Star Wars Franchise

There are original unaltered version of Star Wars in the Library of Congress

Not sure which versions of Empire and Jedi are in there

My unpopular opinion is that Empire isn’t brilliantly paced. The opening and closing acts are probably the best parts of the whole franchise, so it rightfully gets given a lot of goodwill. But, the middle section is kinda dull and drags on too long.

Particularly bad is Han and friends’ adventures in a space worm while Luke is training with Yoda. It’s pure filler, up there with the worst filler sequences in the prequels and sequels.

But again, Cloud City then comes around and all is forgiven.

So what's different then? There's no "Episode IV: A New Hope" on the opening crawl on it as that was added for the 1981 re-release.

Y’know what, The Force Awakens is a lot of fun.

Sure, its a retread of a lot of ANH but of all the mid-2010s remake-sequels (Jurassic World, Independence Day 2) its by far the best.

I like the way Rey, Finn, Poe, Ren and Hux are set up as SW The New Class. After the Empire was run by grown-ups here you’ve got a pair of out of their depth angry edgelords leading the charge. I think that’s quite a nice way to show off the lack of stability in the galaxy and the potential unpredictability of the First Order.

Poe is obviously your cool experienced Han Solo type, but Rey and Finn bring some modern angst to the hero’s journey. Finn’s reluctant hero isn’t really something the series has had before. And I know Rey gets shit for being a woman who is skilled in lots of areas “without experience” but what we see of Jakku makes me think its a significantly harder and more violent upbringing than moping about your uncle’s farm. She’s clearly had to be self-sufficient for a longtime.

Visually blending practical effects and cgi its a successful update on the iconography of SW. Its faithful without being slavishly so. There are some really good shots in the direction too, TIE Fighters against the sun, the bridge where Han meets Ren.

Aside from the story being a rerun of AHN, biggest negatives are maybe missed opportunities - like Captain Phasma - or odd nitpicky things like why didn’t Leia hug Chewie first, or Starkiller Base being a bit like a child’s idea of upping the stakes from the Death Star when they could’ve gone for an original big bad.

It’d be nice to know more about whats happened to the New Republic and why a rough Resistance rather than its own army are facing the First Order. My assumption is that there’s a political rot Coruscant never shuck off meaning the Senate won’t act through a mix of complacency and maybe Imperial sympathisers secretly welcoming a return of fascism. Leia has then had to rope in some favours from the Rebellion days to try and head them off without official backing.

If someone had planned out how JJ Abram’s mystery boxes were going to open this feels like a good film to potentially be a base for the new trilogy.

You say that but she only succeeds thanks to a large inheritance from her grandfather.

I’m waiting for the last Jedi review 😊

I was too tired to write my Last Jedi thoughts last night but essentially…

Rey’s side of the film broadly holds up. The training with Luke expands the lore and fills some of the gaps between this trilogy and the originals, the interactions with Ren help build some mystery and helps establish a little more depth to both characters. Although it is a shame Chewie ends up wasting his time beside a campfire for the entire film and I don’t think we needed to see Luke taking quite that much pleasure in his green milk. The caretakers felt like a throwback to the original trilogy and I quite liked how they were used to highlight Rey’s immaturity and impatience.

Basically all the fleet plot was bad. Its like they didn’t have anything written for 80% of the cast so just stuck them on hold for the entire movie. Lots to nitpick here too, Laura Dern got one line about being a legendary admiral then was hugely useless and made to look like a moron, the First Order not being able to catch the Resistance fleet when they were within fighter range felt totally artificial, that mid-chase Finn was able to nick off to a casino resort for a day and then jump back was totally dumb. Also most of what happened on the casino planet was also bad. This whole half of the movie felt like it’d maybe make sense as two different tv episodes of something but they’d been stitched together as filler for this film. Filler than probably got more runtime than Rey over on puffin rock.

Setting it up so that the two plots picked up immediately from when TFA left off but also that in the meantime the First Order had conquered the galaxy didn’t fit right either. Felt like the writer was trying to bury the last film to retcon the ending into fitting their movie.

Lovely to see so much of Ade Edmundson though.

I see the complaint about the slow space chase a lot. I feel I need to rewatch, as I'm sure there is a reason for it. It certainly isn't something that has bothered me either time (or maybe 3 times) I've watched it.

That whole section works well for me and builds into the exploration of heroes and our idolisation of them perfectly. Weird to see you say the Laura Dern Admiral is a moron, when she is proved right by the film and that it is Poe that is in the wrong (which is very much the point).

The Luke and Rey is stuff is all excellent and I love the very physical life that Luke now leads (udder drinking and all), rejecting the mystical and faith reliant force. I really like the relationship between Kylo and Rey here too, which ultimately becomes a silly romance when Abrams comes back.

Wish I could defend the casino planet section pieces, but they are prequel level crappy (more Episode 1 levels than 2, at least). They do feed into a nice (albeit cheesy) final moment about looking towards the future rather than wollowing in the past, but it serves little narrative purpose. The idea of the First Order and the Resistance getting their weapons from the same place is interesting one that could have gone somewhere, but it is just thrown in and not given the attention it deserves, making it fairly pointless.

Is Laura Dern a character from an animated series? Because they introduce her like we should know or care about her but she isn’t even in the film until she replaces Leia in command.

I do enjoy that shared universes and characters crossing properties exists but you can’t just drop characters in without any introduction.*

Unless she is totally original and they’ve just slid her in from nowhere which is probably even worse.


*is it the next film where the big reveal was done via Fortnight dlc prior to the film coming out?

The whole end game for the 9th film was pretty much set up by a book trilogy previous to release. I only happened to have read it in advance as someone recommended and loaned them to me.

Yeah, you shouldn’t need to do homework to understand a mainline numbered sequel in one of the biggest franchises in pop culture

I agree, far too much set up for a mainline film in a set of books moat people won't even be aware of, let alone have read.

I don’t remember much of the plot of Rise but the lack of a clear arc or steering hand for the trilogy is pretty clear from the handling of Snoke in TLJ