When the prequels came out, I didn’t love them, but I absolutely had to wear it the fact that we got more Star Wars. At the time we really didn’t expect to get any more out of the franchise. IMO Jar Jar notwithstanding, they were acceptable, but not up to the greatness of the originals. While far from perfect, they did tell a story, They added decent choreography and some reasonably pretty visuals.
The new trilogy tried to go all Kubrick on us.They try to tell a story through visual cues and really, it’s not doing a great job at it. The characters have Backstories, but they’re held from you until you’re getting three-quarters of the way through the movie trying to figure out what the hell is going on while they get around to tying in the original characters. Star Wars requires that exposition.And honestly, another Death Star, another critical flaw, its bigger, its scarier, its all really low effort bullshit.
It was great seeing Luke and Han again, I really wanted to like Rey, They just utterly failed to develop her character, and then the crak with Snoke. You just end up coming out of the movie, feeling like you didn’t understand half of what the new story is, and being utterly bored with the other half and all the horrible things happening to the protagonist that you don’t really care that much about.
They could’ve developed the different jedi codexes, but they just let them burn!
There’s so much canon and a million threads they could have picked up and pulled.
They could have taken a list of Star Wars media (books, video games, etc), sorted by highest rated of all time, and compiled a list of ideas that would have printed a legendary amount of money.
How they approached it was so foolish.
I remember sitting in the theater for Force Awakens. I remember the last preview finished, and I had a sense of excitement, because I didn’t know what would happen. It wasn’t based on a book or comic, it could be anything.
Then I watched A New Hope, but worse.
I understand it’s scifi, but the stupid planet laser is one of the dumbest things Ive ever seen. Was the beam faster than light? Did it go through hyperspace? How’d they focus the laser at stellar distances? Is it a super weapon because it can destroy a couple planets or because it can shoot a mega laser beam through hyperspace or snuff out a star? Idiots.
It’s fantasy, no star war film ever stood up to scientific scrutiny
Andor shits on the rest of Star Wars, also Solo was good.
The rest? Mediocre at best.
Mandelorean S1 was great
Somehow they’re still making these movies.
The first one of the new set was ok. Slightly darker overtones.
Backing up a bit - the second trilogy had an all-star cast, yet a wooden log had more writing skill, acting ability, and charisma than the people on the screen. It was like people in a classroom being told to take turns reading out loud from the assigned book. The lack of acting and directorial skill was made up for by the abuse and overuse of CGI. Awful. I have never watched the second set since release. Lump the Boba Fett series in with this set, it was so wooden and poorly written they had to bring in the Mandalorian to rescue it.
Han Solo? Throwaway movie. Really didn’t do the character justice. Turned him into an Errol Flynn “Robin Hood”. I think everyone’s forgotten about it even existing.
The new set? Love the practical effects. Way less CGI. Awesome. But now the acting was ridiculous and over the top as were the characters. I know she gets some hate, but I think Ridley did a decent job of it with what she was given. The rest? Meh. Just written crazy with shameless bad writing, merch placement, and trite lines.
We’ll have to see about the new Mando movie.
Best Star Wars? ANH, ESB, R1, Andor. Some of the Mandalorian series. Probably some of the animated ones, but I haven’t watched them.
Eh, turned into more of a critique than I wanted, but I guess I’ll leave it.
Best Star Wars?
The Clone Wars. Hands down.
I actually prefer Rebels.
What do you think of the original trilogy?
Kinda covered that, but ANH (which wasn’t ANH on release…) gets full marks for being first even if it is kinda silly at times. ESB is great. Darker, more serious, the cast and writers hit their stride. ROTJ is pretty much of the same vein as TLJ or TROS. A rehash or retread of already done themes with fluffy happy critters perfect for toy sales. Not great, but not awful. I liked it as a way to say goodbye to characters I never thought I’d see again. Man, was I wrong.
Ok, sorry, I’m not much of a star wars fan and I didn’t recognize the abbrevations.
No worries.
