Just got back from seeing Star Wars 7 for the second time in theaters. Second time is better than the first and my already favorable opinion of the movie is now even more favorable. The same cannot be said for the people who were in the theater with me though. If these people weren't tourists, then I am now of the opinion that Nevadans and Utahans are shittier movie goers than Californians.
A few ground rules when going to a theater:
1. Shut up
2. Seriously, shut the **** up
3. Turn off your cell phone
4. Either eat something before seeing the movie or leave. Chewing popcorn and opening candy wrappers is louder than you think.
5. If you have kids, take them to a showing earlier in the day
6. I'm not kidding...SHUT. THE. ****. UP.
7. Don't ask questions about the plot until AFTER the movie is over
8. If you are watching a sequel and don't know what happened before, get out of the theater and go watch the previous movies before seeing this one. Otherwise, you run a great risk of breaking rules 1,2,3,6, and 7.
9. If you are not interested in seeing the movie and feel the need to break rule 3 because you're bored, LEAVE
10. Don't kick the seats
Obey these rules and you'll lower the chances of someone (namely myself) becoming tempted to kick your ass.
I will now present more information in the form of two PSA's that like-minded individuals have made:
Now, onto a comment on people's comments about the film:
Seeing people's irritation at how The Force Awakens is too similar to A New Hope is just totally funny to me. Some of these same people probably also shitted on the prequels for being "too different." It reminds me of the Zelda fanbase - when a "classic Zelda game" comes out, people criticize it for not doing anything new, then when something like Majora's Mask comes out, people criticize it for being "too different to be a Zelda game." Granted, Majora's Mask is better written than all three Star Wars prequels, but the same vibes are still there.
People wanted a return to "classic Star Wars," that's what we got. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, it could've been worse - George Lucas could've directed it. Plus, now that all the "classic Star Wars" notes have been hit and rekindled in JUST THIS FIRST MOVIE, we now have the second and third movies in this new trilogy for the two other directors (IIRC, Abrams isn't doing Episodes 8 and 9) to expand upon. I pretty much knew this film was going to be similar to the original Star Wars and I still enjoyed it.
It's not just a sequel - it's also a reboot.
the language style is very 20-teens Earth and it's super jarring.
I don't think it's jarring at all. In fact, I think it makes things less awkward and more relatable - this entry has probably the least amount of awkward dialogue of any entry in the saga.
If you think it doesn't fit with the universe, look at it from this perspective - it's been 30-35 years since the end of Return of the Jedi in-universe. Language and dialects change over time - the new characters' way of speaking being different than the OT characters' way of speaking is similar to how younger people today don't speak in quite the same way as their elders did back in their day. The way people spoke in 1977-83 was different than in 2015 and that can extend to the Star Wars universe as well.
ONE LAST THING:
People seriously need to get the hell over Ren's crossguard-claymore lightsaber.
I'll admit, I thought it was stupid at first too, then I actually saw the film and I thought they did a good job with it, especially considering the more natural sword-fighting style they used in this film compared to the stupid twirly-flippy "all flash, no substance" duels of the prequels. I gave it a chance and I was pleasantly surprised with how well it was handled.