Star Wars VII-IX, what do you think?

[bvanevery]

I didn't see or hear enough of Han Solo in that clip to render any kind of opinion.  They seemed to be deliberately hiding any extended air time of him.

[Elok]

It's weird how Episode 7 killed it for me.  I went in expecting, basically, that it wouldn't be as bad as the prequels, and it wasn't.  But that was all it was.  It wasn't good or exciting or interesting.  I could write the prequels off as the tragedy of Lucas not knowing what made his movies work decades earlier, but he's out and the movies aren't embarrassingly bad, they're just bland action movies with some Star Wars on top.  I was studiously avoiding all discussion of E8 so I could view it fresh when I got around to the DVD.  Then I realized I didn't care enough anymore to do that, so I just looked it up on Wiki to see the plot summary out of mild curiosity.  I don't feel like I missed much, judging by said summary.  And now all of the original cast, except 3PO, are gone, and all the new ones introduced in 7 are rubbish.  I feel kinda depressed now.

[Lorizael]

I've enjoyed TFA less with each rewatching. I've only seen TLJ once, in theaters, and I was pretty disappointed by it. Which makes me sad. I am not jazzed about 9. Solo looks like it might be kinda fun and totally disconnected from where the series is going now, so I'll check it out.

I'm still a Star Wars fan and I've never been of the opinion that movie A can "ruin" movie B (Episode 2 is awful and almost entirely without redeeming qualities, but I've seen it more than I've seen any other non-Star Wars movie). So I'm also kind of disappointed that I haven't found a place to discuss nu-Star Wars productively. I keep seeing the take that not liking the new films amounts to a character flaw (from being unable to accept change all the way to racism and sexism), and that's just not a discussion I want to be a part of. Alas.

[Buster's Uncle]

This is where I mention being an OG Star Trek fan; I feel you, is all.

[Green1]

What made Star Wars what it was back in the day was it was a nerd past time. Nerds were not accepted. By liking this, you were seen as childish, socially maladjusted, not a realist, involuntarily celibate, and worthy of scorn in the 1980s.

Now?

They have model voice actors doing Dungeons and Dragons. Everyone and their brother lines up for a Star Wars movie and they are pumping out one per year.

It's like you have this thing that makes you different, then it becomes cool and everyone likes it. Yeah, you get a bit of smugness in a "Yes, I was right and they were idiots" kind of way. But when it goes popular and goes a different direction because it was made at a different time with different people, it loses a bit of what made it cool in the first place.

That said, I have no problem with the Last Jedi. I think the naysayers missed the message of the movie. The movie was about failure. The failure of Luke Skywalker. The failure of Poe, Finn, and Leia. And that, failure, too is something to pass on and learn from and a pathway to power. A lot were disappointed because they wanted a super hero film like Marvel with Skywalker doing hand gestures and slamming AT-ATs into each other with his mind and stuff. I get that. But I think the movie was overshadowed by fan expectation.

It really is not a bad movie.

[Lorizael]

You can get a movie and still not like it.

[Mart]

When I was looking for materials on animated series of Star Wars on youtube, I found very interesting videos made by "Wayward Jedi." In the video linked, there is more about it, but Lucas told in one interview, that he was inspired how to make this story by works of Joseph Campbell, professor of Literature.
The are two parts of this video, which talks about Ben and Rey. And I think a lot in SW follows exactly what they want to do with the story. We may not like it, but their objectives are pursued.


I can embedd them here...

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second part

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So Ben and Rey are reincarnations of Anakin and Padme. When I started to look at it this way, I actually started to like the new trilogy.

[Unorthodox]

So Ben and Rey are reincarnations of Anakin and Padme. When I started to look at it this way, I actually started to like the new trilogy.

They really needed to stay with one director for the whole trilogy to make the whole ring theory work.  The second one so bungled star wars, I'm having a hard time mucking up the desire to watch the third. 


The ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE SHOW is OMG THEY CAN TRACK US THROUGH HYPERSPACE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVAR!!!!

Uh...did we forget the whole tracking through hyperspace done in ANH? 

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[bvanevery]

So Ben and Rey are reincarnations of Anakin and Padme. When I started to look at it this way, I actually started to like the new trilogy.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.  This isn't Poltergeist.  Anakin is floating around in Jedi Heaven somewhere, we saw it at the end RotJ (re-edited).  Obi Wan and Yoda aren't sticking themselves in anyone either.  Padme didn't have any noteworthy Force abilities, there's no reason for her to reincarnate as a booty kicker.  If she can reincarnate at all, then so can anyone.  Why not have Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru as the hero and heroine?  It would make about as much sense.

[Elok]

I can enjoy shows about failure.  I rather liked Venture Brothers back in the day, and the show's creators came right out and said the whole show was about failure.  If it comes to that, they had a failure-themed SW already; it was called The Empire Strikes Back, and it's generally agreed to be the best of the lot.  I haven't seen TLJ, all I have to go on is that the plot summary sounds cluttered with too many subplots and none of it sounds interesting.  Also every SW fan I know makes queasy faces when I mention it.  Maybe I'll get the DVD when it shows up at the library to judge for myself.  Not hurrying.  Incredibles 2 comes out in a little over a month, and Brad Bird has a pretty damn near spotless track record.  Whooooo!

[Green1]

If you want to watch it using ((other)) means earlier,  I know a place that streams it so you will not get in trouble with the MPAA ISP cartel. PM me if you would like to know as I do not want to put the link on a forum.

[Elok]

I'm good, but thanks.

[bvanevery]

Also every SW fan I know makes queasy faces when I mention it.

I think I count as a SW fan, although definitely not a rabid one.  Granted you don't know me, but I'm not making any queasy face about TLJ.  I enjoyed watching Mark Hamill actually get a chance to act.  The SW that makes me sick to my stomach is Phantom Menace.  Disney has done nothing so egregious as that.  Frankly, Disney can only improve the series by rebooting it.  The first 3 prequels were crap, with Phantom Menace pretty much unwatchable for me now.

[Elok]

While I agree that Ep I was the worst, it doesn't bug me like Ep 7.  I think it's because the prequels were always irrelevant; we knew from the get-go that the annoying kid was somehow going to turn into Darth Vader, that Palpatine was up to no good, that the Republic was going to collapse, that Natalie Portman was going to be Luke and Leia's mom, etc.  We found out along the way that pidgin-talking frog-rabbits played a critical part and that Anakin hates sand.  Even if the prequels had been executed beautifully, they still would have been prequels, beautifully fleshed-out backstory and nothing more.  As it is, they're ineptly told and silly backstory, and we can pretend they never happened if we like.

Then came TFA, and all bets are off.  We get to see the original cast again, the story moves forward into uncharted waters, and George Lucas is not involved so there's a chance it won't be utter crap.  And it wasn't utter crap, but ... it's not really good, either.  Han and Luke are dead now, they can't have Leia, they never brought Lando back at all.  Vader and Palpatine, of course, are gone for good.  Their respective replacements are, quite frankly, boring.  There's nothing like Jar Jar, at least in TFA, and Kylo Ren at his worst is still miles ahead of his adolescent grandpa.  It's not utterly terrible.  It's just not interesting.  This is the way Star Wars ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.

[Elok]

It's like, "Hey, remember your old heroes?  Well, they're back!  And they're incompetent sideshows.  We're going to shove them all out of the way as quickly as possible to introduce young people, because old people are useless.  If you liked Luke, you'll love Overpowered Trashpicker Girl of Unclear Origins.  Liked Darth Vader?  We have a mopey and ineffectual kid who wishes he was Darth Vader!"