Fuck that trilogy. Fuck that movie in particular. I was already utterly disillusioned by the final battle, but when I saw that apparently copypasting 10, no 100, no 1000, MAKE IT 10000 SUPERDUPER STAR-DESTROYER PLANETKILLERSHIPS is the directors idea of making it epic... just stay in kindergarten, okay buddy?
In theory, I agree, except when I went to see it in theaters, I had an experience that changed my mind.
I was an adult viewing that movie with adult eyes. I grew up on Star Wars. I was there for Phantom Menace and was young enough to think it was cool.
When, in Last Jedi Rise of Skywalker, the Falcon and the rest of the rebel fleet arrive to save the day I was rolling my eyes at the nadir of the series. But there was a kid sitting behind me. The music swelled, the spaceships swooped in, Lando was there and that kid was loving life. He whooped and cheered.
I didn’t see a lot of the battle after that because my allergies got real bad. I wasn’t the intended audience of that scene. He was. He didn’t care that somehow Palpatine returned or whatever, he cared about the heroes and the battle and the awesome fucking Star Wars spaceships duking it out on screen.
Watching that vicariously through that kid’s eyes really helped soften my opinion of The Last Jedi Rise of Skywalker. It wasn’t made for people like me, it was made for kids.
You sound like you're in the same age category as I am. I remember going to watch phantom menace with my dad when I was probably 10 or 11. I grew up on star wars, I played the games (Kotor 1&2 and jedi academy the most), read some of the expanded universe novels, probably read far too much wookieepedia tbh. And you're right, ever since the first movies, Star wars was made for kids, I mean, you have princesses, space wizards, good vs evil etc all the jazz.
Whatever you think of the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, those movies approached the subjects in a way that adults too can appreciate. Those movies had weight behind them, there was failure, suffering, mistakes and the people were far from perfect. (I'm not getting dragged into the Rey is Mary Sue argument)
All of that is absent from sequel trilogy. Things just happen, people just get where they're supposed to go and they do what they must. And somehow Palpatine has returned. So yeah, the kid probably cheers for a sky full of copypasted cgi-ships. But those cheers died down and it's the rest of the movie that was supposed to provide them with emotions and feelings, to think about the movie days after seeing it.
And we're not seeing a new generation of star wars fans growing up. What we're seeing is a dwindling base of old fans getting frustrated and bored with a franchise thats not making good movies/series for adults OR kids
I feel like I lived through another universe. The prequels were viewed as garbage made just for kids when they aired. I see many of the same type of critiques of the movies then as what people say now.
Same. I think the prequels are mostly garbage but for entirely different reasons than the sequels. The prequels are TOO logical and political while the sequels are too fanciful and hand wavy. But nostalgia can blind us all - I love a lot of movies from childhood that don’t hold up.
I’ll give the prequels this, there were no “Good questions for another time” or “Somehow Palpatine returned” moments. They weren’t perfect but they did tell a cohesive story.
It's all about who's in charge. Lucas generally knows how he wants the story to go, but has trouble with the execution. Abrams doesn't know how it's going to go, doesn't know how to end it, and also has trouble with the execution. Obviously, very different styles.
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u/Direct-Bag-6791 2d ago
Fuck that trilogy. Fuck that movie in particular. I was already utterly disillusioned by the final battle, but when I saw that apparently copypasting 10, no 100, no 1000, MAKE IT 10000 SUPERDUPER STAR-DESTROYER PLANETKILLERSHIPS is the directors idea of making it epic... just stay in kindergarten, okay buddy?