"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is both a success and failure.

[Linyivee]

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is both a success and failure.

 

Link: http://nypost.com/2016/01/06/the-force-awakens-is-actually-in-21st-place/

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” will pass “Avatar” as the top-grossing film ever in North America on Wednesday as Tuesday’s $8 million take puts it just $2 million short of the previous record of $760.5 million.

 

But that hugely impressive number doesn’t take soaring ticket prices — seeing it in 3-D IMAX in Manhattan can set you back as much as $21.59 — into account.

 

If you factor in inflation, “The Force Awakens” currently ranks in 21st place among all films in terms of actual tickets sold, just behind “Raiders of the Lost Ark” but far, far behind the two chart-toppers: “Gone With the Wind” ($1.7 billion) and the original “Star Wars” ($1.5 billion). (Various factors make it impossible to adjust international grosses, an increasingly important source of Hollywood revenue, for inflation.)

 

Due to increased ticket prices (and a rerelease), the 2009 “Avatar” — whose adjusted total is $837 million — has still sold more tickets than “The Force Awakens” at this point.

 

"The Force Awakens" has sold less tickets than "Star Wars: A New Hope".

 

While the movie is an economic success, due to inflation, "The Force Awakens" is an overall ticket sales failure.

 

If I am reading between the lines correctly, "Star Wars" is now on its way to a hiatus. I kind of thought something was weird. I could not figure out why everything felt awkward. "Star Wars" has become too overexposed.

 

As I was watching "The Force Awakens", I felt as though the magic had vanished.

 

I am normally able to sense when a franchise is in trouble.

 

I guess I was right.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Linyivee

[DarthDymond]

Calling Ep VII a ticket sale 'failure' by virtue of comparing it to the full theatrical run of the original is nice bit of click-bait for an article, but it doesn't really hold water.

 

He's comparing the current sales of a movie that's been in theaters for four weeks to the full run of a movie that was in theaters for over a year (1977-1978) and then had three theatrical re-releases over the next four years (1979, 1981, 1982) (I'm pretty sure the '90s Special Edition counts as a different film for ticket sale purposes).

 

Even if its ticket sales ultimately do fall short of the absolute top selling movies of all time, calling a movie "a failure" because it hasn't broken every single record by every conceivable metric is pretty disingenuous - making that claim because it didn't break those records in its first four weeks is laughable (although, as I mentioned it is probably effective as far as click-bait goes).

Edited January 7, 2016 by DarthDymond

[DarknessInLight]

As I was watching "The Force Awakens", I felt as though the magic had vanished.

 

The magic has vanished. So many "fans" have bought into the hype of the Disney machine that they didn't see what you did. I liked TFA. I felt it was a good Disney film. I felt was a lackluster and mediocre Star Wars film, barely beating out Attack of the Clones and Return of the Jedi, which I hold as the worst of the 6 older films. Yes, I see Phantom Menace as slightly better than The Force Awakens, and you can poke fun at me and judge me all you want, but at least Phantom Menace had an original story, characters that were believable(Darth Maul was bad-***) and a story that didn't try to do too much, too fast.

 

The Original Star Wars Trilogy was a magical set of movies that took place in a galaxy far far away that was set in a war. They were emotionally charged films with a sense of wonder and mysticism. They pulled you in and for two hours, you forgot about the world outside of that theater house you were in. The films had personality and heart. They were dark, dirty and full of personal, emotionally charged relationships between the primary characters. They had a magical feeling.

 

The Prequels are heavily misunderstood and underappreciated. They brought us into the time before the Galactic Empire. Before the Original Trilogy. The time that Obi Wan Kenobi referred to as a "civilized age". There was no dirty, dark places. The galaxy was a much cleaner and far grander place during the time of the Republic, which is why the scope of these films was different and CGI became almost a practical necessity. The Prequels just could NOT have been made using practical physical effects. Many people dislike them because of the scripts(which were not that great. I can certainly agree on that fact), but the films themselves were original stories(despite the fact that everyone pretty much knows how the ending was going to play out) that had heart and had captured the essence of Star Wars. These films felt like Star Wars. The difference was that they were set in an earlier time, so naturally they had to be somewhat different. The choreographed lightsaber fights were a necessity since in this trilogy we seen Jedi and Sith at their full potential vs. the weak old men, half human cyborgs and young, inexperienced Jedi students of the Original films.

