How many 'Bad' Star Wars movies could you take before you check out?

We all have a version of what is a Bad SW movie. Let’s not get into defining it, but as a fan of SW how many bad films would it take before you stop going to see them?

I was thinking about this, and I have to say that I am going to see every SW film that comes out no matter how much I disliked it’s predecessors. Like many I disliked PT but I was back to see the next one in hopes it would turn around, I think even after a string of 6 or 7 bad SW movies I am still going to check out the 7th or 8th movie to see if things turn around.

I sure hope that is not how it turns out but I just can’t see me checking out of the franchise.

A lot. I can’t really out a number on it. I’ve seen every picture so far and found something I really like about each one, even the PT which I was not crazy about.

I’m a fan. Full stop.

I guess when the stories have no SW familiarity at all would be when is stop or at least think about it.

It died once already in 2005, and they gave that horse a good beating for a couple of years after. Now I’m not sure, it could go either way. I can still take or leave the bits that are too much, just like we’ve all been doing since 1997.

I’m not really sure. I was just a kid when the PT came out. I watched them when I was like 14 and didn’t think too highly of them but didn’t feel angry that they were bad or anything.

I think once this “Episode IX” comes out, all future movies will be too far removed from the story I actually love (the OT), and I probably won’t care about them anymore.

If I can put up with sh*t like the PT, than I can brave any STAR WARS movie DISNEY throws at me - except Solo. I’ll give that a pass for sure, but I’ll probably watch it on television in a few years time, no doubt.

I had already pretty much checked out after the prequels, for several years. I barely gave a second thought to Star Wars and I’m not sure I watched any of the movies in their entirety for the better part of a decade from 2005 to 2015. Obviously I didn’t like the prequels and I was so put off by the changes to the originals that I never even finished watching the DVDs I bought in 2004 and didn’t even get the Blu-rays for a long while. I didn’t know about Despecialized or even the GOUT, and had no desire to dig out old VHS tapes, so Star Wars was basically dead to me for quite some time.

Then the hype around TFA “awakened” my dormant interest in the series. The movie itself didn’t quite live up to that hype, but it did lead me to discovering Despecialized and all of a sudden I remembered why I loved Star Wars so much as a kid. It really was like R2 lighting up at the end of TFA. So I’ve maintained my renewed interest in the franchise in the two years since, despite having mixed (though more positive than not) feelings about TFA and outright disliking Rogue One. I did really like TLJ though, so now I think the total tally of good-to-bad Star Wars movies is 5-to-4, an improvement over the 3-to-3 when Disney took over. That’s good enough in my book, especially since two of those five (SW and ESB) are still among my favorite movies ever. Nothing will ever change that. Not even if Disney completely drives the franchise into the ground, which after TLJ I feel is less likely to happen anyway.

Density said:

I had already pretty much checked out after the prequels, for several years. I barely gave a second thought to Star Wars and I’m not sure I watched any of the movies in their entirety for the better part of a decade from 2005 to 2015. Obviously I didn’t like the prequels and I was so put off by the changes to the originals that I never even finished watching the DVDs I bought in 2004 and didn’t even get the Blu-rays for a long while. I didn’t know about Despecialized or even the GOUT, and had no desire to dig out old VHS tapes, so Star Wars was basically dead to me for quite some time.

Then the hype around TFA “awakened” my dormant interest in the series… and lead me to discovering Despecialized and all of a sudden I remembered why I loved Star Wars so much as a kid. It really was like R2 lighting up at the end of TFA. So I’ve maintained my renewed interest in the franchise in the two years since.

This for me also (slightly abridged version of your post!).

Mike O said:

The question is, how many can the general public take before they get bored with it?

So far, the answer is “infinite.” With no sign of that number getting smaller. Or three, since by my counting that’s how many bad movies there’s been so far.

chyron8472 said:

But since L8wrtr, Q2 and Hal9k have redeemed the Prequels for me

Which edits, might I ask?

