I don’t have a problem with idealism per se, but when it’s so in-your-face as presented in TLJ, or in series such as The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, it’s a major turn-off for me.
I didn’t know the term was taboo 'round here.
Still, Rose’s statements about how the wealthy people in Canto Bight have profited from war and exploiting the downtrodden, and later on her statement about saving what we love, not fighting what we hate come off as incredibly preachy and hokey. It just rubs me the wrong way.
Other than that I have no issues with Rose and think she’s a fine character.
I had a very different reaction to Luke tossing his father’s lightsaber. It marked the moment the movie got me hooked.
My only issue with TLJ is Rose’s overt idealism, as I dislike that sort of thing and also because it reeks of SJW.
Rian Johnson insists his SW trilogy is still going ahead, but I worry he’ll lose sight of it with his Knives Out sequels. I really want to see what he can do with Star Wars without the baggage of the main saga.
Based on the post-credits scene of the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, I assume Boba Fett will take on the criminal underworld with Fennec Shand as his right-hand using Jabba’s Palace as his base of operations. Is my assessment wrong?
Speaking of lightsaber building, is there some sort of rule that you’re only allowed to wield a lightsaber of your own making?
Obi-Wan went on to build his own lightsaber after losing his first one in Naboo despite having Qui-Gon’s. AotC established that the Jedi Order does have spare lightsabers, yet Anakin and Obi-Wan built their own lightasbers after the Battle of Geonosis instead of keeping the ones they were handed. This unspoken rule IMO contradicts Obi-Wan’s line to Luke about his father wanting him to have it when he was old enough.
Luke’s green lightsaber should have been the main lightsaber of the ST, not Anakin’s. It should have been the one found by Rey, and would have made a lot more sense for Luke to toss it when Rey presents it as he would have been reminded immediately of his failure, and finally Luke’s Force projection should have been seen with his green lightsaber as it would have surely rattled Kylo Ren even more, but sadly it was relegated to a flashback cameo.
OK guys, I have finally caught up and watched both seasons. My thoughts:
The first two chapters were pretty meh, but chapter 3 is were the series really got me hooked. I love the fact that this series is for the most part disconnected from the main saga, although season 2 gets a little too fan service-y for my taste. I also like that they do away with the moralistic narrative of Good vs Evil and keep things simple. Din Djarin isn’t a hero, he’s just a bounty hunter doing his job, and since he’s now Manda’Lor, a role he clearly has no interest in, it will be interesting to see how this will pan out in season 3. As many have posted, I also hope season 3 takes the series back to being its own story away from the main saga.
The only episode I didn’t really like was The Jedi, mostly because I’m fed up with Ahsoka popping up in every single piece of expanded material, and since she’s Filoni’s pet character it’s not surprising that this particular episode was directed by him. That being said, props to Rosario Dawson for making an effort to sound like Ashley Eckstein.
About Luke appearing in the season 2 finale, I felt indifferent, and one thing that soured it was the internet comments using the cameo as an excuse to throw further shade at TLJ. “This is the Luke Skywalker we wanted to see. Shame on you Rian Johnson.” Please let it go.
Really looking forward to season 3, and I hope Kevin McKidd can reprise his role as Fenn Rau.
I agree with NeverarGreat.
I would also counter ZkinandBonez’s argument by pointing to another film series, The Matrix.
Towards the end of the movie Neo starts to realize his potential by dodging bullets (the legendary bullet time sequence) and by the end he fully awakens as the One, doing stuff no other redpill can accomplish like flying, stopping bullets and fighting one-on-one with Agents, so having Anakin doing something spectacular with the Force wouldn’t have been that much of a stretch in 2002.
Since Rey’s godlike mastery of the Force is being discussed, I want to say that if there’s one thing that bothered me most about the PT, it’s how everyone goes on about how strong Anakin is with the Force, but we never see him do anything noteworthy in AotC and RotS other than basic stuff like telekinetically moving stuff around or boosting his jumps. Now I’m not saying he should have breezed through waves of enemies Force Unleashed style, it’s just that I would consider this a case of “Show, don’t tell”.
I love the Mustafar lightsaber duel.
If there’s one lightsaber duel everyone seems to love but I personally think is the most overrated, it would be the one between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon vs Darth Maul, way too choreographed.
If I had to pick an all-time favourite lightsaber duel, it would be Anakin and Obi-Wan vs Dooku in RotS. It’s brief, simple and elegantly choreographed.
It seems that Marcia Lucas has some strong feelings about the ST.
I agree with Marcia Lucas saying that Kennedy and Abrams don’t seem to understand Star Wars, but think that moving away from the legacy characters was the right call. I also think she’s right in criticizing Rey being OP.
Just finished watching Evangelion 3+1: Thrice Upon a Time, in fact I waited until all four Rebuild of Evangelion movies were released so I could watch them all.
The first two RoE movies are basically a retelling of the original series, a major difference being that the Angels are far more powerful and the battles are far more epic and destructive. However the climax of the second movie is where RoE wildly diverges from the original series.
In many ways RoE could be considered a counterpoint to the original series, as Shinji is a lot less mopey, the movies are far more action-packed and less psychological and the story ends on a hopeful note compared to The End of Evangelion which had a rather bleak ending.
Overall very enjoyable. The only character that left me puzzled was Mari.
Meh, I’ve posted previously that while Vader’s hallway slaughter looks cool, it’s not impressive because he’s just killing a bunch of frightened rebels who are clearly no match for him.
Summer’s over, meaning the project is most likely dead.
