When the Sequel Trilogy was announced alongside Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm I was cautiously optimistic, less so when J.J. Abrams was announced as director of episode VII, because I’ve never liked any movie that was directed by him (Star Trek 2009 was meh and M:I3 is IMO the weakest entry in the franchise despite everyone praising it for revitalising the series), and my bad feeling about Abrams was proven correct, because never before had I ever felt as let down as I did after watching The Force Awakens, which is essentially the first SW movie all over again with idiotic humour. Because of TFA I refuse to watch any movie directed by J.J. Abrams, which is why I haven’t seen TROS and never will. I also call bullshit on those who defend TFA claiming that it had to be like that to earn the fans’trust.
Over the past few days there’s also been another thing that has been bothering me in retrospect about the ST regarding one particular character, and that is Finn. The marketing campaign for TFA gave us the impression that Finn was going to be the protagonist in the ST, which indeed would have made for a compelling story. A former stormtrooper who defects to the good guys and might possibly be Force sensitive? Sure, why not? Instead Finn turned out to be something of a coward, usually running away from combat, and even worse, he’s portrayed as a bumbling buffoon, as if he was in some minstrel show. John Boyega was really done dirty by Disney if you ask me.
I fully expected The Last Jedi to be rethread of TESB just like TFA is a rethread of the first SW movie, but was pleasantly surprised when it turned out not to be the case, and once the credits started rolling I left the cinema with a sense of euphoria. Of course over time the only thing that has come to bother me about TLJ is Rose essentially being an SJW, which is the only thing I would change about the movie, making Rose less overly idealistic.
Of course, in the months prior to TLJ premiering they announced Abrams was returning to direct episode IX, which effectively killed any anticipation I might have had for the movie, and like I stated earlier, I refuse to watch any movie directed by Abrams and will never watch TROS.
I posted on another thread despite its divisive reception among fans, TLJ will be redeemed by the passage of time and be remembered as the only worthwhile entry in the ST, and I stand by that belief.
If I had to describe the ST in a nutshell, it would be this: a filmmaking gem (TLJ) being sandwiched between two turds.
Now that I’m done talking about the movies themselves, I now want to comment on the look and production aspects of the movies. Aesthetically these movies replicate the the look of the OT, but something doesn’t feel right about them, as if they aren’t part of the SW universe, whilst the PT did feel like they belong in the SW universe despite having a baroque aesthetic. I can’t exactly say why, but there’s something about the ST that doesn’t fit with the previous six movies, and I would like to know if anyone else feels the same way.
Finally, in terms of special effects, I remember how they wouldn’t shut up about how they were using practical effects as much as possible compared to the PT’s overuse of CGI, until later on when it was revealed that they used way more CGI than previously thought. Pretty deceitful if you ask me.