Star Wars : Into Spoilers - The Spoiler awakens.

[Sir T]

Ok, here is your spoiler thread. Have at it.

[Velorath]

Ok, my thoughts:

This is very much a character-focused movie. The story amounts to two plots: We have to find Luke Skywalker and we have to destroy this bigger, multi-shot Death Star. Not a lot is done with the first plot and it ultimately ends up being set-up for the next movie. The second plot doesn't really come into play until near the end of the movie. I don't have to much of a problem with this as the OT could essentially be summed up as "rescue the princess and blow up the Death Star", "Luke trains as a Jedi while the rest of the group is hunted down by the Empire", and "rescue Han Solo and blow up the Death Star". A lot of the plot in SW movies seems to be handled by coincidence a.k.a. "The Will of the Force". In the case of Force Awakens you've got BB-8 meeting up with Rey (who presumably might be related to Luke) by chance, while running away from the First Order, Rey and Finn happen to steal the Millennium Falcon, which puts them in contact with Han Solo, who takes them to a person who happens to have Luke's lightsaber, and so on. Generally, getting out of one situation often leads them into the next thing the characters need to get out of. That's fine. That's Star Wars (maybe a little too Star Wars, as some have mentioned it is in a lot of ways a remake of ANH), and it generally holds up as long as you like the characters on the screen.

Of the newcomers, Daisy Ridley is the strongest as Rey. She manages to strike good balance between seriousness and humor which helps Rey come across as one of the more well-rounded characters in the SW movies. I suppose one could make the argument that she's maybe a little too competent as she's better at working on the Falcon than Solo and Chewie usually were combined, and she picks up the Force quicker than Luke did despite not having an Obi-Wan to get her started. For the most part, I liked John Boyega as Finn, but much like Han suggested in the scene where they capture Phasma, he might want to dial it down a bit. In that scene in particular he looked like he was doing a Kevin Hart impersonation and there are a few scenes where it felt like that to me. That's not to say that I think he is a bad actor. He manages to convey a lot of emotion while he's still in full Stormtrooper gear, and he has really good chemistry with Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac. In fact it would have been nice to see more of Isaac's Poe Dameron as the little bit of screen time he has when he's not doing generic X-wing pilot stuff was pretty good. I'm still undecided as to how I feel about Adam Driver's Kylo Ren. There's nothing wrong with Driver's performance. Maybe the voice was just giving me Bane flashbacks or something.

The original cast was fine. Ford obviously was the main focus here which makes sense since this is his last movie. Sometimes he seemed to have a bit of a "let's get this over with" vibe about him, but maybe that's just how he acts these days. Hamill of course only gets about 20 seconds of staring, and Fisher's scene with Ford was good although I wouldn't mind her getting involved a bit in the action next time. The characters that didn't work for me are the CG ones I mentioned in the other thread. Supreme Leader Snoke in particular just felt a bit jarring to me. As an essentially human looking, but old and scarred character, I'm not sure why Snoke needed to be CG at all. His screen time in this movie is somewhat limited so it doesn't end up being a huge issue, but given that he seems to be the overall main villain it makes me worry about an eventual CG snorefest action scene as the climax of the trilogy.

So I don't know. There's a lot of stuff I liked here, but I still came away with the feeling that the movie isn't as good as the sum of its parts. That the likable cast, some cool action scenes, and nostalgia are masking the fact that this movie doesn't really have anything new to say about the SW universe. There isn't a story here that felt like it needed to be told. The closest they get to an original idea is Finn overcoming his upbringing as a Stormtrooper which could have been a much more interesting story on its own if we could see why all the other Stormtroopers end up so thoroughly indoctrinated but not Finn. Regardless, it's a fun movie and realistically that might be the most you can ask from a Star Wars movie. Still, barring flashbacks, this is likely the last time we'll have all of the original cast back together and it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity that they couldn't do more with it than just make a fun movie. I don't envy the pressure though of making a new movie that tries to live up to a series of movies that are generally thought of as being much better than they actually are.

