Steph, my reaction to the Carrie/Harrison ageing disparity: I really wish Carrie HAD aged as much as Harrison, but sadly, her face doesn't move any more, particularly around the mouth. I'm sad that we still live in a time when actresses feel they need to have work done, and actors don't necessarily. Harrison looked old, lived-in and still gorgeous. Carrie, um, didn't .

Spoilerfonted, just in case.

Fiona, I noticed that too, about Carrie's mouth.

As for Mark Hamill, I've seen him most recently as Trickster in The Flash, and ISTG that's ALL I can see him as now.

Good movie. My white-fonted thoughts:

It seems like everyone said, "Okay, first movie, we can't fuck this up. We can take more risks later, but with this one, take everything the people liked about the original trilogy, and shove it in there! A droid with secret plans! A giant planet-shaped weapon! A tragic death of a mentor/father figure/actual father! A big space battle at the end where X-wings have to fly and take out the planet-shaped weapon!"

I thought Daisy Ridley was marvelous, Oscar Isaac was incredibly charismatic in a part that as yet has no depth, and Adam Driver was surprisingly effective. John Boyega is great, but there wasn't a lot of depth to his character.

I agree with all of the conversation. The movie was filled to the brim with So how about we just remake star wars? And coincidental asspull for the win! I think all of that was calculated to pull at heart strings and be just fun. The acting was great, the characters were compelling. If the next one is essentially a remake of Empire I will definitely be disappointed,but I think everything about this movie was a right call. My wife pointed out that coincidental asspulls can be blamed on the force Which,okay, cool.

Just got back from TFA and Dana is me.

Despite my managing to completely avoid spoilers I found lots of parts of the movie to be incredibly predictable. Even at the end, when despite all the promo shots of Luke's lightsaber only being in Finn's hand, I knew it was going to fly into Rey's hand as soon as Kylo Ren tried Force-pulling it to himself.

That being said I enjoyed it much better than the prequels. And I appreciate that it had a real sense of humor at points rather than assaulting is with Jar Jar-esque sight gags. I loved the Storm Troopers quietly turning around and walking away during Kylo Ren's temper tantrum.

Who wouldn't want to do all that?

I'm not that keen on jeweled dresses personally, but I'd be game for anything else on the list.

My one real quibble/question is this: why did

My thoughts immediately jumped to R2-D2 sensing potential Jedi master energy finally manifesting in Rae. And it was time for the new generation to seek out Skywalker, which was what Luke's plan using R2 was all along.

That's how it connected to me, in the moment, when it happened.

I don't understand, however, why the First Order had the whole map (except that one piece) already.

My thoughts immediately jumped to

That was my first thought too. But I've been wondering a lot about it since.

I thoroughly enjoyed TFA...thoroughly. Perhaps precisely because it was so reminiscent, but I also loved the new characters. All of them. Not a Jar Jar in sight, thank goodness.

I wish the youngsters with me liked it more but apparently the predictability bothered them.

In regards to R2's coma, it made me think that he was doing 'deep space searching' for Luke. Not sure what made me think that.

The plethora of cameos by some of my favorite actors gave me a great idea. JJ should pick a charity he loves and then tell his casting directors that anyone who commits dollars or acts of service and who 'just wants to be in Star Wars' can have any background part they want...to the highest bidder baybee!

They might solve world hunger!

BB8 reminded me so much of my beloved Cagney (What? He's short, sweet, white & orange) that I immediately fell in love with him even deeper than I ever loved R2, and that is a LOT.

Yes, I'm easily manipulated emotionally.

TFA was highly enjoyable. I got a little misty when the Falcon took off for the first time....

I'm going to whitefont this because I don't want to spoil it for anyone else, but I was trying to figure out why Rey looked so familiar, and I finally realized it's because she looks just like Harry Styles. Can't unsee it!!