor. Especially her running, I have never seen someone run like that, it was very jarring. She acted the optimism parts pretty well, but the rest she has some real weird faces and movements. I guess clumsy is the way to describe her for me.

I think her character was more the problem than anything else. Would have been cooler if she wasn't the magic answer to all the problems they faced.

Looking back at Luke, he didn't do much himself compared to Rey. His strength was in his friends (which is a big part of Episode 6) and this shows when many of his problems are solved through team work and others helping hand. When he does things on his own they often fail.

Rey however, Rey just does everything and fixes everything. I may be remembering wrong but it felt like she was one of those characters that's just too perfect, especially without build up.

I can only hope that the next movie is a "harder level" so they can actually face challenges together and not have one character carry the whole movie because reasons.

This is partly why I much preferred Fin and Poe as characters. They failed in tasks, helped each other out and actually had decent character arcs where they over came something etc.

Definitely a character that needs a lot of improvement.

The thing that needs improving for me is a plot that doesn't...



This felt very similar to Bryan Singer's all too reverential Superman film, which again was not a bad film, but a bit too wary of being it's own thing.

I also think that the Mission and the Light/Dark plot arcs should be equal to each other (something Jedi pulled off quite well), whereas in this one, the Mission part of the film definitely plays second fiddle.

Now, with all of the world having seen the movie so far... I have a technical question:

Do the past few days of showings get counted in the "opening weekend" box office numbers?

I've watched it and it's kinda mediocre.