Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I finally saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Blu-ray with all the Bonus Features. Did I enjoy the film? Yes, I did. Will I watch it again? I honestly don’t know…maybe I will because of the new Jedi, Rey, Hans Solo, Princess Leila, Chewbacca, C-3PO and some of the others from the original cast. Maybe even BB-8. I actually liked the little guy, though I knew he was created for the kids in the audience and to replace R2-D2 during the course of the film.Did I mention that Spoilers would be in this review? Well, they are. Don’t read any further if you don’t want to be disappointed when viewing the film.I will agree that that this movie was somewhat similar to the original Star Wars film from the seventies, which I saw at the theater. That didn’t bother me. I understood that after such a long time away from the Star Wars franchise that the new movie would have to include similarities as well as new folder for the viewers. In the Bonus Features, J.J. Abrams mentions this and the desire not to disappoint the original fans of the movie.I also have to admit that my primary interest in the films have been the Light-saber battles between the Jedi and the Dark Side. I remember thinking after seeing the original Star Wars that Lucas has something going with the Light-sabers, but there simply weren’t enough of them in the final fight sequence. The film was more about the airplane battles and the Death Star. That changed with The Empire Strikes Back and the battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader at the end. That was an epic battle sequence that left its impression on me till the third movie was finally released. It wasn’t until years later with the fourth film, a prequel, which I once again was blown away in the fight sequence between Darth Maul, Liam Neeson, and Ewan McGregor. That not only surprised me, but had me rooting for the Jedi. Of course, l loved Darth Maul and his stick Light-saber and the cartwheels he did during the fight. That’s about all I can tell you about the three prequels. I remember very little about them other than the fight scenes in the first one.I had hoped that this new film, The Force Awakens, would have similar attributes, and it did to a certain degree; but, certainly not as much as I wanted.Everyone should know the general theme of the movie by now. A new Jedi is about to arise to fight the resurgence of the Dark Side. The new Jedi isn’t who we expect. I gave it away at the start of this review so you already know who it is.Yes, it’s the female scavenger, Rey, who turns out to have the Force inside of her and does battle with Ren, whose grandfather was Darth Vader. I won’t say more than that on this particular subject. Have to leave some surprises. Of course, the secret of who Rey actually is and who she was waiting for on the planet of Jakku is a mystery. I’m wondering if she was Hans and Leila’s daughter, though that was never mentioned.For some reason I expected more from Ren, who was representing his grandfather in the film. I knew why Darth Vader wore his helmet. It was because of the wounds to his body and breathing regulator inside the helmet. There was no reason given for Ren wearing his own, rather unique-looking helmet, other than that he looked cool and definitely more powerful when in it. Without the helmet on, he appeared to be nothing more than a bratty teenager, which was displayed in his unexpected bursts of anger throughout the movie. Even without training in Light-saber fighting, there was no way I could see Rey not defeating him in the final battle. She was simply too tough of a person to give in to losing a fight. She was certainly tougher than Ren.No, Hans Solo won’t be coming back. Not after what he experienced at the hands of Ren and then the long drop into the abyss.Though it appeared that Jinn (the former Storm Trooper) or Oscar Isaac’s character of the cocky fighter pilot for the resistance might be the new Jedi, I knew it had to be Rey. That wasn’t just good guessing on my part. It was because her character was so strong and believed in justice and fairness that I had me drawn to her from the very beginning.And, that made the ending even more special to me when she offers the original light saber that Obi-Wan Kenobi had possessed to the last Jedi alive from the past. I have to admit that the Jedi’s uniform was immaculate, which made me wonder where the local Dry Cleaner was located on the Island of the Jedi. Still, the scene gave me goose bumps. It said to me, “Here’s your Light-saber. Now, it’s time to kick some butt.”Certainly, the Special Effects were awesome to see. Those alone will blow the minds of most fans. Everything looked real even though you knew they weren’t. The airplane battles in space were done to perfection, the creatures looked real, the locations were ideal, and the multitude of Storm Troopers appeared to be ready for battle.During the last five months, this film has received an astronomical amount of positive and negative reviews. I doubt that will affect the filming of the next movie, and there will definitely be another one. The reason is that this movie alone grossed over two billion dollars at the Box Office. This movie may be the most expensive ever done, but now every tent-pole film will be trying to reach the two billion dollar mark when it comes out.The Bonus Features are to die for. An Behind-the-Scenes look at the making of the film with over two hours of Special Features. This gives you a pretty good idea of why certain decisions were made and others weren’t. I’m not sure why Mark Hamill was given second billing under Harrison Ford when he is only the film for about one minute. I could see a “and Mark Hamill” at the end of the billing for the major characters, but not second. Maybe it had to do with clout and needing him in the film. I think the next film will probably justify it.So, four or five stars for this review? I would say because of everything involved in the making of the film that five stars is the way to go. Some of the fans will love the movie, while others won’t. I believe every bit of the 250 million dollars can be seen up on the screen. And, there was no Jar Jar Binks in this movie. That alone is worth a 5-Star rating!

