LogFAQs > #967221851

colliding posted...

TFA is, by design, a nostalgia-bait rehash meant to wipe the taste of the PT out of people's mouths. It accomplishes this well enough, but many of the scenes feel inconsequential as a result. Visually and aurally, it is fantastic and super fun, but it's paper thin and all set up.

TLJ is the best of the ST but the casino planet does not work and neither Finn nor Poe have interesting or satisfying character arcs.

ROS really has nothing going for it. TLJ deserves some of the "blame" for not setting it up well and them switching to JJ from Trevorrow doesn't help either. All SW movies are to some degree childish and nonsensical, but this film constantly jumps the shark in new and unfun ways.

This is a pretty good summation. TFA is good for what it's going for, and Rey is at her best in that one, and it's just good, clean fun like Star Wars should be. It just is nothing special and doesn't do anything that the original trilogy didn't already.

TLJ took a risk and people hated it - and that's in part because it didn't fully pay dividends in all the ways that TFA had set up. The other part was that fans were toxic and hated on Rose for no reason, didn't like that the storytelling took a new approach, and... were just looking to be critical. I admire what Rian Johnson did here because he had the balls to try to make the ST into its own thing. AND it's fun to watch to boot, because... that's what really matters. Star Wars isn't about the story as much as it is the jolly swashbuckling with light sabers, the space battles, etc. This found a happy medium and I loved it for that.

ROS should've been a spectacle but Disney gave Abrams a hard deadline and the end result was a rushed, sloppy film that had too many parts that made little sense (i.e. the Sith obliterating Kijimi for no reason, and Zori somehow escaping with the funny little guy despite). Abrams has said that they should've given him another 3-4 months because he'd have produced a different film entirely with the footage he had.

Poe is a fine example of wasted potential. He was a pretty "whatever" character. Rey and Kylo Ben were both great additions but all the other new characters either failed to deliver upon their potential (Poe), felt awkward in the payoff (Finn), got purpled (Rose), or were introduced too late to matter (Zori). Who am I forgetting?