 

The Force Awakens, however, did not have the magic of Star Wars. Yes, for many of you the nostalgia factor was way up there, but this film was simply nothing more than Disney providing "lip service" to those "fans" who believed that Lucas ruined their beloved franchise with the Prequels. This film was devoid of the magic that made Star Wars fun and entertaining. Even the John Williams soundtrack for The Force Awakens felt detached. The Prequels built upon and enhanced the magic of the original films, while building upon their legacy. Whether or not you enjoyed them is not relevant. They are canon. TFA was a reboot of A New Hope with a few different twists in it to make you feel as though it was new. This film was full of plot holes(some glaring and others not so much).There was nothing original and in some ways, this film has single-handedly ignored and destroyed established canon in the first six films.

Edited January 7, 2016 by DarknessInLight

[MadDutchman]

lol, that article is ludicrous. Failure? it hasn't even released in China yet, and still has months of theater time left.

 

Regardless of your opinion of the movie, it's way too early to call it a failure based on numbers.

[SithKoriandr]

lol, that article is ludicrous. Failure? it hasn't even released in China yet, and still has months of theater time left.

 

Regardless of your opinion of the movie, it's way too early to call it a failure based on numbers.

 

^This. Was said int he first reply and needs to be repeated because people are obviously...well dumb We won't know TFA's total ticket sale until it's run is over and it's only on it's 4th week now.

 

Also, as I read it, Disney said as soon as TFA made 1.5 billion, it will start making a profit. Well, it hit that mark

 

George on the other hand, had said the original SW hadn't even made a profit yet (though I'll bet that's due to hollywood accounting).

 

So, a movie about to hit it's 4th weekend, that had a budget of 200 million, and needed to hit 1.5 billion to make a profit, has of Wednesday (6th) made 76+ million profit. Not sure how that's a failure, especially since it's likely to make another 40+ million this weekend domestically and open's in China on the 9th (which is admittedly unsure territory for SW).

 

Should also be noted, no one really thinks about Avatar anymore, people always think of Star Wars

Edited January 8, 2016 by SithKoriandr

[Chessack]

"The Force Awakens" has sold less tickets than "Star Wars: A New Hope".

 

While the movie is an economic success, due to inflation, "The Force Awakens" is an overall ticket sales failure.

 

Every movie ever made except Gone with the Wind has sold less tickets than the original Star Wars. Including every other Star Wars movie. Right now, TFA ranks #17, ever, on the domestic list when adjusted for inflation. l don't see how that can possibly be seen as a failure. It means that since at least 1939, which is 77 years, only 16 movies, ever, have sold more tickets than TFA.

 

Additionally, ROTJ is only 2 notches above TFA, and TFA will almost certainly beat ROTJ before it leaves theaters. And ESB is at 12, about $60M above TFA when adjusted for inflation. Now, at this stage another $60M domestically is probably a stretch. But TFA will probably get close. I don't see how TFA can be considered a ticket sales failure if, of the 7 SW movies, it ranks 3rd or 4th for total ticket sales.

 

Nobody's gonna beat the original SW or Gone With the Wind. Titanic didn't. Avatar didn't. Jaws didn't. Ben-Hur didn't. Why would you expect TFA to do so? When even ESB and ROTJ didn't?

 

The fact that ROTJ only sold, back in 1983, roughly the # of tickets that TFA has now sold (give or take a few million $ worth) certainly didn't signal 'the end' of the SW franchise, did it? So why would the same sales level signal it now?

 

Finally one last thing to consider. In 1977, if you wanted to see SW more than once, you HAD to see it in theaters. It did not come out on video take for many years, because people did not have VCRs back then. Now, DVDs come out months after the movie. So most of the time people see the movie once in theater, maybe twice, and then wait for the DVD (or netflix or whatever). That factors in too.

[SithKoriandr]

Finally one last thing to consider. In 1977, if you wanted to see SW more than once, you HAD to see it in theaters. It did not come out on video take for many years, because people did not have VCRs back then. Now, DVDs come out months after the movie. So most of the time people see the movie once in theater, maybe twice, and then wait for the DVD (or netflix or whatever). That factors in too.

