Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens" shattered box office records with an estimated $517 million in worldwide ticket sales through Sunday, a staggering debut that re-established the celebrated space saga as a global phenomenon under Walt Disney Co.

The first "Star Wars" film in a decade recorded the biggest domestic opening in Hollywood's history, collecting $238 million over the weekend in the United States and Canada. It also set records in Britain, Australia, Russia and elsewhere as fans embraced a new chapter in the galactic battle between good and evil.

Thousands joined a mock lightsaber battle in Los Angeles, where an Australian couple married in line for the film. President Obama ended a news conference on Friday saying he needed to head to a White House screening of the movie, and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton closed Saturday's Democratic debate saying, "May the Force be with you."

"I don't think ever in the history of movies has their been more hype leading up to release of a film," said Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co. "This is a huge, huge win."

The film's financial and critical success mark a victory for Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger's strategy of acquiring proven brands, including Pixar Animation and comic book powerhouse Marvel, to fuel Disney's entertainment empire.

Disney purchased "Star Wars" producer Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012 as part of his bet on big-budget films.

Movie theater attendance in the United States and Canada, the world's largest film market, has barely changed in a decade as online and mobile platforms exploded. Subscribers to Disney's sports powerhouse, ESPN, have shrunk, a much-noted sign of pressure on traditional media. The turnout for "Star Wars" is an encouraging result for Disney, rival media companies and movie theaters.

"We have so many options for entertainment, yet look at where everyone is flocking this weekend - to the multiplex," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at box office tracking firm Rentrak. "Disney has this down to a science."

Global sales for "Force Awakens" finished second only to the dinosaur film "Jurassic World," which in its June opening garnered $525 million worldwide, including China, where the "Star Wars" film will not open for weeks. "Jurassic World" took $208.8 million at domestic theaters in its first weekend.

"Force Awakens" is the seventh installment in the epic science-fiction franchise created by George Lucas in 1977.

Filmgoers reveled in the return to the "Star Wars" galaxy, dressing as Jedi or Sith, carrying lightsabers and cheering when classic characters such as Princess Leia or Chewbacca appeared on screen. Theaters added showtimes to meet demand.

Disney plans four "Star Wars" movies through 2019, plus major expansions at its U.S. theme parks to incorporate the droids, spaceships and otherworldly creatures of the universe Lucas invented. "Force Awakens" toys, clothing, home accessories and video games already pervade stores ahead of Christmas.

A Reuters Breakingviews analysis last week calculated that Disney may be on track to triple its Lucasfilm investment and earn an average of $669 million off the franchise in each of the next six years.

Nostalgia, plus a carefully planned, months-long release of film trailers and character profiles boosted interest. Disney, which spent more than $200 million to make "Force Awakens," also created intrigue by keeping the plot largely secret.

Critics lauded the movie's throwback feel, doses of humor and the performances of newcomers Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac. Audiences awarded an "A" grade in polling by survey firm CinemaScore.

Disney took steps to attract more women and girls to the series, including casting Ridley as the star and running commercials during shows such as "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." Forty-two percent of the weekend's domestic audience was female, Disney said.

"Force Awakens" could become the highest-grossing movie of all time, box office analysts said. "Avatar" holds that title with $2.8 billion in global sales.

The wild card is China, the world's second-largest movie market, where "Force Awakens" opens Jan. 9. The last "Star Wars" movie in 2005 collected just $9 million there.

Disney made an effort to build buzz, placing 500 miniature Stormtroopers at the Great Wall and striking a deal to stream the six earlier "Star Wars" films through video service Tencent.
Anyone going to watch this movie? :kat:​
 
I'm so going to watch this movie! I'm a huge Star Wars fan and I've been waiting for this movie ever since the original announcement was made. I asked my dad if he wanted to go watch it with me and he said I should wait for Christmas before watching it...so I guess I'll get a cinema gift voucher from him xD

The only problem I have at the moment is avoiding all the spoilers on the internet, what an obstacle course  :argh: But so far I've been successful.
 
