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princessarien In reply to lezisell [2015-12-19 04:45:11 +0000 UTC]

I didn't mind him, I thought some of the more "feely" (for lack of a better word or description) moments between him and Rey were kind of forced, but I thought Finn was a pretty good character for his first appearance and just being introduced...I like Rey much more and feel like she was a lot more developed, but I didn't see anything wrong with Finn, nothing that wouldn't be fixed by time anyways.

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JakeRichmond In reply to princessarien [2015-12-19 04:57:14 +0000 UTC]

I actually really liked Finn. I thought he was very funny and his simple but compelling "origin story" felt very believable to me and gave a lot of weight to his actions. 

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princessarien In reply to JakeRichmond [2015-12-19 05:19:17 +0000 UTC]

Mhm, I know what you mean, I certainly enjoyed his character and what he brought to the movie as well as how he played off of the other characters. I still don't quite feel him yet if you know what I mean....I think Finn is one of those characters that for me is going to be one of those characters I probably get to really liking and connecting with once it's all said and done and he's developed much more. As it is, I like him and I want to see more of him, but I don't really feel connected with him yet or exactly feel him as a character....not like with Rey, where I almost instantly felt connected with her. Poe is kind of in the same boat with Finn, I like them both, but I feel like I haven't seen quite enough of them yet and development for them to form a real connection.

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WinterThe-Masquerade In reply to princessarien [2015-12-21 09:42:37 +0000 UTC]

If I may chime in here, I will say that at this point in time I have rather mixed feelings about Finn. First let me get his positives out of the way starting with his first scene in the movie. Oh my God, what an amazing job John Boyega did a fantastic job throughout the movie but his first scene is just so well acted, he conveys so much throughout the opening, confusion, fear, regret, remorse and finally anger. And all without seeing his face, it's just his body language and it is so well done that as a critic I have to applaud Boyega's acting skills, he did an outstanding job.

Then we have his role in the plot, he works very well as a decoy protagonist, while I figured that Rey was the main character in the plot and had, in my opinion, a much stronger character arc, she didn't do much to move the plot forward at first. Finn and BB8, (who I absolutely love btw) are the ones who moves the plot during the first act while Rey is more content to stay on Jakku to wait for a family that will never come, (assuming she hasn't found them already). Finn is always very funny, there are many scenes that just made me crack up and Boyega delivery is just about perfect.

With that said I have to say that I didn't find him as compelling as other fans did. I don't hate him and his certainly not boring but just wasn't really that invested in his journey as I was Rey's. I'll be honest when it came to his fight with Kylo Ren I wasn't on the edge of my seat like everyone else was, oh I didn't want Finn to die or get seriously hurt but when something happened to him it didn't have that big of a impact on me. I think the reason I'm wasn't as invested with Finn as I was Rey was because he was simple to good at the comedy. Again the comedy was great, some of the best in the series but for me, there was a little to much comedy and not enough drama. It felt like 89% of Finn's dialogue/scenes were comedic with little else that was going on.

In contrast Rey seems to have a better balance of both comedic and dramatic. Much like Finn we learn quite a bit about Rey in her first scene, she smart resourceful, has dreams of leaving the world she is on yet is very self sufficient and by rescuing BB8 we see that she is someone who will stand up for the little guy and without throwing a punch but just by telling someone to back off. Yet she has just as many comedic moments that shows that she is fallible, she can be surprised, she can make mistakes and yet it never seems like that is the only thing going on with her.

I'm also not sold on the idea of a romance between Finn and Rey yet, it seems rather rushed and forced at this time. I buy them as friends but possible love interests, em not sure. Mind you I've recently watched Naruto The Last which I can only describe as ONE OF THE BEST ROMANCES EVER! Not to mention that we have now just hit the one year anniversary of Korrasami becoming Canon so I fully admit that could be playing a part in it and it is just the first film so I'll wait for the other films to come out before I pass judgment. But for right now I give the idea of them being a couple a 4 an a half, though a solid 9 for fire formed friendship.

