The prequels sucked. There’s no way to possibly argue they are good or well-made, even if you don’t think they sucked. But the complaints here make me feel a little bad for Lucas, because he never stood a chance. He could have made the best three movies ever made and it wouldn’t have mattered. I never really bought that argument before, but now seeing it play out with TFA, I kind of buy it. Hell, if this internet existed in 1977, some of you would have ripped Star Wars to absolute shreds.
Fun stuff.
I agree the prequels sucked, but I remember the old days before the SE’s and accessible internet. We tore the OT to shreds back in the day in dank comic store basements, but I forget most of what we complained about thanks to the SE’s (they added so much garbage). All I remember for ANH was parsecs and washers being droid turds, while RotJ took the most heat since it had the weakest story of the 3 (and also Ewoks).
Ahh, the glory days when nerds were real nerds. But I digress.
I did go see TFA a 2nd time today so I thought I would share some randoms thoughts about it here with you fine folks. I did skim though reviews and I have to say I agree with many of the perceived problems, and I’ll try to keep this somewhat organized.
Characters:
-Rey ,I though, was a good character for the most part, and Daisy Ridley did a good job acting considering what she was given to work with. Like many others, I felt that her natural gift with the force comes too quickly, especially considering her lack of training. Running off at Maz’s was stupid, but everything on that planet was a mess. Still more of a man than that Annie in the PT since she has no problems with sand.
-Finn was for the most part solid and well acted (again considering the material given to him). His overly emotional hyperventilating towards the beginning I thought was a bit over the top, and trying to go to the outer rim was honestly really out of character.
-Ren sucked. Many want to label him with things like "emo’ and “Darth Vader wannabe,” but to be honest the correct label for him, IMO, is “Dark Helmet.” When he removes his face mask, it just reinforces this notion.
-BB8 was, to be honest, worthless. Looks cool and will probably sell a lot of toys, but if he were replaced by R2, or any astromech droid for that matter, the result would be about the same. On the plus side the grappling hooks were better than rockets, but still kind of dumb.
-Poe, also kinda worthless. Hopefully he stays a minor character and keeps BB8.
-Maz was a stupid CGI character. I think some are calling her “Yellow Yoda,” but I’m not 100% sure. Lets all hope she doesn’t end up doing stupid Yoda style flips with a mini light saber.
-Snoke, another stupid CGI character, and if anyone should be wearing a mask it should be him.
-General Hux was a poor General. I think just about every Imperial officer in the OT carried themselves more professionally than Hux did.
-Captain Phasma was menacing for about the 1st 10 minutes, then she showed up later to get stuffed in the trash. That’s right, use her as a plot device then just throw her away, literally.
-R2 should have been used more, BB8’s role would have been perfect for him if there wasn’t so much OT crap shoehorned in.
-C3PO was as annoying as ever, but also could have been used more considering him and R2 were originally “observers” of the saga.
-Han was a better role for Harrison compared to his other more resent work. I’m sure Han’s role could have been better, but at least he played a somewhat major role in the film.
-Chewie was the same old Chewie. Sucked to see him get shot, but still way better than watching him cut down 1000’s of robots like butter. It’s a good thing to have the possibility of being hurt, maimed, or killed.
-Leia could have had more to do other than some clunky dialog and to stand around in a control room. In response to her complexion I don’t think she has had any plastic surgery or CGI done to her face, some people are just jerks I think.
-Luke just stood there. Still kinda pissed about that since we don’t get to see the original group together one last time.
The plot wasn’t too bad up to the escape from Jakku, after that point the film started to break down. Han’s freighter was a mess, as was Maz’s palace, and to top it off we get a bigger and badder Death Star mkIII that still sucked compared to the 1st 2. I could go into detail but it’s been well covered in here all ready. The pacing was good up to the Jakku escape, but after that it was off to the races.
The special effects I think were what disappointed me the most considering how much they were pushing the practical effects. I was all ready convinced that CGI has no place in a Star Wars film after the prequels, but this film just reinforced my opinion. The only practical effects that I thought were somewhat impressive were how some of the storm troopers flew in the air from explosions, though there were a few times it happened that I could clearly see that it was CGI. In comparison, all 3 OT films still have numerous practical effects that still to this day impress me that they were able to pull it off. These days it’s just “Oh, too much trouble/money? We’ll just CGI it.” If anyone want’s to respond to this paragraph in regard to CGI, please take a moment and enlighten me how they were able to pull off the shots in the OT. I wholeheartedly believe that RotJ’s biggest strength is the space battle that still to this day has yet to be bested, even with all our CGI.
Over all in my opinion, Rey and Finn carried the film and made it at least watchable. After the 2nd viewing I’m not sure if it’s quite up to RotJ standards, but still way ahead of those stupid prequels.