The irony of what happened with Rise of Skywalker should be a lesson to studios. Ultimately, they listened to the ‘fans’. You know, that rabid section of fandom that didn’t shut up for a straight year as they didn’t get what they wanted. That still three years in tweet abuse directly at Rian Johnson.
Whilst the rest of us, and fans who were genuinely excited to see where the third one would go, just got tired of all the endless negativity. Itself fuelled by the media only to happy to write articles driven by a trend on social networking.
I digress....they listened to the ‘fans’ and then reworked what they had so part three gave them what they thought they wanted. At the expense of lots of it feeling anything like a natural carry-on and conclusion to what had happened in Last Jedi.
There was no reason why Abrams and co couldn’t have taken what Johnson did and made a satisfying conclusion for all those characters. Instead it became a greatest hits vs the story as it was left; and the greatest hits won out. Disney were frightened of further flaming the flamed.
It’s credit to the performances, and those first two movies, that Rey and Ren’s arcs did feel whole in the end. Even as they were muddled into this battle with the emperor’s will, instead of with each other - I still think they came out just fine. This setup of having the emperor arrive out of nowhere, with a macguffin plot to find the thing that finds him just meant Finn, Poe and disgracefully Rose, all got sidelined. For a saga all about balance, Skywalker is irrefutably lop-sided. Weighted towards trying to be everything to a section of fandom, rather than concluding a story that really works for two movies.
Anyways, I still think it’s a rocket-fuelled slice of pop that works well enough. It has highs other movies dream of. Yet it’s compromised from the get-go by being a response to the ‘criticism’ of Jedi, whilst trying to tie up where that movie left off.
Lucas wouldn’t have listened to anybody. Like you said, at least his choices were consistent. Every single film in the sequel trilogy I think is better than the prequels. Yet as a whole I kind of can’t accept the story told. Where as Lucas’s prequel story works great and really adds to the saga.
Oh well. It’s Star Wars. I don’t feel as passionate about debating it as I once did as social media and the media itself have soured it irreversibly in some ways. I’ll still get joy from talking with real fans at conventions etc, but online fandom? Forget it.
Let’s just hope the future of the franchise is completely separated from the Skywalkers like they’re promising. It’s really not worth the hassle even going there - which Disney have surely realised by now.
There was no saving SW from the get go. Without a concrete plan in place it was primed for failure which to me is baffling when we are talking about the most influential franchise in Hollywood history, you would think Disney would want to cover their bets with a solid treatment...? Strangely enough that did not happen. I truly commend John Boyega for speaking out and calling Disney out on their BS.
Yeah, between Pattinson and The Rock, I think this week's been another unfortunate wakeup call as to how far we are from kicking this shit. At this point, if you're putting your life on the line to hit a movie theater that isn't a drive in, it's (literally) your funeral.
And I finally got to see RISE OF SKYWALKER a few months back on Vudu, although I'll confess I did have the RiffTrax commentary going with it. You aren't kidding, what an unfortunate anticlimax that movie is. All the opportunities that they had to shut down the trolls and follow on the potential of LAST JEDI, and they took none of them. I felt awful for how Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran got jack and shit to do--even worse than Han in JEDI, if you ask me--and I think Boyega was right to say what he said. Disney needs to go one step beyond just having diverse characters in the universe and actually make them fully fleshed characters worth rooting for. The hate for Kennedy is definitely tinged with sexism though.
Something else about the new era of Star Wars is that this is the most amount of Star Wars produced over the shortest period of time. Over five years we’ve had five films, Rebels, Resistance, Clone Wars finale, The Mandalorian, Galaxy’s Edge, animated shorts, novels, YA books, the Marvel comics, the IDW comics, and anything else that’s in preproduction for release in the next few years. Star Wars has never been running at that level, ever. It’s like Disney bought a classic car, and decided to drive it Cannonball Run style cross country until the tires wore out. I’m impressed by the output and I’m mostly happy with the product, but not everything needs to be run like the MCU. I was glad to hear KK say that they were going to gear down for a bit. Maybe, aside from having a singular vision, Star Wars works best when it’s spread out.
