Official Star Wars Thread

[droosan]

To paraphrase something someone on here recently said (was it Bill1978, maybe..?) .. "I used to think I was a Star Wars fan .. but after reading what other fans actually think of these movies, I guess I must not be as big of a fan as I'd thought."

I was between the ages of 7 and 13 when the Original Trilogy was released in theaters. I love those movies, but I'm under no illusions that a good deal of that is due to childhood nostalgia.

The Prequel Trilogy came along in my early-30s. I wasn't captivated by those movies at all, at first .. but the Clone Wars & Rebels TV series eventually 'fleshed-out' that era enough to the point that I can appreciate the story the prequels tell.

The Sequel Trilogy arrived in my mid-40s. My opinion of these films is unchanged from my first impressions of each: I thought The Force Awakens had an amazing first hour, but was tarnished by its climax essentially becoming a rehash of the first movie. I liked The Last Jedi quite a bit (aside from the 'gambling planet' tangent -- though, I was quite fond of Rose and DJ; they were very interesting characters, IMO). I wasn't particularly impressed by much in The Rise of Skywalker, however -- IMO, it's a fascinating example of a film which goes out of its way to please everyone .. but instead, somehow, achieves exactly the opposite!

I was fond of both Rogue One and Solo; no complaints whatsoever, about either film. I kinda wish a Solo II --or at least a Lando spin-off film -- had happened.

Likewise, I very much enjoyed both full seasons of The Mandalorian .. and The Mandalorian 'season 2½' that we got within The Book of Boba Fett. As for The Book of Boba Fett itself -- I'm not sure it was a story that needed to be told .. but it had several enjoyable 'moments', for sure.

But -- being a dude in his early 50s -- I can't actually be enjoying any of these things, surely .. something must be wrong with me, if I actually can.

[Randall]

Speaking as someone born the same year as droosan, I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying any of this stuff at our age. I love the MCU, and Superman: The Movie still seems just as brilliant to me after all these years as it did when I was 8. Unfortunately, as we get older, wiser, and more sophisticated, we do demand more in order to be impressed. Had the Star Wars prequels and sequels been done as well as Clone Wars/Rebels, the novels, and the comics, then I'd be just as enthusiastic as ever about the franchise. But the prequels were weak for a variety of reasons (though I quite enjoy parts of them), and the sequels were based on the unfortunate premise that the events of the original trilogy really didn't matter, hence killing my enthusiasm. Rise of Skywalker, however, did do as good a job as was possible in restoring things somewhat, as clunky as it was. It was a big, fun movie (albeit plenty dumb), and made me forget the lameness of the previous film (though I look forward to revisiting The Last Jedi next weekend to see if it rates a re-appraisal).

Spoilers below!!!!

And now we have the Mando/Boba stories... I have enjoyed them, basically. They feel like Star Wars, and have had decent stories for the most part; but the problem here is that the setting of Mando is pre-sequels trilogy, so we already have an idea of what happens to Luke and the new Jedi. Two seasons are spent to have The Child delivered to Luke... to what purpose, then? After Season Two of Mando, they had written themselves into a corner. Either return Grogu to Mando again, rendering the past two seasons basically useless, or keep Grogu with Luke, and have him assumedly killed by the Knights of Ren, or whatever. Ultimately, neither outcome can be satisfying in terms of telling a good story, unless we are simply reverting to the monthly mainstream comic book style of storytelling, where all must be undone so that the same stories can be told over and over again.

[droosan]

My spoiler-iffic prediction is that

Grogu will eventually wield the dark saber, and will become the 'chosen one' who unites the Mandalorian clans.

.. after all, Grogu is a Mandalorian foundling who also possesses Jedi knowledge .. just like the original creator of the dark saber.

[Ben]

This literally (and visually) kind of explains the points I made in my (pretty bang-on, if I do say so myself) post about the sequels above:

[ShyViolet]

Only about eight minutes in, but this is GREAT!! .

Thanks Ben!

[Ben]

[Randall]

I will look at this soon!

Having just re-watched the first two sequel films... They are not as bad as I'd remembered. They're even worse. Conceptually inept, poorly conceived, horribly plotted, and simply dumb. Sad, since the people crafting them put in a great and sincere effort; but it all comes down to the script, and it just isn't there for any of the films.

[ShyViolet]

This is a really cute run-down of ROS problems from ScreenCrush (made shortly after the film came out) that has JJ Abrams as a sock puppet. (Funnier than it sounds! )

https://youtu.be/8zDFOdV14O0

(No swears, just one off-color joke at the start. )

(Some of the points have already been made here, I just thought it was good for a laugh lol.)

