For sure the visual is not outstanding, they are just good enough to enjoy it, and when everything else sucks, it did make the visual seems better then normally what one would perceive.

I'm still sad Vulcan is gone. In the words of Vader, "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Finally saw this yesterday and had to laugh at the idea of the big sith baddie being Voldemort, wondering how Kylo fits his ears into that helmet and being bemused that they somehow achieved the impossible in creating a more whiney and pathetic character than Anakin.

Film was enjoyable but the rehashed scenes and plot points went past the point of tribute to me. (another trench run, another shield takedown in a loosely guarded base, another death star type force, another masked Sith etc) That said I've always seen the Star Wars films as fairly shallow and simple and primarily catered to children so I didn't have any fanboy expectations to be crushed and enjoyed the film for what it was.

Well, rumour has had it that part of the problem with Maz Kanata is that Lupita Nyong'o turned out to be a pretty bad mocap actress and struggled with the non-interactivity part of it. A shame really, because her voice acting was pretty good, and for a 32-year-old actress she really came across convincingly as the "wise old lady".

Obviously it can't be all put on mocap performances though. Snoke was played by Andy Serkis which is a guarantee for a top-notch mocap performance, but even so, his 3D model looked pretty rushed.
I preferred JB-007 to be honest. The way he dropped that gun on the way and nonchalantly repeated his mind trick command was so badass. It just screamed "James Bond".

She is so right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5yZd3VgaN0

I bet his insurance premium is now higher than a SPLC supporter's in Alabama.

Which begs the question why did she get the role in the first place? Why give it to someone who apparently lacks the experience and skill to pull it off? Why not replace her? I mean, V for Vendetta managed to replace V after shooting already started, and here they could not replace a supporting actress who is never actually on screen?

In fact, there is an even more interesting question- why do the character CG at all? There is nothing so visually interesting about Kanata. Nothing about this desing that screams "yes! we have to have that!" They could have gone with any other design and go with make up or some combination of both and have a better result. I mean, just look at Simon Pegg as Unkar Plutt.

Ended up seeing this last week but couldn't get back to this thread until now. There are definitely a lot of strong opinions here (as well as all over the internet).
FOr me it was a fun 2 hours and it was nice seeing the old cast again. Even though I had heard something happened to Han, I didn't know what but when that scene began, I knew what would happen and I wasn't wrong. He didn't deserve that. SHould have been more heroic imo.
I can certainly see what the dislike is too. While I don't remember the old movies exactly scene for scene, even a peripheral SW fan like myself could see the similarities. One thing I don't want to ever see again is another "death star" type of weapon. Its too much. We killed a moon, we killed another moon, we now killed a planet, please stop it. Or at least make the failsafe point something different....well, thinking it over don't do that either. Just please no more death star destruction endings.
Looking forward to who Rei is and her relationship to Luke. I don't want her to be Han's kid because she found him and lost him already. If she does turn out to be Luke's, I don't think I like the concept of abandoning your child especially when you yourself were abandoned/orphaned before. You didn't like it so what makes you think your kid will like it. (I know someone in real life who was orphaned for an unknown reason and it really haunts them to this day). Have faith in yourself that you can keep her protected under your wing instead of a outlier planet far away where as it turns out she wasn't so safe after all.
THe Millenium Falcon scenes were easily my favorite. I got chills seeing that beautiful beautiful ship fly around. Would like to know how Han lost it though so maybe that will come up in the next movie.

I'd give it a 3 out of 5 with the potential to go to 4 out of 5 depending on how the next movies go.
Somebody already beat me to this but my first response was also to say we haven't seen Rei in a metal bikini and matching choker set yet :).

You know, the funny thing that's really not my go-to "Leia is so hot" image. The thing is, when I say Leia was hot I don't just mean she was physically attractive, though she definately was, but also what a cool character she was. She was not the greatest sex bomb to ever grace the screen, and that's part of what was so great. She was a person, not eye candy, and that made her more, not less attractive. Rey on the other hand does not work as a new character to fill that role. She's written to be spunky like Leia, but neither the script nor the actress really pull it off. I don't think miss Ridley has Carrie Fisher's charisma, and she's sort of... too pretty. She has kind of bland, "every pretty actress" look. Cinema and movie screens are ful of beautifull people, and she just blends in with that crowd for me.

I can't help but wish they gave the role to Carrie Fisher's daughter, who has asmall cameo in the movie. Assuming she has acting skills to pull it off of course. She's not as "pretty" as Daisy Ridley, but she looks more interesting, she looks like a Star Wars protagonist I'd remember. Not to mention if Rey does turn out to be a Skywalker, it would be damn perfect.

If I have not seen the film and probably will not for a while and want a good detailed summary of it is there one available anyhwere?

Yeah. It's called "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" :D

OUCH!

Thank you, thank you! I'll be here all week!

My question is this, if they are going to Xerox a movie would you rather they Xerox 'A New Hope' or 'The Postman'? XD

They actually did a remake of Point Break which is like trying to clone a turd, and you are upset they cloned one of the greatest movies ever. :P

You know... I actually really like The Postman. I enjoy the premise, the scope of it all and the hopeful, optimistic approach to post-apocalypse. I'm a sucker for movies with optimistic message, and I don't mind how full of pathos this movie is, because despite that it's not pretentious. It's very earnest in it's pathos, not trying to be clever and deep, just uplifting.

Also, I have to admit, I'm a big fan of Kevin Costner. I love Dances With Wolves to death, and Open Range is one of the best westerns I've seen, definately the best one since Sergio Leone's works. Whether it's Robin Hood or Thirteen Days, I always enjoy his work.

But back to your actuall question- I'm not "upset" but yeah, ripping off a good movie bothers me more than ripping off a bad one. Or at least, it bothers me in a different way. Especially when he result is an inferior copy, rather than something really good, whether in comparison or on it's own.