I saw it yesterday and it was really good!

I was so heart broken when Kylo Ren killed Han Solo like NOOOO.

But while I found the Silver Stormtrooper commander lady to be more menacing than Kylo Ren in certain parts, I was fine with how he was written to be a person who didn't have his emotions in check and retained immaturity. They didn't try to make him a Carbon copy of Vader who choked just about everyone all the damn time. Though I wish they didn't gloss over his backstory (unless I missed a part, I didn't rewatch the episodes up until this one lmao). 

I did like that this movie was more realistic than a lot of the episodes (the older ones have the tropes we all recognize as cheesy and overdone, but simply because it is older pop culture that doesn't fit in today's pop culture standard of what fresh would be.
I did enjoy the ass beating Rey gave Kylo Ren though lmao.

Also, Space Nazis.

It was quite an immersive movie, and since I waited a few days to watch the movie, the only time the audience as a whole cheered or clapped loudly was in the beginning when the title card opened and then the credits at the end. The movie experience for me was a lot better than I expected since the audience remained quiet as a mouse during the movie (even the little ones). Though collective laughter at the comedic parts was nice, and nobody cheered loudly when Han Solo appeared. (This isn't really a spoiler since he was in the trailer already)
 
I saw the movie this past Saturday and it was really great. To those who haven't seen it yet, you won't be disappointed.
 
Saw it last Thursday said:
I saw it yesterday and it was really good!

I was so heart broken when Kylo Ren killed Han Solo like NOOOO.

But while I found the Silver Stormtrooper commander lady to be more menacing than Kylo Ren in certain parts, I was fine with how he was written to be a person who didn't have his emotions in check and retained immaturity. They didn't try to make him a Carbon copy of Vader who choked just about everyone all the damn time. Though I wish they didn't gloss over his backstory (unless I missed a part, I didn't rewatch the episodes up until this one lmao). 

I did like that this movie was more realistic than a lot of the episodes (the older ones have the tropes we all recognize as cheesy and overdone, but simply because it is older pop culture that doesn't fit in today's pop culture standard of what fresh would be.
I did enjoy the ass beating Rey gave Kylo Ren though lmao.

Also, Space Nazis.

It was quite an immersive movie, and since I waited a few days to watch the movie, the only time the audience as a whole cheered or clapped loudly was in the beginning when the title card opened and then the credits at the end. The movie experience for me was a lot better than I expected since the audience remained quiet as a mouse during the movie (even the little ones). Though collective laughter at the comedic parts was nice, and nobody cheered loudly when Han Solo appeared. (This isn't really a spoiler since he was in the trailer already)


Agreed, my mouth went dry at that part. The suspense of that whole sequence too...wowza. 
Although I honestly half expected it. Harrison Ford had previously said in interviews that he'd hoped Han would be killed in Return of the Jedi to give a little more gravity to the character or whatever. Lawrence Kasdan the screenplay writer liked the idea too but George Lucas didn't, so that didn't happen (good thing IMO). So since the two of them were together again and J.J. Abrams is apparently far more open to suggestion I kinda thought in the back of my head when they revealed Kylo Ren was his son "oh boy, he's a dead man walking".

Kylo Ren did remind me a little but of Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith, or rather of Anakin Skywalker having just turned to the dark side. Only I might say Ben Solo might be even more evil than Anakin was. I was glad when Rey whooped his ass too.....Han killer lol. My question would be if Rey was able to beat a half trained Kylo Ren with no training at all, is he really going to be much of a challenge at all when Luke's done with her? That's a neat dynamic they've set up though. Rather than being a grand evil for the hero to overcome it's more rivals on more equal footing here. Kinda thought Captain Phasma wasn't as menacing as I thought she'd be. I mean, as I recall that scene from the second trailer where she's marching toward the camera like a badass resulted in a wookie tackle (which was hilarious BTW, perfect comedic timing). 

The nazi imagery was stronger with this than the others.  



