Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens (spoiler-free thread)

... visions of Jedi knights beating dead horses whilst jumping sharks... Must...Switch... Threads...

PeggyC said:

I used to work with a woman who was Christian Hayden's aunt. It was really embarrassing to talk to her about those movies, which came out around the time I was working with her, because she thought he was so wonderful. Meanwhile, he was easily the most wooden actor I'd ever seen, at least as Anakin Skywalker. Horrible. He could have killed those movies all by himself.

I still blame the director. Hayden's part, as written, wasn't one of a boy in love, but of a boy who had grown up utterly obsessed with Amidala. When he meets her, he's awkward and weird, but because Lucas wanted us to follow a love story instead, he directed that and not the story he had written. It's like he changed his mind half way through but didn't change the script. So Hayden is left with all these weird scenes, and we're supposed to take it like they're falling for each other when there's no way she should go near him.

Needed at least a best friend there to tell him how weird he is, at least so we could see that she didn't see him that way.

Disney will do right by Star Wars. I am glad they own it. I wasn't thrilled with some of the actors ( Hayden) or characters ( Jar Jar) but I still liked the prequels. Such a great story-hard to still not like it even if it wasn't done perfectly.

ridski said:

LOST said:

You folks are like the guys on "The Big Bang Theory"

Except we're funny.

um....

drummerboy said:

ridski said:

LOST said:

You folks are like the guys on "The Big Bang Theory"

Except we're funny.

um....

Okay. Except you're funny.

conandrob240 said:

Disney will do right by Star Wars. I am glad they own it. I wasn't thrilled with some of the actors ( Hayden) or characters ( Jar Jar) but I still liked the prequels. Such a great story-hard to still not like it even if it wasn't done perfectly.

I'm the exact opposite. I think it's a horrendously overwrought contrived mess of a story and the prequels utterly destroyed the entire multiverse including the original movie. Even Disney ain't gonna be able to unscramble them eggs.

If you don't like the whole story of Star Wars, why are you even interested and on this thread? I don't understand.

What multiverse?

The original Star Wars was a defining moment in many a childhood, including mine. I am far from the only person who loathes the direction Lucas took with the prequels and especially the horrendous doctoring of the original to "fit" his later contrivances.

One of the best Father's Days of my life. 1999. My older son is 4 years old. To date, he has only seen animated movies, mostly on video at home. I excitedly take him to see The Phantom Menace. From the moment it started, every time I glanced over, his head was cocked back, eyes and mouth wide open. For the pod race, he slid up to the edge of his seat and looked like the Maxell guy getting blown away by the magnitude of the sound and the visual. Sure, the writing was eh, Jar Jar was silly, young Anakin’s acting was awful even for a kid that age...but I saw Episode I through my kid’s eyes, and it was one of the most positive and memorable movie experiences I’ve ever had – right there on the list with the first Star Wars at the Loews Astor Plaza in the summer of ’77 (I was 13).

(Sidebar: 2 months later we saw The Iron Giant. Still my favorite animated movie ever.)

After seeing The Phantom Menace, my son naturally wanted every Episode I thing known to man, be it action figures, Legos…we even still eat off our young Anakin plastic plates! As a result, I have great affection for the prequel characters like Qui Gon, Watto, Darth Maul (oh yes, Darth Maul), Boss Nass...and even Jar Jar. But for Hayden Christensen’s horrendous performances, indeed some pretty bad writing, and the odd appearance of Jimmy Smits, I continued to enjoy the prequels because of my sons. Dooku, Ki-Adi-Mundi, General Grievous, Clone Troopers...all good stuff as far as I’m concerned.

So, while I fully understand how so many people have disdain for the prequels, I will always have a soft spot, especially for Episode I.

I needed this.

Adam Driver is in this movie? Maybe I can get my wife to go with me on that basis.

As an adult survivor of "Highlander 2" I feel qualified to comment on the Star Wars prequels. They sucked ass. They were embarrassing. They are best left forgotten.

Not a ringing endorsement, I know, but Disney cannot possibly ***** this franchise up more than Toyboy Lucas has already done. I have high hopes for the movie.

wnb said:

The original Star Wars was a defining moment in many a childhood, including mine. I am far from the only person who loathes the direction Lucas took with the prequels and especially the horrendous doctoring of the original to "fit" his later contrivances.

Oh. So the bit when Greedo actually fires is considered a multiverse then.

Train_of_Thought said:

One of the best Father's Days of my life. 1999. My older son is 4 years old. To date, he has only seen animated movies, mostly on video at home. I excitedly take him to see The Phantom Menace. From the moment it started, every time I glanced over, his head was cocked back, eyes and mouth wide open. For the pod race, he slid up to the edge of his seat and looked like the Maxell guy getting blown away by the magnitude of the sound and the visual. Sure, the writing was eh, Jar Jar was silly, young Anakin’s acting was awful even for a kid that age...but I saw Episode I through my kid’s eyes, and it was one of the most positive and memorable movie experiences I’ve ever had – right there on the list with the first Star Wars at the Loews Astor Plaza in the summer of ’77 (I was 13).

(Sidebar: 2 months later we saw The Iron Giant. Still my favorite animated movie ever.)

After seeing The Phantom Menace, my son naturally wanted every Episode I thing known to man, be it action figures, Legos…we even still eat off our young Anakin plastic plates! As a result, I have great affection for the prequel characters like Qui Gon, Watto, Darth Maul (oh yes, Darth Maul), Boss Nass...and even Jar Jar. But for Hayden Christensen’s horrendous performances, indeed some pretty bad writing, and the odd appearance of Jimmy Smits, I continued to enjoy the prequels because of my sons. Dooku, Ki-Adi-Mundi, General Grievous, Clone Troopers...all good stuff as far as I’m concerned.