[Der Helm]

Fun movie, liked it, probably on par with the OT , but seriously, what the fuck...


(Supreme Leader ) SNOKE ?

Who the fuck came up with that name.... the whole movie I thought I was mishearing something and could not stop giggling. That's a name less intimidating than Pizza the Hut.

So far that is my biggest problem with the movie, so ... Good job, I guess.

[Merusk]

Yeah, I agree with the criticism of Snoke. There was nothing about him that couldn't have been done with prosthetic and mild CGI as opposed to full-on CGI. It looked weak and a little too reminiscent of the Prequels.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, with only a mild criticism that some of the wandering parts could have done with some tightening-up in editing. (Wandering the desert, wandering the woods, wandering the snow, wandering the stones to Luke)  A few paces and then a fast-wipe or pan to the next scene would have been better in all cases.

In the Original thread I called out Han being the one who died quite some time ago. I was happy and upset to see that be the case, but at least we've still got Chewie. I knew Ford wasn't going to let himself be dragged into another full trilogy but was glad to see Han one last time, even though Luke's always been my favorite. Glad to see he didn't go out in a totally punk fashion, either. He really thought he could save his Son.

Daughter is convinced that Rey is Luke's daughter. I'm mixed, but keep coming to the conclusion that it's the only thing that makes sense. Twins again? No, Han or Leia would have recognized their daughter (especially as old as she was when dropped on Jakku) and the vision we saw when Rey touched Anakin's saber says it's something familial.

I'm still not convinced Finn isn't force-sensitive somehow. He broke the mindwashing/ training of the First Order and the coincidences between he and Rey of "Good job/ I've never done that before!" were too coincidental. There are no coincidences in Star Wars.

So many little touch references back to the originals for Uber fans like me had me both cringing and tickled at the same time. I felt much conflict about them all through it, feeling it was a little cheesy but loving it all the same.

List I can remember:
* The Stormtroopers when Rey's sneaking around are having a conversation about TC16s. Same as when ObiWan was sneaking around.
* I believe Poe called Finn some other name when they embraced. Callback to Hammil calling Fischer "Carrie" instead of Leia after the Death Star fight. I'm not sure on this one, though.
* The freighter with Han trying to Hotwire the door.
* The shield bunker assault being led by Han.
* The Cantina scene attempt with new cantina band (not as good as Figrin' Dan  )
* The gun display on the Falcon. I squeed a bit.

[Lakov_Sanite]

i really liked it and I think it did the best it could for having to rev up the start wars engine 20+ years later, you can't just jump into heavy plot because then you get trade wars. To say it was a carbon copy of the original is just a bit of an exaggeration.  There were stars and wars and lightsabers and giant planet killers but besides that...man I don't know where people get the copying shit from.

 Snoke was terrible, I was expecting bad cgi somewhere and when it got to him I just reminded myself he was a hologram and the first time we saw the emperor the effects were fucking terrible too.  That doesn't excuse it but it made me personally feel better.  The other cgi one, maz? I thought she was fine. Obviously cg but done well enough it was easy to forget. 

Kylo Ren has to have the most punchable damn face in all of the star wars movies.

[Velorath]

There were stars and wars and lightsabers and giant planet killers but besides that...man I don't know where people get the copying shit from.

Droid on desert planet carrying secret information needs to be returned to the Rebellion Resistance. Climactic space battle with X-Wings making a trench run into the weak spot of a giant planet destroying super weapon. None of these ringing a bell? They aren't exactly subtle about it.

[murdoc]

I actually did the 17 hour marathon thing today, which was interesting to watch all 6 older movies and then straight into this one. I honestly had forgotten how goddamn fucking awful Attack of the Clones is. It's worse than Phantom Menace imo.