+++Warning, I will assume that anyone reading this has seen the movie already, so there will be some spoilerish material in the review, but I will not give away any major surprises+++++The Force Awakens is clearly catering to the fans of the original trilogy who were disheartened by Lucas' abandoning anything close to a good script and overuse of CGI in the prequel trilogy. This movie goes back to the roots of Star Wars blending many practical effects with CGI, and putting out a good story, and getting good performances out of the actors. The focus of the story is very much on the new characters, Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren, BB-8 and Poe. All the original main characters are in the film to various degrees, with Harrison Ford doing much of the heavy lifting returning as Han Solo. It is very much meant to mirror A New Hope. The journey of the main character is intentionally paralleling the journey Luke took in the first movie. While I am not one who thinks it is an outright ripoff of Episode IV like some do, the fact that they were going for that tone and certainly had scenes that mirrored a lot of what was going on in that movie, and had some of the same lines (some subtle and some very much not) I do get the criticism.I ultimately give this movie an incomplete grade until this Trilogy is played out. There are three main things I think need to be cleared up in the subsequent movies or cannon novels that are coming down the line, and then some other things that would just be nice to know. The first big point is obviously who Rey is. That character is obviously the one the whole new trilogy is going to be based around so an explanation of who she is is essential. Likewise, Snoke's identity has to be revealed. They are setting up that he is an Emperor like figure, powerful in the dark side. But it is known that during The Emperor and Vader's time there were two Sith, a master and apprentice. So there needs to be an explanation of how Snoke came to be in order to make sense of his seducing of Kylo Ren to the dark side. Then I think there needs to be an explanation of the new force powers we see in the movie. Kylo Ren, who J.J. Abrams made clear leading up to the movie is not a Sith lord and is not fully trained, is using powers that have not been shown in any previous movie (I have not seen The Clone Wars or Rebels cartoons, so I am not sure about what has or has not been in them). Not to mention the skills that the other character was able to learn so quickly.The things I believe some kind of explanation would be nice are, why Finn deserted for example. He was on his first mission early on in the movie, and his only act of disobedience was to defect. That is not something that seems realistic for a soldier who was bred from childhood to be a Stormtrooper and obey orders. Then things like how Mas came to obtain Luke's old lightsaber, what were the main characters doing in the years after Return of the Jedi etc. Obviously some of those things will be told in Episodes VIII and IX, and likely fleshed out in the new cannon novels, but when those points are known then I think this movie's piece in the larger puzzle can be better evaluated.I do think that there are certainly imperfect parts to the story. Like Leia basically ignoring Chewbacca at a certain point, not going to find Luke herself when they figure out where he was, basically redoing a trench run to blow up the base, and things like that. With that said, I do think the movie made for a very good return to the Star Wars cinematic universe, and give a boost of nostalgia for those of us who grew up with the original films. I am not one of those who utterly loathed the prequels, but I certainly can be counted among those who think that Lucas took on way to much on his own on making them, and lost sight of what made the original movies the classics they are. And I am one who loathes the endless of amount of CGI and tweaks and additions that he put into the original trilogy.For those who get the actual Blu-Ray, the movie looks and sounds great as you would expect. The extras of course vary depending on where you buy it, with the studio doling out retailer specific extras. To my knowledge none of them have an audio commentary on the film itself. For the Amazon version the main extra is an hour long behind the scenes and making of feature called "The Story Awakens" where the cast and crew talk about the process of creating the movie from pre-production and casting to the end. Then there are several shorter features, all pretty much under 10 min on building BB-8, creating the various creatures, breaking down the fight scene in the forest at the end of the movie, John Williams return to score the movie, ILM creating the digital effects, deleted scenes and a short feature on the charitable work done by the studio, cast, crew etc around the movie. Good for what is there, but sucks that all the bonus content was again split up like is happening on a lot of the major releases. And, a commentary track and including the various trailers would have been nice. Thankfully Harrison Ford participated a lot in the extras, which is something given his rumored dislike for the character of Han Solo and the movies overall. He seemed appreciative of being in the movie, respectful to the fans, as well as being honest and sincere with that 10-20 years ago he probably would not have agreed to come back.There will ultimately be a lot of subjectivity in liking or disliking this movie. It is not perfect, but realistically aside from maybe Empire Strikes Back, none of the movies have been been all that close to perfect. I think most people in their 40s and 50s who were kids or teenagers when the original films came out and loved those will mostly fall somewhere on the like to love spectrum on this movie. If you were a casual fan of any of the movies, then I think you will probably be a casual fan of this. If you are one who loved what Lucas did with the prequels and the special editions, then you may fall somewhere between disappointment and hate. Realistically almost everyone has seen this at least once by now, so you know where you fall.

This one was very interesting and a lot of fun to watch. Make sure you don't miss out on this one.

Obviamente la película es buena y la calidad del Blu-ray también. Lo que le da valor extra a esta versión es sin duda el material extra, vale mucho la pena, sobre todo para los fans de Star Wars. Sólo, como lo mencionan otras personas, la descarga digital funciona solo con cuentas de Amazon y iTunes de Estados Unidos.