I know it’s been beaten to death but I just finished re-watching all 9 + rogue one, and can confirm there’s no reason for anyone to go back to the sequel trilogy. TFA gets some credit as a solid popcorn flick but doesn’t change the fact it’s retreading ANH, just to have every original story beat crushed by TLJ. By the time I got to Rise of Skywalker I was totally checked out, it’s just noise and explosions with a plot that is borderline incomprehensible.
Rogue One is the only one of these new movies that I really enjoy and re-watch. I really didn’t expect Disney to allow that ending for the rebels sent Scarif but I’m glad they did. I also kinda love how they blend it into Episode IV.
And I think Transformers 2 is one of the greatest films of all time, up there with The Godfather and Citizen Kane.
You can just say you didn’t like Rogue One you don’t need to be sarcastic about it.
TLJ is what I think gave the sequel trilogy… hope.
TFA is very much a nostalgia grab re-tread of ANH. Which is the point. Evil has come back and something something it rhymes.
TLJ is all about breaking the cycle. The hero? She isn’t a chosen one. She is a random unhoused garbage goblin. The reluctant hero? He isn’t coming back for selfish reasons (wanting to bang Leia) and is instead realizing that he is part of something bigger than him. The confident scoundrel? He got told quite definitively that he is a childish moron who gets people killed and to do better.
And Luke? if he was really The Chosen One… why did everything repeat? The stories of our parents aren’t gonna solve things so let’s try something new. Let’s democratize force powers. Let’s ACTUALLY fight against tyranny.
And then China allegedly got pissed and Disney had JJ come back to undo everything in the first 30 minutes of ROS. And only really succeeded in making a movie that EVERYBODY hates.
That said? Rogue One and Andor were somehow snuck in there and those are very much a Star Wars made for people who grew up watching the prequels. And it is amazing for it.
Sorry, who is the reluctant hero and who is the scoundrel? I think the latter is Kylo, but who wants to bang Leia in TLJ??
This comment really perfectly sums up how I feel … TLJ ends with SO MUCH POTENTIAL in my eyes.
Harumph.
Disney pitch room:
“Okay, hear me out. What if: … a bigger Death Star!”
“Excellent! What will we call it?”
“Hmm… how about Star Killer!”
“GENIUS.”
Same, I started rise of Skywalker, and only after the ridiculous opening sequence I was already done with the whole thing. And I love Star Wars.
I still can’t believe some writer penned “some how, palpatine returned” into the script and didn’t light the whole draft on fire right there. I guess between the hamfisted bloodline reveal and the magical sith dagger guiding the way to the star destroyer parking lot - who cares at that point. Fuck it, send it.
Sure hut fans where demanding it. I thought they where going anyone can have the force. They shown it with little kid and broom. But all fans where like she has to be somebody there is no way she can’t be a nobody. Has to be blah blah blah. And the SIMPs Disney are now they are like let’s give it to them.
I will give Rise of Skywalker one thing and one thing only: Babu Frik. I know he was probably designed by committee to be cute and endearing, but man I love that little dude.
As a fan of the Dark Empire comics, I had already accepted that Palpatine returning was a possibility. The lack of any real storyline hinting at that in the two movies leading up- I expected disappointment. And I got what I expected, though visually Exegol/life support Sheev was cool. The idea that he had an entire fleet of Death Star Destroyers fully staffed and just chilling was implausible. That they were dependent on one transmitter was ludicrous. That the attack run on them was a cavalry charge of space horses was one of the stupidest fucking thing I’ve seen on film.
What pisses me off about that movie is that they spend a fair bit of time building out that Rey has super powerful force healing. So, like, what if she healed Palpatine? What if the ending to this saga of endless galactic war was not more death, but an act of healing? Maybe Palpatine still dies, but he’s at least made aware of what he’s done or something.
Nope. Rey use two lightsaber. Rey block real good. Palpatine go dust dust.
HEY-HEY!
The best part about the whole modern star wars franchise is the endless parodies mocking them.
