My only real problem with the sequels is Last Jedi, Rian Johnson needed a plan outside of “subvert expectations!”
There’s nothing wrong with doing a movie where “Okay, now I’m going to do the opposite of what the audience thinks I should do!”, but it really should be your own IP, it’s not an experiment you should run during the middle part of an important trilogy for a franchise so well-renowned that they border on a major world religion.
Force Awakens - A re-telling of A New Hope that brought the franchise “Back to basics” after all the weird shit the PT did (Weird, but not unwelcome)
Rise of Skywalker - Beautiful film, wonderful ending to the story, I just wish Finn did more outside of yell Rey and have his scenes and romance with Poe Dameron cut to appease China.
Last Jedi… feels like a decent film, that belongs in a different trilogy than the other two.
Really there’s not many Star Wars things I actively hate, but the ones I do include Book of Boba Fett
Subverting expectations also needs to serve a purpose. If you have people use a window instead of a door to get in a house, it subverts expectations, but if nothing comes from it then it’s meaningless. Most of TLJ feels like subversions that don’t actually change anything.
Indeed, the only one I liked was funnily enough the one people complained most about… Luke throwing the saber away and being done with the whole Jedi thing. I kinda liked that, he saved the galaxy and became a legendary hero only for it to all go to shit with everyone expecting him to come back and save the day again like he’s Jesus or something, there was never going to be any reason outside of “I don’t want to be found!” that would have been anything other than a contrivance.
The rest ugh… just “Why?” Why make a location as cool of a concept as the casino planet of Canto Bight if nothing is to be done with it. Why introduce the Master Code Breaker if he’s not going to contribute anything or be important in anyway?
The Original Trilogy subverted expectations too, but it did so in a way that served the story and themes well: Yoda being the absolute best example, we think he’s a comic relief muppet just there to be funny, but it turns out he actually is this wise and powerful warrior teaching us a lesson
In Last Jedi, the Master Codebreaker just looks over to our heroes, decides not to help them, and it never referred to again…
There’s never any point to him, there’s no “Heroes aren’t what they’re cracked up to be” statment, nothing, he’s just… there… they find A codebreaker that isn’t the one they were sent for, but he just betrays the group, does some “both sides” shit we’re supposed to think is profound, and ultimately ensures nothing is actually accomplished, making the entirety of Canto Bight pointless filler.
I wanna like Last Jedi, there’s some good stuff. I like the subversion of Kylo Ren being the one to kill Snoke, I like that there was no deeper meaning to Snoke he was just a puppet of Sidious, I like Rey and Ren teaming up to fight the Crimson Guard, I like Rose stopping Finn from sacrificing himself, I like the whole message of “Defending what we love.” being what’s important, I like the stand-off between the First Order and Luke’s Projection, but I don’t like that so much of the movie is wasted on the slowest high speed spaceship chase in history for no other reason than Rian Johnson thinking he’s smarter than he really is.
My only real problem with the sequels is Last Jedi, Rian Johnson needed a plan outside of “subvert expectations!”
There’s nothing wrong with doing a movie where “Okay, now I’m going to do the opposite of what the audience thinks I should do!”, but it really should be your own IP, it’s not an experiment you should run during the middle part of an important trilogy for a franchise so well-renowned that they border on a major world religion.
Force Awakens - A re-telling of A New Hope that brought the franchise “Back to basics” after all the weird shit the PT did (Weird, but not unwelcome)
Rise of Skywalker - Beautiful film, wonderful ending to the story, I just wish Finn did more outside of yell Rey and have his scenes and romance with Poe Dameron cut to appease China.
Last Jedi… feels like a decent film, that belongs in a different trilogy than the other two.
Really there’s not many Star Wars things I actively hate, but the ones I do include Book of Boba Fett
Subverting expectations also needs to serve a purpose. If you have people use a window instead of a door to get in a house, it subverts expectations, but if nothing comes from it then it’s meaningless. Most of TLJ feels like subversions that don’t actually change anything.
Indeed, the only one I liked was funnily enough the one people complained most about… Luke throwing the saber away and being done with the whole Jedi thing. I kinda liked that, he saved the galaxy and became a legendary hero only for it to all go to shit with everyone expecting him to come back and save the day again like he’s Jesus or something, there was never going to be any reason outside of “I don’t want to be found!” that would have been anything other than a contrivance.
The rest ugh… just “Why?” Why make a location as cool of a concept as the casino planet of Canto Bight if nothing is to be done with it. Why introduce the Master Code Breaker if he’s not going to contribute anything or be important in anyway?
The Original Trilogy subverted expectations too, but it did so in a way that served the story and themes well: Yoda being the absolute best example, we think he’s a comic relief muppet just there to be funny, but it turns out he actually is this wise and powerful warrior teaching us a lesson
In Last Jedi, the Master Codebreaker just looks over to our heroes, decides not to help them, and it never referred to again…
There’s never any point to him, there’s no “Heroes aren’t what they’re cracked up to be” statment, nothing, he’s just… there… they find A codebreaker that isn’t the one they were sent for, but he just betrays the group, does some “both sides” shit we’re supposed to think is profound, and ultimately ensures nothing is actually accomplished, making the entirety of Canto Bight pointless filler.
I wanna like Last Jedi, there’s some good stuff. I like the subversion of Kylo Ren being the one to kill Snoke, I like that there was no deeper meaning to Snoke he was just a puppet of Sidious, I like Rey and Ren teaming up to fight the Crimson Guard, I like Rose stopping Finn from sacrificing himself, I like the whole message of “Defending what we love.” being what’s important, I like the stand-off between the First Order and Luke’s Projection, but I don’t like that so much of the movie is wasted on the slowest high speed spaceship chase in history for no other reason than Rian Johnson thinking he’s smarter than he really is.
Kylo killing snoke isn’t actually a subversion though. That’s how sith worked, the apprentice would eventually get strong enough to kill the master.