I honestly do hope that Rey and Finn stay separate for most of Episode 8 for two reasons. One to give Finn more time to himself, let him figure out where he stands in the galaxy. Does he really want to join the Resistance or to help as much as he can before he just leaves to live a life on his own. Second, to see him interact with Poe, I'd love to see more of that relationship, with Finn becoming Poe's co-pilot or just seeing them talk to one another while their off missions.

So yeah, I do like Finn I hope we see more of him and see him get a few more dramatic scenes while still having a few comedic scenes.

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princessarien In reply to WinterThe-Masquerade [2015-12-22 05:54:21 +0000 UTC]

Chime away, I love any input on any post I make as long as it provides discussion Which you do plenty of...I especially love long posts XD

It sounds like we're in pretty much the same boat when it comes to Finn, he has loads of potential, but I think he hasn't really had the time to develop it yet. I really want to like him, but right now I just kind of feel "eh" about him in all honesty. I like Finn, but there's not really too much of a connection there yet, though I'm sure one will develop with the rest of this new trilogy as they come out. I really need to go back and see the movie again so I can really look at it and analyze things, my first go through (as with most things) I was way too caught up in the moment and just everything else, so I didn't really have my critic's hat on (so to speak). Besides a genuine desire to go see the movie again, that's another reason why I want to do it, so I can really look at everything and maybe pick up on stuff I missed before. But yeah, Boyega did really well with all of his stuff at the beginning...proof right there that an actor or character doesn't need to ever speak a word to carry a scene forward. Body language says it all.

I wasn't expecting him to be a more minor protagonist (Rey is definitely the central protagonist and the new Luke Skywalker of this tale), but I was expecting the writers to be pulling a bait-and-switch with Finn being the new Jedi. I was really sure almost right from the start that, despite Finn being the one shown with the lightsaber in all of the trailers and posters and whatnot, that Rey was going to be the one who would actually be the Jedi in-training. While I saw it coming and was expecting it, it was a pretty good twist in my opinion.
Heh, Finn and BB-8 are kind of like R2 and Threepio in Episode IV in the sense of their early role, they're the ones who get the ball rolling and ultimately what cause the circumstances for the main protagonist (Rey) to react to and cause them to get swept up in the action.

Yeah, I'm not really sold on a romance between Finn and Rey yet either, it definitely felt more than a bit forced (or at least too obvious what the writers were trying to do, and thus not really organic), if the two of them are going to wind up together, the pairing definitely needs quite a bit of work. Finn also just doesn't really feel like he'd be emotionally ready for any kind of relationship yet either...I mean he's pretty much just discovering who he really is as a person, heck, for his whole entire life he didn't have a name and was just another serial number in the First Order Stormtrooper corps. Anything beyond being friends with Rey at this point kind of just feels like someone's first crush sort of thing. I think probably one of the better ways to go toward building any kind of relationship higher than friendship between the two of them is definitely keep them separated for a fair amount of time and have them both do some growing away from each other and maturing as characters before any shipping can start. Interacting with Poe feels like it'd be a pretty good way for Finn to grow and to really see what he actually wants. He and Poe already have that whole sort of bromance thing going on, and Poe was the one who gave him his name
I think I'm just being clueless and dense (which happens way too frequently with me), but not entirely sure what you're saying with the bit about Korrasami or how you might be comparing it to Finn/Rey :/

I just can't wait for Episode VIII in general XD I especially want to know if my personal theory about Rey being Luke's daughter is correct or not, I feel it was fairly strongly hinted at in the movie, and J. J. Abrams did say in some interview or whatever before the movie came out that there was a very good and deliberate reasons for Rey having no last name...

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WinterThe-Masquerade In reply to princessarien [2015-12-22 07:13:54 +0000 UTC]

A quick admission, I actually like the Star Wars Prequels, yes this will have a point just hear me out, they have their flaws such as the terrible romance, Jar Jar adds little to nothing to the plot and the politics where poorly handled. However, I find The Emperor's overall plot to be very well thought out, I don't hate any of the characters, (yeah I don't hate Jar Jar, his useless and not very funny but I don't think his THAT bad), and I don't find the films boring.

