Just wait until you’re old and there’s a new wave of kids for whom the sequels are a core part of the franchise. It’s been freaky to watch it happen with the prequels.
I genuinely don’t think that’ll happen. The prequels had bad parts but an overall whole narrative. The sequels have nothing but their CGI to hold them up. They don’t build on each other, they tear eachother down.
You do know us Millennials were teens when the prequels came out and grown ass fully-developed adults for the sequels, right? bruh we grew up on the OG unaltered trilogy just like you did.
The prequels suck so much arse. They are proof positive that George Lucas did not make Star Wars on his own because without his ex and Kasdan what we got was unmitigated garbage with hideous design choices, awful soporific dialogue, overwrought action scenes and terrible, racist humour.
Fuck the prequels and fuck George Lucas. He ruined Star Wars for the true fans. I saw all of the original trilogy in their first runs. The prequels took a huge shit on everything I loved about Star Wars.
Not to mention crushing the dreams of millions of aspiring Jedi.
Oh you can’t have the force, you don’t have enough of this canon-altering mitochondria allegory.
Baby Darth Vader… Cute until you think about it. And… They clearly picked Natalie Portman for the role of Luke and Leah’s mother… Why did they pick so young of an actor? Too old to start training!? It’s almost as if they wrote it with a 17 year old in mind but somehow forgot the “mah Christmas merchandising” rewrites.
The fight in the very beginning makes zero sense. There is an embargo? But why? Who is fighting who? If you are going to have a pivotal point of the story at least have a clear reason why. Sure they are bullies and they are fighting to move the story, but they kept coming back to it. Make it makes sense.
And rolling in flowers and being a “senator” isn’t a real love story. That’s a manufactured love story. Real life stories are when people are attracted to each other and deny it, and then can only admit it when you are about to be in Carbonite.
There is now a well known podcast called “Blank Check with Griffin and David”, but when it first started back in 2015 it was “Griffin and David Present”. Back then, its original premise was for two epic level film nerds to do a deep (and humorous) dive into the episodes 1-3 and try to answer the question “what is this about?” (Spoiler alert: they are as confused as you are).
The show, like all podcasts, can be divisive. Some people (myself included) love Griffin’s spastic enthusiasm for pop culture, and David’s rooted but optimistic view of cinema, and they both have a deep well of knowledge on all things cinema. Those early episodes are gold, and really made me understand things about where Lucas’s head was at with many choices he made in eps 1-3. They are still terrible movies, but it’s really eye opening to see how Lucas, on his own, makes nothing but terrible choices, and is singularly obsessed with merchandising and taxes.
I should go back and re-listen to them. I hope I’m remembering them accurately, because I remember loving that run of episodes.
I grew up watching the OT on home video. I loved it dearly then and I love it dearly now (Despecialized, of course 😉)
As a teen, I was excited to see the PT in the theaters when the time came. At first, I didn’t love the PT, but I also didn’t hate it. Ep. 1 was fine and had lots of memorable moments. Ep, 2 was largely forgettable, and Ep. 3 was kind of awesome, but not all of it. However, as I grew older, I came to harbor more disdain for the PT and now I can’t be bothered to revisit it or any media closely associated with it.
When Disney announced the ST, I was once again filled with excitement. Once again, their opening episode, Ep. 7, was fine. Sure, it was a remake of Ep. 4, and it was filled with J. J. Abrams’ mystery boxes, but it had its moments. I didn’t love it, but it was serviceable-enough relaunching point. However, Ep. 8 absolutely annihilated any hope I had for the future of the franchise. How anyone can say Ep. 8 wasn’t a complete insult to everything Lucas (and to a lesser extent, Abrams) set up is astonishing. I never saw Ep. 9 and I hope I never do.
Years later, I heard good things about their new Disney+ venture, “The Mandalorian”. So, I decided to give it another go. It was mostly fine. They did some dumb stuff with it, but it had its moments and I liked the western-style, adventure-of-the-week format. Mando S2 was even more dumb stuff and it really started to lose its appeal, but the way they ended S2 rekindled my SW fire and I was cautiously reinvested. Then, “The Book of Boba Fett” happened and not only was the Boba Fett storyline unfaithful and atrocious, but the Mando S2.5 storyline they injected into it was a complete about-face to how they ended Mando S2.
Now, I’m truly, honestly, DONE with new Star Wars. Someday, I hope to read the better EU books and attempt to reset my headcanon so I can finally put this franchise to rest with honor and dignity.
This is basically my starwars story too, though I skipped book of boba fett, and watched obi wan. Obi wan was a huge miss for me, felt like it was 3 times longer than it really had the juice for.
All that said, I loved Andor and am excited for season 2, though I have basically no interest in any future Star Wars beyond it.
