The original and prequel trilogies are worthwhile viewing. The sequel trilogy, however, presents a different case. While George Lucas provided story treatments during the 2012 sale, these were ultimately discarded. The sequels also marked the end of the Expanded Universe, removed from canon to allow creative freedom for filmmakers. Given that the stories deviate significantly from Lucas’s original vision, is there really a compelling reason to watch them?
Force Awakens: I can’t recommend it but if it were already on I wouldn’t turn it off. Pretty much just repeatedly yelling “Hey, remember when you liked Star Wars? This is kinda like that!” But it’s inoffensive as nostalgia bait goes, a fairly well-made toy commercial.
Last Jedi: It has themes and character development and adds depth to the setting. Uniquely among the trilogy, it is an actual movie made by actual adults. There are some pacing issues but it’s pretty solid on balance. Not amazing or anything but I’d say it’s worth the average Star Wars fan’s time.
Rise of Skywalker: People were very upset that Last Jedi had been an actual movie, so this reversed course on that decision and HARD. There is literally nothing there at all behind the jingling of its keys in your face and it jingles them very aggressively.
If you ignore the social stigma about them about how many ways people inject their social philosophies and other mind junk into the fabric of the films. As well as not look to into things, then it’s just as Star Wars as they come except Disney-fied.
The sequels suck.
The Mandalorian, Rogue One, Andor, Ahsoka, The Clone Wars The Bad Batch, all range from great to decent. Hell, even the Boba Fett and Obi Wan series were okay.
I would say:
The Force Awakens: Not bad, basically a knock-off of A New Hope story-wise but it feels like Star Wars and is pretty harmless fun.
Rogue One: Probably the best of the Disney Star Wars movies IMO, although it does have a couple of dodgy “bringing back an old actor as CGI” scenes.
The Last Jedi: Lots of people hate this one, I’m slightly more forgiving. I think it tried to do something a bit weird and different, and it didn’t really work. But I do appreciate the effort of not just playing it safe.
Solo: A Star Wars Story: Another one that seems to get a lot of heat, but I thought it was pretty inoffensive. Although my brain did kind of delete most of it as soon as it was over lol.
The Rise of Skywalker: Legitimately one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I can’t even call it a bad movie, because it’s essentially just a random series of Star Wars-themed sounds and images that batter you for what feels to be about a year and a half before it mercifully ends, taking with it any good will towards the franchise you might have had left.
the force awakens
My only issue with TFA isn’t the movie itself. It’s just that it sets up so much good stuff that the rest of the trilogy just doesn’t do fuck all with. There are some really cool story points, some incredible characters, and amazing acting. Then just garbage through the next two.
Rouge One
Yeah this is easily the best star wars movies IMO. It’s hectic, and all over the place, and there’s a ton of characters, then it just all clicks together in the last little bit of the movie. No spoilers or anything but you absolutely need to watch this. I genuinely can’t over recommend this enough, it’s a golden movie. Then go watch Andor, its easily the best Star wars TV and there are a couple scenes id nominate for top 10 TV scenes of all time. It’s the prequel to Rouge One and goes over Cassian Andor (main character in Rouge One) story.
Solo
I actually really enjoyed Solo. Its not super relevant to the greater star wars saga, and its not the most ground breaking piece of cinema ever. But its fun and enjoyable, just go into it with the idea that its “filler content” for the rest of them.
TL:DR I mostly agree with you
Ive been tempted to watch it all chronologically
For sure. I would say that for me, Rogue One didn’t live up to the hype that it has until that final 20 minutes. The final 20 minutes made it all worth it.
I kind of wish that JJ Abrams did all three films. TLJ really threw away a lot of what was set up in TFA. TROS is basically unforgivable regardless though.
Agree with all that.
Maybe bit more negative on both Last Jedi and the Solo movie. I don’t even remember if I actually watched the whole Solo movie because it was so forgettable.
Rise of the Skywalker, any bad review I read heavily underestimated how terrible of a Star Wars movie it is. Like, really bad. I held of watching it for many years, had the lowest of low expectations. And it still hit me how bad it was.
Regarding The Last Jedi - I agree that it tried something different, and that wasn’t a bad approach. What killed it for me however was the amount of slapstick and Marvel-esque humor. Star Wars always felt like mostly serious movies - sure, there was always goofy stuff like the trash chute monster or Jar Jar, but all in all they had the air of movies that take themselves seriously (probably due to the space opera nature).
TLJ was the first movie where I didn’t feel any of that. The first scene basically took a shit on a beloved character by way of cheap slapstick, and that never stopped.
Boy, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Ah yes, thank you for your detailed and useful critique of my comment. Let me respond in kind:
No u!
TLJ is legitimately one of the best Star Wars movies, and Luke’s characterization in it, right down to rejecting the lightsaber, is more in-line with his characterization in the OT than anything else he’s ever been in, including everything in Legends and the new expanded universe canon.
You might notice that I agree with you regarding Luke? I didn’t criticize those aspects of the movie.
You said the first scene, by which I assume you’re referencing when Rey hands him the lightsaber and he tosses it away, “basically took a shit on a beloved character by way of cheap slapstick,” which I thoroughly disagree with. I think him rejecting the lightsaber is perfectly in character with what we saw in the OT and the 30 years of character development since.
My guy, I literally say that my issue is the slapstick way he rejects the saber. I don’t have an issue with him rejecting it, I have an issue with him throwing it away for a cheap laugh.
He could have laid it down, he could have given it back to Rey - anything is better than him carelessly throwing it over his shoulder.
There’s nothing magic about Lucas’s vision. But JJ Abrams vision is exclusively “bigger is better”. Death Star destroys planets? Well, this Death Star IS a planet. And it kills multiple planets, and it’s called Starkiller, and it shoots through hyperspace.