Yet they are still flawed and the hate for them, while a bit of a overreaction IMHO, is understandable. The reason I bring this up is to help better understand my feelings for Awakens, which itself has a few flaws and isn't quite as good as the original, though it does come close. Now when you get down to it, every story is flawed, there's a reason Cinemasins is so popular because they say either what we all want to say or point out those silly little moments that just don't add up. I've already pointed out the biggest problems with the Prequels and I've gone over my feelings about Finn already, but here are a few other issues I have with the film. First and foremost the scene with Han, the Pirates and those weird monster things. For the most part Awakens is very well paced and everything ties nicely into either the characters or the plot, this scene, while its fun and rather awesome, has nothing to do with anything and could easily be removed.

Also while I love Rey and BB8 and I think Kylo Ren is a pretty good villain most of the other new characters aren't as interesting and the other villains are either underused, like Phasma, or rather generic evil, Snort and the guy who is clearly embraced the Nazie side of the Empire. None of them are bad, but so far, just off this one film, their not very memorable. I also think that the film juggles to many characters and plot points. It does make the smart decision to keep the focus on Rey, Finn and Ren but in addition to that you have the stuff going on with Han, Kylo's backstory, the new and rather confusing history with the new series which is a bit hard to follow even for hardcore fans.

I also didn't like the idea of the Starkiller base, at least as to how it was used here. To be blunt, and spoiler warning to anyone who hasn't seen Awakens yet, the Starkiller is just a bigger Death Star, sure one that is impressive in terms of power but this is something that should have been held back until the Trilogies Finally. The Prequels, whether you love them or hate them, was right in not having Anakin's fall to the Dark Side not take place until Sith. Introduces hints of the Starkiller, but don't show it, leave that to the second film to handle and then have it play a major role in episode 9 where most of the final film takes place. By introducing the Starkiller in Awakens Disney has played its biggest card first so in terms of scale there's nowhere to go but down. Which isn't a bad thing if done right and with the success of Awakens odds are good that Disney will be giving just as much care to episode 8 if not more, but Is still think that the use of the Starkiller here was a mistake given that success was pretty much a guarantee.

However, these are pretty much just a bunch of nitpicks and I still really enjoyed Awakens which is defiantly the best films since Empire. Not quite as good as the first A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, but it almost hits that mark, almost. At this moment the way I rank the Star Wars films at this time. First there's The Phantom Menses and Attack of the Clones as the weakest in the series, the former for it's rather dull comedy and somewhat confusing plot and the latter for it's rather bad romance. Then tied for 3d place we have Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith, both have very good plots with great and iconic moments but both have a little to much exposition moments and ideas that weren't very well thought out or just failed to deliver the idea correctly. However, both honestly did a great job of closing out the series on a high note and have some of the best moments in the series.

Than we have Awakens, I've gone over the pros and cons as best I can so I will say no more and just move on to number one with is the first two films. Both are great and iconic movies with fantastic action, great characters and wonderful villains. Overall, I love Star Wars and I eagerly await the arrival of Rouge One and Episode 8.

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princessarien In reply to WinterThe-Masquerade [2015-12-23 05:51:16 +0000 UTC]

Heh, I have no problem if someone likes the Prequels I even kind of like them myself....it's been a very long while since I've seen any of them, but I think the worst I could say I feel about them is rather extreme ambivalence. Most of the time I don't really feel real hated or enjoyment of them...though the lack of enjoyment is more from not having seen either of the three in quite a while so having a kind of hazy memory of them. I definitely don't think any of them are as bad as everyone makes them out to be, or anything close to the worst thing ever. Actually, I find I usually disagree with most of the people I see being critical of the Prequels, usually because they're way too hard on them, though also most of the people negative about the Prequels that I've encountered have also been, you could say, "religious" devotees of a series of critical reviews from this one Youtube channel called Red Letter Media. I think it was called that at least. All I remember is that the critiques they all seem to be so devoted to were given by a reviewer acting out a character he came up with called Plinkett...those critiques I personally hated much more than the movies XD Only thing I really agreed with in those reviews was Lucas' over-reliance on CGI or rather the extreme prevalence of it in them. I know he still used some practical effects like they did in the Original Trilogy, but there was definitely a lot more CGI in the Prequels than the other movies.
In any case, I've never had any real problem with the story in the Prequels (though there were a few bits here and there that didn't make any sense with some of the things that got said in the OT), most of my problems with the Prequels is stuff on the technical side of things, like directing, adapting the story that Lucas and his creative came up with from the script and the actual story to the screen, some of the acting...things like that.

