Star Wars Cinematic Universe

[Rynnec]

Rewatching the prequels have given me a newfound appreciation for them. Sure most attempts fall flat on its face but moments like the Opera scene and Shmi Skywalker's death and fallout are really well executed (well, barring some hokey dialogue in the latters case) and it has some of my favorite fights and set-pieces across all the trilogies. Even crap like the Midiclorians I don't mind too much as it's really just your average science fantasy trope that bridges the two genre's Star Wars has always mixed.

The sequels, while incredibly well acted and objectively better dialogue than anything Lucas can write, just seem to lack any of those awesome set pieces and wow moments. To put it simply: while they don't inherit any of the prequel's flaws, they don't inherit their few strengths either. And it's not like the franchise can't deliver those moments anymore because the Darth Vader scene at the end of Rogue One was the most hyped I've ever been in a theatre, despite that movie ultimately being a weaker product that TFA and TLJ. The lack of a "cool" character for me to latch on to also doesn't help.

Still haven't seen Rise (planning to sometime this week) but I have read most of the major spoilers and they're not exactly filling me with hope.

[Foggle]

I totally understand why someone would dislike the Disney Star Wars movies but I do feel like a lot of the prevailing criticisms of The Last Jedi are bad faith arguments that misunderstand the core of the film's storytelling. Yes, it did throw away Snoke, but he wasn't exactly much of a character in The Force Awakens to begin with, and it was in service of making Kylo Ren a more interesting/intimidating villain who could finally step out of Vader's shadow. Canto Bight has pacing issues and barely impacts the main plot, certainly, but that's not exactly a new thing for the series - The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are like 60-70% disconnected character development/world building-driven tangents in a similar vein but with much worse acting, writing, and cinematography. Luke's portrayal as a cynical, disillusioned hermit was one of the few ideas actually taken from George Lucas' Episode 7, and Mark Hamill was absolutely incredible in the role, completely stealing the show (at least for me); sure, he doesn't go out in a blaze of glory cutting down a million Snoke clones like the fans wanted, but his death was still heroic and badass. I know I'm probably alone in this opinion but it's easily the most cohesive and well-realized Star Wars movie since Return of the Jedi if not Empire Strikes Back. I had an incredible time watching it in the theater (twice!), and I remember leaving that first screening excited and optimistic for the future of the franchise. If they had actually gone with Rian Johnson's treatment for Episode 9 (and I know they couldn't because of Carrie Fisher's passing, RIP) instead of letting Reddit and Twitter indirectly write the script, I'm confident the whole trilogy would have come together much better than it did.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Remember this old fan poster someone made as soon as the cast was announced? And the only prediction the poster got right was Finn using a lightsaber once.

[Daikun]

Congrats to Nerd Soup for predicting the future.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Came across a really good video about the production mess behind the scenes of The Rise of Skywalker: https://youtu.be/DBExyfw8mXk

It's the kind of movie that you can tell even the filmmakers knew was not going to turn out right by the time of it's release, and I figured that it went through re-writes, but not nearly as much as detailed in this video.

It's one of those cases where there were definitely people behind the scenes with good intentions who wanted to tell a good story, but several different parties couldn't seem to agree on what exactly that story should have been, leading to this mess that was rushed out at the 11th hour.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Why did Kenobi's premiere need 2 recaps to explain the Prequels? I was fine with the show opening with one, but then Obi-Wan has to have another one via nightmare.

[Daikun]

James Earl Jones has retired as the voice of Darth Vader.

[talonmalon333]

Came across a really good video about the production mess behind the scenes of The Rise of Skywalker: https://youtu.be/DBExyfw8mXk

It's the kind of movie that you can tell even the filmmakers knew was not going to turn out right by the time of it's release, and I figured that it went through re-writes, but not nearly as much as detailed in this video.

It's one of those cases where there were definitely people behind the scenes with good intentions who wanted to tell a good story, but several different parties couldn't seem to agree on what exactly that story should have been, leading to this mess that was rushed out at the 11th hour.

I agree that Rise of Skywalker was a mess. I know it's nothing new to say this, but I do think the sequel trilogy as a whole didn't work out. But even compared to the other sequels, Episode 9 feels like a hodgepodge of everything that internet Star Wars fans asked for after Last Jedi.

I don't hate every aspect of the sequel trilogy at all, but I do think it's less than the sum of its parts. I wouldn't say its worse than the prequel trilogy, but even that trilogy at least had a vision that it stuck to.

[talonmalon333]

As for the Star Wars shows, I love the Mandalorian. It's my favorite thing to come out of Disney Plus. But I aven't been too impressed by the rest. Boba Fett was dull and really not the show that I think people had been asking to get from this character, and Obi-Wan wasn't as good as it could've been (although I did thoroughly enjoy the finale). So far, Andor is a step up, but it hasn't blown me away just yet.