MovieChat Forums > Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) Discussion > When do you think it all started to go w...

When do you think it all started to go wrong?

posted 5 years ago by ProgsReturn (2232)
37 replies | jump to latest

So I re-watched TFA recently, the first since when it was first released in the theatres. In my opinion, I think it started off ok, new characters getting precedence over the originals and all that. Thought that Finn and Poe's escape by Tie-fighter was a bit cheesy tho. Came across as an action sequence bolted on to the story for the sake of having an action sequence.
There's a shot of Rey sitting against a fallen AT-AT, surrounded by sand dunes. She puts on a helmet and looks up. OK she aspires to be a pilot on a desert planet. Deja-vu anyone? But...
Not only has she got the Millenium Falcon on her doorstep, she can fly it too! It's still junk status though, despite being the most iconic ship in the galaxy. And then it kind of snowballs from there. Unexplainable Force powers, expert piloting skills, even knows the Falcon's systems inside out.
Then Luke's back story is revealed (rolls eyes)

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

[deleted]

[–] johnmiller (4011) 5 years ago

When they decided to make this trilogy.

[–] arflexit (2376) 5 years ago

It is hard to single out a single moment that it started to go wrong. Many of the early scenes involving Rey are good indicators. or the "who talks first, you talk first; I talk first" attempt at humor is a pretty good indicator something was up. For me I think I started to really question what the hell I was watching when Rey was literally fully conversing with a droid (BB-8) speaking in chirps and chimes of binary. I was like, oh this lone scavenger can speak droid? That moment for me was an indication whoever wrote this film did not understand the OT and did not understand the lore; organic beings could not speak droid; that is why interpreter droids such as C-3PO existed.

That whole first scene with Rey and BB-8 just had so many things wrong with it; like how she nobly and for no reason 'saves' the droid (which made no sense because the other scavenger was just as entitled to the claim as she was). The other scavenger puts up no fights; but then she just sends the droid to the town where other scavengers will pick it up. What was she saving BB-8 From. Then she like in an annoyed fashion tries rejecting helping it, (again in full conversation with a droid). So she is both treating it like a person and not like a person at the same time. Why even bother saving it if you are 'too busy?' to help it? why send it to the very place you were stopping the other scavenger from taking it? Jesus everytime I think about this particular scene my head starts to hurt.

Someone else pointed out the moment that the Falcon showed up. That is another good indicator because everything after that basically went down hill.

[–] tom8 (3119) 5 years ago

true about bb8 .......

also how could she fly and repair the falcon..... yes, she is a scavenger, and a jedi/sith,
but repair a ship she dont know and flying that ship, don't think she ever have flown even A ship before...that is a skill that no jedi or sith is just born with .. so just, how?

[–] arflexit (2376) 5 years ago

Another problem with here flying the falcon is there is no set up for her being a pilot. There is just one line right before she does it; Finn: "We need a pilot" Rey: "We've got one". That is it; that is the set up we get before she is doing some of the craziest stunt piloting moves we have ever seen.

That is a trend with the character; there is no real set up she can just do everything. The language one bothers me quite a bit; not only do she speak droid but also later she is speaking with Chewie; I didn't see any freaking Wookies walking around in Jakuu, how the hell does she speak every language? Pretty convenient.

[–] tom8 (3119) 5 years ago

true...... i like the actress though, don't think anyone else could do it better. we just needed an explanation for all the stuff she can do.

[–] arflexit (2376) 5 years ago

I don't know about the actress outside these films; so I can't judge if she is good or not; but her performance and delivery as Rey was terrible. Sure she sold the 'cute' act well enough; she was able to get a sympathetic response form the audience; but because I have no heart and the only sympathy I can find is in the dictionary between "shit" and "syphilis" I was not affected. So I just observed the performance.

What I found while watching is that during action sequences her body language is all wrong and awkward. She was clearly not used to and not conferrable with physical stunts required of her. Her facial expressions are often all wrong for a given scene and either end up looking too blank or over 'emoted'. For example That scene when she meets BB-8 and she is supposed to be reluctantly agreeing to take him with her; when she gives that head nod look at her face; it is such an over exaggerated look like something out of a soap opera. There are literally dozens of examples of this.

And that is not even going into her delivery of the dialogue.

Now I will admit, that I might have been judging her too harshly because I was already getting very annoyed with the movie and the way they were trying to desperately manipulate us into loving this character. Usually when that happens I have the opposite reaction and really end up hating the character. So my view of the actor's performance might have been the result of hypersensitivity due to my annoyance.

[–] tom8 (3119) 5 years ago

yes, but who could have done better..... it had to be an unknown actor

[–] arflexit (2376) 5 years ago

I don't really know how to speculate on who could have done better in hypothetical scenarios. Given the script they had no one would have been able to make a great characters out of Rey but I think they should have focused on finding someone that was a little more comfortable with stunts and fighting choreography in films. They needed to find a younger Milla Jovovich type, a la Fifth Element. Daisey Ridley just does not do action scenes convincingly the same way Milla or even Kate Beckinsale in the underworld series does. Too much teeth barring and uncertainty/awkwardness in her body movements. maybe Summer Glau if she is not too type casted after Firefly?

Honestly it does not really matter how 'good' of an actress they got; since they were going to be making Rey a character involved in a majority of the action scenes they needed someone that was comfortable with action and stunts (also the character of Rey does not have very much depth, so there is not really much their to act on anyway). Daisy I just found very unconvincing. But maybe that is because everything about the actress and character were just trying too hard to be portrayed as 'awesome' I found it tiresome and annoying.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 5 years ago

When the Empire and the Rebellion stopped killing each other and instead kept each other "covered" at the end of RotJ.
I was OK with the Ewoks themselves. They were savage little carnivores who were going to eat our heroes. Their implausible war preparations on the other hand ...

[–] ProgsReturn (2232) 5 years ago

You know what, since the stormtroopers and presumably the tie- fighters as well are all clones, where did they all go?

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 5 years ago

That is a damn good question.

[–] degree7 (821) 5 years ago

From the opening crawl. Apparently there is a “First Order” now? What, how? The Empire was destroyed and the Alliance had taken over. Why is there even a “Resistance”? Why are we back to square one after only 30 years? Oh that’s right, this is a reboot.

[–] Ace_Spade (9658) 5 years ago

The first sign was hiding the secret plans in the droid. "Oh, it's just A New Hope again." It was made by committee. They were playing it safe. They were aware of the backlash against the prequels and they wanted a dose of heavy nostalgia for fans. You could then see them checking boxes through the whole thing(Rey repeatedly rejects Finn's hand-holding to indicate her strong woman-ness (check); X-wings show up at some point (check)).

It was a fun movie, though. I like it more than the prequels. But, yeah, it was corporate-made.

[–] Devilman (450) 5 years ago

It all went wrong when storm troopers and 'Darth Vader v2' aka "Kylo Ren" appeared and we started to learn it's a semi-reboot of a "New Hope" because J.J is just a spoiled Hollywood talent-less cut and paste hack.

[–] tsrt (1177) 4 years ago

No familiar characters in the first 40 minutes. They knew this was a sequel right?