The Force Awakens Personal Review Thread- SPOILERS HERE

[Akasha Khan]

[ I have a hard time buying that - for all she knows, a fleet of Republic star destroyers is about to drop out of hyperlight and bombard the planet from orbit, seeing as the First Order had just declared itself a threat on a galactic scale. It's a possible explanation, but it still makes her look short-sighted, since, as it turned out, it was indeed a necessary step in the Resistance's successful attack on Starkiller Base.

So, I've been thinking about some alternatives to the way they presented Starkiller Base and the First Order, and I had an idea that I think could have more clearly distinguished Starkiller from the previous Death Stars and clarified the relationship among the Resistance, the First Order, and the Republic. It likely would have required some of those scenes that were ultimately cut from the movie, but I think it could have answered a lot of people's questions.

What if, instead of being a bigger, badder, even more impregnable version of the Death Star, Starkiller was to the Death Star what the First Order is to the Empire: stripped down, more brutal, more effective, more insidious? I'm envisioning a platform with the bare minimum infrastructure to support their planetkilling weapon - still massive, probably several times the size of a super star destroyer, well beyond the striking power of the Resistance, but ultimately vulnerable to an attack on the scale that a galactic superpower like the Republic could bring to bear on it. The Resistance may even have learned of this weapon and implored the Republic to respond to the clear and present danger it represents - the Republic dismisses their reports as sensational and unbelievable, as there's no way the First Order has the resources to build another Death Star.

Then Starkiller fires, and the true horror of the weapon is revealed: unlike the Death Star, it can't be tracked. It can jump into a system, consume its sun, and lay waste to its planets in a matter of minutes, far too fast for the Republic fleet to respond. Whether this is because of some kind of jamming field, or sensor-scattering armor, when it strikes, all the Republic gets is fifteen minutes of panicky comm traffic, then silence and an empty debris field where there used to be a star system.

By now, the Republic is desperate to end this threat, but has no idea where to send its fleet. It then falls to the Resistance to find Starkiller, infiltrate it, and take down whatever stealth capabilities it has so that the Republic fleet can jump in and pulverize it.

We get a new twist on the Death Star plot that shows the Republic is indeed more powerful than the Rebellion ever was. We get a scene or two of General Organa imploring the Republic to rise up against this new, insidious threat. We can still have a daring starfighter attack, as it might be critical to destroying Starkiller's stealth field generator/whatever it is. And we get to see a great big damn heroes moment when a massive Republic fleet jumps in and bombards the crap out of the Starkiller weapon.

It's definitely a different story, and you'd have to take care not to lose the focus on the characters that we enjoyed, but I think it would ultimately be more compelling than the very vanilla space battle plot we got. ]

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

[ On my third viewing, there were definitely some little bits and bobs that I was noticing that - to me - were quite interesting.


* The headlight/spotlight number on the bottom of the X-Wings were fantastic, and I found that my eyes were going to where those lights would illuminate as the X-Wings passed by. Some might have noticed it straight off and disregarded it, but it really struck me for some reason and I loved the addition.

* Daisy Ridley bending down as she's hugging Carrie Fisher really struck home to me how short Carrie is (she's shorter than I am!).

* The masterful sound editing done to pull 'Rey' out of Alec Guiness' 'afraid'.

* The little dance that BB-8 and R2 shared when R2 finally woke back up. It was very small, but it was there and it made me smile.

* I got a huge Mortaniuss vibe from Andy Serkis' voicework and loved ever second of hearing Snoke talk.

* The Wilhelm Scream in the hangar bay of the Finalizer when Poe and Finn are trying to escape in the TIE.

There's more I know, I'm just not remembering all of them. We saw it in IMAX 3D, and it was a pretty awesome first IMAX experience for me. Charley got a headache toward the end, but overall I enjoyed it. Nice and loud. ]