Heh, it's kind of funny that you bring up Cinemasins, I haven't really watched much of their videos, though that comes from personal choice as I find the kind of stuff they bring up to almost always be completely stupid and the sort of thing that anyone paying even the tiniest amount of attention the story would be able to figure out, or is something very easily explained by common sense...everyone is nitpicky and does always point out or notice the small things, but I feel like Cinemasins is too nitpicky and/or things they bring up as "sins" are non-existent or something the work already covered
But yeah, that scene on Han and Chewie's temporary ship definitely didn't really add too much (besides fun) to the actual plot and certainly wouldn't hurt anything being removed. I thought it was kind of funny though how Han was back to having people out to get him over money he owed

I definitely agree with you about the characters, and I kind of feel like that was something of a flaw with Abrams Star Trek movies too. Though, to be fair, even in the Original Trilogy most of the Imperials besides Vader weren't all that memorable either and the only reason I can really think of them even now is because I've seen the movies so many times and I'm a massive Star Wars nerd so I know stuff from the books and games and whatnot Being underused/not too memorable though, I think that's probably one reason why Abrams had all of the main bad guys survive the first film rather than some of them being killed off with the destruction of Starkiller Base. Like I honestly thought that Hux was going to be a similar role to Tarkin and be a semi-important villain officer for the first movie before getting killed off, but since he's survived there's more chance to see more of his character and to make him more memorable...Phasma though, I feel like she's kind of being put into a Boba Fett kind of role, not too much actual character exploration and mostly memorable to standing there and looking intimidating, hehe...which she certainly succeeds at I don't know if she survived the destruction of Starkiller Base though >_> I don't think we saw her again after Han, Chewie, and Finn put her down that garbage chute did we? And they didn't mention her being with Hux and Kylo Ren when the two of them fled the base...

That sounds so much better than using it and losing it in the first movie, I might have introduced it in the first movie, but with the fact that it's a super-weapon and its capabilities kept a secret until one of the other two movies. Either that or have the Resistance only find out that Starkiller Base was a super-weapon at the end of VII when they rescue Rey. I also think they probably should have held off on Han's death until later on...as it was, I dunno, it just kind of felt hollow to me :/ I'd have also probably handled his death a little differently too.

I don't think I could rank the Star Wars movies I know that Episodes I and II are probably the lowest on my list, but all the others just sort of hold the same rank for me...the only thing I know is that Return of the Jedi has always been my favorite one, but other than that, I like all of the movies about the same.
I'm really looking forward to all of the stuff that Disney has planned for Star Wars, one of the potential movies I've heard about that I really hopes gets off the ground is the Boba Fett spinoff

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lezisell In reply to JakeRichmond [2015-12-19 05:08:48 +0000 UTC]

I still thinking movie would be better without him.

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JakeRichmond In reply to lezisell [2015-12-19 17:48:41 +0000 UTC]

Really? I feel like he's absolutely essential to the film. If you removed him you'd have to replace him with a different character to do everything he does.

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lezisell In reply to JakeRichmond [2015-12-20 09:59:11 +0000 UTC]

ANY other actor will be better than him. I hate his since the first teaser.

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JakeRichmond In reply to lezisell [2015-12-21 14:15:34 +0000 UTC]

Wow, really? I don't know what to say. I thought he nailed the part and was one of the better parts of the movie.

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lezisell In reply to JakeRichmond [2015-12-21 17:33:05 +0000 UTC]

Yes, really. I have nothing against black actors, but this one is bad black actor who can do only one thing. Heavy breathing in camera and sweat.

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JakeRichmond In reply to lezisell [2015-12-19 04:21:01 +0000 UTC]

Who? Finn? 

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