The Force Awakens What DIDN'T you like (SPOILERS WITHIN)

[RocketsNutz]

Hate to say it but I'm feeling a little more negative than positive right now about it.

Won't get into all of them right now but here are a few...

1) Finn - If he was working on sanitation previous, why was he sent on the Jakku mission? Sure is humorous and talkative guy to have been raised a soldier.
2) The entire sequence on Han's freighter. Totally unnecessary for the time it took.
3) Gotta be bugged by the lack of Phasma. Boba 2.0
4) X-wings seemed pretty well outnumbered to have lasted so long at the end... and besides that, they don't have other ships? No Heavy Bomber support from Y-wings even though this group represents the Republic?
5) Something about the movements/renderings of the Tie-fighters bugs me.
6) Snoke.... just how he's presented. As someone else said, felt Harry Potterish for me, and also oddly very CG in a otherwise practical effects laden movie... yes he was a projection, but just still those scenes were just weird.
7) Bothered by the lack of set-up of the state of the galaxy... just felt a little confusing. I assume the Republic might not have a true army of it's own, and so that is where the resistance comes in... but seems like if they control most of the Galaxy, they'd be a bit more sizable. Could be that I just didn't pick up on things... maybe i'll catch it when I see it again in the AM.
8) Virtually no aliens of races we've seen before -- makes it not feel like it's even remotely the same movie universe.
9) The 4 legged creature thing on Jakku that the little guy is riding... horrible puppetry, was like early immature Henson stuff... not in a good way.
10) Buzzard thing on Jakku... again more of the bad puppetry. To kinda cutesy/homagey
11) Too many homages (didn't need to see the game table come to life)

 

[Octoberist]

3. She's not since she's (most likely) is coming back. There's two more movies.

8. Maybe it's the other side of the galaxy.

 

[RocketsNutz]

8. Maybe it's the other side of the galaxy.

Ahh but our favorite YT Corellian freighter just happens to be out there.

Look there were definitely some good designs, don't me wrong.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

I agree with 6
7 - the first shot starkiller made was at the centre of the republic and at their fleet
8 - there were a LOT of OT aliens in the movie. Not sure what you mean?

 

[Spider-Who?]

There's nothing about being a soldier that means you can't be talkative or humorous. But let's say that IS the case; the fact that Fin is talkative and funny is just more evidence that he didn't belong with the Order. And as for being assigned to sanitation, most if not all grunts are assigned different duties while on base. It's not a fluke in writing; just a fact of military life. There are plenty of reasons why he might not have been assigned a mission before.

 

[horacethegrey]

My biggest dislike is the reused plot elements from A New Hope. I mean c'mon Abrams! Do we really need to see Campbell's The Hero's Journey yet again on film? Can't we go for a more original plot?

Gwendoline Christie's completely thankless part as Captain Phasma. I mean you're going to get Brienne of F***ing Tarth to play this badass stormtrooper commander and then dump her in the garbage (literally!).

Luke being relegated to a cameo in the end. I wished he had more involvement in the plot.

 

[ares834]

Snoke. Admittedly he was barely in the film, but what we saw wasn't all that impressive. I wasn't a fan of his design and he seems so far to basically be another Palpatine.

I also wasn't a fan of Rey randomly learning powers when she needed to. And having her defeat Kylo at the end despite apparently having never used a saber before was too much.

Finally, I thought the score was utterly forgettable. Easily the worst of any SW film.

 

[zebkillgrave]

The big one for me was that it seemed like the First Order blowing up the core of the Republic should have been a bigger deal. It happens, you see the cool speech from Hux, you see the scared people on the planets, but we're never told what each of those planets are (heck, one of them looked like Coruscant), they aren't really mentioned specifically earlier, and the characters don't seem particularly concerned that so many people just died and that the Republic has just been taken down. It bothered me a lot.

 

[DACrowe]

Let me just say that I really LIKED this film (though I don't think I loved it). But since this thread is here, already after one viewing, I have some issues and they're mainly confined to:

1. The third act just felt rushed. The whole reusing the Death Star (but now it's a "Star Killer") and having X-Wings blow it up felt lazy and half-hearted. The only real climax was first the scene between Kylo Ren and Han Solo, and then with Rey realizing her destiny. The rest felt like filler, and given how great the climaxes were in the OT, this is a problem.

2. While Kylo Ren was a terrifically nasty villain and Adam Driver killed it, Supreme Leader Snoke sucked. Again reusing formula beats from the old movies, but this CGI creation isn't 1/8th as menacing or cool as Ian McDiarmid's Emperor.

