The reasoned, argumented criticism referring to the poor writing skills of Rian Johnson might well be the rotten tomatoes of the 21st century. The trolling that called the performer out for being an Asian woman and threw a ton of abuse at her for her physical appearance has nothing to do with the tradition of rotten tomatoes and everything to do with blind stupidity and hate.
It's still rotten tomatoes.
How many of the people who allegedly made ethnic comments thought about it 5 seconds after?
That's technology in the 21st century. You can say something blunt or rude and not spend much effort at it.
If the character was portrayed by Kelly Hu, would there have been attacks on her race?
Probably not. Johnson should have thought about audience response when making decisions (as Hamill suggested).
Disney was criticized for erasing Tibetans from Dr. Strange to appease China, so it isn't like Disney is standing in a steel house when making accusations of others on racial preferences and intolerance.
As for Transformers--the point is they have no artistic interest in the genre-that usually translates into a lack of merit (which in the case of Kurtzman and Orci is demonstrated repeatedly).
To follow through with something touched on earlier, the problem with later SW films is not a failure to adhere to the canon, but the aesthetic. The original trilogy was populated by decisive, sharp tongued and competently violent people. When we go to see a sequel, we want to recapture the feeling of watching the prior films, and that isn't just the rules of backstory but the way the characters make you feel.
None of the characters in Rise manage to bring it the way the originals did. It shouldn't be surprising that replacing badasses with plucky amateurs doesn't satisfy that desire to relive the best of the first films.
To follow through with something touched on earlier, the problem with later SW films is not a failure to adhere to the canon, but the aesthetic. The original trilogy was populated by decisive, sharp tongued and competently violent people. When we go to see a sequel, we want to recapture the feeling of watching the prior films, and that isn't just the rules of backstory but the way the characters make you feel.
None of the characters in Rise manage to bring it the way the originals did. It shouldn't be surprising that replacing badasses with plucky amateurs doesn't satisfy that desire to relive the best of the first films.
The first film had a magic and to it and was fun to watch . The second was a better overall film but not quite as much fun to watch . The third was good but not great ,and not really not alot of fun to watch.
Just watched the first three episodes of The Mandalorian, and thoroughy enjoyed it. It got me thinking as to why, and the answer is, that it's mandos's story, nobody else. The camera is on his shoulder (figuratively) for 95% of the time. Other characters are coming and going, but we're sticking with him (and baby yoda!).
Contrast that to the Episode IV - we saw Leia release the droids, and then we followed Luke. We were introduced to Obi-Wan, as part of Luke's story, and then we were introduced to Han and Wookie as part of Luke's story. We had the threat of the Death Star shown to us, but we stuck with Luke, Han and Leia after that.
Contrast that to Episode VII - we were introduced to Rey, then Finn, then Poe, then Kylo, and didn't know what the threat was for some time. By having three separate character lines to develop, mostly independently, was off-putting for me, and honestly, I didn't care that much for any of their characters. But...Episode IX finally got me engaged with Rey and Kylo, and I enjoyed the ending.
Same here, I felt that my attachment to Finn and Rey was primarily because they were played by English actors so I felt a sense of pride that was meta to the storyline. Then I was excited for how the Finnpoe gay relationship would play out, but they chose to confuse that with Rose's unclear infatuation with Finn. I liked Kylo because he seemed to generally show internal conflict but I did feel that Reylo was too quickly resolved and I wonder if that is because the films came out in such quick succession or if it was something else. Perhaps if Rey had done her
dark-side naughty Chewie accident
in TLJ instead of TROS it would have seemed less rushed but...
Regarding Canto Bight. It's a part I fast forward in the film, but I don't have the massive probelm with it that others have simply because it represents a try-fail cycle which we all include in our stories. It also offered a socio-political side which sits well with me, esp bearing in mind films are a product of their time.
As far as the Big Bad goes, I never really disliked Snoke, but I was never really threatened by him - partly because nowadays casting Andy Serkis (who is a great actor, don't get me wrong) was like casting Elvis or Madonna; I couldn't divorce the player from the performance and was always aware Andy was there underneath; they didn't use his physicality in any way, and I'd've far prefered someone more threatening. Consequently, the decision to bring back you-know-who delighted me. I never thought he could get any scarier, but those early Exegol scenes are something from horror more than fantasy SF.
