Yeah, I saw the midnight show on Wednesday, pretty much agree with everything you've said there.

The review from Empire Magazine pretty much nails it on the head actually.

http://www.empireonline.com/movies/star … ns/review/

Came out of cinema grinning at around 3 am in the morning, and I'd never seen the place so packed, looks like they had TFA running in every screen for that first midnight show or something. Everyone was just buzzing.

I loved it, but like you say, probably need a little distance and perhaps a few repeat watchings to be truly objective about it. As at the moment you're just on a high after first watching a new Star Wars movie, need to come down and make considered critical analysis, but even now you're view is probably still influenced by the relief that it did not suck.

I also think a certain line regarding the Force is destined to be an instant classic.

"That's NOT how the Force works!"

Yeah, come to think of it I found the music a little underwhelming which definitely a surprise for a Star Wars movie. It wasn't bad exactly, just nothing jumped out and gripped me from the new themes that were introduced. Even the classic Star Wars fanfare felt a little different at the beginning, maybe that was intentionally a slightly different arrangement to differentiate it from the previous 6? Perhaps the new music will take more of a hold of me on repeat viewings, listening to the OST etc?

Regarding the other films, according to Lawrence Kasdan the remaining two (of the trilogy) will be quite different animals, even though they'll have a continuing through story, each director is going to bring their own unique thang to it apparently. So if you think the first one was too safe you should find the next ones more to your liking perhaps.

I understand the relative lack of risk taking with the first one though, you're trying to achieve a very tricky alchemy of rekindling the sort of box office/pure cinematic gold that only comes once a generation, so just trying to get that formula right, and make the new Star Wars familiar, but new, and satisfy fans old and new alike is a great ask in and of itself, it has to essentially reestablish the franchise as a cinematic brand, and then lay down strong foundations for what comes next, and it does this in spades. Yes, it perhaps does retread a little too much familiar ground, but it also offers enough new and original material to not come across like a trite cover band version.

I also like how they're taking a bit of a cue from the EU with some of the choices being made, so they have not totally scrapped it, they have mined it for some of the good ideas that came out of that.

It was very much a thankless task JJ took on there, and boy done good in my opinion. He brought back the Star Wars we all know and love, and brought enough new to the table to leave us feeling pretty secure about the franchise's future, there definitely looks like there is more interesting story to be told in that galaxy far, far away...

Do you think Rey quickly discovered her force abilities because she was one of Luke's students as a kid? (with maybe Luke 'wiping' her memories when he gave up teaching). IIRC, Han said Kylo wasn't his only student

She got to grips with the force quicker than Luke did.

On Rey, I thought Daisy did a great job. However, in terms of writing, whilst funny, I'm not sure it was a good idea to make a joke out of her using the mind trick to escape It was her first conscious effort to use the force, iirc. Would have preferred it being treated more seriously.
BTW, where did she get the idea of the Jedi mind trick? Honestly can't remember.

Excellent movie. Even knowing the story beforehand there were still plenty of surprises thankfully.

Rey and Finn were great characters. I felt the bond they formed being both from really lonely upbringings. Kylo Ren was pretty cool and had some real depth to him(and we've only scratched the surface). There were rumors he might be killed at the end by Snoke and I'm glad it didn't happen. I worried that Han wouldn't "feel" right but he was totally Han Solo. A little wiser, but still Han. His death, though expected was set up really well(ominous feeling leading up to it, the "Rey" of light shining down on the both of them, the conflict in Ben, etc). Adam Driver did a good job. Carrie did well as Leia IMO as well. The droids all played their part.

The visuals were stellar for the most part, with perhaps the weakest link being the CGI characters(mostly Snoke---they might have rushed the rendering a bit as they had trouble figuring out what he would look like). Set design was amazing.

The score was decent. There werent many stand out themes on first viewing. I feel certain themes like Leia's theme were overused(seemed like any time han and leia were on screen together they used it---I think 3 times maybe). The only theme that I can really remember is the one used when Rey was walking the steps at Skellig Michael(whatever the planet is called) and it felt a lot like the new Star Trek theme...I wonder if dude who did those didn't contribute that piece. Probably not but it was very similar. Still the music mostly was unnoticed, which I suppose is the goal anyway.

Weak points(though VERY minor) for me would have to be the appearance and character of Snoke for one. I'll grant we know nothing about him but he just isn't threatening or interesting at this point. I really think they will go the Darth Plagueis route with him which would instantly add some depth to him. He doesn't strike me as outright moustache twirling evil as Palpatine was and from some things I've heard Plagueis wasn't either. Captain Phasma was a bit of a letdown due to how well received she was in the leadup to the movie. I don't think they anticipated how big of a character she could have been. I think we'll see more of her though(she survived the trash compactor!!---boba fett all over again lol). Also the jokeyness was a *little* bit much at times with Finn, but that is a small thing. The pacing was almost perfect but I think it *could* have done with more quiet reflective type moments. Maybe not.

I don't want to bash the prequels. But I honestly have trouble imagining I will be able to enjoy them now.

My Mom was raving about it afterwards. She had never seen anything like it. lol. She wants to book tickets for the next ones and wanted to see the movie again straight away. She has never seen a Star wars movie before this and she is almost 60 years old. I think it is time to pull out the bluray set and see how she likes the rest(though maybe not the prequels---dunno). Standouts for her were the set design, Adam Driver's performance, the creatures, and the 3D(which was surprisingly quite good for a post-converted movie!).

I loved it.