As soon as it was evident the new movie was just the old movie, but with an even bigger no moon that could blow up 7 planets at once with red lasers instead of green, I was over it. Seeing the fucking laser arches in a space chase in the other movie just killed any desire to watch more.
Kathleen Kennedy shit all over that franchise. What a waste.
in 2015 it was revealed Lucas’s sequel outline had been discarded.[78][79] The sequel trilogy also meant the end of the Star Wars Expanded Universe stories, which were discarded from canon to give “maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience.”
I actually watched the second one twice, because I literally forgot I watched it the first time. Like, I saw it on the listing and said to myself “hey, I heard this is lousy, but maybe I can give it a try, I bet its at least fun and entertaining.”
I got fully halfway through the movie before I realized that I had actually watched it before. I usually have a pretty good memory for films, but this thing has so little substances and held so little of my interest it just sorta slips through my brain without leaving anything behind at all.
I know for a fact that I have seen it twice because of that memory of realizing it halfway through the second viewing, but you know what? I still don’t remember the movie at all. I have zero memory of it. I cannot tell you what its about or what happens. Nothing at all. It is like getting surgery. You are awake and then you are awake again a couple hours later. Nothing in between.
I saw all three in theaters when they came out.
Force Awakens was okay. It had a few problems, but I was willing to over look some of them because it was a new company trying to write something they had never written before. I was more forgiving towards Force Awakens.
Last Jedi ruined the entire trilogy. And honestly, if Rian Johnson actually still gets his trilogy, I will tell everyone I know to NOT see them. That guy deserves no money from Star Wars. Nothing in Last Jedi moved the plot forward, it closed off every possible loose end from 7 and left absolutely nothing for 9 to wrap up. Last Jedi is the reason Rise of Skywalker is so bad. Rian acted like his movie was the end of the series and forgot he was writing the middle movie of a trilogy. Basically half of the movie could be deleted with zero consequence. I almost walked out of the theatre mid-movie like 3 times, but I stayed just to see how bad it really got.
Rise of Skywalker is bad, but I honeslty feel really bad for JJ Abrams. What was he supposed to do in this situation? All the story strings he set up in 7 were cut in 8. At the same time, the writing was so bad that I couldn’t even believe it was real.
If I had to rate them, all three are at the bottom of the barrel. Belong in the bargain bin direct to home video DVDs you find in those thrift shops that have the super thin DVD case. But in order of best to worst: 7, 9, 8.
I am never watching them again. I have not desire or need to.
Feel bad for JJ? This is how all his projects end. The man can NOT do an ending to save his life. It’s why Lost and ep 9 will follow him to the grave
I completely agree with your post…
If I want to watch a single Star Wars movie, it will mostly be A New Hope, but every now and again I will pop on TFA for a popcorn flick.
If I have a spare day where I want to watch Star Wars, it will be R1, 4, 5 & 6
Sequels trilogy is not canon! (・へ・)
This. Mandalorian sets the new canon (BoBF is non-canon though).
Yeah, cause collectively they were mid asf.
Force Awakens was reheated “A New Hope” leftovers, but I guess if you had to start with something memorable for a reintroduction to the Star Wars universe, you can’t go wrong with a soft remake of the one that started it all.
I actually found The Last Jedi to be an interesting story, if not a decent movie with interesting ideas that could be capitalized on in the sequel.
Unfortunately that was not the case, and Rose of Skywalker, along with Obi-Wan and Mando season 3 torpedoed any interest I had as a relative newcomer to the Star Wars franchise. Side projects like Visions have kept my interest only because the anthology format allows for unique narratives and perspectives. It’s why I loved Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars.
I keep hearing amazing things about Andor and Maul: Shadow Lord, and I believe the hype wholeheartedly, but damn, after being inundated with Disney Star Wars year after year after year, I’m sick and tired of (modern) Star Wars.
