STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS - Blu-Ray Thoughts

[mkaroly]

Complaint the third: Did anyone else think at times (in conjunction with the first complaint) that the movie played more like a television show spin-off where the main characters from the first show stop by the second show to legitimize it? Look...there's R2 (who basically does nothing but suddenly, at the end, provide the map and pass the baton off to BB8 I guess)...look, there's Admiral Akbar and that weird dude that was with Lando in JEDI...then the audience applauses. It's hard to describe what I mean, but maybe it would have been better to keep some of those characters out (though it is plausible that would have still been around at the time the movie takes place).

I know what you're getting at. My issue is these "shout-outs to nostalgia" are clumsily handled in most of these reboot/remake/sequels. The problem ISN'T that they're there -- the problem is that they're not organic, they're not woven in effectively enough and they're poorly done.

R2 sitting in the corner is one example like you said Michael. It's very sad when you consider the whole conception of STAR WARS was that the series was supposed to be told through C3PO and R2D2, their adventures linking through the various events -- Lucas himself dropped the baton to some degree with that in the prequels and Abrams didn't pick up on it here either. He should have.

Yes - that's exactly what I was getting at Andy! The more I thought about it, the more sad I was about the whole R2 thing...he really served no purpose in the film except to be shown once and then suddenly "resurrected" at the end so that they could find Luke. Maybe he was "resurrected" by the presence of Luke's lightsaber? Lol...anyway, I agree with what you are saying.

[Monterey Jack]

Regarding R2...seeing as this is just the first of a new trilogy of films, I'm sure he will have more to do in the sequels (that's him waiting by the Millennium Falcon when Rey goes to find Luke at the end). When you're making a decades-later sequel to a beloved film trilogy, fanservice callbacks are to be expected, so I appreciate that Abrams and co. at least kept them to a minimum and weren't too obnoxious with them.

[AndyDursin]

Abrams' best moment in the film was the introduction of the Millennium Falcon. That scene got by far the most applause when I saw it, and he did a great job, because IMO it wasn't telegraphed and felt like a genuine surprise.

On the other hand, one thing that Paul mentioned to me, and I agree with him on in hindsight -- the "scope" of the movie felt small. I don't know if it's because of Abrams direction (the likeliest culprit), but visually, the movie gave off this claustrophobic kind of feel. Planets like Jakku and the place where they met Leia felt mostly vacant. Even the one or two token shots of people on other planets being freaked out by the new Death Star (or whatever they called it) didn't give off an epic feel.

That will be something I'm guessing other directors will rectify, but it IS curious. In the original trilogy, you had an obviously grand sense of SCALE. In this movie, things just felt confined...those locations, plus the rebel base, and even various sets felt tiny. Like something was "off" with them (i.e. the new "Cantina" bit). The scenes with Kylo Renn likewise had a very constrained look to them. They look like sets, whereas even with a smaller budget, Lucas got more bang for the buck with the production design of John Barry in the original STAR WARS.

[BobaMike]

My only gripe about the scale of The Force Awakens, was that it seemed like Kylo Ren was on the same one catwalk/ hallway, every time someone talked to him about Rey.

Then I read somewhere (the making of book maybe), that I was right and that the interior Starkiller base was small: they just shot different angles of it.

[AndyDursin]

Home video release --

BURBANK, Calif. (March 3, 2016)—Star Wars: The Force Awakens shattered box office records upon its debut to become the cinematic event of a generation with over $926 million domestic and $2.05 billion worldwide. As announced this morning by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Iger at The Walt Disney Company’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders, the epic movie will be available to own early on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere on April 1. It comes home on Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD on April 5.

Discover the complete story behind the making of Star Wars: The Force Awakens with in-depth documentary and bonus material that will take fans on an exciting journey behind the scenes. Secrets will be revealed through extensive footage, never-before-seen deleted scenes, and exclusive interviews with the actors and filmmakers. Bonus features include*:


Secrets of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey – For the first time, discover the complete story behind the making of The Force Awakens, revealed through in-depth footage and exclusive interviews with the actors and filmmakers in this feature documentary.