I think Chyron has the right idea. So long as the movie isn’t Holiday Special level bad, there’s something that can be salvaged.

If I can survive the prequels and special editions, then I can survive anything.

I checked out after the SE’s in 1997. I didn’t see ROTS until around 2011. I watched it a second time this year just to see if it was as awful as I remembered.

I’ve been interested enough in the new movies to see them in the theater, and they’ve for the most part been an improvement over the PT, but as bad as TLJ was, I can take or leave IX, and I think Solo is probably going to be terrible.

rodneyfaile said:

If I can survive the prequels and special editions, then I can survive anything.

Yup!

Actually, I was done after TFA. I still planned to eventually watch the next films but not in the theater. It would mainly be to confirm my suspicion of their being horrible. My wife dragged me to see TLJ. I’m usually fussier about movies so I didn’t want to rain on her parade if she liked it. We came out of the theater and I could see the disappointment written on her face. She has no intention of seeing IX in the theater and certainly not the (most likely) trainwreck of Han Solo.

The three Disney films all share the same flaws. Rogue One had a decent third act but that didn’t redeem the first two acts. They should have avoided EU-style tie-in stories and simply done a separate Rogue Squadron film. That’s what I’ve been dying for since ROTJ, more adventures set in the Galactic Civil War era but separate from the OT heroes.

I don’t anticipate the future films being any different. These are money-making concerns first and foremost and the films, despite all the griping from hardcore fans, remain tremendously profitable. There’s zero incentive for Disney to change anything until they start losing money. They’d be quite happy churning out Michael Bay-style lucrative garbage until the end of time. Quality isn’t something they’re optimizing for.

jollyreaper said:

They’d be quite happy churning out Michael Bay-style lucrative garbage until the end of time.

Lol I can’t tell if you haven’t seen any of the new Star Wars movies, or you haven’t seen any Michael Bay movies, or both.

jollyreaper said:

The three Disney films all share the same flaws. Rogue One had a decent third act but that didn’t redeem the first two acts. They should have avoided EU-style tie-in stories and simply done a separate Rogue Squadron film. That’s what I’ve been dying for since ROTJ, more adventures set in the Galactic Civil War era but separate from the OT heroes.

That’s exactly what RO is. Yes, it does tie in to ANH, but it still stars entirely new characters.

Anakin Starkiller said:

jollyreaper said:

The three Disney films all share the same flaws. Rogue One had a decent third act but that didn’t redeem the first two acts. They should have avoided EU-style tie-in stories and simply done a separate Rogue Squadron film. That’s what I’ve been dying for since ROTJ, more adventures set in the Galactic Civil War era but separate from the OT heroes.

That’s exactly what RO is. Yes, it does tie in to ANH, but it still stars entirely new characters.

Not exactly. It is an EU-style tie-in by which I mean it’s taking a story from the OT and telling the other side of it in a way that feels redundant. It also introduces serious head-scratcher with Vader seeing Leia’s ship escape and then confronting her in ANH.

“I’m on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan.”
“Princess, please. I literally just saw you fly away from the battle on this very ship like ten minutes ago.”

While I have some sympathy towards wanting to explain how the Empire could have a flaw in their superweapon so great that a team of engineers with like an hour to look over the plans could spot it, the way they executed the plot point was awkward. Making it be protagonist’s father and having him on mountainous rain world and circumstances conspiring for him to have a final talk with her before dying in her arms and then the plans being in a robotic tape archive and all that. It felt cumbersome and like video game logic.

What’s interesting is that there’s actual canon explanations for what that first battle to get the plans was like. It’s in the radio drama and was elaborated on a little bit more with input from Lucasfilm. I think they did reference some of this when writing RO since there’s a battle to get the plans on the ground and everyone in the raid is killed after transmitting the plans into space which are intercepted by the Tantive IV.

I just felt the first two acts had too many characters, not enough focus and tried to hang on cool visuals rather than plot beats that made sense. But that’s just me.