ANYWAYS - I loved this. My biggest concern was if Harrison would just mail it in or do a decent Han Solo. Watching episodes 4,5 and 6 right before this he nailed it as Han. I was super happy with that. Loved Rey and Finn, Poe needed more screen time. Adam Driver looks like a complete douche so I had no issues with him when he has the mask on and just wanted to punch him in the face when he didn't. Captain Phasma was a huge waste of a character and Snoke was a terrible big-bad.

The story was kind of dumb, but it was a hand-off movie so I was ok with that. The big things for me were a. it was damn fun to watch b. the acting was mostly good c. it was a good "Star Wars' movie and i am super excited to see what comes next.

I'm seeing it again on IMAX on Saturday which will be nice to just go see it alone, instead of a package of 7 movies. I think I'll probably nitpick it more after that viewing, but overall I am quite pleased with the result.

[Bunk]

...man I don't know where people get the copying shit from.

I really enjoyed it, but I still have to admit...

What movie am I talking about here?:
- droid carrying important plans for the rebellion lost on desert planet while bad guys search for him
- meets young punk who is unknowingly strong in the force
- Han and Chewie help deliver secret plans while black masked villain chases them
- a girl is captured by villain and the heroes must rescue her
- a giant superweapon blows up planet
- shield must be turned off to allow the attack on super weapon's weak point
- grizzled hero dies in front of the young future jedi at the hands of black masked villain
- shield comes down and the xwings start the trench run
- superweapon blows up and the day is saved!

It wasn't scene for scene or anything, but it really was a complete rehash of the same story. Take that away, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. The comedy worked. The cute characters were actually cute, not stupid six year old cute. I actually really liked the two main characters. All those points are significant leaps ahead of the prequels.

I was worried about how Solo would come across, but I thought Ford was excellent.

I think it suffered the most from having to be a "Star Wars Movie". Take Rey and Finn and put them in a well budgeted Star Wars tv show on HBO and I think I would have loved that a whole lot more. There wouldn't have been such a need to save the galaxy in under 2 hours.

[Cyrrex]

There were stars and wars and lightsabers and giant planet killers but besides that...man I don't know where people get the copying shit from.

Droid on desert planet carrying secret information needs to be returned to the Rebellion Resistance. Climactic space battle with X-Wings making a trench run into the weak spot of a giant planet destroying super weapon. None of these ringing a bell? They aren't exactly subtle about it.

And in the end, so what if it is?  If you want to find an even lower common denominator, these movies are always about either the rise, the fall, or the redemption of some force wielding person who also happens to be your son/father/sister.

Rey is clearly family.  My first thought was that she was a twin of Ben, but in retrospect, cousin seems more likely.  Han likes her all too quickly, Leia hugs her longer than would be reasonable, and Luke just kind of stares at her.  Like, oh shit, there's my kid.  She was also easily my favorite character in the film.  You could partly blame that on her severe hotness, but honestly I thought she played the part very well, and it was a well conceived character.  This isn't someone taking their tentative first steps in the force...she plunges in head first and embraces it.  I imagine some are lamenting the way she clowned Kylo Ren twice - the first time with the failed interrogation attempt, the second time when she basically kicked the ever-loving shit out of him (that scene really surprised me, I did not expect her to tear him up like that).  It showed not only that Kylo Ren was not anything like the juggernaut his grandfather was, but also that she is naturally way more powerful than him.  More powerful than Luke was at the same point.

I also think Finn may be force sensitive.  Nothing to the degree of Rey, but yeah, no coincidences here.  It probably wasn't too hard to figure out that JJ was pulling a switcheroo here if you were thinking about it hard enough...all the trailers and posters show Finn holding the lightsaber, when in fact it was intended for Rey all along.  But then we are possibly going to get the double switcheroo when we find out later that Finn is...going to bring balance, or something.  When Ren tells his master "there was an awakening", I'm not convinced he was talking about Rey at all.  I think they already knew Rey was alive and was off in hiding somewhere, as he sort of indicated during the interrogation.

