Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker*

If you were alive when the original films came out, you might understand.

 

I always felt the premise of the prequels were good, it was just the acting and directing and dialog. The story itself is interesting though. The novels are so much better than the movies. I recently read the Revenge of the Sith novel by Matthew Stover and it bring so much to the story that the movie just can't do.

 

The politics in the prequels made more sense overall. A democracy is maneuvered by into a dictatorship by a machiavellian figure.
In the sequels, these orders and their ships are just popping up out of nowhere.

On the other hand prequels have the inherent problem of trying to shoehorn in the things that lead to the original.

edit - Speaking of prequels - I liked Rogue One well enough, but did not even bother with Solo for the above reason.

 

An erotic one, I suspect!

 

That movie's just a fanboy rant with better than You Tube production values. It's basically 93 minutes of superfans complaining!

The People Vs. George Lucas (2010)

 

I was 10 in 1977 and saw the original movie 6 times theatrically. I was a super-fan from the very start and saw the 2 OT sequels opening day.

And ya know what? I generally enjoy the prequels!

 

Yeah, that's an issue, as Lucas works so hard to make the puzzle come together that it can be clumsy!

"Solo" gets cutesy with parts of its "origin story", but it's mostly an entertaining movie. Give it a look!

 

That was my first impression of the film but I watched it again recently and I don't agree anymore. It's a really more of a complex look at fandom in all it's facets. You've got people with reasonable concerns and people who are flying off the walls with angry passion. They talk about the special editions, the prequels, the idea that George wants the theatrical versions erased from existence and the various contradictions which happen all over the place. George, after all, was very welcoming of fan-made content.

 

My overiding emotion after seeing the Phantom Menace for the first time was 'boredom' - I mean the opening crawl mentions 'Tax' in it for chrissakes... I never expected to be bored at a Star Wars movie, I did anticpate that I might not like it or it might be underwhelming compared to when I first saw Star Wars when I was kid but I never thought it would be so boring.
Of course there are many other things which are not good about the prequels and most of these have been more than well covered numerous times on this forum but you've hit the nail on the head really for most of us that experienced the original trilogy when they first came out the prequels were somewhat disapointing. There are some redeeming qualities amongst them, Liam Neeson, Ewan MacGregor, Christopher Lee, Ian McDiarmind, Darth Maul etc. But overall the films just aren't entertaining enough. IMHO of course...

 

Politics!! You will get the thread closed

On a serious note the for me that is where a lot of the problems come from in the prequels, there is too much politics and intrigue for a Star Wars movie for me. I want to be entertained and not have to think too much about things, good vs evil rather than political maneuvering and such shennanigans. And yes, you are right, when you are trying to do prequels to such a well known trilogy you are limited as to what you can do with some of the characters given we know what their long term fates are.

 

My review notes that the film includes some alternate opinions, but I think the fanboy side overwhelms those.

A movie like this doesn't get made by people who aren't rabid about the franchise.

Geez, the title implies that Lucas should be prosecuted for his crimes!

 

It will be interesting to see how these newer films look in 20 years. I found TFA to be mildly enjoyable one time in theaters but couldn't get through it on DVD. Since I didn't like TLJ or TROS in theaters, I won't even bother. Maybe I'll wait 10 years for all the dust to settle before attempting a revisitation.

 

I was 4-5 years old when Dad took me to see Star Wars circa 1977, then Mom went along for The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and 1983's Return of the Jedi, I'd dismissed those first two prequels between 1999-2002, but gave them a chance as backstories, they could never be the original theatrical trilogy because they're different yet similar!

 

I am 58 and saw all the films as released. Still don’t understand the hate, but then again I simply checked my brain at the door (which I guess is good advice for most movies unfortunately) and just enjoyed them at face value as simply fantasy fun stories and in the case of the prequels, a ton of eye candy. I’m not a fan boy of Lucas, and didn’t know much about any fan back stories. So, with all that considered I would bet they are easier to enjoy. I would agree the acting from the two leads was laughably bad in places, as was the script, and I never bought into the two leads being romantically involved. But if you just watch and don’t think, it can be a fun ride.

