• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens....


Gene Steinberg

Forum Super Hero
Staff member
So my son, Grayson, came home from Madrid for a couple of weeks. On Monday, he splurged and took his dad to the movies to see the new "Star Wars" flick.

With all the hype, I suppose the tremendous box office receipts were inevitable. But this film is as much marketing as film craft. It's slick, entertaining, with good performances from all involved. We picked the 3D screen mostly because we didn't want to wait another 40 minutes for the next show at a regular screen, but it was shot in a way that enhanced the effect, rather than overwhelm the viewer.

Despite its charms, it also retreads "Episode IV" in some respects, which may be useful for nostalgia's sake, but is hardly a reflection of originality. That said, there's both a resolution and a cliffhanger that will keep you guessing to some degree until the next film that will debut in two years.

That said, it appears J.J. Abrams is showing a penchant for retreads once again, witness what he did with "Star Trek into Darkness."
 
I saw it too and although I thought that it was like watching A New Hope I thought was intentional, less a homage then as Darth would say "And now the circle is complete". My opinion of Mr. Abrams is what it pretty much has always been, he can't finish a movie but he builds it up quite nicely (Lost, Cloverfield, Super 8) and i thought the climax to the Force Awakens was very clunky.

After seeing it I afforded myself the pleasure of reading the reviews and found myself chuckling when near the end there is a loss and it mentioned there was a collective gasp in the audience at the initial screening.My feeling was that this scene was so telegraphed that whoever didn't see what was coming wasn't paying attention.
 
Last edited:
After seeing it I afforded myself the pleasure of reading the reviews and found myself chuckling when near the end there is a loss and it mentioned there was a collective gasp in the audience at the initial screening.My feeling was that this scene was so telegraphed that whoever didn't see what was coming wasn't paying attention.
Without being a spoiler, I will agree. And the audience didn't gasp when it happened, at least during when we were there.
 
As to surprises, well a certain revelation in "The Empire Strikes Back." But nothing else about any of the movies was a surprise in any major respect.
 
However I don't think that scene went down like we are supposed to think, if you review the dialogue before it happened it made me think it had to be done for a greater good and he had help.
 
I loved the film to be honest. It felt right for that character to move on can't explain it but it was not a shocking twist


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
As a big SW fan I did enjoy it. Although it is pretty much a remake of the original. I stayed away from spoilers but I did guess correctly on a few things
 
J.J. Abrams did a sort of retread with "Star Trek Into Darkness," though not as well.

We could call the new film: "Star Wars: The (Marketing) Force Awakens." It was meant to reassure diehard fans that the franchise was in good hands, and thus leaving it open to move away from there original focus. But it's still about a dysfunctional family in a sense, the Skywalkers.
 
J.J. Abrams did a sort of retread with "Star Trek Into Darkness," though not as well.


We could call the new film: "Star Wars: The (Marketing) Force Awakens." It was meant to reassure diehard fans that the franchise was in good hands, and thus leaving it open to move away from there original focus. But it's still about a dysfunctional family in a sense, the Skywalkers.

Yep. Any furthur "revelations" about the parentage of certain characters about anyone shouldn't be too shocking, this was always a series (in part) about family dynasties and the sins... and perceived sins... of the father.

From what I understand the character hinted at in the postings above is signed on for Episode IIX (and IX?) hopefully it will be handled intelligently.

Given all that. I'll bet the grandson of Yoda we will see :)
 
Last edited:
I've read that Ep 7 is basically to get old people (myself) back on board after the ridiculous & sad prequels. Now starting with Ep 8 we can REALLY get to telling of a cool story. Ep 7 was just to gain our confidence back.
 
So because I could only stomach about 30 minutes combined viewing time for the prequels, what was the deal with Darth Maul? Was it supposed to be makeup on his face? Or is that how he was born? Hard to think that someone is born with black & red face in a tribal pattern with horns (even in the Star Wars world). Was there more of his type of "person"? Or is he the only one that looks like that within the movie? Does he speak? Just curious. Thanks :)
 
Outside of the movies I never got involved in the Star Wars mythos but i'd be willing to bet there is a novelization or video game out there that answers that very question.

A couple of weeks back the SW universe was all atwitter because there is a video game that MAY have inadvertently mentioned the relationship between Rylo and Rey. Apparently the Force saw to it that balance was restored and the situation righted itself.

It was all a misunderstanding.
 
Outside of the movies I never got involved in the Star Wars mythos but i'd be willing to bet there is a novelization or video game out there that answers that very question.

A couple of weeks back the SW universe was all atwitter because there is a video game that MAY have inadvertently mentioned the relationship between Rylo and Rey. Apparently the Force saw to it that balance was restored and the situation righted itself.

It was all a misunderstanding.

When Disney abandoned the Expanded Universe canon, it must have thrown a lot of people off. But maybe the entire Force Awakens movie is just a dream of Rey, Han, or Binks.
 
It's baffling how that character passed all the screening and everything else. Not ONE person said "uhh, this character is kinda corny and ignoring. That's what all our focus groups are saying - and ourselves. Nobody likes him."?

It's enough to turn him to the dark side. Other than seeing a hologram, do we know who Snoke is? Just sayin'.

But that may be why some are glad that Lucas stepped away.
 
It's baffling how that character passed all the screening and everything else. Not ONE person said "uhh, this character is kinda corny and ignoring. That's what all our focus groups are saying - and ourselves. Nobody likes him."?

To be fair Lucas also offended another ethnic group with his Watto character. the slave owner of young Anakin. And just for good measure consider the Neimodians (spl?) who were involved in enforcing the trade blockade.

So at least he tried to spread the offense.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top