Movies in 2015 ...
Well, I'm cheating a bit, because I only saw one at the cinema, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but I want to note down a few thoughts I had on it ...
First, the nitpicks (and these are pretty small things):
1. At some point I started noticing the sounds of peoples' footsteps, and they were just slightly jarring - first because they sounded just like some of the footstep sounds used in some Star Wars games (thinking of Jedi Knight mainly), and second because right at the end, when someone is climbing stone steps, the footstep sound used is far too loud for the situation (I could go up similar stone steps in my stompy boots almost silently, and the character involved wasn't wearing stompy boots ... ).[1]
2. It was good that Poe gave Finn a name ... but maybe he should have asked Finn if he liked the name Finn, rather than just "assigning" it. As I recall the dialogue (badly !), Finn's reply wouldn't even have to change, Poe could have just said "How about 'Finn' ?" and it would have flowed on.
Now for other thoughts:
As many people better with words than me have noted, this film had lots of different audiences to attempt to satisfy, and lots of functions to fulfill. Yes, it played safe and had many similarities to SW IV, but it provides a good launching point for the next film. (Of course, if the next one(s) repeat plots from V & VI too closely, then I'll be somewhat disappointed).
For me, the film achieved something else - it made me want to read, play or watch something Star Wars-related afterwards, which is not something I've felt great drive to do in recent years.
I'm also considering seeing it again, which (with two small children in the house) is definitely saying something good about it.
Anyway, overall opinion is "thumbs up", definitely worth watching.
[1] There might be a bit of circularity happening here, as I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Jedi Knight games had some work done by ILM (and/or people who'd worked on the original trilogy), so maybe the games got the footsteps sounds from the movies in the first place, and VII is just re-using the same "soundscape".
Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
comments there.
First, the nitpicks (and these are pretty small things):
1. At some point I started noticing the sounds of peoples' footsteps, and they were just slightly jarring - first because they sounded just like some of the footstep sounds used in some Star Wars games (thinking of Jedi Knight mainly), and second because right at the end, when someone is climbing stone steps, the footstep sound used is far too loud for the situation (I could go up similar stone steps in my stompy boots almost silently, and the character involved wasn't wearing stompy boots ... ).[1]
2. It was good that Poe gave Finn a name ... but maybe he should have asked Finn if he liked the name Finn, rather than just "assigning" it. As I recall the dialogue (badly !), Finn's reply wouldn't even have to change, Poe could have just said "How about 'Finn' ?" and it would have flowed on.
Now for other thoughts:
As many people better with words than me have noted, this film had lots of different audiences to attempt to satisfy, and lots of functions to fulfill. Yes, it played safe and had many similarities to SW IV, but it provides a good launching point for the next film. (Of course, if the next one(s) repeat plots from V & VI too closely, then I'll be somewhat disappointed).
For me, the film achieved something else - it made me want to read, play or watch something Star Wars-related afterwards, which is not something I've felt great drive to do in recent years.
I'm also considering seeing it again, which (with two small children in the house) is definitely saying something good about it.
Anyway, overall opinion is "thumbs up", definitely worth watching.
[1] There might be a bit of circularity happening here, as I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Jedi Knight games had some work done by ILM (and/or people who'd worked on the original trilogy), so maybe the games got the footsteps sounds from the movies in the first place, and VII is just re-using the same "soundscape".
Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
comments there.