 

Or the people who wait for DVD or just snag it online (I know quite a few people who will just get a good copy of a recently released movie online and never hit the theater).

[renatolnsp]

If inflation is an issue, the failure is the government.

[tunewalker]

The magic has vanished. So many "fans" have bought into the hype of the Disney machine that they didn't see what you did. I liked TFA. I felt it was a good Disney film. I felt was a lackluster and mediocre Star Wars film, barely beating out Attack of the Clones and Return of the Jedi, which I hold as the worst of the 6 older films. Yes, I see Phantom Menace as slightly better than The Force Awakens, and you can poke fun at me and judge me all you want, but at least Phantom Menace had an original story, characters that were believable(Darth Maul was bad-***) and a story that didn't try to do too much, too fast.

 

The Original Star Wars Trilogy was a magical set of movies that took place in a galaxy far far away that was set in a war. They were emotionally charged films with a sense of wonder and mysticism. They pulled you in and for two hours, you forgot about the world outside of that theater house you were in. The films had personality and heart. They were dark, dirty and full of personal, emotionally charged relationships between the primary characters. They had a magical feeling.

 

The Prequels are heavily misunderstood and underappreciated. They brought us into the time before the Galactic Empire. Before the Original Trilogy. The time that Obi Wan Kenobi referred to as a "civilized age". There was no dirty, dark places. The galaxy was a much cleaner and far grander place during the time of the Republic, which is why the scope of these films was different and CGI became almost a practical necessity. The Prequels just could NOT have been made using practical physical effects. Many people dislike them because of the scripts(which were not that great. I can certainly agree on that fact), but the films themselves were original stories(despite the fact that everyone pretty much knows how the ending was going to play out) that had heart and had captured the essence of Star Wars. These films felt like Star Wars. The difference was that they were set in an earlier time, so naturally they had to be somewhat different. The choreographed lightsaber fights were a necessity since in this trilogy we seen Jedi and Sith at their full potential vs. the weak old men, half human cyborgs and young, inexperienced Jedi students of the Original films.

 

The Force Awakens, however, did not have the magic of Star Wars. Yes, for many of you the nostalgia factor was way up there, but this film was simply nothing more than Disney providing "lip service" to those "fans" who believed that Lucas ruined their beloved franchise with the Prequels. This film was devoid of the magic that made Star Wars fun and entertaining. Even the John Williams soundtrack for The Force Awakens felt detached. The Prequels built upon and enhanced the magic of the original films, while building upon their legacy. Whether or not you enjoyed them is not relevant. They are canon. TFA was a reboot of A New Hope with a few different twists in it to make you feel as though it was new. This film was full of plot holes(some glaring and others not so much).There was nothing original and in some ways, this film has single-handedly ignored and destroyed established canon in the first six films.

 

Everyone is going to hate me for this, but I have to LAUGH every time I hear "Phantom Menace had an original story" or "the prequel story was original" along side "Force Awakens just copies A New Hope"

 

Phantom Menace

We have a Main character Young Royal Lady

This Young Royal Lady gets captured at the start of the movie and needs to be rescued

They have information that they need to get to a very important place, but there ship is damage forcing them to stop at Tattooine.

Once on Tattooine R2-D2 and a Jedi Master team up with a Skywalker to get off the planet.

The Skywalker could not leave originally do to circumstances that were keeping them on Tatooine

Events take place that allow the Skywalker to get passed former problems thus allowing him to leave the planet with R2 and the Old Master.

Once he is finally on his journey he is thrust into a world completely unknown to him.

He takes some instruction on the Force from the Old Jedi Master who promises to train him in the ways of the Force.

They Go to the improtant place where they cant really get anything done do to unforseen events.

They have a big battle in which The Skywalker along with a group of fighter pilots battles a giant round space station

All hope looks lost when the fighters all seem to be unable to damage said Giant station, until The Skywalker flies in and gets a lucky shot off with Proton Torpedoes hitting the Main reactor and causing the entire station to blow up saving the day

To top this all off The Old Mentor that the Skywalker met on Tattooine that promised to train him in the ways of the force is killed by an evil Sith Lord before the end of the movie, forcing the Skywalker to be trained by some one else.

