The Good & The Bad: Star Wars (The Sequel Trilogy)

 DISCLAIMER: For better context, click here for Part 2.

So now the time has come to fully review and analyze the ever-controversial Star Wars sequel trilogy…

Once again; let’s just dive right in!

The Force Awakens (2015)

THE GOOD: I really like how this movie utilized that “mask motif,” which is expressed by having Rey, Finn and Kylo all introduced in masks, as a means of symbolizing how they all learn how to be their true selves throughout the film. What makes this even cooler is the fact that this theme is continued throughout the entire trilogy. I also give this film credit for primarily using real sets and practical effects, all of which are accentuated beautifully by the top-notch cinematography. In addition, as much as people complained about it, I actually didn’t mind a lot of the Star Wars 1977 “repeats” (at least the ones that felt meta). Some of the “ideas” behind the new characters were also solid (a Vader poser who needs to learn to be his own kind of villain, a runaway Stormtrooper, etc.), though the execution of these ideas could’ve probably been handled a bit better than it was, admittedly. My favorite thing about the film, however, was the saber fight! It was shot so beautifully, and felt so grounded and elegant. Finally, saber-fighting felt believable again! And no, Rey being as strong as she was there didn’t bother me. As I’ve said before, Luke and Anakin were pretty much Mary Sues themselves. Besides, she had been fighting with a staff all her life on Jakku (probably always using the Force without even realizing it), and the film made it clear that Kylo was both physically and emotionally damaged right before that fight started. Somebody needed to be the Jedi hero of the fight, and it wasn’t going to be Luke, cause that would’ve made him a deus ex machina, and it wasn’t going to be another Jedi either, cause Luke is supposed to be the last one left at this point anyways. I know some people were disappointed that Finn didn’t turn out to actually be a Jedi, but as I said here, that was more of a problem with the marketing of the movie, not the movie itself. They should’ve just marketed Rey with the saber from the very start.

THE BAD: I remember going to see this film on opening night, and the air was fucking electric, which helped me to enjoy it quite a bit upon first viewing. Sadly, I don’t like the movie as much as I used to now. For starters, Poe should’ve died near the beginning of the film, as planned. As great of a character as he is, his extended presence got in the way of Finn’s development for the rest of the trilogy. Also, as mentioned above, the marketing for this movie sucked! Too many mysteries (like trying to hide Rey with the saber), and too much of an emphasis on nostalgia and “We made it exactly like the original trilogy” (Translation: “Please like us again! Please!!”). I understand there was pressure to market it that way, due to all the prequel hate at the time (from idiots like me), but they took it too far in the other direction, sadly. In addition to the marketing, the movie itself also had too many mysteries. A lot of people walked out of this movie thinking they liked it, but that’s only because the movie itself avoided answering so many questions, as a means to not upset people. That may work in the short term, but certainly not in the longterm, and it puts the two sequels to this in a bad spot. I know JJ Abrams loves his “mystery boxes,” but seriously, did Rey’s lineage really need to be one of them?! It felt like they were just trying to come up with a cheap way to set up this trilogy’s equivalent of “I am your father” (when it probably didn’t need one). How hard would it have been to just say right from the start that she was a Skywalker, Solo, Palpatine, Kenobi, etc.? Any of those probably would’ve made her character way more interesting right from the get-go. Better yet; they should’ve just said right from the start that her name was Rey Smith and her parents were some bums named John and Jane Smith and they abandoned her long ago and they don't matter. Make it clear right away that she’s the new hero from a spiritual sense, and not cause of bloodline. That would’ve been great! But instead, she’s nothing more than a walking question mark, set up to have a “twist” that would’ve been dissatisfying no matter what the answer was. That’s actually just one of many examples of how this movie acts as a poor setup for the rest of this trilogy. That fucking idiot Sam Witwer (the guy who voices Maul) blamed Rian Johnson for “ruining Luke,” saying that he “would’ve helped his sister.” If you’re gonna blame a filmmaker for that, don’t blame Rian. Blame JJ. He’s the one who put Luke on that island for no clear reason. First the movie says Luke gave up and “walked away from everything,” but then shows him wearing Jedi robes and standing all elegantly (EDIT: In hindsight, a lot of these problems will become irrelevant with time, as more people continue to grow up seeing this new trilogy as “one big story,” like most fans these days did with the originals). The movie also implies that Luke left behind that map and wanted to be found, when really, that was actually a long-lost ancient map to the Jedi homeworld, where most people suspected Luke to have gone to (he probably used the Force to find that planet, or had a different copy of the map or something). This bit could’ve been explained a bit better. The thing I hate the most about this film though, by far, is the section with the giant octopus creatures. That shit went on for way too long…