Regarding Snoke...I am just not going to get my panties all bunched up here.  I dislike his name I suppose, but all we have seen at this point is a hologram.  We knew there was going to be a big, bad leader behind all of this.  I am waiting to see some still shots posted somewhere.  He has a fairly close resemblance to the way Darth Plagueis was depicted in artwork.  What I saw could easily have been the old, desecrated face of a Muun, which is exactly what Plagueis would be if he is still alive.  If true, that takes it from being a Golldemort imitation to being an actual depiction of a character we already know existed at some point.  Either way, I am not going to lose sleep over it.

[sickrubik]

First things first. I got the Han thing spoiled because a fucking Patriots fan dropped a spoiler onto the Broncos subreddit.

Moving on, honestly when you are to the point of building weapons that destroy planets, what do you do next? Build a bigger and better one.

[Der Helm]

Speaking of that Rey / Kylo Ren battle ... did something happened to Rey's eyes when they were facing of on that ridge, right before she started kicking the shit out of him ? If I was not imagining things , was that supposed to show either force use or some kind of "taint of the dark side" ? Because she sure looked angry during the fight sequence..

[Velorath]

There were stars and wars and lightsabers and giant planet killers but besides that...man I don't know where people get the copying shit from.

Droid on desert planet carrying secret information needs to be returned to the Rebellion Resistance. Climactic space battle with X-Wings making a trench run into the weak spot of a giant planet destroying super weapon. None of these ringing a bell? They aren't exactly subtle about it.

And in the end, so what if it is?

Then it's a valid thing to mention in a discussion about the movie. It's not an inherently good or bad thing although I could see people drawing some parallels between Force Awakens and Star Trek: Into Darkness in regards to how much Abrams borrows from previous movies in their respective franchises.

[Sir T]

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!

[Setanta]

I enjoyed it all and as a film I rate it well above the prequels put together. I even enjoyed it more than RotJ. Whoever came up with BB8's characterisation deserves a medal. I actually preferred it to C3P0/R2D2 in the prequels and to an extent the latter OT. 3P0 just shits me. Always has, always will. BB8 had more personality.

Snoke - yeah they should fuck that shit off, it was bad.

Kylo Ren was just fucking terrible. Not the masked acting or what they tried to do but seriously, it was all angsty Anakin all over again whenever the mask was off. Would it hurt them to make the antagonist normal? AKA he's Han and Lei's son. Show him as a normal man in torment, not an emo.

I enjoyed the tip of the hat to the OT cast and the rest of the cast - I enjoyed their performances.

Writing and editing was good - I ate popcorn and was entertained.

[Merusk]

This is pretty awesome: Daniel Craig played the Stormtrooper that Rey mindtricks.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/17/daniel-craig-makes-cameo-star-wars-force-awakens

My current rating is: ESB, ANH, TFA, ROTJ, RTS, TPM, TCW.  Jedi and Sith are very close in this list, but hot 20-something Carrie Fisher and realistic saber fights beat Pregnant Portman and Rave Jedi.

[Lakov_Sanite]

My initial belief was that Ren was an insufferable douche and after giving it some thought i think that its perfect.  Think about it, hes someone desperately trying to live up to a legacy and shoes he can never fill.  He is impulsive, fearful, angry and everything else you would expect out of an angsty teen.  Hes only really intimidating when he has his mask on, without it hes just ben.  People also complain about Rey being so strong but she's supposed to be his superior and so naturally talented in the force that it fuels his jealousy.

I wish i could articulate it better but i think hes great precisely because hes not vader.

[Slyfeind]

It wasn't as homagey or throw-backy as I thought it'd be, certainly not as bad as that last Star Trek one he did. It was a fun movie and I enjoyed it, but it just didn't have that iconic feel of the original movies. Ford was great, but it didn't take spoilers for me to know he was gonna die going into it. And they handled that perfectly imo. My biggest worry was I thought it'd be just like a multi-million dollar fan film, but it definitely rose above that.