 

 

Does any one else see anything familiar about all of these plot points.... Its A New Hope... If you even think about it further, try to find something IMPORTANT to the plot that one of the other star wars movies didnt do already.... I am actually kind of stuck on that one. The ground battle was a distraction so it really didnt matter. Gunga city was kind of a detour just to introduce the gungans for the later distraction. Ya that's everything I can think of.

 

 

And I have already pointed out in other threads how Anakin's journey mirror's Luke's not to mention how Anakin's and Padme's Romance is kind of just a redo of Han and Leia's... except so much more forced. They have been "re doing" the original trilogy since the beginning. You cant call Phantom menace "new and inventive" in the same breath you call Force Awakens "rehashing an old Idea, and copying plot points" that doesnt make sense they BOTH copy A New Hopes plot, and change things here and there.

 

Edit: for everyone that is going to call me a prequel basher with this I like the prequels, just like I like Force Awakens, I recognize problems with them, but I recognize problems with every movie, that doesnt mean I cant enjoy it. It just bothers me when people claim something was "oh so original" with out giving thought to that statement, about what they are calling original. I am not going to sit here and say "how inventive, or inovative" Force Awakens is, but I do consider it another good twist on the story and the characters, just like I consider the Prequels a good twist on the Original trilogy as well. Which is what they were meant to be. They accomplished what they were supposed to be.

Edited January 10, 2016 by tunewalker

[BrianDavion]

Look, TFA has a few goals, 1st to turn a profit, which it has, and second to start a whole new star wars trilogy, possiably even a new SAGA, and it's done a decent job at that.

[divinecynic]

Calling any movie that makes over a billion dollars (even with current inflation) a failure is silly. Oh let's not get into how much all the licensing and toys and other bits sold are going to make.

[SithKoriandr]

Calling any movie that makes over a billion dollars (even with current inflation) a failure is silly. Oh let's not get into how much all the licensing and toys and other bits sold are going to make.

 

They said TFA would need to make 1.5 billion to start making a profit, which it has. Having made over 1.6 billion now, that's 100 million+ profit. So, my hope is, this means the next ones don't need to make so much to be considered profitable

[adormitul]

Everyone is going to hate me for this, but I have to LAUGH every time I hear "Phantom Menace had an original story" or "the prequel story was original" along side "Force Awakens just copies A New Hope"

 

Phantom Menace

We have a Main character Young Royal Lady

This Young Royal Lady gets captured at the start of the movie and needs to be rescued

They have information that they need to get to a very important place, but there ship is damage forcing them to stop at Tattooine.

Once on Tattooine R2-D2 and a Jedi Master team up with a Skywalker to get off the planet.

The Skywalker could not leave originally do to circumstances that were keeping them on Tatooine

Events take place that allow the Skywalker to get passed former problems thus allowing him to leave the planet with R2 and the Old Master.

Once he is finally on his journey he is thrust into a world completely unknown to him.

He takes some instruction on the Force from the Old Jedi Master who promises to train him in the ways of the Force.

They Go to the improtant place where they cant really get anything done do to unforseen events.

They have a big battle in which The Skywalker along with a group of fighter pilots battles a giant round space station

All hope looks lost when the fighters all seem to be unable to damage said Giant station, until The Skywalker flies in and gets a lucky shot off with Proton Torpedoes hitting the Main reactor and causing the entire station to blow up saving the day

To top this all off The Old Mentor that the Skywalker met on Tattooine that promised to train him in the ways of the force is killed by an evil Sith Lord before the end of the movie, forcing the Skywalker to be trained by some one else.

 

 

Does any one else see anything familiar about all of these plot points.... Its A New Hope... If you even think about it further, try to find something IMPORTANT to the plot that one of the other star wars movies didnt do already.... I am actually kind of stuck on that one. The ground battle was a distraction so it really didnt matter. Gunga city was kind of a detour just to introduce the gungans for the later distraction. Ya that's everything I can think of.

 

 

And I have already pointed out in other threads how Anakin's journey mirror's Luke's not to mention how Anakin's and Padme's Romance is kind of just a redo of Han and Leia's... except so much more forced. They have been "re doing" the original trilogy since the beginning. You cant call Phantom menace "new and inventive" in the same breath you call Force Awakens "rehashing an old Idea, and copying plot points" that doesnt make sense they BOTH copy A New Hopes plot, and change things here and there.

