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RedSky, I'm with you 100%. What I meant was how the 2 movies met my expectations differently. I think most SW fans had much higher expectations for SW7 than R1. SW7 is so much more important, it needed to carry the SW story forward, while R1 is more of a cash-grab than anything else. I don't mean I'd rate R1 better than SW7.

My reaction after seeing SW7 was like "what the hell Disney? Must you mess up the ending? It could've easily been much better. But I like Rey & co and I'm so happy seeing the old crew." While R1 was "That was meh. But it wasn't as bad as the reviews said."

That's mainly because I'm really lenient with R1. You said "The characters were bland and underdeveloped" which is true but it's something I accepted before going into the cinema. We all know they'll die at the end, the ending was known for decades. They really are throwaway characters that Disney can't bring back. So I treated it as an unimportant popcorn movie than a proper SW Sci Fi, and it was a better than most blockbusters.

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Mr. Plinckett is right as usual. I watched it in IMAX 3D yesterday, but didn't feel immersed into the story all that much. While watching it I couldn't help but think that a panel of Disney marketing geniuses meticulously thought out what we wanted to see, to guess our expectations, more than the brain child of someone with a vision, with a true story to tell. The girl-that-every-girl-wants-to-be with great athletic prowess and wit as the main character to try and get women to go and see it. The two popular Chinese actors were obviously there to appeal to the ever more important Chinese market. Nostalgic re-enactment (or pre-enactment?) of the ROTJ final battle. Darth Vader! Tarkin! The Death Star! There's someone and/or something for everybody in this movie. Maximum appeal to go and see it.

I think all characters did have potential, but there wasn't any time for them to really come alive, as we were introduced to too many locations and too many people. On the topic of coming alive, resurrected Peter Cushing was very clearly stuck deep into uncanny valley, and watching him was a little... morbid I think.

Like with the Force Awakens, I left the cinema not really unsatisfied, but not really happy either. Just kind of... okay. That was something all pre-Disney SW films did way better for me.

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Oh... I thought they came up with 4K so people could play SW:Battlefront properly...

There was a lot of posturing from Star Wars fans (from stardestroyer.net, I think) for a long time, with exaggerations about the power of imperial starships. However, some fans have done an extensive (and pretty ridiculous) amount of work to make a lengthy comparison, that, while only as accurate as can be interpreted from the provided material, does come out in strong favor towards Star Trek technology:
http://www.st-v-sw.net/
So yes, NdGT is correct, and really, you don't need to do the extensive research the fans did to confirm that. Logistics in a post-scarcity civilization alone gives a significant advantage.
But this is to be expected. When you have a TV show as focused on science and technology as Star Trek, it will certainly excel.
Meanwhile, Star Wars isn't supposed to be about high end technology. For them the technology is only there to highlight the story. The charm of the Millenium Falcon is not that it's a god-like ship that can mop the floor with everyone else, but that it's some guy's souped up junker that's full of surprises. The Death Star isn't the ultimate weapon, but a weapon of fear. (A weapon that destroys excessive amounts of available resources is impractical for anything else, and that especially includes Starkiller Base.)
And if there really needs to be some sort of sci-fi-peen competition, you can go the complete nonsense route with Doctor Who, where one Dalek could probably conquer both the Trek and Wars universes with minimal effort.
Or the overkill route with the Culture, where wiping the rest out would be an idle task, pursued for entertainment.
Star Wars fans just need to chill and embrace their universe of junkers and quaint technology. Star Trek fans have already embraced the fact that their universe isn't about action and explosions. (No, we don't include the Abramsverse.)

Far different from what I would rank as Top 10 of 2015....

Especially the Top movie pick. As much as I think I quay myself a SW fan (too many expensive SW collectibles, ringtone's set to the Imperial March since my first smartphone... blah blah) this one is a minor disappointment. There are lots and lots of superior choice even for a SW fan.... if you're even slightly unbiased.

On Drachen_Jager's points: pretty much what I thought after seeing the movie. My thought is SW:TFA is right in the "middle of the road" movie, whether you look at it from a fan/non-fan perspective. It's not as good as any of the OT, but better than the prequels. And as a stand alone Sci-Fantasy Action movie.... it's a turn-off-your-brain-then-it's-good kind of movie. Too many media/fan's buying into the hype-machine to rate it that high.

Still, it's a commendable direction the new sequels is taking the franchise in the future. I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt on all the stupid fights/plotholes in this movie just so it can move further pass the OT characters so as no further sully the fond memories of these OT characters by seeing them on screens as tools rather than heroes.

http://aqfl.net/node/11714 for a poll to rank SW:TFA with other SW (movie/film)s.

You don't have to be blind to love SW:TFA, you just have to appreciate a very well made blockbuster for the whole family that doesn't insult an adults intelligence.

Have to disagree with Star Wars.

Without the massive appeal the series built, this movie wouldn't get many good reviews at all. The plot is an insane jumble of random events and plotholes that should have been embarrassing. To enumerate a few:

1) Randomly Melennium Falcon happens to be at the right place, right time (I can buy this, barely, because it's fun)

2) Before they can even have a full conversation (something the filmmakers seemed determined to avoid, even though, as this list shows, dialogue can make riveting cinema) HS and Chewie burst in. I could buy into this, if not for the rapid-fire pace of these events, as it is it just seems random and things are starting to get silly.

3) Before THEY can even have a full conversation not one, but two gangs HAPPEN upon the group, for no reason, except some executive was apparently worried about giving the audience a moment to reflect and MAYBE develop some connection with the characters.

4) Kylo Ren kicks ass. He's the only Force master EVER to stop a blaster bolt mid progress. He's got some serious juice!

5) Kylo Ren can't fight his way out of a paper bag (a bag named Finn) narrowly winning the fight and merely wounding the otherwise fairly useless ex-stormtrooper.

6) Kylo Ren is BEATEN by some chick with no training whatsoever! (Don't get me wrong, I like Rey, but the good guys are SUPPOSED to be weaker than the bad guys, and what's the point in Jedi training if she already kicks Evil's ass? )

7) WTF is up with this whiny Emo? He is, bar-none, the worst villain of the entire SW series thus far. It's not surprising that they defeat him, he's so useless, what's surprising is it takes them so damn long to beat his whining Emo shitty-at-lightsaber-duelling ass.

IMO the whole film was a hot mess that reeked of far too much studio interference which turns artistic vision into "more explosions!"

In summary, and this is totally true, my ten-year-old son, who loved the first 3 SWs (I won't let him watch the prequels) when asked what he thought of it replied, "Too many explosions." This is the mediocrity paradigm of big-budget Hollywood films at it's pinnacle.

I only saw Spectre & SW:TFA for 2015.

that nostalgia guy is such an apologist for anything SW.

I enjoyed the heck out of the movie, but the similarities to 4 was a huge negative for me.

His so called "explanation" for why it's similar to 4 is bullshit. It would be a credible explanation if sequels mimicing previous movies was a relatively isolated phenomenon. But sequels copying previous movies is something that has been going on for a long fucking time, so his argument just does NOT hold water at all.

Sequels mimic previous movies because Hollywood thinks we're idiots and that we don't notice these things. It's that simple. Hollywood has always tended towards safe and simple instead of taking risks and telling different stories.

It's not rocket science.

new SW sucks

"That's no moon" on Coco's background!

I also started with SW late too.