The Rise of Skywalker. This was a huge turn off
the first time I saw it (back when it came out)… Like a “Return of the Jedi” level turn-off.
But watching it for a second time all these years later and I was much more accepting of it. I think that the stuff that really put me off the first time I saw it, didn’t put me off so much the second time… Probably because it didn’t take me unawares.
My favorite parts are still the same… The beginning (until the lame insertion of the emperor into the story), Finn being a better role (less comedic than the earlier films), and the battle on the skeleton of the death star.
My least favorite things are still uggable. But I survived.
Ah yes, The Last Jedi!
Just about the best Star Wars movie! With a couple of disclaimers… Nothing can really be compared to the movie Star Wars. When it came out, it was maybe just a one off, a single story… A very special, magical story. However, then they made more movies. And, of those, this is the best (another disclaimer, I still think that’s true, but it’s hard to say it because Empire Strikes Back has always been the closest to my heart).
There’s really nothing bad about this. And lots good. The performance-art battle in Snoke’s throne room, Luke’s stand-off on Crait, Leia finally showing some crazy Force power, and Holdo’s Last Stand are probably my all-time favorite scenes in all of Star Wars. And Rose is easily in my half-dozen favorite Star Wars characters period!
Just perfect and wonderful! Sadly, like the last perfect and wonderful one (Empire), they totally screwed the pooch on the follow-up (Return of the Jedi and the ridiculously named Rise of Skywalker are both nigh on unwatchable… Especially from turning Rose from a key character, one who maybe embodies the “rebellion” mind frame more than any other, in LJ, into basically a cardboard cutout in the background of RoS… Terrible…).
The Force Awakens!
Such a great film! After a 32 year hiatus, the Luke Skywalker saga returned with a bang! JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasden made a great return to form with this film. Feeling a bit like a Star Wars redux, with the fun feel of Star Wars and some very similar arcs… Which was a good thing. The saga has been misfired and redirected for so many years that, to get it back on track, it seems to make sense to go back to the origin, with Luke, Leia, and Han, a new empire, a new rebellion, a new death star.
A great and fun story with so many highlights it’s hard to mention. But the most important thing was that Lucas made those unspeakable things from 1999-2005 in a dreadful attempt to destroy and retcon out of existence the real stars wars. Changing it to the story of Darth, wrecking the force, wrecking the Jedi, just being plain stupid. Finally now, Force Awakens to me means the re-awakening of the true story, the return of the force, of the saga of Luke Skywalker, and returns all that was good about the series… And it felt like it was made to dispel those terrible movies of 10-15 years earlier.
Sigh, Return of the Jedi (3.5/5), sigh…
A mixed bag. When this came out, I was 15 and a obsessive Star Wars fan and was really turned off by the entirety of the Jabba’s palace scene and the Ewoks. However, I loved the whole empire and rebel fleet stuff
All these years later, I’m not so put off by the Ewoks, but Lucas’s later mangling made the Jabba scenes far more terrible than they already were. far… Far far more terrible. Unwatchable, even.
In 83 it was easily the lesser of the original trilogy, and it remains so. But, my 11 year old and I are working our way through the whole main series, from Star Wars to the end. So I had to watch it.
I also watched Popcorn (3/5).
This was pretty entertaining. As far as “murder in the theater” movies go, it was certainly no Flesh and Blood Show, but I still liked it.
A bunch of students take over an old theater to have a riotous evening of old corny horror and sci-fi movies… Complete with all the old props: electric-shock chairs, smelly gas, giant fake mosquito. Tons of people show up in masks and costumes. So even if the story wasn’t engaging, the film itself is fun to watch for all the faux-classic old films and the wacky crowd watching them.
Throw in an old story of revenge and some weird and elaborate murders, and you have an entertaining way to spend some time.
The Empire Strikes Back (5/5)!
One thing that hasn’t changed in the last 40 years is that this is probably the best Star Wars movie, though I am still quite taken with The Last Jedi. Aside from its initial goodness, it also has the claim to fame of being the one messed with the least by Lucas later. I can’t even watch the first part of Star Wars SE, and the Jabba stuff in the SE of Jedi is so terrible it’s like an episode of the Muppet show where they decided “Hey! Let’s be really stupid this time and scare everyone away”. Empire fared very well for that.
Funny how in both trilogies, the second movie is the best. I suspect that it’s because, in both trilogies, the first movie was a teaser to get us into it, then the second one is where it gets serious and good, and then they each dropped the ball and made stupid third movies. I think because people complained that the second film was too serious and good.