3. Clearly and heavily foreshadowing that [blackout]Rey is Luke's daughter but not following through on that in the resolution. It's a weaker cliffhanger. A better ending would have been Luke saying, "Rey, I am your father."[/blackout]

4. Not enough Poe Dameron.

All in all though, these do not make it a bad film like the prequels. In fact, it is pretty great for the first two-thirds. And overall, it is a blast. But I think these are issues that keep it from even "Return of the Jedi" status. Maybe with a director who is less known to fawn over the past like Abrams, the next one will actually strike out on its own and forge its own destiny, so to speak.

 

[zebkillgrave]

The big one for me was that it seemed like the First Order blowing up the core of the Republic should have been a bigger deal. It happens, you see the cool speech from Hux, you see the scared people on the planets, but we're never told what each of those planets are (heck, one of them looked like Coruscant), they aren't really mentioned specifically earlier, and the characters don't seem particularly concerned that so many people just died and that the Republic has just been taken down. It bothered me a lot.

Actually, I think it was Coruscant. In which case, they should have said the word "Coruscant." Would have done a lot to increase audience sympathy. I might need to see that part again. But it doesn't change that there wasn't much reaction to it.

 

[def28]

I agree with most the common complaints. The things that I think bothered me the most were.

- I hated how Finn and Rey could just wield a lightsaber against someone who was trained by Luke Skywalker without getting worked. That fight should have been Chewie, Finn and Rey fighting Ren at the same time. Also didn't like how easy it was for Rey to use Jedi mind tricks.

-The composition of the galaxy wasn't really well mapped.

-Snoke

-Not enough Poe Dameron.

 

[ares834]

Ah, forgot the Rathtars. They looked terrible. As did the Luggabeast.

 

[Quasimod0]

- I hated how Finn and Rey could just wield a lightsaber against someone who was trained by Luke Skywalker without getting worked. That fight should have been Chewie, Finn and Rey fighting Ren at the same time. Also didn't like how easy it was for Rey to use Jedi mind tricks.

To be fair, Kylo was hurt and he was an emotional wreck. That definitely threw off his game and he was also too blinded by rage.

Even with all that, he still kicked Finn's butt and Rey gave him a run for his money because she was more in touch with the force than he was and it was flowing through her, I guess you could say.
On a normal day, Kylo would've probably wiped the floor with her.

 

[Lencho01]

It was more-or-less a remake of the original. A remix, if you will.

 

[def28]

To be fair, Kylo was hurt and he was an emotional wreck. That definitely threw off his game and he was also too blinded by rage.

Even with all that, he still kicked Finn's butt and Rey gave him a run for his money because she was more in touch with the force than he was and it was flowing through her, I guess you could say.
On a normal day, Kylo would've probably wiped the floor with her.

I'm sure that was the intention, but even damaged like he was Kylo's power set that was established throughout should have aloud him to obliterate. Finn and Rey should not have been that well off either.

I didn't believe either had earned to fight a character of that level. But this was all the film had for him to battle. Rey got away with just having skills out of nowhere.

 

[Octoberist]

Isn't the point that Kylo is a head case, despite his position in the First Order? He a loose canon, he has a temper, and he's childish. So even with a higher skill set, he can be be easily distracted because he's an emotional person, no?

 

[Zant]

It was more-or-less a remake of the original. A remix, if you will.

I don't really mind that. I enjoyed the first Amazing Spiderman film. That was also a remix of the 2002 Spidey film.

 

[def28]

Isn't the point that Kylo is a head case, despite his position in the First Order? He a loose canon, he has a temper, and he's childish. So even with a higher skill set, he can be be easily distracted because he's an emotional person, no?

If you grabbed a lightsaber for the first time allegedly you could go up against the films main bad guy trained by a Jedi Knight in a decent but non impressive choreographed fight without having been trained at all.

He took Rey out pretty quick using a push. Yet he goes extremely easy on her during the lightsaber battle and she all of a sudden is a pro wielding a saber. It did not display their power sets well, or consistent to the early beginnings of their character. Again, this guy was trained by Skywalker. It's tough to see that not being a huge advantage vs these noobs.

Yeah, Ren is not all there and filled with rage. So his moves should have been alot more violent and powerful like displayed in the earlier scenes of the film when he loses it. Rey and Finn fighting him at the same time would have seemed more believable then one on ones with how Kylo Ren was set up.

I think I may have a bigger problem with how fast Rey just naturally knows all this Jedi stuff without being trained. Ultimately this was enough to take me and my friends out of the film a few times and create alot of discussion in the theatre.