The Story Awakens: The Table Read – Cast members familiar and new reflect on the memorable day they all first came together to read the movie’s script.

Building BB-8 – See how the filmmakers brought the newest droid to the screen, creating an instant fan favorite in the Star Wars universe.
Crafting Creatures – Watch movie magic as the filmmakers bring a cast of new creatures to life.
Blueprint of a Battle: The Snow Fight – Go deeper into the epic, climactic lightsaber battle between Rey and Kylo Ren.

John Williams: The Seventh Symphony – The legendary composer shares personal insights of his work on Star Wars and The Force Awakens.

ILM: The Visual Magic of The Force – An insider’s look into the remarkable digital artistry of the movie’s visual effects.

Force For Change – Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. See how the Star Wars: Force for Change initiative has united Star Wars fans all over the globe to help others.

Plus Deleted Scenes

* Digital bonus offerings may vary by retailer

Star Wars: The Force Awakens saw the eagerly anticipated reteaming of original Star Wars stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill, along with Anthony Daniels, the only actor to have been in all seven Star Wars films, and Peter Mayhew. The returning cast was joined by newcomer Daisy Ridley, who beat out fierce competition to take the principal role of Rey; BAFTA Rising Star Award winner John Boyega (Attack the Block, Imperial Dreams) as reluctant stormtrooper Finn; Emmy® nominee Adam Driver (Lincoln, Girls) as the villainous Kylo Ren, and Golden Globe® winner Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, The Bourne Legacy) as Resistance pilot Poe Dameron.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was directed by J.J. Abrams and written by Lawrence Kasdan & J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt. Lucasfilm president and eight-time Academy Award® nominee Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams, along with his longtime producing partner Bryan Burk, are the film’s producers.

Having established a musical legacy with his iconic scores for the previous six films in the Star Wars Saga, acclaimed composer John Williams returned to score Star Wars: The Force Awakens, ultimately garnering his 50th Oscar® nomination for it.

DISC SPECIFICATIONS:
FEATURE RUN TIME: Approximately 136 min.
RATING: PG-13 in U.S.; PG in CE; G in CF
ASPECT RATIO: Blu-ray Feature Film = 2.40:1
DVD Feature Film = 2.40:1
AUDIO: Blu-ray = English 7.1 DTS-HDMA, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio, French and Spanish 5.1
Dolby Digital Language Tracks
DVD = English, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio Language Tracks
LANGUAGES: English, French & Spanish
SUBTITLES: English SDH, French & Spanish

[DavidBanner]

Disney and Lucasfilm are saying that a 3D Blu-ray is coming later in the year...

[AndyDursin]

My review copy of the Blu-Ray came in yesterday.

That 3D release must be richer in special features content, because this is pretty light: the 70-minute "Making Of" is VERY fluffy even for a Laurent Bouzereau feature. We have the obligatory scene where Kathleen Kennedy announces to the production team that Abrams was hired (applause all around!) and lots of back-patting. There's six minutes of Williams and others talking about the score. Several other brief featurettes. The deleted scenes total 4 minutes and offer nothing of importance other than clarifying Finn's fate ('he's going to be fine') which they left dangling in the air.

There are no trailers, no commentaries...so my guess is they're being held for that 3D package or -- what's worse -- ANOTHER Special Edition down the line.

Interesting when I rewatched the film again is how the reshot moments stood out a little more. Like when Han is asking Rey about joining him on the Falcon. When she says she wants to go back to Jakku, the reaction shot of Harrison Ford had to have been reshot at another time, as he looks like he's wearing a wig and is noticeably frailer. My guess is it was a post-accident pick-up.

I was reinforced in my initial analysis of the movie and felt Oscar Isaac in particular could have used more to do. In fact, with all this talk of the "Young Han Solo" movie and its casting, it's too bad they've already tapped Isaac for Poe Dameron, because he has that sense of humor and "panache" for lack of a better term that would have fit that role --- seemingly more than some of the names they're throwing around (Miles Teller, etc.)

[DavidBanner]

I just took a couple of hours last night to go through the special features on the Blu-ray.