 

Edit: for everyone that is going to call me a prequel basher with this I like the prequels, just like I like Force Awakens, I recognize problems with them, but I recognize problems with every movie, that doesnt mean I cant enjoy it. It just bothers me when people claim something was "oh so original" with out giving thought to that statement, about what they are calling original. I am not going to sit here and say "how inventive, or inovative" Force Awakens is, but I do consider it another good twist on the story and the characters, just like I consider the Prequels a good twist on the Original trilogy as well. Which is what they were meant to be. They accomplished what they were supposed to be.

 

Really so you are telling be that The Clone Wars was a copy of The Empire Strikes Back or Revenge of the Sith with The Return of the Jedi?

And if you will answer this answer both my claims.

[tunewalker]

Really so you are telling be that The Clone Wars was a copy of The Empire Strikes Back or Revenge of the Sith with The Return of the Jedi?

And if you will answer this answer both my claims.

 

By clone wars you mean Attack of the clones.

 

For attack of the clones I already talked about how The romance between Padme and Anakin is a mirror of Han and Leia (both start out as a "we cant do this" kind of thing until they just decide to fall in love, handled much better in V). So that primary plot point of Episode V is covered.

Then we have our heroes get split up to handle 2 seperate things.

The heroes suffer some form of loss that facilitates this split up (Hoth, Zam)

While away the Skywalker gets a vision of some one he cares about in pain, causing him to abandon what he was supposed to be doing.

The other hero is handling a pursuit.

After abandoning what he was supposed to be doing he rushes to face the Dark Lord of the Sith where his overconfidence causes him to lose his hand and have it replaced by a robot hand.

 

THere are a few others here, but ya this should be enough for now.

 

 

For Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the sith.

 

Both movies open up with the heroes trying to rescue some one from some one evil.

We are introduced to a new evil character for the first time ( Greivous, Jabba recall that it was GREIVOUS that stole palpatine, just like Jabba had Han)

The throne room scene with Dooku perfectly mirrors Vader vs Luke in Episode VI... everyone knows this.

Through out the movie we are told multiple times about how much more powerful the Skywalker has become since the last one.

They have a plan that involves the cocky older General character going down on to the ground to finish off the war once and for all.

This plan was all a ruse by Palpatine to get people where he wanted them for his master plan to work.

The Skywalker is tempted by the dark Side.

It deviates after that because of the skywalker in III saying yes, vs VI saying no.

 

again there is more, but some would be a bit of a stretch, but ya they deviate at times, but so does episode VII.

Edited January 10, 2016 by tunewalker

[Mubrak]

Inexperienced young guy living under poorish circumstances meets sagely old guy.

The sagely old guy takes the young one under his wings.

Together with some strange companions they embark on a journey to meet the mysterious aristocratic lady.

The mysterious aristocratic lady helps them to prepare for their fight against the dark knight.

The sagely old guy dies somwhere along the journey.

The young guy barely escapes but takes heart and saves the day.

 

 

Lord of The Rings?

 

Edited January 10, 2016 by Mubrak

[tunewalker]

Inexperienced young guy living under poorish circumstances meets sagely old guy.

The sagely old guy takes the young one under his wings.

Together with some strange companions they embark on a journey to meet the mysterious aristocratic lady.

The mysterious aristocratic lady helps them to prepare for their fight against the dark knight.

The sagely old guy dies somwhere along the journey.

The young guy barely escapes but takes heart and saves the day.

 

 

Lord of The Rings?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth ...

 

Edit: just ran into some one that explains it much better then I do... so going to let them do it

Edited January 10, 2016 by tunewalker

[Fleurdelis]

Calling Ep VII a ticket sale 'failure' by virtue of comparing it to the full theatrical run of the original is nice bit of click-bait for an article, but it doesn't really hold water.

 

He's comparing the current sales of a movie that's been in theaters for four weeks to the full run of a movie that was in theaters for over a year (1977-1978) and then had three theatrical re-releases over the next four years (1979, 1981, 1982) (I'm pretty sure the '90s Special Edition counts as a different film for ticket sale purposes).