Great DVD came within a few days

Steelbook di Star Wars - Il risveglio della Forza completamente dedicata al lato oscuro con Kylo Ren e Capitan Phasma, mentre i personaggi "buoni" sono presenti sulla costina. Graficamente mi piace molto anche se avrei preferito ci fosse stato scritto il tiolo del film si lato per facilitarne il riconoscimento in libreria.Il film è ovviamente in risoluzione FullHD 1920x1080p e il formato audio presente è:• DTS-HD HR7.1: Inglese• DTS Digital Surround 5.1: Italiano, Spagnolo• Dolby Digital 5.1: Spagnolo CatalanoMentre i sottotiroli sono presenti nelle lingue: Italiano, Inglese per non udenti, Greco, Portoghese, SpagnoloEcco i contenuti speciali presenti nel bluray che ricordo sono in qualità FullHD:• I Segreti de Il Risveglio della Forza: Un Viaggio Cinematico – Attraverso filmati e interviste esclusive ad attori e filmmaker, la storia completa della realizzazione de Il Risveglio della Forza viene svelata per la prima volta assoluta• Il Risveglio della Storia: La Lettura a Tavolino – Vecchi e nuovi protagonisti riflettono sull’indimenticabile giornata in cui s’incontrarono per la prima volta per leggere la sceneggiatura del film•Costruzione di BB-8 – Un approfondimento su tutti i segreti che hanno permesso ai realizzatori di portare questo nuovo droide sul grande schermo creando un personaggio che ha subito conquistato tutti gli appassionati dell’universo di Star Wars• Creazione delle Creature – Interessante video alla scoperta delle “magie” cinematografiche che hanno permesso di dare vita a un nuovo cast di creature• Progetto di Battaglia: Il Combattimento nella Neve – Tutto sui dettagli dell’epica lotta finale a colpi di spada laser tra Rey e Kylo Ren• John Williams: La Settima Sinfonia – Il leggendario compositore condivide le sue riflessioni sul lavoro svolto per le musiche della saga con particolare focus su quelle create appositamente per Star Wars: Il Risveglio della Forza• ILM: La Magia Visiva della Forza – l’impressionante lavoro digitale che ha dato vita agli effetti visivi del film svelato in questo imperdibile contenuto speciale• Forza per il Cambiamento – Esistono eroi di ogni forma e dimensione. Grazie all’iniziativa Star Wars: Forza per il Cambiamento i fan di Star Wars in tutto il mondo hanno usato la Forza per aiutare gli altri. Scopri come in Forza per il Cambiamento!• Scene EliminateFatemi sapere se questa recensione vi è stata d'aiuto! ;)

me he encantado la peli, se ve y se oye genial, en perfecto castellano, tambien estoy encantado con la compañia que la vende, el paquete se perdio o no se sabe que paso y ellos tan gentilmente me mandaron otro gratis, la peli de importacion lleva dos bd y muuuucho mas barata que aqui en españa, eso si no lleva dvd pero me daba igual, gracias amazon y a dodax, todo perfecto.

Petite parenthèse pour commencer: Je me fous éperdument de la 3D (tout comme du dvd inclus d'ailleurs), au ciné je ne la supporte pas et je vis dans une ville où le multiplexe (il n'y a qu'1 ciné: CGR) nous l'impose...aucune séance 2D. Par conséquent je ne peux plus voir les films que je veux lorsqu'ils sont projetés en salles...les pro-3D se fichent bien de cette situation donc je ne vais pas pleurer pour ceux qui vont devoir attendre une autre édition pour profiter d'une version 3D dans leur salon.P.S: je ne suis pas contre la 3D, j'aimerai simplement avoir le choix au ciné...Donc soyons clairs, effectivement l'unique intérêt de cette édition par rapport à la simple réside dans le steelbook...Celui-ci est magnifique. Kylo sur le recto, Phasma sur le verso et même la tranche (avec les portraits des autres personnages principaux) est splendide. L'intérieur l'est tout autant avec le faucon et 2 Tie et les disques sont sérigraphiés (image dessus et non 1 fond bleu comme on peut le voir sur beaucoup de disques de la maison Disney). 10€ c'est donc le prix que coûte ce steelbook, à vous de voir si vous voulez les mettre. Si l'aspect "collection d'un tel objet ne vous intéresse pas et que vous souhaitez seulement posséder le film et les bonus, achetez plutôt l'édition simple.L'aspect benelux de cette édition: il se résume uniquement par un paragraphe en flamand sur le petit surcarton qui accompagne le steelbook, il s'enlève facilement et sans laisser de traces...bref pas de quoi faire 1 fromage à mon avis.Environ 2h de bonus dont 4,50mn de scènes coupées et déjà bien travaillées (pas de fond vert dans ces scènes). Le reportage "les secrets du réveil de la force" de plus d'1h mérite d'être vu...pour ma part certaines de mes interrogations y ont trouvé des réponses.