Star Wars

I was pretty pumped about Force Awakens. While entirely derivative, it did what it had to do... it erased the bad taste of the prequels and got generations new and old excited about Star Wars again. A lot of people that were high on The Force Awakens have since soured on it, but I'm still all in on it.

What has happened since has been pretty sad... poor one-off movies that milk the cash cow without contributing anything new and a part two that said it was changing everything while doing absolutely nothing for the story or the characters and frequently not obeying its own logic.

JJ worked some magic with the Force Awakens but I suspect he cannot save this thing. I'm not impressed by what I see in the trailers. Fabulous eye candy but I want some substance. I'd be surprised if any of the character arcs actually came together in any meaningful way. Too bad, I really liked all of the new characters that were introduced in TFA.

Force Awakens is the only movie I've ever seen twice in the theater. Last Jedi was the most disappointed I've left a theater in as long as I can remember. So my thoughts on the third one are "I'm invested, let's check it out and get it over with, and then write off Star Wars indefinitely."

I'm one of the people who liked the Force Awakens, but have since soured on it, because, as you say, it was just a copy of the original.

I really liked The Last Jedi. I thought it was innovative in a way that hasn't happened since the original trilogy. Without ruining the twist, I liked the Force-casting, and I loved the idea that any kid could be a Jedi (showing that at the end was so great). The whole "midichlorian" thing that they tried to do in the Phantom Menace (the worst Star Wars movie) robbed a lot of the childlike wonder from the thing and reduced Jedis to like "people with blue eyes" or some shit.

I also think Rogue One might be one of my top 3 Star Wars movies. To make that story with no star power and very few "known" characters made it really cool.

I didn't see the Han Solo movie.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

To make that story with no star power and very few "known" characters made it really cool.

Kinda like the original?

I get why people like Rogue One. I found it to be a poorly executed movie. Great premise and general idea but not very good execution. You don't get many block busters that allow all their lead characters to get killed off at the end, so that was nice to see (though, of course, not really a surprise). Just my take. I totally get why many enjoyed it.

Last Jedi could have been saved by going all in on subverting expectations... the problem was they didn't go all in. They did so superficially and for non-permanent shock value rather than substance. At the half way point, they had their chance but said 'nah'.

By the end of the movie, how has anything changed or how have any of the characters changed? The only major difference is the resistance is reduced from a few large ships to one small ship. I'm okay with opening the Force up... anything to do something new. But it was a throw away ending clip and not an intertwined part of the plot... it was a lead in for another branch of the franchise and not part of the story.

Red Letter Media has great videos on these two movies and their problems.

I liked Rogue One too. I agree it’s probably the third best. I even liked Solo. I wish they would do two more movies based on it, even though it made less money then they wanted. I feel like there’s more to be done there. Force Awakens had problems but it was pretty good. It could/should have been the jumping off point for two more great movies but The Last Jedi was such a mess I don’t see how they can salvage the whole thing. I guess we’ll see.

Brownski wrote

I agree. I saw some place that Disney is working on a series based on Rogue One also.

Cool!!!  Because there can't be a sequel since everybody dies..

riverc0il wrote

. But it was a throw away ending clip and not an intertwined part of the plot... it was a lead in for another branch of the franchise and not part of the story..

Yeah, it kinda gave me hope, but I'm pretty sure JJ Abrams is going to just go straight back to formula for the last movie, so maybe I'll just have to get a Disney+ subscription.

Overall, yeah, it's not a *great* movie and it has flaws (what was with that whole casino sidetrip?), but I liked angry Luke almost as much as angry Yoda, and, like I said, I had hope at the end that the 3rd one could be good.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

... I liked angry Luke almost as much as angry Yoda, and, like I said, I had hope at the end that the 3rd one could be good.

Before seeing TLJ, I had hopes that Luke had gone full Dark Side (perhaps unknowingly, thinking he was doing the right thing, sliding into it perhaps by manipulation) setting up a redemption by sacrifice arc. Fanboys had a hard enough time accepting angry, bitter Luke. I can only imagine how they would have flipped with a Dark Side Luke!

Rey and Ren should have teamed up for a third way against both the light and the dark sides, they had their chance. Now, heading into the finale, it is just bad guys vs. good guys like always, without any nuance or substance. They can tease Rey with a red light saber but we all know it won't be any matter of importance in the film.

Nothing sticks, nothing has consequence. One character commits a noble sacrifice to save others (best scene in the movie by a long shot) and a few scenes later we are supposed to believe that love, not sacrifice, is most important.

ml242 wrote

Coach Z wrote

I think Luke is the dark side guy in the mask.  The trailer I thought was great.

That's Herman Cain crazy, there's no chance that Luke is the bad guy. Disney would not tank one of their most marketable characters but I would guess it could be one of the grandkids.

I just searched for this thread to say I am about to watch The Mandalorian and noticed ML’s prediction about The Force Awakens was spot on. The guy in the mask turned out to be Han and Leia’s Son. Dude is smart.

Let me know how the Mandalorian is
Thinking of getting Disney’s+ for that

It was pretty good. Less then 40 minutes so it moved along pretty fast. I will have to wait for some additional episodes to see how they develop the characters.

Is it worth it? I don’t know. I was dithering on Disney Plus until we were sent a one year trial from Verizon. My kids and I watch all the Marvel stuff too so I started watching Agent Carter too but I fell asleep before I got through a full episode.

I’m upping the Mandalorian review. Five stars. After 4 episodes, I’m completely hooked on the show and wish the episodes would come more quickly. If the new movie comes close to this level of quality (doubtful) I will be thrilled.

So I’ve got the kids at the theater for the new movie. It’s got 50% on Rotten Tomatoes so my expectations are very low. I’ll let you know if they’re low enough when it’s over

Not nearly as bad as the reviews. Probably as good as we could expect - considering all that came before it. I was somewhat surprised by the nudity. “Nice flying Lando”? That’s all the dude gets after all these years?