So, I re-watched all of the Disney Star Wars films over the past week(besides Solo, still haven't seen it), having seen them each only once before and having enjoyed all of them to various levels. I mixed them with the OT, watching in this order...
Rogue One
A New Hope
Empire Strikes Back
Return Of The Jedi
The Force Awakens
The Last Jedi
No prequels for now. I really wanted see how the new films would stand up next to the OT. Some thoughts(sorry for the length, I like to write)...
Rogue One
The common complaints about this one are that there the number of locales makes it confusing, that everybody dying doesn't carry the weight it should because we don't know anyone, or that it's simply boring until the second half.
Firstly, on re-watch, when I know the big picture of the film, I didn't find it confusing at all. The Alliance rescues Jyn, takes her to their base, she goes to Jehta to find Saw Gerrera, there she sees her father's hologram as delivered by Bohti, and they escape just as the Death Star destroys the planet, they go to Eadu to find her father, he ends up dying in the attack, they go back to the rebel base, Jyn proposes stealing the Death Star plans, Mon Mothma says no, Jyn and her team go anyway, and that's the rest of the film. I think it's pretty straightforward when you think of it like that.
I've never agreed that the sacrifices don't evoke response just because we don't know the characters or their backstories. I think we know just enough. Jyn is an orphan who was raised as a soldier who wants to vindicate the father that was forced into service for the Empire. Cassian is a morally conflicted Alliance officer who has done bad things in the name of the Alliance. Bodhi is a defected Empire pilot who is following his conscience and trying to redeem himself. Gerrera is an old warrior who has spent his life fighting the Empire and now gives his life for the fight. We don't really need to know more than that imo, because it's not about the individual sacrifices, but the totality of it, the expression of a galaxy full of people willing to not only fight the Empire, but die doing it. It makes the Alliance feel bigger than just Leia/Mothma/Luke/etc.
The first half may seem slow, but I think it needed to be so in order to depict the Empire following the rebels everywhere, destroying one planet after another in the name of destroying dissent. The action in the final battle is bigger than the action on Eadu, which in turn is bigger than the action on Jedha, and this sort gradual build up was necessary so that we could see the Empire becoming more and more violent as the Rebels got closer and closer to dealing a blow. It gives that scene in ANH where Tarkin destroys Alderaan more weight, because now we know Alderaan was just the latest in a series of destroyed planets. It makes the empire seem more ruthless, more evil, and the rebels more brave, more heroic.
Furthermore, when you watch Jyn and Cassian stumble onto the beach, and everyone else who died, and then in ANH at the rebel base you see the Alliance leaders loading the plans up from R2 and talking about how a group of rebels stole those plans, that carries so much more weight for me having seen those rebels fight and die to bring those plans to Alliance in ANH.
I think it's a beautiful film about sacrifice and defying the odds that adds depth to the saga.
The Force Awakens
Yes, it's very derivative, but it had to be. Disney had just spent 4B to purchase Lucasfilm, and when you make that kind of investment, you have to make the money back. Combine this with the general distaste for the Prequels, and Disney really could not afford to make anything challenging or 'new' for their first film. It had to be a palate cleanser. It had to be TBTB saying 'we know what you hated about the prequels, we know what you want to feel when you watch a SW film'. It had to be that way. If they made something like TLJ as their first film out of the gate...it wouldn't have worked.
So it's a very straightforward action film, a non-stop thrill ride that, in response to the Prequels' endless exposition and over-explaining, explained very little about anything.
The film wasn't supposed to do anything other than introduce some new characters and make everyone feel warm and fuzzy about Star Wars again after the Prequels, and it accomplished that in spades.
I don't care how much you dislike the lack of originality, I don't see how, as a Star Wars fan, you can't feel something when Han says, 'Chewie, we're home'.
So I enjoy it a lot, but there just isn't much to say plot-wise. I will say that it's a visual feast. Gorgeous shot after gorgeous shot. The old, decayed war ships in the sands of Jakku, the forest planet where they go to see Maz, the lightsaber duel amongst the snow-covered trees, etc. In contrast to AOTC and ROTS, which featured entirely CG-generated cartoon worlds, here these places all feel real, lived in.
It's highly entertaining and did what it needed to do to jump-start the Disney era of Star Wars.
The Last Jedi
This is really the one that made me want to write here. I'm honestly sort of astonished at the backlash. I honestly can't think of another film that was so critically acclaimed(91% on RT), and yet so hated by a large faction of fans. Even a lot of people here weren't fans. IIRC, I think Travis and Laz were the only ones who really liked it. Maybe Cori too.
I don't really understand who those fans wanted here. For Luke to be flying around with his lightsaber slicing imperial troopers? For Luke to fight Kylo(I mean for real without force projection)?