So, while I fully understand how so many people have disdain for the prequels, I will always have a soft spot, especially for Episode I.

That's awesome. My dad was 2 years older than I am now when he took me to see Star Wars. It was the 3rd time I had seen it. He fell asleep and snored loudly through most of it. I still fricking loved it.

ridski said:

wnb said:

The original Star Wars was a defining moment in many a childhood, including mine. I am far from the only person who loathes the direction Lucas took with the prequels and especially the horrendous doctoring of the original to "fit" his later contrivances.

Oh. So the bit when Greedo actually fires is considered a multiverse then.

I think it actually has to be... And there are a lot more. Han talking to Jabba in so-called "episode 4" which is such an awful splice you can almost see the tape marks on the film as it rolls by, and a certain minor and exceedingly uninteresting cartoon character known as Boba Fett.

i remember being in a line that wrapped around an nyc city block twice for the empire opening. Best week of my life.

wnb said:

ridski said:

wnb said:

The original Star Wars was a defining moment in many a childhood, including mine. I am far from the only person who loathes the direction Lucas took with the prequels and especially the horrendous doctoring of the original to "fit" his later contrivances.

Oh. So the bit when Greedo actually fires is considered a multiverse then.

I think it actually has to be... And there are a lot more. Han talking to Jabba in so-called "episode 4" which is such an awful splice you can almost see the tape marks on the film as it rolls by, and a certain minor and exceedingly uninteresting cartoon character known as Boba Fett.

Sure, but that's just a bad insert with a crap gag thrown in. It's not like it wasn't at one time part of the film, it wa. It wasn't in the released version. I don't look at the Aliens Special Edition and consider it a multiverse because of all the extra added scenes.

The addition of the cartoon Fett and jabba and the death star explosion looking like a sttg communicator badge :cringes:

Freeway said:

The addition of the cartoon Fett and jabba and the death star explosion looking like a sttg communicator badge :cringes:

Oh I agree, although I consider most of those changes in the SE superficial, other than Greedo shooting first (which doesn't happen in later versions). I'm just trying to figure out what wnb means by "multiverse".

My older son finally got to watch Star Wars as part of his 7th birthday earlier this year. I wanted to do it right, so I obtained the fan-produced "Despecialized Edition", which is a full HD, 5.1 treatment of the *original* film (doesn't even say "Episode IV" during the opening crawl). Worth the effort - it's in MKV format, so one for the slightly-techie:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-STAR-WARS-Despecialized-Edition-HD-V25-MKV-IS-OUT-NOW/topic/12713/

Or if you don't want to put in the effort, I'll hook you up with the mkv file (around 18 GB; so you'd need to lend me a drive).

There are other fan-produced DVDs of the unaltered Empire and Jedi, not HD but still worth tracking down. We'd watched those as well and had a blast. My Special Edition DVDs are happily collecting dust.

I also have the Rifftrax version of the famously awful Holiday Special - even with the MST3K guys joking, it's still tough going...

Forgetting for a second whether you agree with the sentiment- the cring-inducing "YOU ARE EITHER WITH ME OR YOU ARE MY ENEMY" "ANAKIN- YOU SOUND LIKE A SITH" exchange sits in my memory as the moment I gave up on the prequels and stopped defending them. They were and are a monument to Lucas's conceit.

Don't forget, Jar-Jar is from Maplewood...

Awesome. Still the worst character ever. EVER.

Maybe just the worst execution of a character ever. I didn't even watch the last of the prequels, because I knew where it had to be going, and because I couldn't stand Jar-Jar or Anakin. Pretty much in equal measure.

project37 said:

My older son finally got to watch Star Wars as part of his 7th birthday earlier this year. I wanted to do it right, so I obtained the fan-produced "Despecialized Edition", which is a full HD, 5.1 treatment of the *original* film (doesn't even say "Episode IV" during the opening crawl). Worth the effort - it's in MKV format, so one for the slightly-techie:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Harmys-STAR-WARS-Despecialized-Edition-HD-V25-MKV-IS-OUT-NOW/topic/12713/

Or if you don't want to put in the effort, I'll hook you up with the mkv file (around 18 GB; so you'd need to lend me a drive).

There are other fan-produced DVDs of the unaltered Empire and Jedi, not HD but still worth tracking down. We'd watched those as well and had a blast. My Special Edition DVDs are happily collecting dust.

I also have the Rifftrax version of the famously awful Holiday Special - even with the MST3K guys joking, it's still tough going...

Thanks very much - I've grabbed these and they're wonderful.

Happy Star Wars Day!

May the Fourth be with you!

may I also present to you The Ewok Adventure, narrated by the guy from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SghKMwhak-A

And it's stellar sequel, Battle for Endor, featuring Mr. vernon from The Breakfast Club.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s3OpUuCH8sc

Happy Star Wars Day.

http://youtu.be/LF44EDcjBeg

Did anyone catch Big Bang Theory on Thursday night? Star Wars day episode. They were watching all of them but clearly weren't fans of episodes 1-3. I can't remember what the plan was but it was something crazy like start with episode 4, watch 1& 2 as a flashback, skip 3 and then 5,6. Pretty funny.

NSFW.

http://youtu.be/Q4TX6x2WLgk