If only disney would bring J.W. Rinzler back and let him do the making of Books for this sequel trilogy. I would buy those in a heartbeat.
I enjoyed Episode 9 the best. Most of the criticisms I've heard against it I won't argue against, but it's the only film in the sequel trilogy I actually enjoyed watching. I've seen it three times already, beyond the obligatory two I did for Episodes 7 and 8. Episode 9 is a fast-paced, good looking film, that does answer some questions I wanted to see answered for several years now. Were all the answers to my satisfaction? No. Were there some questions left unanswered or raised that I wish had been addressed? Yes. I wish Episode 9 had been three hours and maybe it would've given the story a little more time to breathe and to tie things up better. I thought Episode 9 depicted the main characters the best and let their good cast just interact and riff off each other and I liked a lot of that interaction. The film also gave Rey bigger stakes, more personal stakes, and finally presented real peril for her (to be fair, there was some of that with in Episodes 7 and 8, with Ren and Snoke, but those films both undercut it, and in Snoke's case, literally, before they ended). To be honest, the sequels took away some of my joy for Star Wars, and my heart is not completely into it, so I see Episode 9 as being the best of a bad trilogy, and I just wish that what I saw in Episode 9 when it came to the characters, the peril, etc. had been in Episode 7. A resurrected Emperor could've just been the big bad for all three films. The J.J. mystery box could've been put around if this is really Palpatine or not? I do think all the sequel trilogy films were well-made and overall, I will say they were better acted generally than the prequels, but when it came to vision and bringing something new ideas-wise to the franchise, I think they were very lacking in that. I also don't think the production design in general was all that great either (for all Disney Star Wars live-action films). The prequels-despite the questionable use of green screen-had a much better visual imagination.
Great point. I noted above how well Hamill acted in TLJ, but overall, there were far fewer stilted or hammy performances in the sequel films than in the previous trilogies. There was much (welcome) naturalism.
TFA is the kind of movie I can sit back and relax with, along with a big bowl of popcorn and a microbrew. TLJ is one where I have to be in a certain mindset to revisit, like certain independent movies I watch at the local arthouse cinema. TROS is quite entertaining, but I feel that just too much stuff is packed into one movie. Kor
The Last Jedi. Luke's scene with Yoda was reminiscent of Empire Strikes Back. Luke scenes with Kylo Ren including the showdown.
I’ve only seen each of the sequels once. So my vote and ranking is based on that. TFA: I remember this being the most consistently entertaining entry. I loved Rey as well as Rey’s theme so that’s a big part of it. It also benefitted from being the first one in the trilogy. There’s not much here that’s really new but it nails the nostalgia part. TLJ: This one stuck with me the most after I’d seen it. A lot of food for thought. I liked the way it challenged what SW could be and I loved Rey, Kylo, Leia, and Luke here. This is the one I’m most looking forward to re-watching, and I’d call it the most interesting of the three. ROTS: It looked amazing and had some amazing settings (e.g. Star Destroyer in the ocean). I also continued to love Rey’s and Kylo’s interactions. It makes me sad to think what could have been had Carrie Fisher been alive for this. Overall, I felt disappointed. There were several key points from TLJ that it basically undid as well as ignoring certain characters outright. I also felt absolutely no need to see Palpatine again at this point. Abrams sometimes feels like a magician to me. He’ll pull something out if his hat (like Palpatine and his surprise fleet) and then throw lots of visuals and action at the audience, hoping they won’t notice. I think one of the issues I have with ROTS is that it wants to exist as an ending but it wants to be an ending that’s not actually based on what happened in the two previous movies. Instead, it brings in Palpatine out of nowhere so Kylo’s journey more closely resembles that of Anakin. That’s a shame, I think, because I love the idea for Rey put forth by both TFA and TLJ, “I’m no-one.” By that definition, Kylo’s ‘someone’. I think that collision is where things were actually headed, and I find that idea a lot more interesting than what we got where Rey is also defined as a ‘someone’. Likewise, I think not developing Finn’s story was a huge missed opportunity. He could have been the inspiration that others needed to leave the First Order. But that was never shown or developed as a storyline. All in all, I enjoyed the sequels. I just wish the overall story had felt more coherent, the ending and conclusions inescapable because all the building blocks had been slowly put in place. P.S.: I’ve not had a chance to re-read (plus I’m writing on a phone so apologies in advance if this isn’t as coherent as I’d like it to be).
Thanks. I do prefer the prequels over the sequels. However, in the prequels, the characters were often too wooden, and I put that all on Lucas's direction. Abrams, with Johnson following afterward, does very well when it comes to creating characters that have emotions and that can elicit an emotional response from an audience. The sequels did have some ham. It was like they could've just had a glazed ham for Hux's performance, even with his over-the-top speech in Episode VII.
The prequels, particularly The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith, were one re-write and a better director away from being classics.
Just in case anyone's interested, there's a YouTube channel called Just Write which has some really interesting videos about film making and writing. There's also one about ROTS that does a great of calling out a number of issues that I wouldn't be able to describe nearly as well.
You can, actually, depending on the film. Part of what I enjoy with online film discussion and analysis is how to a film could have potential to improve. The prequels definitely fit that for me, as do many Trek films. Actually, most films.
I’m all for that, but I don’t think one rewrite and a better director is all you’d need for those movies to become classics, especially ROTS. I’d be more inclined to say that for TLJ.
Sums up my feelings about the trilogy to a T. I feel this way about most "franchise" films--it's why I like Star Trek Into Darkness, Man of Steel, The Last Jedi, among many others, ahead of films more widely acclaimed (e.g. most MCU films) that feel "too safe" for me to fully engage with (though I am often entertained by such films, I am usually at least slightly disappointed by "safe" choices). Precisely why I prefer The Last Jedi to just about every Star Wars movie (except Empire). I concur. The most disappointing thing about The Rise of Skywalker (to me) was "the reveal". I found Rey much more interesting as a character when she was "a nobody". Overall, I view Star Wars as entertaining popcorn fare with little depth (I know, I know... ). I find them all roughly equally entertaining but rarely thought-provoking. Empire and The Last Jedi (in relative terms) are the most thought-provoking and the ones that run counter to expectations (again, in relative terms). These days, I get the most gratification from Star Wars films by watching them with my son and seeing his engagement with them (his palpable sense of relief when Chewie was not dead after all was more powerful than that of any of the actors on-screen). I revisit Trek by myself on a regular basis. I revisit (or visit) Star Wars with my son. I guess that best illustrates my overall appreciation of Star Wars.
Same here - all I need is that are enjoyable fluff for a couple of hours at the cinema and they have all been that.
Oddly enough Man of Steel is my least favorite film because I felt it played it way too safe. The thing with the MCU films is they only look like a safe choice now they've been immensely successful. I doubt they were always considered the safe choice. Star Wars kinda took the opposite path with the sequels.
this article from Cracked (which has good days and bad days but is dead-on here) sums up the problem with the sequels' world building https://www.cracked.com/blog/why-new-star-wars-trilogy-was-doomed-from-start/
Casting Robert Downey jr. Is Tony Stark certainly wasn't playing it safe. Kevin feige recently admitted that it could have turned out to be a "dumpster fire". https://www.google.com/amp/s/comicb...e-iron-man-dumpster-fire-casting-kevin-feige/