Andor is by a large distance the most fully-realized and profound Star Wars anything and they manage to do it in all directions: the action is good and in the spirit of the original Star Wars trilology, the characters are believable and not cardboard deep (unlike the original triology), the context of the story is one of fully realized believable societies
The story is mainly consistent and believable, with various threads that criss-cross in a natural and coherent way and are eventually brought all the way to a conclusion and no further - the latter a rarity for TV Series, which tend to end not at a natural conclusion of a story but instead past the end of the story and after “just one more” (sometimes two) seasons are forced in, which are shit. In Andor, maybe only a few things in the last few episodes of the last season felt like they’ve been forcefully wrapped up to reach a conclusion but mainly the whole thing just naturally reached an ending.
Shit, even the architecture and wardrobe design are consistent and memorable in those things which weren’t “inherited” from previous Movies and Series in the Star Wars universe - Ghorman especially is visually a fully believable and realized environment nicelly entwinned and consistent with traditional Star Wars universe elements.
Andor is, however, not the pure roller coaster of action that the original triology is.
I would recommend the Original Triology and Rogue Squadron as exciting roller coasters of action in a fully realized futuristic sci-fi environment and Andor as a good long-form story, with depth, well written, fully realized, well acted and with great production values that happens to take place in the Star Wars universe (so it also ticks the pleasant memories of those who grew up with the Triology) and does have plenty of Action, whilst being a lot more than just that.
Ok but for real Andor is only a Star Wars show because of setting. The story, dialogue, etc are all a cut above anything else. Most of the things you think of with Star Wars (light sabers, the Force, etc) are really not part of the story. I hope you’ll give it a chance because I’m not a huge fan of Star Wars (OT is good but that’s about it for me) but Andor is fantastic.
So on topic of the original article:
Nobody is watching the Star Wars sequel trilogy — and that’s a problem
Can anybody else who read the article explain to me what “the problem” is? Because I don’t see it.
To me it seems more like a light at the end of the tunnel - that maybe we’ll get out of the nostalgia fad (and probably straight into the next fad).
It is a major problem for Disney. Disney’s main business strategy is to make/buy things to be nostalgic for and then sell that nostalgia at a premium.
Star Wars should have been a slam dunk for Disney. They had experience with the brand and the resources to develop it in ways George Lucas couldn’t. Yet, Disney can’t get the same cultural resonance for Star Wars that Lucas was able to give it and it shows. Hell, people shat on the prequel trilogy for its issues, but the movies were still able to resonate with society enough to get memed and talked about.
I don’t want to poop on your well phrased comment, because I do agree.
But all I can think is “Oh nooooo! Poor Disney! Someone should give the multi billion dollar company a hug!”
As commercial as Star Wars ever was, there was a message of “scrappy scruffy rebels triumphing over the Evil Empire” that was at the heart of its popularity.
IMHO, of course.
They used that to sell endless toys and crass merchandise, and made tons of money.
But along the way, Lucas, and doubly so for Disney, put their heads up their asses and believed it was all the exotic designs, and spaceships, and special effects, and fights, and and and and that was what made Star Wars Special, instead of a simple inspiring message that good can triumph over oppressive evil.
Modern Hollywood doesn’t know how to make a good movie anymore.
It’s not Hollywood just “doesn’t know”, it can’t, period.
When modern Hollywood movies are financed, by banks, there is a risk assessment: The stars, director, script summary, etc are put into an algorithm to minimize the risk that the movie will bomb and that bank loan will be repaid.
The result is that only the movies that are approved for production loans are those that roughly match all the hit movies that came before it.
The result is a system that can only make the same fucking movies, with the same fucking old man stars, directed by the same octegenarian directors, because they’re designed to please the financial algorithms as much as…, you know, audiences.
It’s like a roundabout way to get AI slop: Hey this movie approved by the algorithm made money, so let’s make copies of that, instead of new ideas, or something that’s in tune with the times for which there is no precedent.
Incidentally, this type of algorithm is also used by popular music producers to find hit songs, which is why all modern pop music sounds the same.
Tl;dr we were better off when the Mafia was in charge of financing movies because at least a real human with good taste could decide which movies got financing, instead of an algorithm.
They should have had Jon Favreau write and direct all three of them.
It’s treason then.
