It was the best of its trilogy and most criticism is complete nonsense, but it still wasn’t a great movie. An anti-war deconstruction of Star Wars got made into an actual Star Wars. And that was probably fantastic at one point, but the edit we got was soured by obvious corporate meddling - like the ‘whoops, nevermind’ ending.
Three simple things would’ve saved it.
One, end the Rey / Kylo story immediately after their fight together. ‘Join me.’ Tense silence. No more Rey until the next movie.
Two, have some shellshocked nobody find the crystal fox things and save the good guys. She doesn’t need lines. She doesn’t need a name. The Force is in all living things. Anyone can be a hero.
Three, don’t hand the finale back to JJ fucking Abrams.
It’s a plot faucet. From an old discussion elsewhere:
Spreading 9 across two movies could not have helped. Sudden introduction was not the problem with a rehash of ROTJ and AOTC - quadrupling down on the Death Star lasers while also pulling a secret army out of thin air. Multiple fake-out deaths would be so much worse if they kept happening in two films. Giving people time to think about the macguffin chase could only make it sillier. They need a map in a thing from a guy who’s dead but has a knife matching ruins so it’s a map to the thing and they don’t even get it. But somehow they manage to fly through a rehash of the clouds from Solo, to where a zillion ships rely on one radio tower, and their brilliant plan for a wild-west shootout atop a spaceship - with horses! - completely fails until two zillion ships fly in to help. They just fly in. Through the secret cloud maze. Which is so un-navigable that it’s the only thing keeping the bad guys in, because spaceships can’t look up.
I heavily disagree, that movie disrespected the entire cast if you ask me. There was not a single story thread in TLJ that I found to be even slightly well thought out. Plenty of good ideas but the executions were horribly botched.
I cannot say anything abput Rise of Skywalker since I haven’t watched it but I don’t think tjat matters for the following. Imo TLJ was not the best movie out of the three, if we look at them in isolation, I could maybe see that being the case. But it isn’t a movie in isolation. It’s a sequel to a movie that already ate up most of the goodwill around. At least personally I was willing to cut TFA a lot of slack since it was the first movie in a good while for the Star Wars Universe. I was not willing to do so for TLJ sonce it was the second movie and they really should have had some idea of what the plan was by then. TFA probably screws over the trilogy harder than TLJ with its plot but TLJ doesn’t get the “Has to restart movie franchise” card that TFA got.
It was the best of its trilogy and most criticism is complete nonsense, but it still wasn’t a great movie. An anti-war deconstruction of Star Wars got made into an actual Star Wars. And that was probably fantastic at one point, but the edit we got was soured by obvious corporate meddling - like the ‘whoops, nevermind’ ending.
Three simple things would’ve saved it.
One, end the Rey / Kylo story immediately after their fight together. ‘Join me.’ Tense silence. No more Rey until the next movie.
Two, have some shellshocked nobody find the crystal fox things and save the good guys. She doesn’t need lines. She doesn’t need a name. The Force is in all living things. Anyone can be a hero.
Three, don’t hand the finale back to JJ fucking Abrams.
rise of skywalker fucked up everything. they tried to appease the fans and it failed big time
It’s a plot faucet. From an old discussion elsewhere:
I heavily disagree, that movie disrespected the entire cast if you ask me. There was not a single story thread in TLJ that I found to be even slightly well thought out. Plenty of good ideas but the executions were horribly botched.
I cannot say anything abput Rise of Skywalker since I haven’t watched it but I don’t think tjat matters for the following. Imo TLJ was not the best movie out of the three, if we look at them in isolation, I could maybe see that being the case. But it isn’t a movie in isolation. It’s a sequel to a movie that already ate up most of the goodwill around. At least personally I was willing to cut TFA a lot of slack since it was the first movie in a good while for the Star Wars Universe. I was not willing to do so for TLJ sonce it was the second movie and they really should have had some idea of what the plan was by then. TFA probably screws over the trilogy harder than TLJ with its plot but TLJ doesn’t get the “Has to restart movie franchise” card that TFA got.