I’m a bit younger than you but I grew up with the '95 box set and saw the PT in theaters, similar experience, and I agree with your assessment of TFA, it’s not great but has its moments. Personally I really liked TLJ despite its flaws and it made me hope the series was finally about to go somewhere new. But yeah don’t bother with RoS, it’s a disjointed mess of a film made of IRL petty grudges played out on screen strung together with lame maguffin storytelling and “plot twists” from left field.
I can definitely see how Ep. 8 was a drastic departure from what preceded it. What I can’t see is where it was supposed to go. Its scorched-franchise approach suggested something better was ahead, when in reality, it squandered vital SW creative resources for shock value. That’s just my take, though.
Still, I thank you for your input and honesty. Also, I agree that, from what I know about Ep. 9, it was a begrudgingly petty film in response to the disruption that was Ep. 8. Two filmmakers in a squabble over the future of a franchise where one had nowhere to go, and the other had nothing left to deliver.
I fell asleep during ep 9 in theatres and have never been down to rewatch it. Mandalorian i gave up early on when a guy flew by a spaceship and gave a thumbs up… but you should check our Andor! It’s pretty good!
I don’t even remember the thumbs-up scene, but that falls in line with the “dumb stuff” I mentioned before.
As for “Andor”, I heard it’s (maybe) the best Disney SW content yet. My problem with it is, but why Cassian Andor, and why should I care?
Like, don’t get me wrong. Rogue One was a solid SW film. A bit bland, but solid nonetheless. However, Cassian Andor wasn’t that interesting in it, so am I just supposed to just accept that his story was more significant than I originally thought? It sounds like a bad fandom-based news article headline. The same logic could easily apply to “Gonk: A Droid Story” and how if it wasn’t for Gonk on the Sand Crawler, R2-D2’s message from Leia to Obi Wan would never have been possible.
“Andor” or “Gonk” might be masterful storytellings, but ultimately, what’s the significance in the grand scheme of things, and is Disney milking this emaciated cow well beyond what we as audience are willing to go along with?
I think the simple answer to why Andor, is that he is the type of character Tony Gilroy wanted to write about. His being situated in the star wars universe is mostly unimportant, aside from being an avenue to get disney funding. Andor could easily be sci-fi unrelated to Star Wars at all, there are some misc easter eggs and the Empire exists, but it’d be super easy to file the serial numbers off, and change some of the aesthetics and names.
Andor isn’t significant to “skywalker saga” Star Wars, he’s just some dude who is pretty competent who starts as a self interested disaffected lowlife dude, and who becomes radicalized to join the nascent rebel alliance. It’s just a good story, and I’m glad Tony Gilroy was able to get disney bux to fund it. Its easily the best Star Wars that Disney has made, maybe that anyone has made if I take off my rose-tinted glasses. It’s honestly kind of surprising to me that the script got past disney, given how they’ve gone about Star Wars.
Well said. If it was unaffiliated with the SW universe, I can see how it might benefit artistically and purely if its own merits, but its popularity probably would have suffered by being an obscure sci-if drama with no existing fan base to draw from. For that reason, I can’t say I blame Gilroy for working within the confines of the SW universe for this passion project. I just wish Disney would allocate this kind of talent with more creative freedom to their flagship productions. It seems an awful waste.
I didn’t actually know Cassian was from that movie! Someone else mentioned that to me when I was mid season lmao. I was watching it as a true one off kind of show with a totally new character!
People HATED the prequels when they came out, trust me. Your kids will love the new trilogy and you’ll remember it with fondness. That’s just the way it goes.
In 20 years you’re going to be trying to find something to watch and flicking through the channels/streamers you’re going to see it and realize you haven’t watched it in ages. Then the nostalgia will kick in and it won’t seem half as bad as you thought it was in 2017 (dear god 2037 isn’t as far away as it feels 🫨) and you’ll actually enjoy it. You might even have a few youngins you want to share the experience with and you’ll spend Christmas vacation watching the entire franchise with the littles.
It happens to all of us eventually. Well, a lot of us.
Prequels weren’t great, but they were decent. I’d recommend watching them.
There is a lot to live up to being prequels. People going to judge harshly.
7-8 were just plain bad, I enjoy Star Wars stuff a bunch. I like the prequels more than most I feel. I don’t even have one single care to watch the 9th.
I doubt it will change in 10 years.
Memes, sure, but they will be only how bad they suck. People who meme about the prequels usually enjoyed them at least a little.
I love giving first time watchers the machete watching order. Watch episode 4 and 5, and then watch 2 and 3 to give Vader some backstory after he reveals that he’s Luke’s dad. Then cap it off with episode 6 as the conclusion for Luke’s and Anakin’s story.
Or I can start with Rogue One. I know one of my friends became a fan after watching Rogue One.
