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?
AFAIK, there’s only three Star Wars films. Episode IV, V and VI.
The sequels suck but Andor is a legit masterpiece.
Yes
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.
Between all the weird choices, misandry, and killing off childhood heroes, the Disney sequel trilogy felt more like fan fiction than actual Star Wars.
The Force Awakens I can mostly forgive. It being a revival of the series and all. However, the stakes didn’t feel that high even though they tried to one-up the Death Star.
The Last Jedi. The hell were they smoking? While it had its awesome moments (mostly Luke Skywalker on Crait), I felt ultimately betrayed. I will, however, defend to the death the scene where Leah floats back in the ship to get rescued. Unlike Rey, her power actually made sense.
As for The Rise of Skywalker. Well. What a mess. The story didn’t feel at all impactful and I didn’t feel invested in their issues. Palpatine out of nowhere was such a dumb idea. I can still watch the Death Star trench run after many watches and still feel the high stakes. But I never felt that when yet again, they try to one-up the Death Star.
Also, it’s going to forever drive me crazy that we now have episodes I-IX, but most likey won’t have a X.
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.
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.
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.
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
I’m gonna die on the hill that rogue one was unnecessary.
Its a cool ass movie, but the “everything must have detailed in universe lore”-culture annoys me so much. Especially regarding a franchise that started as metaphoric of a story as star wars.
Like I don’t need in-universe guides to enjoy old kung fu hero movies with floaty wallruns and rooftop jumps. Its all metaphor and stylistic choice.
Why do I need midichlorians and shoehorned blueprint fudging? Plus the ending was so predictable, i was disappointed when realising they really didn’t come up with a better out than what i guessed before sitting down in the theater.
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.
Only if you want to get filled in on how bad they were. Otherwise, nah. Just watch the critics and you’ll get the gist of it.
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.)
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!
No.
They are all terrible movies, with droid-like performances, plot holes the size of a Sarlacc pit and effects and fight choreographies as pointless as the little pistons on the exterior of a surrogate hand.
Mark Hamill should be ashamed of agreeing to participate in them, even more to compensate the fact that apparently Ford cannot help himself from doing it here and in the Indy movies.
I lost all interest in the entire series when they were chasing the fleet and shooting lasers in an arch…to combat wind resistance in space, I guess. Oh man, I laughed (unintentionally) when I saw that. I almost walked out of the theater.
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
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.
Disagree, the prequels aren’t worth watching.
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
They hated him because he spoke the truth
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.
Hayden Christensen had a far better idea that would lead to the fall of Skywalker without changing much of the films.
What idea?
This.
Also, they’re objectively bad films. If Phantom Menace wasn’t a Star Wars film then the rest wouldn’t have been made.
They were fun to watch but I don’t take anything from Disney as canon except for rogue one and andor
I don’t think they’re as groundbreaking as the original trilogy (my preferred trilogy) but they’re still watchable. Sometimes you gotta take things with a pinch of salt, even your favorite movie franchise.
I can rewatch the prequels. But the sequels are to me a single time popcorn movie.
I liked the starkiller base scene.
