A follow up to my comment about it possibly being the best movie of the of the seven. From a movie watching experience this is by far the best of the seven, imo. One of the things I was always fascinated with of the originals were the sound fx. This movie takes those sound fx and really lets them loose.
- The crackling of Ren's saber
- The tie fighter ripping across the screen
- The updated blaster sounds and hits.
- Even the falcon chase scene at the beginning
This movie was by far the best when it comes to auditory senses.
The visuals were almost as equally as impressive.
- The Falcon flying as we've never seen it fly. Heck it was drifting at the end of the chase scene.
- Poe's dog fight at Maz's watering hole. A thing of beauty.
- BB8, a practical FX.
- how the Starkiller got it's energy.
And so on. One of of the things I didn't like about the prequels was that Lucas made the environments too big, too grand. There was no room for imagination. This movie succeeded in showing the audience an environment without it being too much. One Star Destroyer crashed. One At-At downed where Rey lived. Just the Falcon when they take it.
There was just so much from this from a viewing experience that made it the best of the seven. To me at least.
As for the story.. Hey, Empire had the greatest plot reveal/twist in cinematic history, so there's no arguing that. But a few things regarding this story and the same basic flow of the original.
- I don't have a problem with it being similar to the original. There was such a disconnect between fans and what Lucas did with the prequels that this was a safe way to reconnect with the fans while still evolving the story. What if they had gone completely in a different direction and it bombed? It may have tanked the franchise. Now that fans are reconnected I think we'll see this go in a different direction.
- Kylo Ren. While I'm not a fan of Driver with the helmet off I think we're going to see things from the dark side we've never seen. I mean, Ren did what Vader and Luke could never do - he killed the family member trying to save him. There's a comment i found on a site that really sums up what we might see from Ren.
Kylo Ren was worried that he would never live up to the villainous expectations that Darth Vader set as a Sith Lord. But after Kylo killed Han Solo, his own father, he be came worse than Vader was. Vader would have never killed his own son, Luke Skywalker, which is what kind of helped redeem him at the end of Return of the Jedi. Kylo is a crazy, angry, temper fueled individual, and it's hard to think he will find any redemption.
Ren will be a terrible, tempestuous villain, and I think his chaos will only be fueled further by his killing of his father. He's going to have to battle grief and self-loathing now on a far deeper level. I don't know how his redemption will play out, but he is going to become an even more troubled character, I believe. Vader had a calm malice about him; Ren will be a maelstrom wherever he goes.
And anyone who saw Hans death come before he stepped out on the walk way is crazy. Unless you were on the writing team, on the production crew or Ford you had no clue this was coming. Even when Ren started tearing up it was still not a given.
I think Leia will be next.
This movie left us with more questions than answers and wanting more. Which is exactly what Empire did.
