Well, we’ve come to the end of the year and the decade…
whew. While the year (and decade) had it’s share of ups and downs, I can say
that “I Maaaaade It!” I’ll do a year-end post later, but I thought I’d touch on
the latest topic of these Decembers: Star Wars. Yes, I bet y’all are pretty
tired from hearing about the franchise. I honestly thought I’d post more after
the Rise of Skywalker, but I kinda didn’t. While there are other things on my
mind, I just didn’t know what else to write about. So, I thought about starting
a new thing here: 5 likes and 5 dislikes. Yeah, I know other sites do this, but I wanted
to do something new especially when a now-complete trilogy is on my mind: the Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy.
I bet we now all have an opinion on the Sequel Trilogy. I’ve
touched on the last two movie a bit here, but I haven’t gone into detail about
them yet. I think this post should do it! So, the plan is to talk about the six
things I liked and the six things I didn’t like about the Sequel Trilogy. If
you’re new to Star Wars or this new trilogy, Wikipedia should help you out. You
could also watch the Original trilogy since these movies are more or less
revamps of those movies… guess what might show up on the Dislike list. Let me get
the good stuff out of the way, though.
5 PROS
1. Good Cast
If there’s one thing I can say about the trilogy, it’s that
the cast (old and new) brought their A-game. I thought the new cast was good
for the most part. I thought Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac looked good
and worked well together. In fact, the acting from everyone was good. While
there is one thing I can really complain about, all three of them did a good
job in movies. While I did harp on Boyega’s Finn last year, it’s less about him
and more about how the character’s been used. Others like Dominhill Gleeson, Kelly Marie
Tran, Laura Dern, Lupita Nyago (?) were good too. We also got some new side characters and
while some of them weren’t great, they were well acted.
Of course, the original cast from the OG trilogy was around
but in a lesser capacity. Even though that was the case, I did like how they
were used… at points. I’ll get to the stuff I didn’t like later. Still, it was
cool to see Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher (R.I.P.), Billy Dee Williams,
and Anthony Daniels, and Ian McDiarmid reprise their roles.
2. Kylo Ren
I’ll admit that I like Kylo Ren, but he’s no Darth Vader.
While some of that fondness did wear off a bit when he took the mask off in
TFA, he was still an interesting character and villain. I loved how he turned
the tables on Snoke in TLJ and essentially won for a bit. Of course, that got
undone in The Rise of Skywalker (TROS) as he went through his predictable redemption
arc. I’m still a bit mixed on that, but seeing him fight with his uncle’s lightsaber
and teaming up with Rey was nice to see… I wasn’t a fan of that “other” thing
that happened between he and Rey though. I’ll touch on that later. Adam Driver
did a pretty good job in the role, and I think that’s something the fans and
naysayers can agree on.
3. The Visual Effects and Action
These movies look beautiful. Everything from the ships to
the designs look good. While the different planets had a certain familiarity to
them (there are a whole lotta desert planets!!!), stuff looked good. The CGI
held up in a lot of places. Another thing that was pretty cool is that the
directors did their best to use practical effects with different sets and
creatures. If there’s one place where the Prequel Trilogy failed at, it was unfortunately
that. The costume designs for everyone were good and invoked that OG trilogy feel.
The action was also pretty good. The Saber battles were
pretty nice and felt like a mix of the two previous trilogies. While I could
nitpick that throne room scene, the visuals were nice. Also, Kylo Ren pulled a
pretty cold move at the end. The two fights between Rey and Kylo Ren in TROS
were also pretty sweet and inventive. The dog fights in space and in the air were
pretty sweet too.
4. The music
What is a Star Wars movie without John Williams? Well, it is
still Star Wars, but you gotta admit that without his music, things would feel
off. While his music wasn’t as memorable as stuff from the previous two trilogies,
it was still good. A lot of it was callbacks to those old movies, but that wasn’t
a bad thing. You did have new elements brought in. I thought Rey’s theme was
nice.
5. Tried to break new ground
While the trilogy did adhere to the OG trilogy a lot… maybe
too much, they did try to introduce new things. I thought having a former Stormtrooper
as one of the heroes was a cool thing. While I know folk don’t like Canto Bight,
I thought it had some interesting points. It lasted too long, but I gotta give
Rian Johnson some points. It was also interesting to see the Force being used
in new ways. While some have complained about it, IT’S THE FORCE, GUYS! THIS
STUFF IS MADE UP! CALM DOWN AND DRINK SOME BLUE MILK!
Well, I think it’s time to get to the other stuff.
5 CONS
1. Too much adherence to the Original Trilogy and not enough world-building
If there’s one problem I got with the trilogy as a whole, it’s
this one. This movie relied on the OG Trilogy a little too much, in my opinion.