I'm not sure that would've even been in keeping with the character established in the OT. Luke only fought in self-defense. He didn't even want to fight Vader in ROTJ, so why would he want to fight Kylo? Yes, he had a moment of weakness when he wanted to kill Kylo, but he didn't actually do it, and you could understand why Luke seeing something reminded him of Vader and the Empire he had defeated, and feeling like he couldn't stop it, would make him feel afraid and/or defeated and/or like he had to kill it in the moment. Furthermore, the shame of that moment is certainly part of the reason he's exiled himself and become so deflated.
Luke had already changed from ANH to ROTJ - in the former he was this wide-eyed kid who wanted to see the world, in the latter he's more self-assured, more patient, more mature. It only stands to reason that he, like anyone, would continue to evolve as the years went on. I think it was an interesting choice to have him be so cynical and jaded, and I think it's a totally believable arc.
In ANH, one of the most famous shots is of Luke standing outside his hut watching the binary sunset. It's such an effective shot because it's every kid who ever lived in a small town and longed to get the hell out and see the world. But sometimes, that kid gets out his small town, sees the world, and years later, realizes it wasn't all it was cracked up to be, he finds that the world disappointed him, and the wonder and excitement he had when he first got out of his town is replaced by cynicism and weariness and even heartbreak. That's where we find Luke in TLJ. I think it is a totally believable arc. And when he makes his big final sacrifice at the end, that is this older, weary man finding hope again. And the last thing we see is that same binary sunset. The symbolism is affecting. It turns out that when Luke was looking at that sunset wistfully in ANH, all he really wanted was to get out and do something great. And when he dies in front of that sunset in TLJ, he has gotten out and done something great, instead of dying a defeated hermit, and he has refound at least a piece of the hope he had as a kid. I think it's Hamil's best performance of the saga.
People were upset that Luke died at all, and that Han died before him, but were you expecting Disney to build a franchise around a trio of stars in their 60s and 70s? There would be nowhere for the saga to go. And anyway, I think there is a worthwhile overarching lesson in these deaths, which is all about mortality, that no one lives forever, but that the fight is never over, so someone new must always be vigilant and keep fighting. To not be vigilant and stop fighting is to be complacent, and to be complacent is to open the door for evil to come back in, which is what's happened here - the New Republic became complacent and the door was opened for the New Order to grow and attempt to take power, and Luke and Han perished as a result of that complacency. That's one of the morals of the film.
As for the main chase plot - I know some people think it's stupid, but I think given the starting point of the film, it was the logical place to go. The decision was made to have TLJ start immediately after TFA so that we could see Rey meeting Luke. Maybe you disagree with that decision, but it was made. So if we're going to see Rey and Luke pick up right where they left off, then everyone else has to as well. If you're the First Order, and the rebels have just destroyed your Starkiller Base, do you just throw your arms up and go 'well, that's it, we're defeated'? No. You probably go after the rebels who just dealt you a blow. So from this standpoint, it makes sense that a chase would ensue.
I also know that some don't like the decisions that were made during the chase, but I think the point being made was that real heroes don't do things for glory, and Poe was to some extent looking for glory, whereas Holdo's ultimate sacrifice was not for glory, but simply so everyone else could get away and have a chance. The moral is 'it's not about you'. This was echoed when Luke said to Rey "And this is the lesson. That Force does not belong to the Jedi. To say that if the Jedi die, the light dies, is vanity. Can you feel that?". Again, it's not about you. True greatness is when you give yourself to something greater than yourself. This is the other moral of TLJ's story.
Other problems people had - the thing about TFA's questions being discarded. Thing thing is, nowhere in TFA is it really suggested that Rey is the daughter of Luke or anyone else important(it wouldn't even make sense if she was Luke's daughter, why would he abandon her?). Nor is it really suggested that Snoke had some elaborate backstory. All of that was fan theories, and then fans got all up in arms that that their fan theories were ignored in TLJ.
So if Rey is 'nobody', then why is the force so strong with her? Here's my thing. With the prequels, people hated that Lucas over-explained Anakin's force strength with midichlorians. Now, when Johnson has gone the other way and offered little to no explanation, making the force mystical again...people hate it. I don't envy people who make Star Wars films, as it seems impossible to please some. Another example? People hated the prequels for portraying with such minute detail all of the political machinations going on. Abrams and Johnson both have gone the other way, offering little explanation of where the First Order came from, what their motivation is, or what the political state of the galaxy is and...people complain about it. Must be a tough gig making SW films.