 

Even if its ticket sales ultimately do fall short of the absolute top selling movies of all time, calling a movie "a failure" because it hasn't broken every single record by every conceivable metric is pretty disingenuous - making that claim because it didn't break those records in its first four weeks is laughable (although, as I mentioned it is probably effective as far as click-bait goes).

 

Exactly my thoughts. It beat Avatars sales in the USA in 20 days. Avatar took 318 days to get where it was and was released twice in theaters in that time.

 

Article is completely ridiculous and click bait.

[Eric_Skynwalker]

Sadly I must agree, Star Wars: Episode 7 The Force Awakens under Executive Producer JJ Abrams leadership and understanding is a great disappointment and I am rather confused at it. as to whom the characters "Rey" and "Finn" are?! I went to the Empire Cineplex dressed as my alterego character as I have characterized it here at SWs TOR Game Eric Skynwalker as I portray this role as my Sith Lord Character.

 

I went into the movie thinking that JJ Abrams would carry on the tradition of all the animation of Star Wars Clone Adventures, as well as the game Clone Wars Adventures since I played that game too and brought my character into your game thanks to what I did in that one, I was upset when I see that JJ Abrams apparently disregarded the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Star Wars Movies of Star Wars A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi. JJ Abrams tossed out the Bathwater with the Baby in it opting for an "STANDALONE STAR WARS MOVIE" that was clueless and careless only designed for all the actors to get a paycheque and for a handful of unknown actors to attempt to sponge off of the Star Wars Trademark. JJ Abrams forgot to background the story as he ignored the Star Wars Expanded Universe that has gone on in books and other animated series leaving me to walk out of the Theater and pestered by the attendants of the theater asking me, "was the movie good and please tell us how you enjoyed it or disliked it?" 2 hours and $15 Canadian later I could only tell a few of them as I collected my costume sports bag that Star Wars Episode 7 was a "fairly good movie". I pointedly ignored the attendants words to "recommend" the Star Wars Episode 7 to others that knew about Star Wars, nearly 98% of the Star Wars Fans in the theater room after seeing the movie got up confused as I was and no one applauded. Many could not explain to their children that were with them in family groups anything about the movie because alot of background stories flastbacks were missing and except for the good portraying by fixed characters by Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford and Peter Mayhew did we get what we paid for in the movie......oh yesss I kept my 3D Glasses.

[PSVEindhoven]

I went into the movie thinking that JJ Abrams would carry on the tradition of all the animation of Star Wars Clone Adventures, as well as the game Clone Wars Adventures since I played that game too and brought my character into your game thanks to what I did in that one,

 

"Carry on the tradition of the Clone Adventures", care to elaborate on that? Why would and should he even do this?

 

"I was upset when I see that JJ Abrams apparently disregarded the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Star Wars Movies of Star Wars A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi."

Well, it was stated long before Episode VII that all the EU wouldn't be canon anymore. Again, why should he do that? He would be stuck with material he HAS to make of film from, because otherwise the timeline would be inconsistent. Isn't it better to work with a "blank paper"? You can do so much more.

 

"JJ Abrams tossed out the Bathwater with the Baby in it opting for an "STANDALONE STAR WARS MOVIE" that was clueless and careless only designed for all the actors to get a paycheque and for a handful of unknown actors to attempt to sponge off of the Star Wars Trademark."

You must really hate JJ Abrams and the new actors. Is there not even one of which you found that their performance was good? Did you even enjoy the film for one second?

 

JJ Abrams forgot to background the story as he ignored the Star Wars Expanded Universe that has gone on in books.

As I said before, it was stated LONG before Episode VII that all the EU material wouldn't be "canon" anymore. So why you say this is beyond me.

[adormitul]

Exactly my thoughts. It beat Avatars sales in the USA in 20 days. Avatar took 318 days to get where it was and was released twice in theaters in that time.

 

Article is completely ridiculous and click bait.

 

Avatar sucked it was about a kid who could control the elements the acting sucked and the special effects sucked. Of course the Star Wars movie surpassed it had everything better and very popular franchise to back it up. Avatar had a cartoon like thing.

[Rhyltran]

Avatar sucked it was about a kid who could control the elements the acting sucked and the special effects sucked. Of course the Star Wars movie surpassed it had everything better and very popular franchise to back it up. Avatar had a cartoon like thing.

