I can't leave it at that. I have to add some details.
Both the empire and the rebels repeatedly made tactical decisions so stupid a five-year old would know better. The opening battle involved sending unprotected bombers against a ship with anti-bomber defences and keeping the enemy commander talking on the phone to delay his response. That works in a Mel Brooks movie, not in Star Wars.
They killed a fan-favourite character off-screen. What, was the puppet too old to reprise its role?
The empire's main guy decided to chase the rebels down instead of destroying them immediately. For fun, I guess.
Phasma's a badass. Except that she capitulates at the first sign of personal danger.
All Holdo had to say was "yes, there's a plan. Not telling you what because of operational secrecy". Instead she expected Poe to blindly follow orders when he'd already shown he couldn't do that.
"Oh no, the sacred texts!" ...that you attempted to burn a moment ago.
All Holdo had to say was “yes, there’s a plan. Not telling you what because of operational secrecy”. Instead she expected Poe to blindly follow orders when he’d already shown he couldn’t do that.
Well, he did fine following orders in the first movie, and then they changed the entire character in the second movie but kept the same name. I have no idea why they did that.
I think you'll like it a lot. I realized that bathos is what I hated about the Last Jedi. They killed so many truly deep moments to have stupid jokes. They couldn't let anything just be serious. It ruined the tone of the movie, couldn't decide if they wanted to be a comedy or a drama, and so they did neither.
I don't think this is entirely accurate. I know ultimately Kathleen called a lot of the shots and was very meddling in the production and I thitk Ryan was trying to do something original after seeing what a superficial piece of garbage TFA was. Ryan is actually a good writer / director.
And yet... it's my favorite post-OT movie. It could've used another draft to tighten a couple things up here and there, but it was good.
Now... TRoS is one of the worst films I've ever seen in my life and is the only Star Wars property I've only seen a single time and never will watch again. Hell I watched Book of Boba Fett twice. Shit, I've watched In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale twice. I'd have to go back to Battlefield Earth to think of an equally terrible film.
But when watching The Last Jedi I feel nothing but joy.
Luke's arc is exactly as he predicted back in Empire and ROTJ. He found peace and defeated his foe using the force in a peaceful way and helped them escape in redemption. Redemption from the horrific way he wanted to kill his disciple out of fear.
Rey and Kylo had legitimate struggles with who they were. A character arc of not knowing who was truly bad or good and the internal struggles with figuring that out.
The battle scene with the imperial guards with Rey and Kylo was one of the best cinematic battle scenes in Star Wars for me.
The vision quest of Rey was legit eye opening on her character and not foreshadowing anything. Great way to tell a story.
The flashbacks with Kylo and Luke changing what happened throughout the story was a good story telling device. I forget what story type it is, but it see saws 3 times until we find out what really happens.
I know it's not a popular opinion. But I do enjoy this movie so much more than the prequels in terms of execution and emotional connection.
“Because that was my superpower. A) I don’t like ‘Star Wars’—not that I don’t like it, but I’ve never been interested in ‘Star Wars’ ever, so I had no reverence for it whatsoever, I was unafraid about that and they were in such a swamp… they were in so much, terrible, terrible trouble that all you could do was improve their position.”
So you get conflicting scenes, one where Cassian has no trouble murdering an innocent informant, but not long after gets all sweaty and conflicted when it's time to assassinate a legitimate military target.
No character growth, no arc, just in one scene he has no trouble murdering an innocent guy WHO HELPED HIM BTW, but later refuses to take out a military target HE WAS SUPPOSED to kill.
To say nothing of crapping all over the iconic opening of Star Wars by having Vader watch the Death Star plans fly away, personally, with his own eyes.
I dunno, I think the best of the Disney versions is still Force Awakens. The big complaint is "Well, it's just Star Wars..." which is true... but it's Star Wars without George Lucas. They had to prove they could do what Lucas did without Lucas and I think they succeeded in that.
Then Last Jedi shit the bed. Then Carrie Fisher died which painted them into a corner with Rise of Skywalker. Force Awakens was Han, Last Jedi was Luke, Rise of Skywalker was supposed to be Leia... 😢
The Force Awakens is just “A New Hope [Remix].”
They didn’t “do it without George Lucas,” they just took what George did and put it through the JJ Abram’s filter.
No character growth, no arc, just in one scene he has no trouble murdering an innocent guy WHO HELPED HIM BTW, but later refuses to take out a military target HE WAS SUPPOSED to kill.
Yeah, it's almost like the target he was about to assassinate could be the only person in the galaxy who knows how to take out the weapon he just witnessed level a city.
To say nothing of crapping all over the iconic opening of Star Wars by having Vader watch the Death Star plans fly away, personally, with his own eyes.
Those two scenes line up perfectly and imo are quite satisfying when watching the two films back to back. In what way does Rogue One's ending "crap all over" A New Hope's opening?
In Star Wars, Vader interrogates Leia, he talks about the plans being transmitted, not that he saw them personally be stolen.
He's also ragged on by Motti for not having found the tapes when Rogue One puts him in the same hallway with them.
Speaking of... he force grabs every one and every thing in that hallway except the ONE THING he's there for. Vader is not that STUPID.
The Death Star Plans have plot armor, they HAVE to get away, don't put them in the same hallway as Vader and don't make them a physical object that can be grabbed.
about 2/3 of what they're saying is about the production and trailers before the movie was released. Other critiques about no character growth for Andor, but not mentioning Jyn's arc at all.
Also Rogue One brought us Andor, so even if it was a terrible movie, it spawned some of the best TV in the last 5 years, which says a lot about the movie and the characters.
Also no character growth for Andor while also complaining that he kills a guy in cold blood but then doesn't kill Galen later under orders. And then breaks orders again because he put his faith in Jyn and not the Rebels.
Rogue One is a good movie and I don't care about production issues. It made the Empire far more menacing than even the OT did. Peak Vader. Peak Death Star. Even peak Stormtroopers.
Yeah I didn't want to analyze that too much, but the circumstances were completely different. The first guy he had to kill for his own preservation. The second time he was under no threat and starting to defy orders and listening to Jyn. It's almost like a nitpick for the sake of picking things apart.
You take that back! It spawned andor which is also amazing. Rogue one proves they can actually make a gritty star wars film that shows a broken universe wouldn't be all good vs evil bullshit.
I didn't think I could dislike Rogue One until I watched Andor. After finishing Andor and then rewatching Rogue One, I felt disappointed that it wasn't quite as good.
Not that it means Rogue One is a bad Star Wars film, but that Andor is just that good. I don't think they'll ever make another piece of Star Wars media that can surpass it.
I tried watching new star wars and they were all so boring. I remember from childhood pod racing and that red guy with double light sabers.
I now see that people liked star wars for it's story, but for me it was just a cool space fantasy. That nostalgia didn't transfer for me.
I don't very well remember the plot of the first three of the new movies, but I remember being bored, they felt slow and there were no hooks to make me care. After watching the third movie I just said fuck it and gave up.
I might try and watch the old movies as a grown up, but at this point I'd rather rewatch Shrek after work then gamble on a franchise I probably won't like.