• "... all that's hinted about [Rey's] past is that she was an apprentice at the temple with Kylo since she reveals his name is Ben"

• [Maz Kanata] can see the aura of the force, how she knows Rey has powers

• ["There Has Been An Awakening"] Yes. Snoke says this to Kylo after Rey touches Luke's lightsaber at Maz's temple and has her flashbacks

• "After the flashback she starts using her powers more and she seems to remember that Kylo is Ben. So something inside her (the force) was awakened as a result of the lightsaber."

• "Only shot of [The Knights] are in the flashback and pretty much what the trailers show. Flashbacks imply that Kylo somehow joins the Knights of Ren (which Snoke calls his apprentices with Kylo apparently being his strongest one), leads them to the Jedi temple, defeats a hooded figure that uses a blue saber, and then kills everyone. Only other thing in the flashback is Luke putting the final piece of the map in R2."

• "Han tries to reason with Kylo as an attempt to half heartedly bring him back to the light and to give Chewie time to set charges. At first they make it seem like it's working and Kylo takes off his mask and hugs Han, but then out of nowhere he kills Han.

They play no music during the whole exchange, but right at the moment where Kylo ignites his saber and pierces Han, music comes on heavily making the whole thing emotional as all hell. The look on Hans face is absolutely heart breaking and I fucking applaud for Harrison ford for giving his performance his all.

The guy who plays Kylo does an extremely good job at showing conflicted anger/regret at the moment he kills Han."

• "Rey beats Kylo by engaging in a fight with him and then using a force move reminiscent of a hulk smash that makes the ground around Kylo crumble (she does this next to an icy cliff face which Kylo falls in).

• "They don't explain how she knew that move or why she only really starts using the force later in the movie, but it's implied that she's been suppressing stuff that is slowly coming back to her (not clear if she's the one doing the suppressing or something else. Luke's saber is what triggers her "reawakening", hence the name of the movie).

• "Finn gets his hand cut off, and spends the rest of the movie in a healing tank thing."

• "Finn provides most of the humor, Han is surprisingly serious in this movie."



I liked it. They did a whole lot of world building when Leia gives out exposition at the resistance base and when Maz has her little force moment with Rey.

I wish they could have done more with Snoke because in this movie all he did was tell Kylo and Hux what to do/approve the firing of the weapon/tell Hux to find Kylo at the end. They make you think he's on the star destroyer with them but then they have a sort of reveal where they show that he's just a hologram and is somewhere else instead.

The emotional moments with Han and Leias reunion, Rey trying to bring Kylo back, Han dying, Rey protecting Finn in the forest, and Luke being revealed are done EXTREMELY well and honestly make the movie.

Acting is top notch, even Carrie gives a commanding performance. I loved Hux because the actor who did him really portrayed his jealousy and disgust of Kylo really well. The guy who portrayed Kylo was awesome whenever he was unmasked at the end, he gave off a really menacing and twisted vibe but showed vulnerability when Rey pleaded with him.

In terms of set and costumes, it's pretty much a 2015 version of OT, everything is done very well.

Music is top notch, you can tell they remixed and reused themes for the older characters but in a really well done way. Smokes theme is AWESOME, and comes on heavily in a scene where he's talking to Kylo.

In terms of a rating, I rate it an 8.5/10, better than New hope and return of the Jedi.

• "Film opens with Star Destroyer entering the screen from the bottom then covering a planet."

• "Kylo's first name is "Ben" referred to as Ben by Han with Vader being mentioned as grandfather."

• "The vision was of Ren in the rain with the knights, Luke's robot hand clutching R2 then Ren running after Rey on the Starkiller base. We also see Rey as a child crying as she watches a ship take off with her family."

• "Maz has this thing where she "sees eyes" Like by looking at eyes she can tell what kind of person you are. Like with Finn, she could tell he was a runner or something. They mention Luke training two students I believe? I might've misheard though. She also has Luke's saber with her and when Han asks, she says it's a story for another time."

• "[Kylo] talked about how he wanted help and hated how he felt inside and tears up. Han says he'd do anything for [Kylo] and [Kylo] just straight up stabs [Han]."

• "... really weird how [Rey] goes for a Jedi Mind Trick when in the beginning, she was telling Han she thought Jedis were a myth." ... "...No one teaches her and all of a sudden she manages to pull a Jedi Mind Trick on a stormtrooper." "... Especially this one scene where she force pulls Luke's lightsaber stuck in the snow. Kylo was reaching for it and she fucking manages to slam it into her hand."

• "... It was pretty good, just hard to believe that Rey managed to stand toe to toe and beat Ren."

• "[Rey] scars up [Kylo's] face but a fissure from the planet breaking down separates them and she runs off to escape as he's still lying on the ground alive.

• "[Finn] ... just took a cross guard to the shoulder and a swipe to the back."


I found the film to be very very satisfying. The plot moved at a great pace in my opinion and it was a visual spectacle.

What I didn't like though were the deaths of all the hyped up characters. Phasma was very underutilized and Driver, out of helmet, did not have a very strong presence on screen. The reveal of his parentage was surprisingly pretty low-key and I sorta love and hate that. I hope the next episode touches more on his fall to the dark side and the family problems that were brewing between Han and Leia.

My biggest complaint though were how they rehashed many plot points and scenes from the OT. The usage of nostalgia and 'OH HEY IT'S THAT THING AGAIN!" was way too safe but in the end, I found this episode to be on par with the OT. I can't wait for the future though!