The irony of what happened with Rise of Skywalker should be a lesson to studios. Ultimately, they listened to the ‘fans’. You know, that rabid section of fandom that didn’t shut up for a straight year as they didn’t get what they wanted. That still three years in tweet abuse directly at Rian Johnson.
Whilst the rest of us, and fans who were genuinely excited to see where the third one would go, just got tired of all the endless negativity. Itself fuelled by the media only to happy to write articles driven by a trend on social networking.
I digress....they listened to the ‘fans’ and then reworked what they had so part three gave them what they thought they wanted. At the expense of lots of it feeling anything like a natural carry-on and conclusion to what had happened in Last Jedi.
There was no reason why Abrams and co couldn’t have taken what Johnson did and made a satisfying conclusion for all those characters. Instead it became a greatest hits vs the story as it was left; and the greatest hits won out. Disney were frightened of further flaming the flamed.
It’s credit to the performances, and those first two movies, that Rey and Ren’s arcs did feel whole in the end. Even as they were muddled into this battle with the emperor’s will, instead of with each other - I still think they came out just fine. This setup of having the emperor arrive out of nowhere, with a macguffin plot to find the thing that finds him just meant Finn, Poe and disgracefully Rose, all got sidelined. For a saga all about balance, Skywalker is irrefutably lop-sided. Weighted towards trying to be everything to a section of fandom, rather than concluding a story that really works for two movies.
Anyways, I still think it’s a rocket-fuelled slice of pop that works well enough. It has highs other movies dream of. Yet it’s compromised from the get-go by being a response to the ‘criticism’ of Jedi, whilst trying to tie up where that movie left off.
Lucas wouldn’t have listened to anybody. Like you said, at least his choices were consistent. Every single film in the sequel trilogy I think is better than the prequels. Yet as a whole I kind of can’t accept the story told. Where as Lucas’s prequel story works great and really adds to the saga.
Oh well. It’s Star Wars. I don’t feel as passionate about debating it as I once did as social media and the media itself have soured it irreversibly in some ways. I’ll still get joy from talking with real fans at conventions etc, but online fandom? Forget it.
Let’s just hope the future of the franchise is completely separated from the Skywalkers like they’re promising. It’s really not worth the hassle even going there - which Disney have surely realised by now.
There was no saving SW from the get go. Without a concrete plan in place it was primed for failure which to me is baffling when we are talking about the most influential franchise in Hollywood history, you would think Disney would want to cover their bets with a solid treatment...? Strangely enough that did not happen. I truly commend John Boyega for speaking out and calling Disney out on their BS.
Yeah, between Pattinson and The Rock, I think this week's been another unfortunate wakeup call as to how far we are from kicking this shit. At this point, if you're putting your life on the line to hit a movie theater that isn't a drive in, it's (literally) your funeral.
And I finally got to see RISE OF SKYWALKER a few months back on Vudu, although I'll confess I did have the RiffTrax commentary going with it. You aren't kidding, what an unfortunate anticlimax that movie is. All the opportunities that they had to shut down the trolls and follow on the potential of LAST JEDI, and they took none of them. I felt awful for how Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran got jack and shit to do--even worse than Han in JEDI, if you ask me--and I think Boyega was right to say what he said. Disney needs to go one step beyond just having diverse characters in the universe and actually make them fully fleshed characters worth rooting for. The hate for Kennedy is definitely tinged with sexism though.
Something else about the new era of Star Wars is that this is the most amount of Star Wars produced over the shortest period of time. Over five years we’ve had five films, Rebels, Resistance, Clone Wars finale, The Mandalorian, Galaxy’s Edge, animated shorts, novels, YA books, the Marvel comics, the IDW comics, and anything else that’s in preproduction for release in the next few years. Star Wars has never been running at that level, ever. It’s like Disney bought a classic car, and decided to drive it Cannonball Run style cross country until the tires wore out. I’m impressed by the output and I’m mostly happy with the product, but not everything needs to be run like the MCU. I was glad to hear KK say that they were going to gear down for a bit. Maybe, aside from having a singular vision, Star Wars works best when it’s spread out.
Mulan: solid B-. Watching a first run movie in my living room for $35? A+++