doo de doo, clean the droid
Dec. 19th, 2015 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishStar Wars [the original trilogy] In 30 Seconds. Just mentally replace the words "Phantom Menace" with "Force Awakens" at the end and you're ready to go.
So yeah, we went and saw the new Star Wars. Nonspoilery: it's not great, but it is good! I am not the most reliable of reporters here[1] but I enjoyed myself the whole way through, and would be willing to see it again. That is: if other people were going I would happily tag along, but I wouldn't make the effort to see it myself. Reasonably excited for Ep8 in a year and a half. Recommended if you are at all a fan of Star Wars; I expect J., the biggest SW geek I know, is absolutely thrilled to death.
[1] I also thought Phantom Menace was good the first time I saw it. In retrospect much of that was attributable to a) it *looked* like Star Wars, b) Liam Neeson, and in particular the Darth Maul fight at the end, and c) the Destructors, the droids at the beginning that rolled in and unfolded and started shooting.
I have no idea how it works for someone who didn't grow up watching the original trilogy over and over again on VHS.
The plot seemed intent on doing almost nothing but ringing changes on EpIV, starting from "droid with Important Information stranded on Sand Planet". This was amusing at first and got kind of irritating by the end. Too, the pacing felt rushed; there was rarely a chance to sit down and catch your breath. EpIV had lots of slower moments; this was all rush rush rush from the minute Rey and BB-8 first meet up.
Dialogue: again, good but not great. Poe's flippancy early on threw me a bit; the whole "Do you talk now? Or do I talk now?" thing felt out of place. Thankfully most of the rest of it fits in better but it's still not quite there.
Rey and Finn (and Moz, in support) are fantastic characters. Kylo Ren makes for an interesting villain; in a way he's what EpIII could have been. Looking forward to seeing what they make of him. As for Supreme Leader Snoke and the General... eh. Too generic, in Snoke's case; too over-the-top for the General.
But this is mostly The Rey And Finn Bumble Around Show (with support from BB-8 and Solo and Chewie), and I would totally watch another hour and a half of that.
Misc notes:
So yeah, we went and saw the new Star Wars. Nonspoilery: it's not great, but it is good! I am not the most reliable of reporters here[1] but I enjoyed myself the whole way through, and would be willing to see it again. That is: if other people were going I would happily tag along, but I wouldn't make the effort to see it myself. Reasonably excited for Ep8 in a year and a half. Recommended if you are at all a fan of Star Wars; I expect J., the biggest SW geek I know, is absolutely thrilled to death.
[1] I also thought Phantom Menace was good the first time I saw it. In retrospect much of that was attributable to a) it *looked* like Star Wars, b) Liam Neeson, and in particular the Darth Maul fight at the end, and c) the Destructors, the droids at the beginning that rolled in and unfolded and started shooting.
I have no idea how it works for someone who didn't grow up watching the original trilogy over and over again on VHS.
The plot seemed intent on doing almost nothing but ringing changes on EpIV, starting from "droid with Important Information stranded on Sand Planet". This was amusing at first and got kind of irritating by the end. Too, the pacing felt rushed; there was rarely a chance to sit down and catch your breath. EpIV had lots of slower moments; this was all rush rush rush from the minute Rey and BB-8 first meet up.
Dialogue: again, good but not great. Poe's flippancy early on threw me a bit; the whole "Do you talk now? Or do I talk now?" thing felt out of place. Thankfully most of the rest of it fits in better but it's still not quite there.
Rey and Finn (and Moz, in support) are fantastic characters. Kylo Ren makes for an interesting villain; in a way he's what EpIII could have been. Looking forward to seeing what they make of him. As for Supreme Leader Snoke and the General... eh. Too generic, in Snoke's case; too over-the-top for the General.
But this is mostly The Rey And Finn Bumble Around Show (with support from BB-8 and Solo and Chewie), and I would totally watch another hour and a half of that.
Misc notes:
- As expected, very weird to hear the main theme without the 20th Century Fox opening.
- Who brings in Max von Sydow just to kill him in the first five minutes?
- This is the problem with "Give in to your anger" Dark Side training: it leads directly to teenaged Dark Lords with poor impulse control smashing the crap out of the control room.
- NEEDS MOAR GENERAL LEIA. I am willing to cut it some slack as this was Solo's big movie, but, yeah.
- Speaking of: Harrison absolutely *killed it*.
- Favorite line: "That's not how the Force works!" Second favorite line: "Well, you must have been very brave."
- Mark Hamill is the same age as Alec Guinness was in 1977.
- Seeing "R2-D2 Consultant: Kenny Baker" in the credits made me happy.
- Now if they'll just bring back Billy Dee Williams.
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Date: 2015-12-23 03:57 am (UTC)...Yeah. It kinda did.
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Date: 2015-12-24 03:04 am (UTC)