My biggest wow moment was Luke, at the very end. Everything I've seen Mark Hamill in, I couldn't get over thinking "Hey kids, it's Mark Hamill!" like in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. This is the first time I ever just saw the character. That was Luke Freaking Skywalker. And Hamill didn't even have to say anything.

[Merusk]

My initial belief was that Ren was an insufferable douche and after giving it some thought i think that its perfect.  Think about it, hes someone desperately trying to live up to a legacy and shoes he can never fill.  He is impulsive, fearful, angry and everything else you would expect out of an angsty teen.  Hes only really intimidating when he has his mask on, without it hes just ben.  People also complain about Rey being so strong but she's supposed to be his superior and so naturally talented in the force that it fuels his jealousy.

I wish i could articulate it better but i think hes great precisely because hes not vader.

No, you're dead on and she even uses that against him in the mindfuck. Emo Kylo is perfect. Even Emo Anakin made sense because that's the kind of Petty, Jealous, small person who jumps at power over other people.

[sickrubik]

It's amazing what a better director and much better script can do.

[Cyrrex]

Exactly.  Was just about to say "Kylo was a bit like Anakin, only with good screenplay and direction!"

[Rishathra]

My initial belief was that Ren was an insufferable douche and after giving it some thought i think that its perfect.  Think about it, hes someone desperately trying to live up to a legacy and shoes he can never fill.  He is impulsive, fearful, angry and everything else you would expect out of an angsty teen.  Hes only really intimidating when he has his mask on, without it hes just ben.  People also complain about Rey being so strong but she's supposed to be his superior and so naturally talented in the force that it fuels his jealousy.

I wish i could articulate it better but i think hes great precisely because hes not vader.

Agreed.  I also like the line at the end from Snoke, about how now he can complete the training.  An angsty teen does not command the dark side the way someone truly filled with rage, loss, and hurt can.  Nice set up for the next movies.

Regarding Snoke, I thought his cgi was easily the worst of the movie, but I still kinda liked him.  Mainly because I totally bought that he was some giant dude and the 'o he just hologram' moment totally caught me by surprise.

The lightsaber effects in this were pure beauty.  How did I go six movies without ever noticing that the lightsaber glow never actually affected the surrounding environment?

I loved BB-8 so much that when R2 first came on screen my thought was 'who cares about this old junker?'  Welding torch high five made me genuinely lol.  Watching her(?) oh so carefully navigate down the steps was adorable.

I got to see this with my six year old son and his comment as the credits rolled was, "If the people who made this were here right now, I would give them a thumbs up!" 

[kaid]

i really liked it and I think it did the best it could for having to rev up the start wars engine 20+ years later, you can't just jump into heavy plot because then you get trade wars. To say it was a carbon copy of the original is just a bit of an exaggeration.  There were stars and wars and lightsabers and giant planet killers but besides that...man I don't know where people get the copying shit from.

 Snoke was terrible, I was expecting bad cgi somewhere and when it got to him I just reminded myself he was a hologram and the first time we saw the emperor the effects were fucking terrible too.  That doesn't excuse it but it made me personally feel better.  The other cgi one, maz? I thought she was fine. Obviously cg but done well enough it was easy to forget. 

Kylo Ren has to have the most punchable damn face in all of the star wars movies.

Kylo needs to keep the helmet on. Helmet on kylo pretty bad ass helmet off kylo not so much. So just keep the helmet on and we are good sir. Pretty much the Snoke thing was probably my only issue with the movie as well kind of silly name and the cgi/hologram look was a bit lacking but as was said the emporer looked like shit too so if thats the only stuff that bugged me in the movie thats pretty much a grand slam compared to the last three starwars movies.

[kaid]

I enjoyed it all and as a film I rate it well above the prequels put together. I even enjoyed it more than RotJ. Whoever came up with BB8's characterisation deserves a medal. I actually preferred it to C3P0/R2D2 in the prequels and to an extent the latter OT. 3P0 just shits me. Always has, always will. BB8 had more personality.