My new favorite order is been Rogue One, 4, 5, then 1, 2, and 3 of the Hal 9000 edits, then 6. The fan edits are generally a little shorter, so the watching them all between 5 and 6 is less of a slog than the original 1, 2, and 3.
You have to admit, it was a very bold decision to make a trilogy about the Clone Wars and then not show the Clone Wars until someone decided to make a show about a child soldier in a tube top.
You might be the only person I’ve heard of who didn’t like IV and V, but liked Rogue One. I’m picturing a thread with people debating whether Terminator 1 or 2 is better, and you’re like “those are mid, Genisys is the one I like.” It’s just a fascinatingly rare take.
Empire Strikes Back is pretty universally acclaimed as being in the top 2 of star wars movie, and most people’s #1. I’m curious what didn’t do it for you. Is it just too old now? Overhyped? Do you think the pacing is bad and you get bored? Genuinely, I would expect that if somebody didn’t like that one, they didn’t like any of them except maybe one of the new shows like Andor and/or The Mandalorian, mostly because they are tonally different and appeal to a different, wider audience.
Not even close. T1 is innovative and good, T2 have even better action scene, then stop, nothing else is worth mentioning in the franchise. Rogue one give a new and fresh “spy story” view of the SW story, it shows more complex side of the conflict and both the story and the characters are interesting. I like Andor for the same reason. I find the first and second season of the Madalorian nice too, for the way they show a new “road-side view” aspect of the SW universe, sadly it becomes quickly too “bigger than life” in the third season.
That makes sense. It did feel a lot more grounded than the main entries. I think a lot of my apprehension to the characters was knowing that they couldn’t possibly matter beyond that movie because it’s a prequel to a trilogy that doesn’t mention them, so I knew they would probably just die soon. That just made it harder for me to get invested. But you’re right, it’s cool to see the seedy side of the galaxy and it sells that the rebels are scrappy regular people who are justified in their rebellion.
I tried something new a few weeks ago to kick off an update machete order that I thought worked surprisingly well. I started with the start of act 3 of Rogue One. Going into that blind, not knowing the characters or what specifically they were trying to accomplish, seeing some blind monk guy walk and act by faith instead of sight to do something at a console, they sacrifice all to beam some kind of signal, and then this towering menace in all black just shows up and slaughters a bunch of dudes… It perfectly leads into IV and enhances it without the time commitment or pacing issues of watching all of Rogue One. I love Mads but we really just don’t need to even see him for the important bits of the story. Vader becomes even more mysterious and threatening this way, the “plans” in IV are given more weight and don’t just seem like a macguffin to give the empire a reason to give chase, and Luke becomes relatively more of an unlikely hero because he’s just a kid caught in the middle of a star war.
I’m not gonna say that Rogue One is bad, but for watching the entire saga it feels like a slog to watch the whole thing. As somebody who considers IV to be a 10/10 masterpiece, (especially for 1977 before anything like this existed, and before George Lucas changed shit for no reason,) I gotta know which half of IV is the half that sparks joy for you. Maybe my favorite moment in the entire franchise is when Luke storms out and looks at the twin sunset, yearning to leave his small and inconsequential life, John Williams’ score swelling into the frustrated sobbing that only a teenager trapped in a small town with a small life could truly understand. It’s his Disney princess moment.
Nah, man. The prequels were mercilessly assaulted on the internet for a long time. There must be a new generation of fans praising them now, or maybe the newer movies are so bad that they make the prequels seem good in comparison, so everyone’s revised their opinions.
It’s the former since it started before the new ones came out. Tbf there was a lot about the prequels that was catering to children, especially the first one, so it makes sense it would go that way.
Is the “ugly friend” effect. People are even starting phrasing The Hobbit now after the abomination of Amazon. Also, a good story is a good story despise the “PS2” CGI of the old trio.
Just wait until the next Lord of the Rings thing, then people will be saying that Ring of Power was underappreciated at the time.
Actually I already think that, it’s a solid “okay” but people are acting like it broke into their house and burned their copies of The Lord of the Rings
This is some dumbass elitism. Let people enjoy what they enjoy. Star Wars is a space fantasy. Rey gets Jar Jar pregnant in the lost 10th movie. It was glorious.
Regardless of genre any work of fiction should have cohesive plot and characterization. It’s not elitism to say that the new trilogy is hobbled by numerous, avoidable writing pitfalls.
The other films had writing problems as well but not nearly as many as the new films. People are free to enjoy the new trilogy but they are poorly written.
And yes, I’m aware of how fucking cringe the dialogue in the prequels was.
Art and entertainment must always fall within my predetermined understanding and preferences. Anything straying from this template is bad and must be opposed. Anyone who doesn’t think this way is morally wrong and also must be opposed.
Stop taking your entire life this seriously. Not everything’s perfect. You alone cannot steer how the film industry depicts Star Wars. Boo hoo.
