Friday, January 01, 2016

More on The Force Awakens

I saw Star Wars The Force Awakens a second time. This viewing was in 3D IMAX and it was a very nice. The film definitely holds up on second viewing though it did lose a bit of sense of wonder. Next time I'll have to do 2D to see how that works. I had some more (spoiler filled) thoughts...

SPOILERS

I'm more convinced that Rey had some Jedi training.

The comic series Star Wars Shattered Empire tells the story of Poe's parents during and just after the original trilogy. At the end they go on a mission to rescue the remains of the tree from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant that the Emperor stole. This time in TFA I noticed that Rey's home had a rebel pilot doll as well as a model of a tree. I think it might be some Jedi temple tree she saw in her training. Also, when BB-8 first shows the map, Han says that Luke went looking for the first Jedi Temple.

Kylo Ren knew Max Von Sydow's character. Ren said he looked older. I'm sticking with my idea that Rey was a Padawan and put in hiding after Ren went dark and Sydow is there to look after her. When Kylo was told that BB8 was a girl on Jakku almost shouts "What girl?". It's possible he knows of Rey from Jedi training days. Maybe he pieced something together from knowing that Sydow's character was on Jakku and if there were other Padawan survivors there.

When Kylo is interrogating Rey he mentions an island in a sea. That certainly foreshadows the ending, but it's not clear if it's literal or metaphorical.

A friend thought she saw a tombstone next to Luke at the end. I hadn't noticed it and looked for it this time. There's a rock that sticks up but I'm pretty certain it's not a tombstone.

Rey's lightsaber fighting was very defensive until she concentrated to use the Force, as if she remembered her training.

The Supreme Leader mentioned the Knights of Ren and Rey's dream showed Kylo surrounded by what looked to be six Knights dressed in black.

The film shows only 12 X-Wings attacking Starkiller Base and 7 return from the battle.

Leia does give Rey a big hug at the end but they've never met. It does seem a bit out of place.

When we meet R2D2, C3PO says it's unlikely R2 has a complete map in his backup data. It could be from then that R2 is working to find the original map, but it's still awkward.

I had read some things saying the Supreme Leader looked like Voldemort because he didn't have a nose. The Supreme Leader does have a nose.

Maz looks at Finn and says when you live long enough you recognize people's eyes. Perhaps Finn is a decendant of some we (or at least Maz) knows.

Quora has a thread, Who is Supreme Leader Snoke and what is his backstory?. The guess is he is Darth Plagueis.

Chris Taylor lists 27 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' questions answered by the novel. They're mostly minor points but there is some info about the Republic and Resistance that I think was useful.

Andrew Todd guesses at possible edits covering mistakes in the film. STAR WARS, Storytelling, And Fixing It In Post.. "But while you can identify filmmaking mistakes as a critic, as a filmmaker you feel them in your bones because you’ve probably made them too. You feel them in the weird omissions of information; in the equally weird over-explanation of other information; in the unmotivated cuts in the middle of scenes that could only exist to mask rewritten dialogue."

Patch-up jobs are everywhere in The Force Awakens. There are instances where characters go from point A to point C without hitting point B - in a way that in the moment just scrapes by, but doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Poe randomly showing up at the Resistance base? He was originally meant to die in the first act, so the connective tissue to get him to safety just wasn’t there. (What a terrific pivot it would have been to introduce that character then have Finn take over - but then fanfic writers would miss out on Poe/Finn possibilities, I guess.) It’s also why Maz Kanata suddenly disappears out of the movie - she originally stuck around, so there just wasn’t a farewell shot for that character.

Update: Based on the screenplay, Luke knows Rey. New Details About Star Wars: The Force Awakens Ending

Also: How Rey Reflects The Strengths & Weaknesses of Star Wars The Force Awakens

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