Anther problem - I've seen people complain about scientific inaccuracies, i.e. Leia floating in space despite that she shouldn't be able to breath out there, the bombs falling down where there shouldn't be gravity, etc, but my only thought about that is that SW has never been science fiction, it's always been high fantasy, kin with Lord Of The Rings, not Star Trek. There have always been things like that that didn't make sense in SW. If you're watching Star Wars for scientific accuracy, you're doing it wrong, imo. The saga has always been first and foremost about feelings and moral and emotional arcs, and as long as it's hitting in that, the science-y stuff really shouldn't matter much.
Moving on - Rey becomes a Jedi too fast. I get it. But Luke didn't really spend any more time with Yoda in ESB/ROTJ than Rey did with Luke in TLJ. For decades people have wondered how Luke made such advances between ESB and ROTJ. It's nothing new. Besides, force aside, at the beginning of TFA, we clearly see that she knows how to fight with a weapon already.
Finally - people seriously suggesting that Rian Johnson hates Star Wars. I find this one very hard to believe when you look at all the callbacks so lovingly inserted into the film. R2-D2 playing the original Leia hologram to Luke. BB8 popping out of that AT-ST in front of Finn and Rose was clearly an homage to Chewie popping out the AT-ST in front of Leia and Han in ROTJ. The Binary sunset when Luke dies. Crait is clearly an homage to Hoth. The moment when Luke gives Leia Han's dice(force-projected though they are) was a moment not only of the two of them acknowledging Han's passing together, but also of acknowledgement of the bond the three of them shared in the OT and after. The film is riddled with nostalgia, just in a more subtle way than TFA was.
So anyway, I really enjoyed my second viewing of TLJ, more than the first TBH. Even the casino stuff, which I didn't care for, wasn't so bad this time. I'd still cut the whole chase with whatever those animals were, but still it's only 15-20 minutes of a 2.5 hour film and it served a purpose that was clearer the second time around - that SW is thought of as film about good guys and bad guys, but that there are actually neutral, amoral guys in the galaxy as well, who sell weapons to both sides while they luxuriate in their wealth, not caring who wins or loses because it doesn't affect them. There were people who, at the end of ROTJ, weren't celebrating, but rather going 'meh'.
This I think, adds more depth to the story. As does the fact that the First Order is intentionally depicted as weaker than the Empire of the OT(Kylo is all emotion where Vader was cold-blooded, Hux is nowhere near as threatening as Tarkin was, and Snoke couldn't even sense Kylo controlling the lightsaber from afar to kill him, where I suspect the Emperor would have) and the Jedi are depicted as fallible as opposed to a thriving re-constituted order. It shows that it's not that easy to build an Empire like Palpatine did, and it's not that easy to build a new Jedi order from nothing.
So everything is fragile here. There is an enemy with obvious weaknesses and a resistance that must rebuild before it can attempt to take advantage of them. But never give up. The heroes of old must all be gone at some point, but the fight of good vs evil and good vs apathetic never ends, and new heroes must rise and continue working for the greater good, that thing greater than themselves, and never give in to apathy or complacency, or the notion that just because an evil has vanquished means that it can't come back again. These are the messages of the film and I think it's more powerful than some re-hash of Luke/Leia/Han all fighting together again - that was already done in the OT.
So I don't agree with the backlash. My only complaints are that I could do without the creatures on the island, and that I don't buy when Rose implies that she's in love with Finn after having known him for two hours, they should have cut or re-written that line. On the whole though, I think it's a really good film that stands up proudly with the OT.
Conclusion
Keeping in mind I haven't seen Solo yet...I think Disney has done a fairly good job with these films so far. I find them highly enjoyable in an effortless way that the prequels lacked. However, I do have some concerns.
I fear they're going to beat SW into the ground like they're beating the MCU into the ground. Once Episode IX is out, I'd like them to stop, at least for 2-3 years, and not allow SW fatigue to set in(It already is, maybe). I really hope they don't saturate the franchise to the point of meaninglessness with 1-2 films ever year. They really need to not. There was a report that in the wake of Solo's box office disappointment, they were putting all future 'Star Wars Story' stuff, everything outside of the main saga, on hold, but then Disney shot it down. But maybe they should put it on hold. I'm not sure.
Also, it occurs to me that Episode IX, unless they do a ghost-Luke a la ghost Obi-Wan, will be the first Star Wars film ever to not include any of Luke, Leia, Han, Obi-Wan, or Anakin/Vader. It remains to be seen whether they can make a SW film that feels like a SW film without all those characters. I guess Chewie, the Falcon, R2-D2, and C-3P0 will still be there.
What they've done so far though is add three films to the canon worthy of the Star Wars brand, imo, and reviving interest in SW for a lot of people after the prequels(though I've seen a lot of people online who seem to hate both the prequels and the sequels, which strikes as odd), and that's no small thing.
Thanks for reading(if you did).