Snoke - yeah they should fuck that shit off, it was bad.

Kylo Ren was just fucking terrible. Not the masked acting or what they tried to do but seriously, it was all angsty Anakin all over again whenever the mask was off. Would it hurt them to make the antagonist normal? AKA he's Han and Lei's son. Show him as a normal man in torment, not an emo.

I enjoyed the tip of the hat to the OT cast and the rest of the cast - I enjoyed their performances.

Writing and editing was good - I ate popcorn and was entertained.

Yes BB-8 was a great design. Apparently JJ had the first napkin sketch of the concept and then the makers of it took it and ran with the idea. Honestly a little rolling ball is a far more plausible all terrain droid than the R2-D2 astromech design. How R2 ever moved on tattoine always confused me. BB-8 looks pretty damn natural all the time and shows a great amount of personality. Apparently there was a set accident at one point that totally trashed a BB-8 they were using on the scene and the entire cast and crew apparently were horrified when it happened. That is when jj said he knew BB-8 was being totally accepted as a character.

[Stewie]

I liked the new characters; Finn, Rey Poe, BB8. I wasn't too keen on Kylo, but I don't think we should be given who he is and what head space he is in. Not every bad guy is going to be a bad ass and I get that. In fact I think its good that hes a bit of an emo punk.

The humor was good and seemed appropriate and overall I felt like it was entertaining enough.

That being said, I was hoping to see a new Star Wars movie. Instead we got a remake of A New Hope. Some homages would have been great, but the story was so blatantly the same it hard for me to not feel like I was being punked.

I just don't get why they had to obviously copy so many of the main story points of ep 4. It feels like a wasted opportunity.

[01101010]

I liked the new characters; Finn, Rey Poe, BB8. I wasn't too keen on Kylo, but I don't think we should be given who he is and what head space he is in. Not every bad guy is going to be a bad ass and I get that. In fact I think its good that hes a bit of an emo punk.

The humor was good and seemed appropriate and overall I felt like it was entertaining enough.

That being said, I was hoping to see a new Star Wars movie. Instead we got a remake of A New Hope. Some homages would have been great, but the story was so blatantly the same it hard for me to not feel like I was being punked.

I just don't get why they had to obviously copy so many of the main story points of ep 4. It feels like a wasted opportunity.

So far, I've read this a lot. Hope to see this next week at some point so I'll weigh in later. But, I've assumed this would be Star Wars: The Next Generation. Strangely, JJ took Trek and kept the same characters and modified the stories with some references to the past series. Here, it seems he kept the story very similar but with new characters with some references to the past. I can't fault him for trying to make a movie with the same story for a whole new generation of kids to recapture that lightning in a bottle. But, we all know you just can't get that feeling back that you had the first time around.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Assaulting a planet sized station is really the only similarity and it's not even the main story or motivation of the main characters.

[Stewie]

Assaulting a planet sized station is really the only similarity and it's not even the main story or motivation of the main characters.

What???

As bunk said

- droid carrying important plans for the rebellion lost on desert planet while bad guys search for him
- meets young punk who is unknowingly strong in the force
- Han and Chewie help deliver secret plans while black masked villain chases them
- a girl is captured by villain and the heroes must rescue her
- a giant superweapon blows up planet
- shield must be turned off to allow the attack on super weapon's weak point
- grizzled hero dies in front of the young future jedi at the hands of black masked villain
- shield comes down and the xwings start the trench run
- superweapon blows up and the day is saved!

They also got a start on copying ESB with a fresh Jedi travels to remote planet to find legendary Jedi master.

I would have been cool with little homages throughout, like the new cantina, the light saber in the snow, little quips like the 12 parsecs etc but when the whole movie copies the same plotline the homages feel less so and more like piling on to the copying what has already been done train.

This same story had already been told and did not need to be retold. It just felt stale.