[Daniel]

"I shouldn't need a book to understand Star Wars". Ha.

[ShyViolet]

My favorite part is when SC literally throws the book at him!

On the sequel trilogy, to me the biggest problem, even more than the abominably bad storytelling, is that it never felt like ANYTHING was really at stake. Through all three films they kept coming up with stuff and then disregarding it just as quickly!

[EricJ]

I still stand by my "Batman Two-Face" theory that Rian Johnson just made up Last Jedi as he went along, and tossed a coin as to what each character would do at each plot point.

I never liked Empire Strikes Back (EVER - Too depressing, too muddy, and Luke was whiny and impulsive in the first movie but he wasn't a jerk), so, as you can expect, I have little patience for "Empire Strikes Back is one of the great movies of film history!" fanboys like Johnson, especially when they think they've been given the keys to their dad's Porsche.
Oh, and I was in the theater back then, we thought Vader was lying.

[Bill1978]

This literally (and visually) kind of explains the points I made in my (pretty bang-on, if I do say so myself) post about the sequels above:

Thanks for sharing the vid Ben. It was a great watch and really articulated my jumbled thoughts on the sequel trilogy.

Even today I don't understand how Disney thought it was a great idea to announce a new trilogy and not insist on having an overall story to tell. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to say Character A needs to be like this after 3 movies, by the end this event must happen therefore X needs to occur.

My biggest gripe of the sequels is that there were determined to kill off the Big Three without ever giving us one moment with the 3 of them together. And I'm one of those rare people who think the Star Wars movie are made or broken with how much interaction occurs between Artoo and ThreePio.

The main issue with the sequels is that from a story point of view there was no need for it to exist. Jedi gave us the ending we needed with the saga. The sequel was just about Disney justifying spending all that money so they could own the original six for their future streaming service that no one really knew was happening at the time of the deal. The upside to the sequel is I got 3 more John Williams scored soundtracks.

[EricJ]

The main issue with the sequels is that from a story point of view there was no need for it to exist. Jedi gave us the ending we needed with the saga. The sequel was just about Disney justifying spending all that money so they could own the original six for their future streaming service that no one really knew was happening at the time of the deal.

Exactly: Disney ALWAYS makes "unnecessary" new sequels to justify ownership, which--I'm not up on copyright/property law--means they can establish future ownership.
That's why we got Mary Poppins Returns, that recent Home Alone film, and...ahem...the '11 Muppets movie.

In this case, their motives started pure: Not just a Disney-ownership SW trilogy, but one without Lucas, to make fans' point about how much better the Prequels would have been without him, too.
But somewhere along the line, their good idea jumped the track. Oh, I remember--It was when they jumped on the "Franchise Universe" train, wanted "side stories" for the two years in between Episodes (fueled and given false confidence by an unfortunate plethora of naive fans saying "Oo, Rogue One was the coolest!...It ended where the original began!"), bet the farm on "Solo", and dragged Lawrence Kasdan off of what might have been a coherent Episode VIII to write it.

So, basically: It's all 10's-Hollywood Franchise-Universe's fault, Kathleen Kennedy's for believing it, and all her press entourage for singing praises of the New Power of Female Hollywood Executives, that don't really understand SW or superhero movies.
We've known that for seven years now.

[Ben]

Thanks for sharing the vid Ben. It was a great watch and really articulated my jumbled thoughts on the sequel trilogy.

The main issue with the sequels is that from a story point of view there was no need for it to exist. Jedi gave us the ending we needed with the saga.

It’s a great vid, right?

And I refer everyone back to my posts above: not only did Jedi give us the ending, but the original Star Wars did too. Lucas lucked out on giving us two extra decent films, but Star Wars was originally, intended or not, to only be one movie. Everything else is bolt-ons.

And now we have bolt-ons to bolt-ons, which is why it’s all coming loose and falling apart.

(And, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t even make it through Eric's rant there, full of unknowing inaccuracies as it is…)

[Bill1978]

And I refer everyone back to my posts above: not only did Jedi give us the ending, but the original Star Wars did too. Lucas lucked out on giving us two extra decent films, but Star Wars was originally, intended or not, to only be one movie.

Totally agree, its why when I discover a friend has never seen any Star Wars movie, I insist they at least give 'A New Hope' a watch. It allows the person to have closure if they choose the series is not for them. It works wonderfully as a stand alone film. Whereas if you suggest something like Empire (cause for some its the greatest thing ever) you don't get that closure if you can't be bothered watching anymore.