"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" Thread.

[Joe Republic]

There is no continuity issue. At the time of the original trilogy, the Galactic Empire was in decline. Recruits and conscripts had been swelling the ranks of Stormtroopers for years, and the remarkable discipline and fortitude of the former clone army was only a memory. (The Empire did not build two successive Death Stars to terrorize its own planets because it was thriving.) I thought this was common knowledge?

This.  Widespread conscription coupled with inadequate training also helpfully explained why no stormtroopers in the original trilogy could aim a blaster for sh[inks].

[Joe Republic]

^ Well that answers a ton of questions I had, similar to Morden.  Why the heck would they cut that out?  Even a passing mention in the opening crawl might have been helpful.

PS who was Max von Sydow's character again?  And why did he have the map to find Luke?

[Joe Republic]

Kylo Ren was very underwhelming

This.  The moment Rey suggests he take off his mask and then we're just like, "oh.  he's just some nerdy guy."  Part of what made Darth Vader so awesome is that he never took his mask off until the very end of ROTJ, aside from the partial glimpse in ESB that just exacerbated his mystique.

[Joe Republic]

Now I have a second, I just thought I'd share my favorite aspects of the film...

1. The opening, in which a representative from the good army loads some important data into a small droid, moments before the bad guy in the shiny black suit shows up and captures the good character for interrogation and torture for the whereabouts of the droid and its data.

2. The droid's escape into the wilds of a desert planet, before encountering a young human who has been eking out a tiring existence on this desert planet throughout their entire childhood.

3. The daring rescue of the captured good character from the evil army's space ship.

4. The giant moon-sized battle station of the evil army, which demonstrates an ability to destroy a planet full of innocent people. The battle station is eventually destroyed by a small squad of X-wings, seconds before it was about to destroy Princess Leia's army's own planet.

5. The heroic older male character, who had been something of a mentor to the young desert-dweller aboard the Millennium Falcon, is brutally slain by the guy in the shiny black suit who at one point considered him a father figure.

So all in all, episode VII is definitely unlike any prior episodes we've seen before. The writers really deserve some awards.