The Last Jedi (2017)

THE GOOD: I used to be unsure how to feel about this movie, but it has grown on me a lot recently! I don’t care what anyone says; this is one of the most creatively-inspired films in the entire franchise. The WWII-style opening, the way that wildlife plays a role in all the different subplots, the “three sides to every story” thing with the flashbacks, the design of Crait (and everything that happens there), the throne room fight (it’s just a dance, but it’s so unique that I don’t care), and so on! It’s also just simply my favorite Star Wars film to look at. Every shot feels like a work of art! Like a moving painting, of sorts, and the way the color red is used to tie it all together makes it all even better. This is also the film with the most memorable dialogue (for me, at least), though some of that dialogue does come across as a bit pretentious at times, I’ll admit. That being said, however, I still feel that this is the most thematically-consistent film in the entire series since Star Wars 1977 (read this and get to Part 4 to see why), and works as a standalone, and even as a saga-ending, just as well as it does as a normal sequel. That being said, my absolute favorite thing about this movie is the characters, as I feel they were best developed here (for the most part). I think all the character development actually made up for the fact that the plot didn’t “move forward” all that much (the novelization does an even better job of highlighting this aspect of the story actually!). This is easily the best Leia has ever been (Mary Poppins scene and all). Luke was presented as someone with actual flaws and emotions, which made him feel much more human, and gets to go on a whole new kind of hero’s journey, all in one movie! The new kids, good and evil, all get faced with interesting challenges that force them to have to take a deeper look into themselves. And for the record; yes, I’m glad Snoke got killed one movie ahead of schedule. While I would’ve liked for him to at least have a hint of backstory beforehand, it was pretty obvious even in Awakens that he was just meant to be a plot device for Kylo, and not really an actual character (like Rey).

THE BAD: Now, this movie is basically three stories going on all at once; Rey’s story, Finn’s story and Poe’s story. As stated above, I pretty much liked everything about Rey’s story (except for how the meaning of “balance” keeps changing, much like in the prequels), whereas Finn’s story took some getting used to, but eventually grew on me too (Canto Bight has that wacky, pulpy spirit of 1977). Poe’s story, on the other hand, still doesn't fully work for me to this day (again, read this to see why). Another issue is that this movie can’t seem to decide if it’s for kids or adults (and no, just saying “it’s all ages” doesn't count). The Marvel-ish jokes and the dark moments are fine, when viewed separately, but when you put them together, it creates a weird “disconnect,” of sorts. As much as I love humor, I feel that this story was in a position where it needed to be somewhat “dark,” due to the way everything from Empire to Awakens set things up. So if I were Johnson, I would’ve held back on stuff like the prank call in the intro (supposedly he fought really hard to keep that in the movie though, so good for him for sticking to his guns, I guess!). This next point is a bit of a “cheat,” cause I’m about to say three things all at once: This movie is too little (doesn’t set up IX all that well), too late (trying to stray away from themes established since Empire), and too long. None of those three things bother me, personally (and in some ways, they actually make me like the movie better), but I understand that I’m in the minority there, and that most people would probably be pissed off by any one of those points, let alone all three! I also can’t ignore the fact that this movie asks the audience to “fill in a lot of blanks,” such as continuity issues with Awakens (Hux suddenly looking different and the Resistance suddenly being referred to as Rebels or “the Republic fleet”), Holdo not telling anyone the plan (I like the kamikaze moment, though!), Rose stopping Finn’s sacrifice (kinda contradicts Holdo’s sacrifice), and so on. The last thing I’ll say is that some of the film’s messages might seem pretentious to some (but again, not to me).

The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

THE GOOD: While I think the whole Skywalker Saga/ “trilogy of trilogies” concept is overrated, if we absolutely had to abide by it, then I would say that this film did a fairly decent job at “ending the saga” or whatever. For that angle, bringing back Palpatine makes sense, as it brings things “full circle,” and the way they handled Leia felt tasteful, given the fact that they only had recycled Awakens footage to work with in wake of Carrie Fisher’s untimely passing. I like how they were even able to give her a Jedi past, and explain why she no longer was a Jedi by the time of the sequel trilogy. For those reasons primarily, it seems this film worked well for casual audiences (not critics or diehard fans, though!). I’ll also say that, at least at first, I liked the super-fast pace of the film. It felt like a “victory lap,” of sorts, as if the movie itself was trying to say “Hey, this is the last one, so we’re gonna move fast. At this point, you’re either on board, or you can fuck off!” That being said, this crazy-fast pacing got old, fast. When we got to the second act, I started to have a headache. But it worked in the first act for me, at least. I can also say with confidence that, for the most part, I still thought Kylo and Rey were handled well. The “yin and yang” thing between them was always interesting (the kiss was overkill, though), and I liked Kylo’s redemption involving the Han memory and all. It may sound silly on paper, but Adam Driver was able to somehow act it out in a way that worked beautifully, for me (and he barely even said anything!). Furthermore, like Awakens, this is one of the only films in the whole damn franchise that seems to have a rather consistent tone. What Abrams lacks in originality, he makes up for with tonal consistency. Lastly, I can’t talk about this movie without addressing the elephant in the room; Duel of the Fates (Colin Trevorrow’s canceled version of Episode IX, the script for which leaked last year). Overall, I would say that Skywalker was executed better than Fates, however, Fates had better ideas. It’s a bit of an unfair comparison, though, given the fact that Fates was only ever a first draft (a rough one, at that!) and nothing more.

