The more time I’ve had to process my experience of the movie, the more I see that the parts of this I liked are just them evoking nostalgia. As a part of Star Wars, it’s fine. A franchise this extensive will have varying degrees of good.
But taken on its own, I submit to you that the movie is just bad.
Spoiler alert!
Darth Vader is Luke Skywalkers father!
Snoke in TFA is probably the most egregious example in the sequel trilogy.
I liked all of the sequel trilogy movies and loved Rise of Skywalker.
Come at me.
More importantly, my kids loved them.
My youngest was crying during Leia’s death and Han’s appearance.
I’ve read none of the books, but think about it. The old Republic is gone for like 20-30 years of boot-heel rule.
Even before its fall, the Republic wasn’t in great shape (the spice combine, or w/e greedy merchant guild trope).
Totalitarian regimes aren’t shrugged off overnight, especially not when the only change is the axing of Dear Leader. It makes perfect sense for the imperial machinery to keep turning after the emperor’s fall, also for the remnants of he imperial govt to be made of the top class (or “first order”) of officers/officials.
Granted, the massive fleet construction was a bit much.
I dispute this. Movies are very limited in scope and potential. What if we got Game Of Thrones in movie, not series, form. Yeah, last season punted, but our expectations were lifted for a reason.
I suggested considering the movies merely as “reference points” earlier. As a secondary role, perhaps consider them as hooks for the uninitiated - is there enough to make one want to learn more?
The new movies can’t really tear open a new universe like original did, but what sequels do? Considering we just saw Star Wars 9, they did a pretty good job. Can you name any franchises producing decent films after half as many followups?
CGI in Home Stallone is better than young Leia
Good points.
The Last Jedi did about as good a job as any sequel could to accomplish just this. I finished rewatching it moments ago, and I’m all the more stunned at what Rian did to subvert and expand our expectations of what a Star Wars movie can be.
Most important metric for any Star Wars film.
By the way, best part of Rise of Skywalker:
When Kylo, now Ben, gets the light sabre from Rey and turns his palms up to the baddies and gives that little, “Ok, now let’s go,” look. That’s a good “FUCK YEAH!” moment.
Awesome. It’s a brave new world.
Imagine how much worse Gamergate would’ve been if it was amplified by the Russian troll factory.
I wouldn’t be shocked if we find out in a few years that it was an early test run for them.
If the choices are either there was a coordinated bot/Russian effort to malign TLJ or that coordinated bot/Russian attempt to effect the 2016 election was largely a hoax, then I’d definitely go with the latter. Because TLJ was painfully bad. It’s easier to rewatch any of the prequels.
People trying to blame “toxic fans” or ffs Putin/Russian bots for TLJ sucking can fuck right off. Showing the same contempt for the audience and SW fans that Ryan showed, ffs just watch the movie. It’s right on the screen, dripping off every frame.
Perhaps you missed the racist and sexist trolling that Kelly Marie Tran suffered at the hands of the TLJ is awful crowd. Perhaps you also missed the significant overlap between that crowd and Trump supporters/white supremacists.
perhaps you missed the broad smearing of a vast number of people who didn’t like a movie with the behavior of a tiny fraction of people who behaved despicably on the internet. Oh wait, you’re doing it. The politicization of liking or not liking a movie is just so, so dumb. It plays right into Putin’s hands.
that was great, as was Kylo’s “ow”
Like does the fact that there were awful sexist and racist trolls made towards 2016 Ghostbusters mean that it wasn’t a wholly unnecessary and bafflingly bad movie? Just a complete disaster? No! Using the worst of the internet as an excuse or defense to a filmmaker making a shitty, shitty movie is one of the worst trends in memory. Just because someone was mean to Kelly Marie Tran on the internet doesn’t make TLJ good. And it is fine that you liked it but don’t smear those who didn’t with that sort of lowest common denominator attack.
@anon,
Good post, I agree with a lot of it.
I think this highlights a contradiction and shift in the star wars movies. IMO what you say makes sense for the first 2 movies in the OT. You’re dropped into this gigantic galaxy with a ton of characters. One set of characters is this religious cult called the Jedi. Han Solo dismisses their belief system outright, Vader’s coworkers openly mock his religion etc so it’s natural to think of the Jedi as just one element in a huge story. But this is basically undone by all the subsequent films which present the Jedi as basically the only important characters in the galaxy and change Darth Vader from a middle manager dealing with a boss and colleagues to space jesus. It makes SW less of a giant universe and more about the jedi and really just this one particular family. With that shift the trilogies as hooks is less effective imo.
It’s a fair point that they’ve made so many movies that it’s getting harder and harder to make good ones with the same characters/rules etc.