 

Wrong avatar. James Cameron's Avatar is the highest grossing movie of all time.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Rhyltran

[The_Smith]

The magic has vanished. So many "fans" have bought into the hype of the Disney machine that they didn't see what you did. I liked TFA. I felt it was a good Disney film. I felt was a lackluster and mediocre Star Wars film, barely beating out Attack of the Clones and Return of the Jedi, which I hold as the worst of the 6 older films. Yes, I see Phantom Menace as slightly better than The Force Awakens, and you can poke fun at me and judge me all you want, but at least Phantom Menace had an original story, characters that were believable(Darth Maul was bad-***) and a story that didn't try to do too much, too fast.

 

The Original Star Wars Trilogy was a magical set of movies that took place in a galaxy far far away that was set in a war. They were emotionally charged films with a sense of wonder and mysticism. They pulled you in and for two hours, you forgot about the world outside of that theater house you were in. The films had personality and heart. They were dark, dirty and full of personal, emotionally charged relationships between the primary characters. They had a magical feeling.

 

The Prequels are heavily misunderstood and underappreciated. They brought us into the time before the Galactic Empire. Before the Original Trilogy. The time that Obi Wan Kenobi referred to as a "civilized age". There was no dirty, dark places. The galaxy was a much cleaner and far grander place during the time of the Republic, which is why the scope of these films was different and CGI became almost a practical necessity. The Prequels just could NOT have been made using practical physical effects. Many people dislike them because of the scripts(which were not that great. I can certainly agree on that fact), but the films themselves were original stories(despite the fact that everyone pretty much knows how the ending was going to play out) that had heart and had captured the essence of Star Wars. These films felt like Star Wars. The difference was that they were set in an earlier time, so naturally they had to be somewhat different. The choreographed lightsaber fights were a necessity since in this trilogy we seen Jedi and Sith at their full potential vs. the weak old men, half human cyborgs and young, inexperienced Jedi students of the Original films.

 

The Force Awakens, however, did not have the magic of Star Wars. Yes, for many of you the nostalgia factor was way up there, but this film was simply nothing more than Disney providing "lip service" to those "fans" who believed that Lucas ruined their beloved franchise with the Prequels. This film was devoid of the magic that made Star Wars fun and entertaining. Even the John Williams soundtrack for The Force Awakens felt detached. The Prequels built upon and enhanced the magic of the original films, while building upon their legacy. Whether or not you enjoyed them is not relevant. They are canon. TFA was a reboot of A New Hope with a few different twists in it to make you feel as though it was new. This film was full of plot holes(some glaring and others not so much).There was nothing original and in some ways, this film has single-handedly ignored and destroyed established canon in the first six films.

 

There is so much I would take issue with there, but to highlight two things that really stand out as a damning indictment of George Lucas's failings as a director: 1) CGI being a 'necessity' to realise the scope of the films. In that case, how did Ridley Scott get away with no CGI in Bladerunner? Hard to slip a piece of paper into the crack between the stylistic difference in the Los Angeles of 2019 and Coruscant in a galaxy far far away... But I know which looks real and which looks like a computer game level! Maybe George Lucas thought he could get away with employing less set builders and costume makers if he got it all done digitally, but sadly CGI ages badly and quickly. Also if you put actors in front of virtual sets, you'll get virtual performances...

 

2) Darth Maul is a bad**s. Interesting statement because I can't remember a single thing about his character that made me think that. I remember thinking that Ray Park is an incredibly agile and talented sword fighter. Darth Maul had a double-bladed lightsabre... that may have been the defining point. An entire character based around a gimmicky weapon and no other clues to who he was, what his motivation was. He simply existed to look menacing, have a fancy sabre and get killed at the end of the movie.

 

I felt there was far more to TFA than all of the prequels combined. The most important thing it had for me was a sense of fun. The prequels were so dull and lifeless. And what was the deal with turning the Jedi into celibate monks with a genetic abnormality? That was never part of the original films. I think TFA shares more with the original trilogy than the prequels. I can happily accept this is thirty years on from Jedi, but the prequels resemble nothing I remember from Star Wars.

 

Rant over I respect you have a different point of view and I am not going to attempt to sway you from it.