Star Destroyer? Let’s make each one a Death Star. With a big gun. And you can ride horses on the hull.
Stormtroopers? They fly now.
(Godzilla? Uhh… My monster is just as big as Godzilla, and it’s only a baby.)
The sequels suck but Andor is a legit masterpiece.
The animated stuff like clone wars and rebels make the filoniverse come alive. Early mandalorian was great, andor was as well. So skip the movies and enjoy good star wars stuff instead.
Bad Batch got so close to delving into Palpatines force clone experiments, and went some dark places.
Yeah I still enjoyed it overall
Yes
I’d argue you should watch A New Hope because it was groundbreaking at the time, Empire Strikes Back because it’s amazing by any standard, and Return of the Jedi only if you crave resolution. Then watch Rogue One because it’s borderline better than Empire Strikes Back.
There’s only 2 good Star Wars movies that are good by the standards of modern cinema.
I watched all of the trilogy of trilogies with my dad in theaters, so they will always have a special place in my heart. I enjoyed all of them for that reason, but I look at the sequels as good entertainment for the afternoon, but I’m not interested in seeing them again. I also don’t intend to watch any of the shows. I’m sure they are good, or at least momentarily entertaining, but I’m not so interested/invested in the franchise anymore. I’ve moved on.
They were fun to watch but I don’t take anything from Disney as canon except for rogue one and andor
I recommend Rogue One, the Clone Wars, and Bad Batch
I would add Rebels. First season is a liiiiittle more kid friendly and toned down than it really needed to be, the rest of it is fantastic and finished the story of Darth Maul.
If you hadn’t heard Maul and Ventress are getting their own show. She has hair!
Disagree, the prequels aren’t worth watching.
Reasons? Despite their flaws, the prequels remain connected to Lucas’s original vision, making them a worthwhile watch for understanding the Republic’s fall and Anakin’s transformation.
The reason I’ve seen is that Lucas’s flaws were on display in the prequels since he had the kind of power to make decisions with little pushback, while production of the original trilogy shows that Lucas worked best with people around him to help refiine his vision.
Outside of Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor, the acting is bland and sterile. Hayden Christensen had a far better idea that would lead to the fall of Skywalker without changing much of the films. Major sequences are far busier than anything which came before, making the sequences pretty but less resonant and hard to follow. The four separate storylines in the climax of I was too much, especially as most people were there for the best lightsaber duel ever. The camera work for talking scenes is shockingly basic for someone as talented as Lucas was with film.
I like the prequels well enough, but I can see why some don’t like them.
This.
Also, they’re objectively bad films. If Phantom Menace wasn’t a Star Wars film then the rest wouldn’t have been made.
Hayden Christensen had a far better idea that would lead to the fall of Skywalker without changing much of the films.
What idea?
There’s problems with them, especially with dialogue and the existence of Jar Jar. But they were also incredibly prescient for the modern political climate. I think it’s an important story about how a scared and lonely child raised by people who told him to suppress and ignore his emotions can turn into a fascist while also telling the story of how a manufactured political crisis can get a populace to support the transition from a liberal representative democracy to a fascist dictatorship.
But they were also incredibly prescient for the modern political climate.
Maybe for people who know nothing about real history… It wasn’t prescient, it was based on events that had already happened in real life. Like I’m glad that those shitty movies were able to teach some kids about fascism, but there was nothing groundbreaking about what you just described.
Get over yourself. You’re not better or smarter than everyone else. Yes, the PT both mirrored and predicted IRL events. That’s what good social commentary does. And, yes, you could learn the lessons taught in those movies through other media or history, but the same could be said about tons of stuff. You could say literally the exact same thing about Andor, which is deservedly getting a lot of praise right now.
Every generation needs fiction that speaks to them and meets them where they’re at. Maybe you could learn the same things taught in the PT by watching something else or reading about history. But that’s not as accessible and engaging to everyone, especially the children who the PT was geared towards. Get off your high horse and recognize that not everything needs to be perfect or groundbreaking to have a genuinely important contribution to society and culture.
OK, but my point is that it wasn’t “prescient”. I think it’s fucking silly to pretend that The Phantom Menace is some kind of prophetic piece of media. Like come on dude.
The prequels are bad because it highlights Lucas’s failures as a director and dialogue writer.
The prequels are memorable because they highlight Lucas’s talents as a producer and whatever equivalent to show runner that movie franchises have.
The prequels are rough and coarse and they get everywhere
Agreed. The prequels have flawed execution, but imo a good base. It’s the reverse with the sequels that are mostly style over substance, chasing some pretty shots regardless whether it makes for a good movie. And I take the former over the latter any day. Especially if we remember that Lucas asked other directors to make them.
They hated him because he spoke the truth
See, here’s how it is-
The movies suck ass. BUT the story still continues. And it continues in a way that I personally am liking so far. The new Ahsoka show, the mandalorian, etc. have worked out pretty fine. So I you want to be invested in the franchise (I would recommend this), then try watching the sequels.
The prequels for example imo sucked-ish too. It’s the surrounding story and shows that made them a lot cooler (the clone wars especially).
BUT the story still continues. And it continues in a way that I personally am liking so far. The new Ahsoka show, the mandalorian, etc. have worked out pretty fine.
Biggest problem is that they butchered Luke character beyond repair in TLJ. Luke is destiny to fail to understand why he won against the emperor and he can’t understand that the message of no attachments from the prequel era jedi is totally wrong and bullshit. In the Expanded Universe that Disney killed Luke succeed on that and the new jedis understand the force better, in the Disney canon the character that probably will do that is Rey. There’s absolute nothing that Filoni and the others creators can do to fix this.
AFAIK, there’s only three Star Wars films. Episode IV, V and VI.
Rogue One is good.