A lot of story beats from those three movies made it in here. While that isn’t exactly
a bad thing, it wasn’t necessarily good
either. We got plenty of Death Star-like machines, a villain who wears black and is conflicted
at times, and barely any change to new ships. It’s like someone went into an attic
and dusted off their collection of ships from the previous trilogy.
Another thing I didn’t like was the fact that there wasn’t
much world-building. The original trilogy kinda did the same thing, but that
was different since it was establishing this universe. The new trilogy explained
little about how the galaxy was 31 years after the Battle of Endor. All we saw
of the New Republic was that it got “deaded” by Starkiller Base, aka “The Death
Star 3.0.” I know other material (novels, comics, and video games) touch on
more, but this was something the movies needed to at least show too. Most of
the general audience isn’t going to go out and pick up the other material. This was something that I didn’t like about
the Abrams-directed movies. They focused so much on action and not a lot on
plot especially in their first two acts. TROS is worse in that aspect.
I’ve seen folk say that the Prequel trilogy does well on
this front, and I do agree there. While they aren’t exactly good movies (ROTS
is good, though), Lucas did try to broaden the universe he created. While he
did pick certain story elements from the Original Trilogy, he only took so much.
Now that the new trilogy is finished, I can definitely say it took too much
from Original Trilogy.
2. Certain story elements and decisions with characters
Another thing that irked me about the trilogy was certain decisions
and story elements. TFA more or less doesn’t annoy me in that part. Yeah, I
wish Finn was more “bad@$$ Stormtrooper” than “Black Funny Sidekick” and I wish
more was done to differentiate it from A New Hope, but that’s about it. TLJ is
probably the one that was a bit weird. I wasn't a fan of most of the humor in it. The
things involving Luke, Rey, and Kylo were pretty good, but I wished got a
little more there. Some things like the Canto Bight sequence and the Mutiny
plot could’ve been done better, though. At least the stuff on Crait was nice.
Oh yeah, I wish we got more about Snoke before he lost himself. Yeah, he kinda
gets explained in TROS, but… well… meh.
As for TROS… well, I was entertained for the most part. I
did wonder about ‘ole Sheev Palpatine coming back though. They don’t even
explain that crap, man! You get one line about clones or dark Sith science, but
that’s it. That is definitely one element I’m mixed about. As for other weird
stuff, Kylo’s/Ben redemption felt weird, but I did like that it ended with him
dying. It had to, Reylo fans! By the way, what in the heck is up with those two
being a couple? I don’t get it! You could probably come up with some excuse
about the Force doing something, but it was just weird. I don’t get the
shippers either!
3. Didn’t get to have the main leads together much
This could’ve gone in point 2, but it needed its own thing.
I wish we got to see Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac interact as a
trio more. We see them interact on as a
duo a lot but barely as an ensemble. TROS
really brought that out and it was cool to see them bounce off one another. I
just wish we got it in TFA and TLJ too. It was possible to do it, but they didn’t.
You’d think Abrams would’ve tried to get a version of the Luke/Leia/Han
ensemble on- screen, but nah. He just saved it for the last, rushed movie.
4. Not enough coherence between the three movies
Taken as separate films, they more or less work. The movies
together don’t gel well as a trilogy of movies, though. It was weird that the
trilogy initially had 3 different directors and different writers for each
movie. We almost had Colin Trevorrow do TROS, but he left and Abrams returned
to write and direct. The thing that really throws it off is unfortunately TLJ.
Word is that Rian Johnson pretty much ignored the plans Abrams had and did his
own thing. While I like TLJ, it does feel too different to TFA and even TROS.
Heck, TLJ was probably why TROS felt so rushed with its narrative.
5. Not enough done with the original cast and characters
Now this is a nitpick, but I’ll say it anyway. I do more or
less like what was done with the original cast, but it was weird that they were
all separated. It also sucked that we never got to see all three of them
together. I know that would’ve been hard especially after Carrie Fisher’s death,
but I wish it was done. It also felt like they didn’t know what to do with some
of them. Lando in TROS was definitely an example. It was nice to see Billy Dee
alive and kicking, though.
………………………………………………………
Well, that’s all I got for this one. I would say more, but
that’s all I got in me for this part. While I didn’t enjoy the Sequel trilogy
all that much, it had its good moments. At least the franchise has it good in
other places. The other movies are nice. The new game on the PS4 is sweet, the Mandalorian has been good
so far, and I’m now started to look at Star Wars Rebels. I’ll have more to say
later, but that show is getting there. Anyway, I’m now going to move on to the
final post for the year. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.
Also, never forget this dude:
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