[The_Smith]

Sadly I must agree, Star Wars: Episode 7 The Force Awakens under Executive Producer JJ Abrams leadership and understanding is a great disappointment and I am rather confused at it. as to whom the characters "Rey" and "Finn" are?! I went to the Empire Cineplex dressed as my alterego character as I have characterized it here at SWs TOR Game Eric Skynwalker as I portray this role as my Sith Lord Character.

 

I went into the movie thinking that JJ Abrams would carry on the tradition of all the animation of Star Wars Clone Adventures, as well as the game Clone Wars Adventures since I played that game too and brought my character into your game thanks to what I did in that one, I was upset when I see that JJ Abrams apparently disregarded the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Star Wars Movies of Star Wars A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi. JJ Abrams tossed out the Bathwater with the Baby in it opting for an "STANDALONE STAR WARS MOVIE" that was clueless and careless only designed for all the actors to get a paycheque and for a handful of unknown actors to attempt to sponge off of the Star Wars Trademark. JJ Abrams forgot to background the story as he ignored the Star Wars Expanded Universe that has gone on in books and other animated series leaving me to walk out of the Theater and pestered by the attendants of the theater asking me, "was the movie good and please tell us how you enjoyed it or disliked it?" 2 hours and $15 Canadian later I could only tell a few of them as I collected my costume sports bag that Star Wars Episode 7 was a "fairly good movie". I pointedly ignored the attendants words to "recommend" the Star Wars Episode 7 to others that knew about Star Wars, nearly 98% of the Star Wars Fans in the theater room after seeing the movie got up confused as I was and no one applauded. Many could not explain to their children that were with them in family groups anything about the movie because alot of background stories flastbacks were missing and except for the good portraying by fixed characters by Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford and Peter Mayhew did we get what we paid for in the movie......oh yesss I kept my 3D Glasses.

 

Do you realise that by that logic, J.J. Abrams would be asking or even expecting people to have absorbed ALL of the EU (books, games, comics etc) before coming to see his film? And having his hands tied by such a dirth of stuff, he wouldn't be free to make the films he wanted to make? That is no where near to being a sensible proposition or expectation. When the BBC are making Doctor Who, they don't anticipate the audience will have watched every episode since 1963 and tailor the show accordingly. They stick with the basics and don't bog people down in minutiae trivia. The older episodes are there on DVD if people want to see them, but it's not a requirement. Abrams went into this with the right approach: make it simple and accessible. The original trilogy is as much backstory to the new trilogy as the Clone Wars was to A New Hope.

[Frenesi]

Do you realise that by that logic, J.J. Abrams would be asking or even expecting people to have absorbed ALL of the EU (books, games, comics etc) before coming to see his film? And having his hands tied by such a dirth of stuff, he wouldn't be free to make the films he wanted to make? That is no where near to being a sensible proposition or expectation. When the BBC are making Doctor Who, they don't anticipate the audience will have watched every episode since 1963 and tailor the show accordingly. They stick with the basics and don't bog people down in minutiae trivia. The older episodes are there on DVD if people want to see them, but it's not a requirement. Abrams went into this with the right approach: make it simple and accessible. The original trilogy is as much backstory to the new trilogy as the Clone Wars was to A New Hope.

 

Yea. Becouse now, to get past all the facepalm moments, you need to read only 1 book. Wait, what?

 

Every story that relies on side sources to be properly understood is a failure by definition. Double so if the story is shameless copy-paste from something already told. Triple so if half of the time it does nothing but laying hooks for continuation.

 

You may like film, you may not, but the story it told was *********** terrible. And that never was the case before, not even with PT.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Frenesi

[BrianDavion]

Yea. Becouse now, to get past all the facepalm moments, you need to read only 1 book. Wait, what?

 

Every story that relies on side sources to be properly understood is a failure by definition. Double so if the story is shameless copy-paste from something already told. Triple so if half of the time it does nothing but laying hooks for continuation.

 

You may like film, you may not, but the story it told was *********** terrible. And that never was the case before, not even with PT.

 

you don't NEED to read ANY book. if you want some intreasting background info sure some oif the books out there helps, but everyone I know who NEVER FOLLOWED THE EU, enjoyed the movie and had no issues with it.