People are allowed to like things you don’t like. I feel sorry for people like you who literally work yourselves up into such a rage because some piece of entertainment didn’t pan out the way you wanted. Best of luck in life with that attitude!
more the implication that you make sweeping judgments about people based on a single data point about their taste in movies because in your mind that indicates they are lesser than you. you know, the way a particularly ignorant child would view other people.
I like ep7 honestly. It has problem, but it’s also…fun? Ep8 is pure nonsense(carpet bomber in space…? Jedi leia?) and it makes me drop the whole franchise. I heard ep9 is even more nonsense.
Jedi Leia has some formerly canonical basis. She should have already been a full Jedi well before ep7 even if you throw out the entire EU, as Disney did.
Resetting canon to only include the movies and shows was criminal in my opinion, since they would have literally had decades worth of scripts in those books.
that is a much more coherent opinion, and one I share completely. They absolutely should have had Leia training Rey in some capacity first, although I have to assume Fisher’s age, if not her health, may have influenced their decisions on where to take her character.
It’s long-established established canon that Leia is force-sensitive (Luke outright says as much in TLJ), and that force-pulling can be done without training (though I’m sure she picked some things up from Luke over the years). If Leia using the force caught you off-guard I’m sorry but like that was like my first expectation when I heard Leia would be in the sequels.
Also it’s so strange to me that people say it looked like Mary Poppins to them. have you never watched video of people in microgravity? it was honestly a pretty realistic depiction of how things behave in vacuum and zero-g, and I found the scene breathtaking.
My theater broke out in laughter at the scene. The problem isn’t that Leia can use the force. The problem is that it’s the only force use that moves the user, at least it’s depicted that way. There’s also the lack of vacuum in the whole scene, or did Leia also give herself a force spacesuit while being blown away?
exposure to vacuum doesn’t cause people to explosively decompress, that’s a hollywood myth and it was refreshing to see it subverted. the human body simply isn’t that pressurized, it’s feasible to survive that long in vacuum provided you get immediate care.
also, 1) the ship is massive and she’s tiny, it would look the same if she was pulling the ship towards her, 2) physics doesn’t care about the distinction because it depends on frame of reference, and 3) exerting a force on an object exerts an opposite force on you, per Newton’s first law.
you should really broaden your horizons, it was a spectacular scene and I’m sorry you aren’t literate enough to appreciate it.
The force doesn’t follow physics, if it did Yoda would have been crushed several times. If the ship did move to her, I would expect the people on the ship to notice the sudden change in direction, and all the fighters should notice as well, but no one calls it out. There’s also people just standing I’m what should be a vacuum on the ship where she lands, and those people are just fine.
The whole scene is a great example of style over substance. The repeated use of these scenes makes the movie worse.a
I’m just gonna leave aside your nonsense understanding of physics, and the way realistic physics are both good and bad for the movie accoring to what you want to nitpick next, and focus on that last bit.
When has star wars ever NOT been style over substance? When has any of it ever made good sense, or been consistent? It’s a cheesy franchise about space wizards that has been 100% Rule of Cool top to bottom since the very first installment. I think you just want to hate the movie because you were told to hate the movie.
In fairness, all the space combat in Star Wars is nonsense. It’s modeled on WW2-era dogfighting (hence the bombers), and none of it makes any sense in space.
Anything before makes some sense, but a sloooooow moving carpet bomber that only works when on top of other spacecraft? I find it hard to believe it’s mass produced, that’s where i have to suspend my logical sense on top of my disbelieve for it to make sense, and it’s only one small part of the problem.
Personally I don’t think it’s any worse than anything else in Star Wars.
Like the “blockade” formation in TPM - that would never even kind of work to shut down traffic, planets are BIG and incoming ships could simply go around the blockade ships.
Or Jango Fett’s bass bombs in episode 2 shattering asteroids with shock waves - how are they propagating with no medium to propagate through?
Or the trench run in ANH, and luke’s torpedo turning 90 degrees on a dime to go down the vent - why were they approaching from that angle in the first place? How does the torpedo just, suddenly change direction?
Or primitive teddy-bear aliens using rocks and sticks to absolutely ROFLstomp a galaxy-spanning empire armed with high-tech sci-fi superweapons in RotJ - imagine if the US failed to invaded Sentinel Island. Is that even distantly believable or realistic?
Or the way ships apparently have gravity at all times no matter what - in fact explaining it away with “artificial gravity generators” would lend itself to bombs dropped into that artificial gravity well making some kind of sense as a tactic, no?
Or lightsabers being lasers that just… stop. and are semisolid, somehow… lightsabers don’t make a single lick of sense but they look wizard af.
Or like a billion other things in Star Wars that are nonsensical but visually fantastic, because you’re not meant to think that hard about it, and most people who do seem to do so selectively based on whether they want to like the movie.
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