Star Wars: The Force Awakens wasn't perfect, but for the most part I thoroughly enjoyed it. Star Wars: Rogue One, I felt was great - so I was very excited to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which promised to finally give audiences Luke Skywalker back in action. Unfortunately that film and it's many missteps have dampened a lot of my enthusiasm for seeing future installments. I was really disappointed with what was done with Luke (as apparently was Mark Hamill), and with Admiral Ackbar unceremoniously dispatched and Carrie Fisher gone, there isn't a whole lot for fans of the original trilogy to look forward to. I was enjoying the new characters, but not how they were portrayed in Last Jedi - Poe is suddenly a reckless jerk who gets scores of his allies killed by his actions, Finn is a coward just trying to escape and getting caught up in the cringe-worthy casino subplot with Rose Tico. Rey comes out relatively unscathed, but she seems to instinctively do everything so well, it's hard to get concerned about the stakes for her character. Solo: A Star Wars Story may be a decent palette cleanser, but reports from the set and the lead's ability to portray a young Harrison Ford do not fill me with confidence. Let's hope Episode IX can end the saga on a proper note.
9 comments:
Personnally, I'm done "paying money" to see Star Wars at a movie theater. TLJ was the last straw (tho I loved Rogue One too). Its strictly streaming or High Definition bootleg copies from here on end for me! Just being honest.
And give this man a lightsaber.
The director was out to subvert every trope from previous Star Wars or other action films. Starting the movie off with a "banana peel" joke as Luke tosses away the lightsaber set a foul tone for the whole thing. The film is just full of side quests within side quests with the casino planet being the worst part, the entire action being on pause for it. Loses all drama. The self-sacrifice was a sour note too, since the ship was full of droids that could have done that instead of the human character so there's no logic, and no emotional resonance since we don't know her at all.
The only complaint I had with TLJ was the premature killing off of Snoke. And, of course, there was the bittersweet foreknowledge that Carrie Fisher had died in the midst of production. But, the latter was nicely compensated for with the portrayal of Leia's Force potential finally becoming active enough that she could telekinetically rescue herself from the vacuum of outer space while just microseconds away from full asphyxiation!
As for Rey's parents being no one special? I still think that's true only in the sense that they were probably just blue collar foster parents! Even in the GFFA, many such individuals probably just look after orphans for the welfare money (making them little more than non-military mercs).
Personally, I thought The Last Jedi was excellent. Kylo Ren didn't really click with me in Force Awakens, but became more interesting in this film. The story line in both its handling of Rey and Luke fit in well with both the Ragland and Campbell heroic cycles, and the film advanced this trilogy,, and laid groundwork for the films to follow.
BTW, Chapter IX won't be the end. Lucas may have planned a trilogy of trilogies, but it is clear that Disney has always seen Star Wars as an open-ended franchise.
As someone who was a fan from the moment I met Hamill at World Con while the film was still in post, I think the recent movies (and the Star Wars Rebels series) are all excellent continuations of the heritage.
That's just me.
I'm with Cary and Jim on this one. TLJ had a few missteps, but it pushed things along nicely, and clearly set up a few things for Episode IX. Like Cary, I would have preferred to see Snoke last just a little longer, but that's mostly because Andy Serkis is such a dramaturgical force.
As for someone to join (or at least visit) the Star Wars universe, I think I'd prefer Voltron....
Bob's right. Frank Castle in the GFFA is carrying the fish-out-of-water trope a little _too_ far!
Of course, given how much your photo-capture resembles a Ron Goulart paperback cover of Doc Savage, from the Seventies, I'd be willing to concede some kind of super-scientific accident occurred. Like, maybe, the Punisher was trying to prevent Hydra from stealing some experimental teleportation device recently invented by the Doc? And, one stray bullet later, Castle is talking to everybody's favorite tridactyl Jedi Master!
@Anonymous: More likely, he was trying to help Blackhawk and Han Solo rescue Chewbacca from Chronos.* And when Chewie and Han returned to their neck of the cosmic woods, Castle got inadvertently sucked along for the ride.
*See STF #2157.
Major shout out to Super Team family. They’re killing it with these covers. Absolutely amazing 🤩
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