 

[Serpico Jones]

Isn't the point that Kylo is a head case, despite his position in the First Order? He a loose canon, he has a temper, and he's childish. So even with a higher skill set, he can be be easily distracted because he's an emotional person, no?

Yes. Before he engages in the sword fight he begins punching his own injury to make himself even more insane with rage. He also has Rey dead to rights at one point but instead of finishing her off he tries to get her to join him. Big mistake.

 

[CGHulk]

I didn't like the big pig drinking out of the water, it it looked like it was made out of cotton tarp. The skin flopped around and when it moved around and the air sucked the tarp in and out of it when it moved.

My nephew thought the story was too slow at times, but he's used to louder faster movies.

I don't like that Supreme Leader Snoke is CG.

 

[Serpico Jones]

I didn't like the cantina sequence very much. Pales in comparison to the original and is my one complaint about the film. Luckily it's over pretty quick.

 

[Drizzle]

For the most part, I loved the fast paced editing but I felt like the ending was rushed. I would have liked to see a scene that showed Kylo Ren, Hux and Phasma escaping Starkiller Base. I know the dialogue between Snoke and Hux explained it, but it was a very short amount of time between the lightsaber fight and the base exploding. How did Kylo Ren get away so fast?

 

[Marvolo]

Hate to say it but I'm feeling a little more negative than positive right now about it.

Won't get into all of them right now but here are a few...

1) Finn - If he was working on sanitation previous, why was he sent on the Jakku mission? Sure is humorous and talkative guy to have been raised a soldier.
2) The entire sequence on Han's freighter. Totally unnecessary for the time it took.
3) Gotta be bugged by the lack of Phasma. Boba 2.0
4) X-wings seemed pretty well outnumbered to have lasted so long at the end... and besides that, they don't have other ships? No Heavy Bomber support from Y-wings even though this group represents the Republic?
5) Something about the movements/renderings of the Tie-fighters bugs me.
6) Snoke.... just how he's presented. As someone else said, felt Harry Potterish for me, and also oddly very CG in a otherwise practical effects laden movie... yes he was a projection, but just still those scenes were just weird.
7) Bothered by the lack of set-up of the state of the galaxy... just felt a little confusing. I assume the Republic might not have a true army of it's own, and so that is where the resistance comes in... but seems like if they control most of the Galaxy, they'd be a bit more sizable. Could be that I just didn't pick up on things... maybe i'll catch it when I see it again in the AM.
8) Virtually no aliens of races we've seen before -- makes it not feel like it's even remotely the same movie universe.
9) The 4 legged creature thing on Jakku that the little guy is riding... horrible puppetry, was like early immature Henson stuff... not in a good way.
10) Buzzard thing on Jakku... again more of the bad puppetry. To kinda cutesy/homagey
11) Too many homages (didn't need to see the game table come to life)

You've never actually met or gotten to know any soldiers, have you?

 

[Octoberist]

It feels like of those are more like nitpicks than actual film criticism.

 

[kickass]

The biggest complaint I have is that there is just no drama. There is no emotional drama. I just finished watching the OT before I saw TFA, and those first 3 films had real emotional drama. This film, while I really liked it, lacks any heavy drama. The thing that makes the OT so great is that it's set in space and there's action and adventure, but there's also drama. And I use that word in a way to describe characters dealing with some heavy baggage or personalized stakes. This film only scratches the very thin surface of that.

The Starkiller Base is unclimatic. It's there, but you don't fear it or are afraid of it or care about it. It is just a painting in the background. Starkiller base needed more explaining and climax and WEIGHT. There was no weight to it. Take "weight" how ever you wish to, whether physically or theoretically. That thing destroyed like, 6 planets and there was no outcry from the good guys. Why?

Also with the Starkiller, they didn't explain that the damn planet was a giant weapon. I know you can see that it is yourself, obviously, but but talking a big game about it - which is what General Hux should have done in his otherwise awesome speech - we as the audience would have understood what exactly it was firing and what the hell it was to begin with.

SNOKE. Oh man. There is o excuse why they couldn't have a man in makeup act this part. No excuse at all. Someone paid someone else some money under the table to make sure Andy Serkis got play with his toys in this film. Awful. He looked like Voldemort. He was as cartoony as Voldemort was in the first Harry Potter (when his face is coming out from behind the other dudes head). I DO like how he looks perched up on a giant chair like he's Abraham Lincoln though. But again, no CGI was needed. AT. ALL.