I really think one could feel many take this stuff far too seriously. You of all people know, this is just a product shot on some kind of medium. It isn’t real. So many forget that at times. Heck, even I will get to drawn into certain characters on certain shows. But the only thing real is that someone thought of it and wrote a script. It can be whatever they want it to be. We can buy into it to whatever extent we want, but as you always say, it isn’t our movie. All of it only exists in the producer’s mind. I thonk it’s silly to get as worked up as some do. Still, it’s fun to talk about.

 

I'm your age and pretty much agree with you. The only exception is that I went into the this one with a little bit of a bad attitude about them re-hashing the villain.

 

As implausible as Palpatine's resurrection may have seemed -- isn't it maybe more fitting for the Big Bad they're fighting at the end to be the overarching villain of the entire saga, instead of some new nemesis they'd be introducing in the 9th of 9 movies?

 

Yeah I really hated this one. Superfans complaining indeed. Imagine the lack of perspective you have to have to equate a frigging kid's movie to sexual assault.

It's also easily one of the worst documentaries I've ever seen full stop. It's so unfocused and sloppy it's amazing it has the nerve to critique another film. A good documentary should change your perspective for the better, but all this one did was make me feel bad for the man who made THX, American Graffiti and Star Wars and now has to take critique from man-babies with no knowledge of cinema.

 

I was told by someone very, very high up that the biggest problem they faced with Episodes 2 and 3 were "we have no chemistry between our main leads" (Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman), which was one of those things that was impossible to overcome. If you can't buy into the love story, and also the Princess' tragic death, it kind of falls apart. All the visual effects in the world can't solve that.

I was already in my 20s when Star Wars was released, but I know it had a massive effect on children (understandably so). But anybody who saw those was bound to be disappointed by the prequels that happened 15-20 years later. Most of the people I know who liked the prequels were people who were little kids who saw them in the late-1990s/early-2000s, and I get that they have a completely different perspective from those of us who were there from the beginning.

Even objectively, though, I think the prequels are bad in many ways: lots of bad story logic, weird character decision, odd casting, a lot of stuff that doesn't work. Many critics saw the same things: the Secret History of Star Wars book goes into quite a few of the details.

 

If the vill

The birth of the Fandom Menace right here.


I mean,I get the prequels weren't everyone's cup of tea and yeah,Jar Jar was a mistake,but...most of these guys were pushing 40 years old by the time that thing was made. It just makes me roll my eyes Everytime they play the clip of the two guys who earnestly in public played a song called "George Lucas raped our childhood" and actually were even half way serious about it.

Whenever I hear anyone yelling about Star Wars being "ruined" or mentioning something about one's childhood being violated in some way,this is who I picture.



First world problems personified.

 

Exactly. And it's the same now ,except instead of one documentary it's entire YouTube channels spewing the same garbage. Just now directed at different people over different movies.


In a few years after Kennedy leaves and other movies are in the cinemas,those new people in charge will still be dealing with these overgrown children throwing tantrums.

 

I think "Phantom Menace" became the Big Bang of "raped our childhood" sentiment largely because it coincided with the explosion of the Internet.

I guess there was grumbling about the SEs in early 1997, but the Internet wasn't as big a source of that kind of communication, so those criticisms stayed more under the radar.

I actually spent a lot of time in boards that discussed the action figures back then, and I don't recall people griping about the SEs. I'm sure those complaints existed, but they didn't seem widespread.

By 1999, the Internet had grown a lot over that two years, so there was much more room for public complaining.

I think if "Phantom Menace" had come out in, say, 1994, its legacy would be different. Still not beloved, but the Internet let the hate flow and amplify in a way impossible during earlier eras...

 

The wife and I are seeing the last showing at the El Capitan in Hollywood on Sunday night. Wildly Disneycentric but it's a fun place. I'm sure we'll enjoy the flick even though my wife likes ROGUE ONE over EMPIRE STRIKES BACK so there's no accounting for taste LOL.

 

Would you like for me to check "Hawthorne CA divorce lawyers" on Yelp?

 

Not a deal breaker but yeesh, woman!

 

I saw this movie tuesday night , Looked great , 3-D was great the score was killer ....... I went in looking to get lost and have some fun & i certainly got that .....I loved it & i think they did a decent job on this "Final" chapter .