• "The opening crawl is all about Luke. It opens with "Luke Skywalker has vanished." and basically "General Leia Organa dispatched Poe Dameron to acquire a map to reach Luke so he can restore peace to the Galaxy" obviously I'm paraphrasing"

• Opening Shot: "a planet with a huge star destroyer crossing in front of it at a cool angle."

• "Snoke was the biggest disappointment of all, he looks like fucking Smeagol from LOTR. He spends the whole movie like the emperor in episodes 3 & 4. They do a cool thing with the "hologram" effect now where it looks like you're actually in the same room as who you're talking to. Then they "blue flicker" at the end of the communication. So no in person Snoke, so I'm not sure if he's actually as big as they had him via hologram. He was basically a gigantic Smeagol though."

• "Kylo refers to Vader as his grandfather at one point. He talks to the mask once. He asks it to "show him again the power of the dark side" because he's drifting towards the light. So I think they're implying Vader has been visiting with Kylo"

• "Kylo's real name is Ben Solo"

• "They literally pull a sheet off of R2D2 like Steve Jobs revealing a fucking iPhone, to me it's a fan film made by a rich kid who could afford the original actors." "He's shut down the whole movie until he wakes up at the very end and completes the map to Luke with BB8."


Once the excitement dies down, you start to peel back the layers and realize there aren't any. It's time to kill the death star again again. The movie spends so much time referencing the past, walking you through the Musem of Star Wars that you wind up lost in the musem... with little reason to root for the new leads.

Rey spends the first 3/4ths of the movie meandering. Finn runs away from the stormtroopers because he is afraid, but he'll literally run towards a firing squadron for Rey... but there's no why. Maybe because she helped him, maybe because he thinks shes hot. You never really believe that relationship. You're just supposed to think they're tight.

You wind up caring for Rey by the very end when she accepts her destiny/teaches herself a jedi mind trick out of nowhere. She just sort of starts knowing how to use the force really fucking well out of nowhere. There are hints to her past but nothing concrete. She was left on Jakku and told to wait for her family (or people that important) to come back for her. By the middle of the movie she realizes through Maz (who is super awkwardly portrayed, I get why JJ had to re-do a bunch of this stuff now) that no one is coming back for her.

Luke's lightsaber calls out to Rey at Maz's place from her basement. But Luke Skywalker never says a single word and he was the entire mcguffin for the movie? And Han Solo, the greatest character in cinematic history meets his end after telling Leia he knows his son (Kylo Ren) is all bad. And then randomly decides on a very dark bridge... fuck it, I'll ask him to come home with me? Kylo Ren, meanwhile is supposedly conflicted about being bad, but he's pretty seriously down with kicking back and watching the destruction of a Republic solar system.

He also is super down fucking up people left and right, but because he SAYS outloud "I'm so conflicted!" we're supposed to buy in. But I didn't, I wanted to but I couldn't. The First Order and the Resistance spend the whole movie fucking people up from left to right trying to find out where Luke is.

Rey finds Luke and that's the movie

I get that they're setting up the next movies, but holy shit... that would be like Indy finding the lost ark at the end of the first movie and he smiles at it, rather than doing anything with it that furthers his character. And as soon as the Resistance knows where Luke is... they send Rey? A stranger? Alone with Chewy and BB8?

The same Rey who Leia references to Finn as "that girl?" The same Leia who hasn't seen her brother in years, and just spent blood and treasure to find him and the second she does she waves at the Millennium Falcon at the end and hangs back?? Just weak all around, Force Awakens was a HUGE letdown for me

THIS! I've kinda known about this for a while and I've been saying among my friends and other spoiler fed peeps that this was going to be something that's gonna create a huge rift in the fans. There seems to be this HUGE expectation among those unspoiled that Luke is in way more of this movie than the poster, trailers, and TV spots have let on. And they're in for a HUGE disappointment. And you can't set their expectations without spoiling them...

Anyways I was hoping though that the spoiler that ends the movie with Rey asking Luke if he's her father and him answering was actually in the movie. Both the spoilerboard (which was updated today) and reviews though seem to imply that she just hands him the lightsaber, he scratches his chin, smiles, end credits - not a word spoken. There seems to be an allusion he is her father. But I guess they want to save that answer till 8 or 9. But if Kylo Ren turning out to be Ben Solo is the big "I am your father" moment that Mark Hamill mentioned then I'm disappointed because I saw that coming a mile away. Ah well, 20th is around the corner.

[Finn & Rey vs Ben Solo]

• Finn steps in with the lightsaber, which gets knocked into the snow. Kylo notices the saber and goes for it (the first time Kylo has seen Skywalkers saber in this movie or acknowledges it) and when he uses the force to pull it out of the snow a la Empire Strikes Back it flies into Rey's hand instead (she's stronger with the force than he is).

• No, Finn has no force knowledge whatsoever. He's just an ex stormtrooper with no mission.

[The Duel's Body]

• Yeah it's Finn after he gets fucked up by Kylo. He stays unconscious after that through the end of the movie.


[Finn & Rey]

• No, Rey kisses Finn on the cheek at the end of the movie as he's unconscious. Then she leaves to see Luke.

• It's barely implied. Finn asks her if she has a "cute boyfriend" at one point and she shrugs it off. Then the cheek kiss at the end. Rey and Poe don't really cross paths.

• Finn is basically Rey's motorcycle side car. Even at the end when he goes to "save her" she breaks herself out and he chills. He's basically comedic relief 3PO but funnier.

• There's no Finn and Rey romance, its a friendship. And there's no Yoda/Obi Wan shit either.