Star Wars! (10/5, but this version, 4/5
Well, my psyche doesn’t allow me to talk about Star Wars much. So what I’ll say is that I give the actual theatrical version Star Wars ten stars out of five, but then I’ll cut six stars off because I can’t stand George Lucas’s retcon crap:”A new hope” “episode iv”, Darth magically taking over the character of Anakin. Terrible additions of lame CGI creatures and slapstick robots?
Ugh. Acch. Ugh.
But Star Wars? The real deal? The one I saw seven times at the Westgate theater in 1977? I love.
Sadly, my DV-r of the theatrical version (yes, when it was still Star Wars) won’t play in my Bluray player so I’m stuck watching this special edition swill and griping the entire time.
Ah, so I’ve seen Rise of Skywalker now.
I haven’t much discussed the latest batch of Star Wars movies here, and I won’t start now. However, for the sake of completionism, you can find those ramblings here: Star Wars at Mr Wford.
But back to the present, with some spoilers. RoS is the final movie in the Luke Skywalker saga, so it was interesting to see how it ended. As for the movie itself, it’s fine, you know? Like Return of the Jedi, it was 50% cool and 50% corny. There were some parts I liked quite a bit: more first 5 or so minutes, some other scenes that were well shot, seeing Rey’s powers grow and manifest themselves, more evidence that Leia was in fact a force user of Jedi caliber, Zorii Bliss and the scenes on Kijimi.
Scenes I didn’t like? Pretty much anything that reminded me of RoTJ (aside from the Death Stars scenes, I liked those), how overdone the Final Order fleet was, the overdone and mushy ending, the ridiculous looking scenes in the air above Exegol…
In both of the Star Wars trilogies, the three movies followed similar plans… Star Wars/Force Awakens, light-hearted, kinda corny, but serious, adventure movie. Empire Strikes Back/Last Jedi, more serious and glum and, in each series, the best of the three. And RotJ and RoS… Half cool evil empire stuff, half just corny.
For the RotJ connections (some spoilers)… Covers: we see Endor again, we see Death Star 2 again, the Emperor returns, dramatic descendant vs descender battle with lightning bolts, corny and unneeded celebratory scenes at the ending, too many scenes of Jedi ghosts, some worm thing that lives in the ground… Nuff said. However, with a new movie I’ll need to update my list of Star Wars films in order of favorites:
1. Star Wars
2. Empire Strikes back
Pre. Rogue One
6. The Last Jedi
-. Solo
4. The Force Awakens
5. Rise of Skywalker
3. Return of the Jedi
And on it goes. As a sort of follow-up to my earlier Runescape post, here is another! Runescape is definitely a love/hate relationship for me. I’ve been playing for over nine years… To the sad tune of 8,428 hours (yes, that works out to two plus hours a day, every day for nine years).
I originally looked into Runescape in summer 2008, after I’d gone through the Balder’s Gate series about 7 times. I just couldn’t take playing the exact same game all over again, so I looked around for options. I read a bit about Runescape and was intrigued. Aside from some time I had spent playing Q3A against online opponents, I had never played an online game before, and nothing like an electronic RPG with other people. I was interested in the nonlinear aspect, the “never finishing the game” aspect, and the skilling sounded interesting (especially Smithing). So I tried it out. This was right about when the HD version was released, but it turns out that I didn’t have access to that version (I think it was because I was on a Mac? Maybe had to do with membership as well, I don’t recall). Anyway, the non-HD version just looked too lame for me, so I moved on.
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went to see Solo today, really liked it, and am saddened by it’s lackluster box office showing.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Ah, Solo… it took me a bit to come around to the actor playing Han, but really no other issues. They connected the Kessel Run, Lando and the Falcon, Chewie, his name, Jabba, his Imperial career, etc, all in ways that I thought were well done and appropriate.
I like the story and subplots, the other characters were good (especially nice to see Emilia Clarke in something beyond GoT), the action was great fun, the scenery was good, I liked the presentation of the Empire as the backdrop to daily life rather than just intimidating spaceships (police on Corellia, the recruitment office, the troops on the front line). And it’s got Donald Glover who is great as Lando and recently really impressed me with his This Is America video, Danaerys Targaryen, and one of the major androids from Westworld! A fun movie and a welcome addition to the family.
Also, while I take a bit of issue with Rogue One being a “Star Wars Story”, rather than part of the main series, I don’t have the problem with Solo. For this movie, A Star Wars Story seems accurate. One thing that threw me is that, at the end, it does give a nod to the “prequels” but, again, it’s done in such a way that it didn’t bother me. That one segment had more quality to it then the entire “Prequel trilogy”. (Note that there were only two parts of the “Prequels” that I liked at all… Darth Maul and the mirrored ship of Amidala.)