(Disney has form in that regard; The end of the underestimated The Black Hole is phenomenally good but terrifying to the young me. I remember seeing it at the cinema and being terrified at the grey bodies trudging through the fiery volcanic Hell as Maximilian watches over them from a stone pedestal. I remember the absolute releif when the heroes are escorted by the angel through crystalline arches to safety/heaven. Bette Davis and the paranormal activity in Watcher in the Woods is another Disney film that scared me. Oddly, the arm slicing in the Cantina never scared me whereas Vader choking the Rebel officer on the Tantive IV at the begining of Star Wars did, and I used to skip that page in my SW comic book annual)
Hoping I don't overstep Brian's request, I do want to say that as someone who has been working exclusively in race-related capacity, many of the children I work with from age 8-20s have mentioned how either Rey, Finn or Rose 'got me into SW' (although I do suspect me banging on about how good SW is has had an effect, too!) because the sequels contained relatable characters. Gender, race and sexuality have been touched upon the sequels and for that I think they deserve more than to be written off (esp by the revolting term 'social justice warriors' which seemed to be a catch-all reason those toxic fans we earlier mentioned employed for everything they didn't like).
I know how disappointing it is to have unmet expectations (one day, I'll come home and the dishes will have been done...nah, that's never gonna happen...) so I feel strangely disconnected from the SW fanbase because I have sat and watched all the SW films in the cinema several times, and left feeling elated, rewarded and inspired. I feel so sorry for those fans who don't get that enjoyment. But I'm also at odds with the common opinion of ESB being the best; I find it a drag and at times boring - I've probably seen it five or six times as opposed to, say, TPM which I've seen in double digits. So I get that I am probably the odd one out; I just can't get into arguments of merit with fans who want to talk about what should have happened based on their own expectations hard-coded into them from childhood.
I did too! He's a sympathetic character (I've also surprised myself with the amount of love I have for that little cargo of his...). I groaned when I heard there would be a live TV series of a Mandalorian because I've never understood the infatuation with useless Boba, and in the CW and Rebels, the Mandalorians come across as preachy, better-than-thou, and, ugh, just irrelevant in a universe that has Jedi, Sith, a burgeoning Separatist movement, or an Empire (People complain about Jar Jar, but Duchess Satine of Mandalore from the CW is the most horrible character in the SW galaxy imo. And her voice acting/script is abominable). However, I really like the way they've played with the Mandalorian mythos. Fifteen mill per half-an-hour episode is insane but it's worth it for that nostalgia!
@Phyrebrat thanks for the long and thoughtful post. I just finished watching all 9 of the "Star Wars" triple trilogy in timeline order and came away much more impressed with the "prequels" than I had been in the past. I am coming around to your way of thinking about Jar Jar as well. I am beginning to see him as someone who is out of his depth in the events sweeping up his home world, but he does the best he can. In that I am probably a lot like him.
You are right! But in some sense you get what you pay for. These episodes have all the quality of a theater quality presentation. You could splice them all together and with some editing have a high end production. (Could that be in the plans?) ---- But I can't see this going on beyond season 2. Not because of the lack of story (although that has to be considered) but it's not going to be an obviously workable economic model. (Sigh!)
I finally saw The Rise of Skywalker last night. Not a great film, by any means. Cliché, sentimentalist and trite. I really enjoyed it and it made me want to rewatch the sequels again. Can't wait for the Blu-Ray.
Of course, as a Millennium Falcon collector, it was great to see her in excellent performance.
I thought that Leia, Han and Luke got a good send off in the final chapter. Likewise, John Williams gave a great final Star Wars performance with another excellent soundtrack. Great to hear musical cue's from the original soundtrack. Ben Solo's redemption was also nicely done and Ian MacDiamid really enjoyed hamming it up as Palpatine.
I have to confess that I still don't understand Rey and Kylo's connection through the force and how they're able to physically interact with each other, let alone hand each other a lightsabre through the force.
I don't like that Lucas's original story arc of Vader bringing "balance to the force" was completely ignored in favour of Palpatine's rebirth through the "I am every Sith" story. Silly.
How can the New Order's fleet not be able to leave the planet's atmosphere unless they were guided by a beacon? Ridiculous.
Lots of nods to The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi stuff here.
Watched it last night - having managed to completely avoid knowing anything about the film...not easy these days.
And I enjoyed it - some great action sequences and special effects and the pace was good.
Wasn't too keen on the retconning, had some serious doubts about how that felt of ships could have been built (but, OK, I'll let that slide). Was also dubious about Rey's increased ability coming so quickly, but she supposed to be strong in the force so just about willing to let it slide. Ben's redemption was well done.
Did not like how Palpatine was killed with Rey becoming the Empress by killing him...but perhaps that was because she reflected his own power back at him - rather than killing him "herself"?
So, on the whole, I liked it - was better than any of the prequels.
By the way, did I miss something or was Harrison Ford not credited?
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