Here is an optional thread for discussion of the new (at this writing) Star Wars movie.

Here you don't have to use spoilers (so I won't be here for awhile, my schedule is tight and I want to see the movie WITH friends). :-)

First guess, Jar Jar is everyone's grandfather...

Just watched it with my mates, bit of a disappointment. It had all the bits that you might expect, but somehow no oomph. Darth Vader owned every scene he was in from that first labored breath now we get a wannabe Sparkle-Vampire? What gives?

I haven't seen the movie, and honestly I'm not sure I will. I read nearly everything in the Expanded Universe (except Crystal Star), I played everything from KOTOR to Bounty Hunter, and I own all three of the roleplaying games. The Expanded Universe was so much of my childhood, I just don't know that I can start it all over again.

I can't say that I agree about the new sithy guy. Granted he's no Vader, heck, he barely qualifies as a Darth in my mind, but as I saw it, that was the point. He was trying too hard to be a Sith, and knew he'd never make it. The thing I was actually annoyed by was that the end is a total cliffhanger! I mean, who ends a movie with a scene where the entire point of the movie is about to be revealed officially, when no dialogue and ...ROLL CREDITS!

Probably someone who really wants you to see the second and third movie.

I just saw the new movie this morning.  I had to support my home bot BB8 in his debut of course.  He was a real hero, standing up to the big bad Empire and accepting his dangerous mission took real courage.  He is amazing, a real inspiration!  Oh and of course there were some organics who did some stuff too.

I agree with Nate though.  I think the whole point about Kylo Ren was very conflicted, and hadn't been thoroughly trained yet.  It is even mentioned that his final training had not yet occurred.

I liked the cliffhanger, though I wish he'd had at least one line.  Something like "I know why you've come" or "we need to talk" or even "I've been waiting for you"  would have been cool.  I enjoyed it all though.

I have now seen the movie and, by and large, I liked it.

It did remind me of A New Hope a little too much.  But I think that was Disney's intention; to wash off the prequel stench and to show the world that Disney understands what made Star Wars what is was in the first place (or at least that is its intention).

Remember, that Disney sunk over $4 billion into Star Wars and needs to sell this franchise so the first movie couldn't be that controversial.

As far as this game continuity goes, I can't see anything new that would invalidate the old.  I would guess that holding a blaster bolt in mid-air is a variant of absorb/dissipate energy that is kept 'up'.  This serves no real purpose as no one would willingly stand in front of the bolt when it was released.

I think Kylo Ren was just needing to show up which seems to suit his insecure character.  He seems to have the Skywalker line's whininess down.  It must be genetic.

It seems a hyperdrive can be used straight out of a space hangar or very close to a planet.  I guess hyperdrives have been greatly improved over the intervening decades (and the Millennium Falcon has been upgraded, probably given its performance in Empire) or Solo is just that good an astrogator.

I'm enjoying reading your thoughts...

I was very disappointed by pretty much all of the 'plot', or what passed for one. The only think I really enjoyed was some of the scenery and a couple of moments which were laugh out loud.

I'm not going to bore people with a long list of things that I didn't like but for me the whole 'catch the droid with the secret information on a desert planet while a planet killer superweapon is about to destroy the Rebels' was just too much to be a passing nod to A New Hope, it was a total rip off.

How come the 'fleet' seemed to consist of a dozen or so X-Wings and an old freighter?

With a few day's prospective, the 'high' of seeing new Star Wars for the first time in a decade has faded a little.

I now consider Episode VII to be superior to all of the prequels and comparable to ROTJ in my estimate.  For my money, Star Wars was perfected in Empire but only after a spectacular introduction to this new Galaxy in A New Hope.

An optional question for y'all.

Rey has progressed very quickly in Force powers compared to the other young Jedi we have seen before training, such as Anakin or Luke.  Do you think there is something special about Rey (she is just that promising or she has been trained but those memories are not known to her, etc) or that the Force itself is literally awakening, taking an active part in supercharging receptive young talents?

I thought it was good, but I did not feel that special chemistry between the cast. It also did not have the light hearted banter like the first one. It seemed to take itself to serious. The one exception was Harrison Ford. He was still the lovable rogue with a heart of gold.

In reply to Shen Nyun (msg # 8):

2 reasons that I Can think of Shen.

1: If you look at the X-Wings they /are/ a bit sleeker in look IMHO, they are 'newer' and the reason the fleet on both sides are still using X-Wings and Tie Fighters is cause they're reliable.

The United States Military have used the F-16 fighter since 1973.. that's 42, almost 43 years the F-15 since a year before that, both of which are still in use.

Because the New Order blew up the Republic fleet in harbor and the Republic Senate in chamber, first thing. What the Rebels prevented was the second firing.

@EX- It may be even simpler than that, the Republic is not a military society and probably hasn't built any new weapons.

In reply to That Old Fossil (msg # 9):

In regards to Rey I have two thoughts: first we have no clue who her parents are so she could be the daughter of a Jedi, though I pray not a Skywalker.  The Jedi order has had quite enough of those!  Second, it could simply be that her powers truly awakened when she touched Luke's light sabre (that sounded so wrong lol).   I do think you are right about the force awakening though.  Whenever there is an imbalance the force seems to always compensate.  if Luke is truly the last Jedi then it's way out of balance.

Good replies, all!

Solo may have started with a heart of gold but he ended up with a heart of saber. ;-)

For those that have not already seen it, I include the Twitter account of Emo Kylo Ren

https://mobile.twitter.com/kylor3n

And then there is Very Lonely Luke at https://twitter.com/verylonelyluke

OMG Old Fossil VLL is hysterical :-)

Finally read the book.  I finally can go on the internet again without looking around corners.

I'd really like to read the book.  Was there anything in the novel that wasn't in the movie, Akiri?

I...uh...didn't see the movie.

I would imagine.