THE BAD: First of all, I hated how this movie tried to center itself around the idea of Rey, Finn and Poe coming together as a trio for the first and only time ever. I get the appeal of that idea, but in the end, I just feel that it wasn’t truly meant to be (especially since Poe wasn’t supposed to even be there in the first place, as I’ve said earlier). The worst part about this however is the fact that it lead to Rose being sidelined for literally the entire movie. I get that people didn’t like her (and as I’ve admitted in the past, she took a while to grow on me, like the rest of The Last Jedi), but sidelining her like that still felt scummy nonetheless. Furthermore, the idea of Rey being a Palpatine seems cool on paper, but the way it was executed here felt absolutely haphazard and, quite frankly, batshit! Another thing that really pisses me off is all the lore-breaking this movie does. The Death Star II remains make no sense (we saw it blow to smithereens in Return of the Jedi), all of the new Sith stuff came out of nowhere (They have a language now? And assassins?), the whole thing where one Imperial ship needs to guide the rest of the fleet out of that nebula and the map to do that can only be on one ship at a time and… I can go on! And no, I don’t count the kamikaze moment in The Last Jedi as “lore-breaking.” As Finn himself says in this film; “that move was one in a million.” Just because it’s rare doesn’t mean it’s impossible. The remains of the Death Star being almost perfectly intact though? After we saw it blown to oblivion before our very eyes? Even a kid wouldn’t be able to stretch their imagination that far! This movie also just felt way too fan-servicey, with the Reylo kiss being the (rotten) cherry on top, in that regard. Another major gripe of mine is, simply, just the way this movie looks. Abrams drenches the entire movie in this weird blue tint, which I guess was his way of trying to match up to the heavy use of red in The Last Jedi. The thing is that all of the red in Jedi was always contrasted with white and/or black, whereas in Skywalker, it’s just blue on blue on blue (UPDATE: someone pointed out to me recently that all the blue on Exegol vanishes once Palpatine dies, so that makes it a little cooler, I’ll admit).

Okay, I’m finally done! As I said in the beginning of all this, I don’t plan to talk about Star Wars again until after we get through this wave of all these new shows and films they announced last month at that Disney Investor’s Call (unless for some reason I feel the need to talk about it again sooner). I’ll say this, though; of all the new stuff, the project I think I’m most excited for is the anime anthology Visions. I used to laugh at the idea of Star Wars cartoons, back when I was stupid and thought Star Wars was supposed to be serious, but now I realize that the cartoons are actually the best thing about Star Wars! I’m also looking forward to Obi-Wan Kenobi (just for the sake of seeing Ewan and Hayden again) and The Acolyte (since it takes place 50-100 years before all the movies, which in itself is interesting). I also hope that the rumors are true that Taika Waititi’s movie will be about the origins of the Jedi. Furthermore, I hope Rian Johnson’s trilogy still happens (sounds like it won’t though, sadly).

The very last thing I’ll say is this; in case it wasn’t obvious from all these different posts, I like Star Wars better when it’s cheesy instead of serious. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that the future of the franchise will probably go in a pretty serious direction, bar a few exceptions (like Taika’s film, of course!). That being said, no matter what the future holds, one thing cannot be disputed, and that’s that Lucas created an amazing universe here. As much as I rag on the guy sometimes, he really did push both filmmaking and storytelling, and really all of pop culture actually, in a (mostly) better direction, and nobody can ever take that away from him! Hell, even just the words “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” alone created endless possibilities. I know people have loved to shit on Star Wars since 1999 (and arguably since 1983, or even 1980!), but the fact that we always come back around to it no matter what pretty much says it all, as far as I’m concerned…

Peace!

2023 UPDATE: Funny enough, I used to dislike the first half of The Rise of Skywalker for being too fast, and enjoyed the second half much more, but now I feel the opposite. The fast pace of the first half has grown on me, whereas the second half makes less sense the more I think about it (still some good moments in the second half too, though).