[sickrubik]

Hell, it was already a remake in the first place.



 

[Merusk]

Yeah, the story was similar enough and the same base outline, but so has just about every other good SW story. I'm good with it, personally. If it's a major issue then it's your problem, not the movie's.

[Abagadro]

I liked it. Some actual humor injected back into the franchise and it hit all the right beats.  I thought Driver did pretty well with the character which has rightly been pointed out as being in a state of perpetual adolescence (there is a reason these movies resonate with 13 year old boys, the Luke (chosen boy)/Vader (rage monster) dichotomy is pretty salient to them).   Glad they kept unctuous British people as the main bad guys.  I have a feeling we will see Phasma again.

One thing that is bugging me though is where Maz got that light saber. It's clearly Anakin's original one that Obi Wan gave to Luke and was then lost when his hand was chopped off in Cloud City.  Did someone dig it out of a ventilation shaft at some point and then it just made its way to Maz's basement?  Did Luke go back and find it after ROTJ and then stash it away?  Sorry, such minutia sometimes bugs me more than it should.

EDIT: Also the fact that Rey could control it more than Kylo means that she has to be as closely related to Vader as he is.

[jgsugden]

I fear that the final moments of Episode 8 will feature Hayden Christensen holding that lightsaber....

[koro]

One thing that is bugging me though is where Maz got that light saber. It's clearly Anakin's original one that Obi Wan gave to Luke and was then lost when his hand was chopped off in Cloud City.  Did someone dig it out of a ventilation shaft at some point and then it just made its way to Maz's basement?  Did Luke go back and find it after ROTJ and then stash it away?  Sorry, such minutia sometimes bugs me more than it should.

"That's a story... for another time.*"


*There won't be another time. Don't look too deeply into it.

[Evil Elvis]

One thing that is bugging me though is where Maz got that light saber. It's clearly Anakin's original one that Obi Wan gave to Luke and was then lost when his hand was chopped off in Cloud City.  Did someone dig it out of a ventilation shaft at some point and then it just made its way to Maz's basement?  Did Luke go back and find it after ROTJ and then stash it away?  Sorry, such minutia sometimes bugs me more than it should.

They hand-waved it away, saying "its a story for another time".

In the trailers there was a shot of what appeared to be Maz's hand giving the lightsaber over to Leia. Pretty sure that shot wasn't in the movie, and I think Maz just kinda disappeared once the First Order attacked. Feels like they cut out her escaping on the Falcon.  Maybe she'll be back in Ep 8 to explain how she got it.

Edit: beat to the punch.

[Bunk]

After a night to reflect, I really did enjoy the hell out of this. I had a shit eating grin on my face for the first twenty minutes. I do wish they had found something other than "destroy the giant superweapon before it kills our friends" as the main plot point, but I can live with it.

Was a little surprised at how little they used any of the iconic alien races. No Twi'leks, Rhodians, etc. I didn't expect Jawas or Sandpeople once it was clearly not Tatooine, but I still thought we'd see some of the more established aliens.

[Merusk]

One thing that is bugging me though is where Maz got that light saber. It's clearly Anakin's original one that Obi Wan gave to Luke and was then lost when his hand was chopped off in Cloud City.  Did someone dig it out of a ventilation shaft at some point and then it just made its way to Maz's basement?  Did Luke go back and find it after ROTJ and then stash it away?  Sorry, such minutia sometimes bugs me more than it should.

"That's a story... for another time.*"


*There won't be another time. Don't look too deeply into it.

You say "hand wave"

I say "plant the seed for another movie or world-setting novel."

We'll see which proves right in the end.

I fear that the final moments of Episode 8 will feature Hayden Christensen holding that lightsaber....

Glad they kept unctuous British people as the main bad guys.  I have a feeling we will see Phasma again.

Agreed on both points. Plus that reminds me of the other reference that gave me a good chuckle, "Is there a garbage chute nearby? Or a trash compactor?!"