I wouldn’t go so far as saying that I liked The Last Jedi, but I do think that it’s far and away the best of the sequels and a ton of the common criticisms are bullshit. I don’t think I’ve ever had to defend a movie that I didn’t really care for as much as this one.
Now Rise of Skywalker? That one is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, and when weighted by the talent and budget that went into it I think an argument can be made for the worst of modern cinema. It’s the only star wars movie I’ll never watch again. I could feel the lazy pettiness from the theater chair. Like at least the other franchise-disrespecting blockbuster matrix resurrections was self aware, Rise of Skywalker was earnestly weightless and cheap
The sequels were all fanfiction. But they’re all distinct kinds of fanfiction.
7 is written like the characters are also fans of the movies: Finn is shocked by hologram technology he’d see every day, people parrot lines that were once clever, the camera lingers on a broken astromech droid, et very cetera. The returning characters are living legends famed for their transformative effect on the whole galaxy but also haven’t changed one iota since we last saw them.
8 is an anarchist deconstruction of Star Wars that somehow got turned into an actual Star Wars movie: a rebel soldier becomes disillusioned after her sister died for nothing, the good guy and bad guy agree the current conflict is a pointless sham, and details throughout scream that no mere organization could ever own the magic that belongs to all living beings. And then a surprise fourth act goes “whoops nevermind.”
9 is a toddler telling a story: “and then… and then… but no he didn’t?.. and then…” It’s like a child learned about fakeout deaths yesterday and expects it to be equally shocking every single time. Then the big battle needed to involve every toy in the toybox, especially the horses, because spaceships can’t look up. At least in the end we got the Rey x Kylo connection it all built toward, and their kids are gonna be the most powerful nevermind.
I wouldn’t go so far as saying that I liked The Last Jedi, but I do think that it’s far and away the best of the sequels and a ton of the common criticisms are bullshit. I don’t think I’ve ever had to defend a movie that I didn’t really care for as much as this one.
Now Rise of Skywalker? That one is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, and when weighted by the talent and budget that went into it I think an argument can be made for the worst of modern cinema. It’s the only star wars movie I’ll never watch again. I could feel the lazy pettiness from the theater chair. Like at least the other franchise-disrespecting blockbuster matrix resurrections was self aware, Rise of Skywalker was earnestly weightless and cheap
The sequels were all fanfiction. But they’re all distinct kinds of fanfiction.
7 is written like the characters are also fans of the movies: Finn is shocked by hologram technology he’d see every day, people parrot lines that were once clever, the camera lingers on a broken astromech droid, et very cetera. The returning characters are living legends famed for their transformative effect on the whole galaxy but also haven’t changed one iota since we last saw them.
8 is an anarchist deconstruction of Star Wars that somehow got turned into an actual Star Wars movie: a rebel soldier becomes disillusioned after her sister died for nothing, the good guy and bad guy agree the current conflict is a pointless sham, and details throughout scream that no mere organization could ever own the magic that belongs to all living beings. And then a surprise fourth act goes “whoops nevermind.”
9 is a toddler telling a story: “and then… and then… but no he didn’t?.. and then…” It’s like a child learned about fakeout deaths yesterday and expects it to be equally shocking every single time. Then the big battle needed to involve every toy in the toybox, especially the horses, because spaceships can’t look up. At least in the end we got the Rey x Kylo connection it all built toward, and their kids are gonna be the most powerful nevermind.