The Rebellion didn’t treat Luke that way. They didn’t hinge all their hopes on whether or not he showed up to help. Despite his abilities, he was still just one man, and one small part of a larger faction. The fact that the Resistance is so hyper focused on recruiting someone who, as far as they know, abandoned their cause years ago, and is hopeful that he’ll return, is naive and reflects poorly on them.
He’s still just one man, regardless of his powers, and it takes a long time to train a new generation of Jedi, so that’s hardly an immediate concern for the First Order. The line in TLJ when Rey tells Luke he needs to “bring the Jedi back” to stop Kylo Ren is really odd, since it makes it seem like Luke can just flip a switch and restore the Jedi after years of sitting around.
It’s also odd that Snoke is more focused on finding Luke than he is on destroying the Republic. His priorities seem backwards. He and the First Order have much bigger fish to fry than an inactive Luke who might be a potential threat in the future, yet Snoke talks about finding Luke like it’s the most important step in winning the war. But if the Republic and Resistance were destroyed, Luke coming out of hiding would be a nuisance, at best.
After accomplishing the feat of destroying the the Death Star, you don’t see Luke being treated with any sort of reverence in TESB. He’s still just a squad pilot among many, and his mastery of the Force is merely a personal journey. Absolutely nobody amongst the Rebellion shows the slightest concern with reviving the Jedi Order, because the conflict between the Jedi and the Sith was one of many narratives in the OT.
This is echoed in the PT, where the Jedi Order have grown to overestimate their role in the Galaxy, as Luke points out in TLJ, so much so that when the Jedi Order is dismantled nobody cares.
The ST contradicts this by turning the Jedi Order into a vital component of galactic society. Max Von Sydow’s character says that without the Jedi there can be no balance. There’s this bizarre belief that Luke must be brought back into the fold and Snoke worrying about the potential return of the Jedi Order strikes me as paranoid and a little psychotic.
JJ Abrams even wanted the movie to end with Luke surrounded by floating rocks, to wow the audience by showing off how powerful Luke was.
I remember reading that interview, and frankly I find that to be a very asinine idea, confirming that all Abrams is capable of doing is officially sanctioned big budget fan films.
I remember reading that the added bonus of Lovecraft’s works is that they’re readily available online since they are all public domain.
some weird non commercial midichlorian movie.
That’s not the sequel trilogy that Lucas pitched. He’s had four entirely separate ideas for STs (that we know about, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many more we don’t know about), and chronologically, it seems like that’s the second one of the four.
I see Star Wars in general as being a ‘band effort’ rather than the sole vision of one man. Yes, SW is/was Lucas’ creation, but the input of folks like Kurtz, Dykstra, MacQuarrie, Johnston, Burt, Marcia Lucas, Kershner, Kasdan etc etc really helped shape this universe significantly. If anything I see the PT as the equivalent of Mick Jagger reforming the Stones with an all-new lineup. So I don’t buy into the ‘George as canon’ thing at all. A Lucas-ST probably would’ve sucked.
I 100% agree, and that’s probably the best explanation why I prefer the sequels to the prequels. The ST was made by fans, and while the fans have some pretty crazy ideas of what Star Wars is, they have a more holistic view. The prequels were just George Lucas putting in his own contribution, lacking everyone else’s vision which made Star Wars what it is.
In other words, the problem with the PT was that George Lucas had nobody to reign him in, whilst the ST had the opposite problem, which was that there wasn’t a single creative vision driving the trilogy.
https://www.cracked.com/article_31115_5-ways-movies-screw-up-exciting-and-emotional-scenes.html
This is a pretty good article explaining why TROS feels so hollow.
My greatest fear is that they bowdlerise HK-47.
Prequels barely work in general.
Can people really come up with any prequels outside of SW that enhance the original?
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Technically a prequel because chronologically it takes place before RotLA but has no bearing on the latter.
I’m reading Dune for the first time to prepare for the film’s release in October.
I am currently halfway through Children of Dune.
On that note, that’s one of my many gripes with Star Wars Rebels. Every episode ends in mission accomplished with no casualties for the rebels, thus making the victories of the OT a lot less impactful.
I’d guess you’re against the show existing at all then. You can’t exactly tell a story about the gradual formation of the Rebel Alliance by showing them getting crushed and defeated at every turn. There were always going to be small victories, the events of the OT and Rogue One are just the first major victories.
I’m not saying the rebels should have been crushed and defeated at every turn as you put it, but the fact that they never suffer any setbacks makes the Empire look incompetent. How about two steps forward one step back, then three steps forward one step back, four steps forward two steps back, the Rebel Alliance slowly gaining in strength, occasionally throw in a defeat that sets the Rebellion back from square 50 to square 35, certainly damaging but not enough to erode their determination. It would have made for a much more compelling narrative than the smooth sailing of victory after victory we got.
The fact that the Rebel Alliance is able to so quickly muster a large fleet like that so early in the war makes the fleet in RotJ less impactful.
On that note, that’s one of my many gripes with Star Wars Rebels. Every episode ends in mission accomplished with no casualties for the rebels, thus making the victories of the OT a lot less impactful.
The way I see it, the Tantive IV and Leia were shoehorned into the movie as per Disney’s demands.
It would have made a lot more sense if the ship escaping from the Battle of Scarif wasn’t the Tantive IV.
It definitely seems like many of the continuity issues at the end of the film were a result of reshoots (the late addition of the Vader hallway scene comes to mind). I’d very much like to see a director’s cut and how the ending was meant to go originally.
I remember reading that originally Gareth Edwards intended for the movie to end with Jyn and Cassian being killed by Vader, but this ending was deemed too dark.