I am sorry DrDre, I feel like you have already said these things before in this thread, on a few occasions? I apologize if not, yet I seem to have a feeling of deja vu when reading it.
It doesn’t make your well-made points any less valid, but I can now see why some people no longer wish to read this thread, or visit this thread, or talk about TLJ on here, if we are just going to repeat what we have already said again and again. My apologies again if I am wrong on this.
You’re not entirely wrong, but in a way my post and your reaction to it are emblematic of the state of the franchise and the fandom.
“I feel like you have already said/shown these things before in this thread/franchise, on a few occasions? I apologize if not, yet I seem to have a feeling of deja vu when reading/watching it.”
Your sentiments about my post echo the sentiments of a lot of fans with regards to the franchise these days, but that’s not the whole story on my post.
It is a shame we do not have a ‘what we didn’t like’ type thread, or ‘what they nailed’ type thread for TLJ, as there was for TFA and some of the other films on here, to maybe help keep topics and this thread from less repetition? Or a ‘what is the political situation of the Republic and First Order in the Sequel films’ thread?
I see start of posts saying like ‘for all the good things’ but people don’t then say what those things are. The same for those who post ‘for all the bad things’, and then mention focus or mention on the good. It comes across as empty lip service, to me anyway. Maybe mention what are all the good things you enjoyed actually are?
I don’t think it’s empty lip service, since I’ve never pretended to actually truly like the film, although I’ve gone through phases where I like it more, and where I like it less. It’s a simple statement of fact, that I enjoyed some elements, some of which I’ve mentioned in the previous post (visuals, acting, some of the character moments, specifically the Luke/Rey/Kylo/Snoke dynamic, and Luke’s illusion, and its implications for the future of the rebellion at the end, though not his dying from it), but found the movie overall to be not very good, partly when seen on its own terms, but mostly when seen in context of the rest of the saga.
However, the main reason I made the last post actually comes from watching a few videos analyzing the business model of the Disney corporation, forming my own opinion on it in relation to the upcoming remakes of Aladdin, The Lion King , Mulan (in addition to Dumbo this year, and the slew of remakes or adaptations we got in previous years), placing the ST in that context, and not liking where things are headed. I started wondering why we as a movie viewing audience are so uncritical of this Trojan Horse in our wallets feeding on our nostalgia? I like a good remake, or adaptation just like the next person, but should the underlying corporate strategy that drives this business model affect our enjoyment of them, especially given Disney’s omnipresence, when every dollar that gets spent on remakes, and adaptations isn’t spent on new content? Why is TLJ celebrated as novel when so much of it is clearly a repetition of what we’ve seen before? Have we come to expect so little? Is changing the order of a few events, and some characters really enough to call this a new story? How will people in the future look back on this period of film making? Will TLJ be seen as this generation’s The Empire Strikes Back, and I just didn’t get it, or will it be seen as part of a trilogy, that is just one of many examples of Disney’s cynical (though competent) attempts to cash in on the golden goose, our nostalgia?
Let me end this post with the following question. Does the ST thusfar, and TLJ specifically fit within the Disney remake strategy: same meat, different gravy? If no, why not? If yes, is it a good thing, or a bad thing?