TFA was how i fell in love with star wars. i know a lot of older fans like to rag on TFA for being “too similar” to ANH but it’s the movie that made me, a then-15 year old girl truly see why people adored star wars. it was pure fun, with likeable and charismatic characters you enjoyed seeing and left wanting more of and action that made me breathless. i ADORED the new trio especially. finn and poe’s instant camaraderie & finn and rey’s sweet friendship were both lovely, fresh dynamics for our main cast. and i know people aren’t fond of rey, but i loved her quietly stubborn, scrappy additude and slight naïveté. TFA is the movie that truly kickstarted my star wars obsession. its not a perfect movie narratively, and its definitely obvious they had no plan at all but its everything people like about star wars distilled into a movie, made with love.
i hated TLJ at first but grew to appreciate it more upon rewatch, though i still view it as an insanely mixed bag. its highs were astronomically high and its lows were so, so low. let me say the good things first; TLJ is the first star wars movie with clear thematic storytelling and metacommentary on the nature of heroes, failure, the force and the place of the jedi. i like how johnson wanted to challenge what our idea of a star wars movie is. its also the first (and so far only) star wars movie with a hyper-distinctive visual style. i appreciate how the shots are a bit more artistic than what we usually see in action blockbusters. rey’s parents being nobodies was an inspired narrative foil to luke’s own parentage reveal in ESB. luke’s arc was truly special and him dying as the noble, selfless hero we know him to be was deeply moving. onto the bad side of things; i got the sense that rian johnson knew exactly what kind of story he wanted to tell with rey/luke/kylo, but had no clue what to do with finn, poe or even poor rose. the canto bite subplot brutally misunderstands finn and poe’s characters, and does the strength of the trio a major disservice by seperating the two of them instead of building on their relationship. rose was nonsensical as a love interest for finn, he would have legitimately been better off with either rey or poe if he needed a romance. this subplot was TLJ’s biggest mistake, as 2/3s of our main trio have either has their development regressed (finn) or personalities changed altogether (poe). their plotline actively brings the whole movie down, which is even more egregious since they are two of our main leads and should be of EQUAL IMPORTANCE to rey. in the end TLJ is just frustrating to me because its effectively half of a phenomenal movie and half of a movie i just cannot stand.
ROS makes me angry, but also sad. sad because it truly felt like an entirely soulless, corporate movie in a way the others never did. i can’t even be mad at jj abrams because according to the cast and crew, most of the disliked changes came from disney executives and abrams had no real power on the creative decisions being made. the only good things i can think of in this movie are that we get to see the main trio finally interact as a unit, and their exchanges are charming as usual. if i listed what i disliked i’d be here all day. its so obvious this movie was just made to appease the biggest amount of people so they could make money. there wasn’t any love there anymore, and you could tell the actors were deeply saddened about the way things went. ROS reversed everything good TFA and TLJ did to give us a truly forgettable finale that actively hurt both the sequel trilogy and public interest in star wars.
in the end, the sequel trilogy is missed potential for me. even a middling series can be good if it sticks the landing, but something about ROS just makes everything else in the trilogy ring hollow. its just depressing to think about