  
 
^
:pls:

It seems that Star Wars has gain over a billion dollars within twelve days. Not surprise, but looks like Jurassic Park got knock off.
 
Yeah,I don't think Star Wars hasn't even been released in China yet. That's probably another billion dollars there XD
 
I finally watched this movie yesterday night and I loved it! So much nostalgia...all those familiar characters, space ships, weapons, etc. But I really enjoyed the new elements, particularly the new characters, too. Kylo Ren is quickly becoming my favourite - yes I know, he's evil, but I have a soft spot for troubled evil characters. I liked Anakin too. The effects and sceneries were top notch, as to be expected. All in all, this movie is the complete Star Wars package that I had hoped for :D

Now we have to wait for episode VIII  :katcry:
 
*SPOILERS*


I agree with James, the Nazi imagery is so much stronger in this one and honestly that was a bit of a turn off for me. It made it seem a tad generic as far as futuristic totalitarian governments go (I mean, in most of the sci fi films i watch, the future Nazi thing is kinda played out. The older star wars films handled opposing government bodies better)

There's quite a few things I didn't like about the new Star Wars, but I will admit, it was all around less cringey then the prequels, though thats not really saying much.

The part that bugged me the most was inaccuracies and the heavy lifting of scene by scene events from the original trilogies. Its one thing to make the occasional nod, but this crossed a line a couple times as far as mirrored scenes go. This disappointed me, but I still ended up loving Finn and some of the new characters in the end. Just wished the general plot was treated as well as the characters were. 

I'd say the movie was OKAY. You know, a C+ or somethin'. Felt more like a Fan Film then anything for me.



P.S.
I was seriously thinking about making a video on it at one point, but I decided it'd do no good considering most of my criticisms have already been mentioned in past conversations between fans.

*SPOILERS*
 
Common criticisms, but as far as scene lifting, while it was a lot more obvious here than it was previously Star Wars has used ring theory since the prequels, which I actually thought was one of the more well executed aspects. I refer to this here video [video=vimeo]https://vimeo.com/137711830[/video]

This is actually a kind of crude demonstration of it but you'd literally have to watch all six at once to get the scope of it but the basic idea was the the prequels all mirrored a certain film in the original trilogy (It actually went The Phantom Menace - Return of the Jedi, Attack of the Clones - Empire Strikes Back, Revenge of the Sith - A New Hope)  both thematically and cinematographically. The angles were reversed and everything. Although I'm not sure it 100% corresponds that way personally since it seems more direct order at times, as this video seemingly asserts. But that was the intent for sure.

I've only seen TFA 3 times now so I'm not sure how if that's linked in to that as well or if that was all just a haphazard misunderstanding of how that was supposed to work.
 
I would've liked the movie more if the soundtrack was more, variant I suppose? It feels like the Force theme played WAY too many times throughout that movie, Jesus, it's supposed to be saved for the REALLY important movies.

My biggest gripe was the antagonists... Kylo was just so, puny. Pathetic. A weakling. He and the First Order were a bunch of knock offs of the greatness that was the Empire. The Empire put fear because they may have been space nazis, but they were fearsome, outside of their shooting, by never losing their grip. Never losing control. The only reason the Rebel Alliance won was because they hit the Empire hard and fast (movie canon) without letting a massive war drag on. First Order, bunch of people with a stupid idea (Starkiller Base AKA The Death Planet) who had to scream everything.

And the final fight with Kylo... GOD FREAKING DARN IT THAT WAS BAD. Kylo should've finished that fight a lot quicker and killed Rey and Finn, or Rey should've killed him. Kylo should not have lived thanks to dues ex machina. Seriously. There's no logical way he could've survived the fight, but they wouldn't have had the planet just open up to conveniently spare him if he couldn't get off the planet before being vaproized by the fact it turned into a star.

Finn was great though. Silver lining. Love him. I was like "Black Stormtrooper protagonist Jedi? That's stupid." But dude, was so cool.
 
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