I agree that the Bouzereau feature is pretty fluffy. But there's a lot of crucial information that comes across. When you weed past the back-patting there and in another couple of scenes, some interesting material gets through.

Bouzereau's feature pretty much confirms everything we discussed as happening while the movie was being produced. Everything was driven by the release date - Disney wanted Lucasfilm to deliver a new Star Wars film in 2015. They initially had Michael Arndt writing, but dropped him when he insisted on having more time to write. The changeover to Kasdan and Abrams as the writers meant that they had very little time to get the script done before they had to start shooting. The Art Department was working without a full script, and some changes were made as a result of Abrams liking this or that design. Kasdan and Abrams were continuing to do major rewrites all the way through casting and apparently up to the point of that group Table Read. Oscar Isaac mentions that Poe Dameron was supposed to be killed early on, but that Abrams changed this for him while casting him. The function of Luke in the movie appears to have repeatedly changed, given that the Art Department had multiple paintings of Luke in action with his lightsaber that would not be needed for this movie.

It's very clear from watching this that Peter Mayhew was barely involved. He did appear for a couple of scenes, from the looks of it, pretty much for shots of Chewie sitting down to fly the Falcon or things like that. Mayhew no longer walks very well. Nearly all the Chewie of this movie was the new, younger guy Joonas Suotamo - who Mayhew says he spent a little time with to discuss the various tics of his performances. Suotamo does not appear to have gone with Mayhew's old habit of just saying his thoughts in English, as he happily makes his version of Chewie sounds instead.

Carrie Fisher admits on camera that her performance, particularly on her first day was "the worst day I've ever had on a set in my entire career".

Abrams openly states what we discussed here - that the point of the movie was to introduce the new young characters and have the older ones present to pass the baton along to them. The creation of BB8 is pretty openly a marketing device - Daisy Ridley comes very close to openly stating that.

Mark Hamill's presence at the Table Read is now understandable, given that he has NO DIALOGUE in the movie. Having him read all the stage directions and the opening crawl was a nice way to keep him involved. It's clear that they taped the entire Table Read, but we really don't need to see any more of it than what was actually included. The script frankly isn't all that great - mostly due to how rushed it was. Hamill also admits that he never really thought there was anything more to be done with Star Wars, in contravention of the comments we heard from him back in the day about how there was a plan for him to play Luke as an older Jedi passing the torch along to the next generation...

From what they're showing, the Abu Dhabi shoot was fairly uneventful - as opposed to the disasters that happened when Lucas' productions went to Tunisia. Again, that's from what they're showing. There are some interesting snippets at the top of the Bouzereau feature where people are being VERY careful what they say - and even Abrams is quite stern about this.

Interesting to hear that Captain Phasma gets her name from The Tall Man's sphere from Phantasm...

Interesting also to hear the younger cast members all thinking they were going to be fired after the Table Read for not doing well there. No mention of the dialogue having anything to do with the problem...

Ford's comments are extremely charitable, which is understandable given how much deference they showed to him, and how much they paid him to be in the movie. But he acknowledges his purpose in the movie is to pass the story along to the younger actors.

The featurette with John Williams makes pretty clear, I believe, that this will most likely be his only contribution to the new Star Wars movies. Williams gives the usual compliments to Abrams but says that he was surprised to be doing the new movie. He gives no indication that he intends to do any more, even though I'm sure that they would like him to do the other big chapters. (He's definitely not doing the little spinoffs) Kathleen Kennedy gave an indication that she'd asked him to do Episodes VII-IX, but Williams said he only did Episode VII because Abrams asked him. I think he'd be comfortable passing the baton on to a younger composer at this point - it looks like he was happy to end his contribution with Rey's ascent of the mountain to Luke.

There's one ominous comment early on from Kennedy where she discusses the writers' room sessions - with her, Michael Arndt, Kasdan, Abrams, and I believe she said either Lucasfilm executives or development executives. This was a corporate construction from the word go.

And if it wasn't obvious already - George Lucas had absolutely nothing to do with this process. He indeed sold his creative children away to the salt mines.