I grew up with the movies, I acquired the toys and to this day the special edition Millennium Falcon toy that I got for Christmas back in the day still works with the original battery still holding up and the box in good condition in my parents attic.
I am now reading through the Han Solo trilogy written by A.C. Crispin again and have just finished reading Revan by Drew Karpyshyn, and I would recommend them to anyone who loves the Star Wars Universe. I still play the Knights of the Old Republic games, thinking about going back through the Old Republic story lines again.
I am a massive Star Wars fan through and through. However what I cannot do is endorse the Disney Star Wars content.
I watched the entirety of the Rebels series and was relieved when the story came to a dismal close, ending one of the greatest characters in Star Wars, Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Thrawn ended up being as great a character as we all remember however was under used and removed from the tale all too quickly. Darth Vader also stole the show whenever he was present and I feel that Darth Maul was degraded even from the Clone Wars version where he was made a lot weaker as a character in my opinion.
The Rebels were never at threat as they made the Empire look a far less threat than the wet/sticky bandits from home alone ever were.
Now these movies have been torn apart by thousands and discussed to death. If you would like to hear a break down of the movies in detail then I would recommend that you watch the youtube channel MauLer as he shares a similar view as mine and goes scene by scene into several problems on the movies.
You can find his video on the Last Jedi on A Critique of Star Wars: The Last Jedi
I will go through a top 10 list of things I liked and did not like about the two current Star Wars sequel trilogy movies, named the Force Awakens (FA) and the Last Jedi (LJ):
Like number 1,
Including the Original cast. Now I say like however I am sure that everyone Loved this move. We get a continuation of the saga we love with the people that made the journey an epic that spawned the franchise that we know and love.
Hate number 1,
The way they treated the Original cast. Now this move was a contradiction of the first good move that Disney did. They treated the original characters so poorly that the outrage still makes news today. How Disney purchased a franchise for around $4 billion then poured so much money into it just to destroy the things that people love. This was a horrible move from both an artistic view and a business perspective.
Like number 2,
Opening to the FA, When I first saw this I was in awe. I thought Disney got it and understood what the fans wanted. The build up and the WWII style drop-ship landing of the Stormtroopers followed buy the decimation of a village with all its armed forces swept aside like they were nothing. The amazing score and the introduction to the poster Villain of the new series. It was almost flawless and ranks among my favourite scenes in Star Wars.
Hate number 2,
The story of the FA being too much of a rip off. Lets face it, everyone knows that the FA is basically A New Hope just re-skinned. Some say that it was a love letter, some say it is a rip off.
Like number 3,
John Williams, now including this man is basically cheating. The guy is a genius in movie scores.
Hate number 3,
Rey, I will not go into everything however I will just cover the basics. She is a Mary Sue, in fact she is a worse character than a Mary Sue.
Her motivation is weak, her skills are unexplained and confusing, her knowledge is also unexplained and confusing, People love her for no reason other than it is demanded via the plot, her Power level is stronger than any that has come before, Her ability to learn is supernatural and make the greatest geniuses look like helpless fools.
Everything about her character is insulting.
Like number 4,
Finns character arc in FA, Now Finn had a good character arc in the first movie, with the exception of there being too much bumbling moments, he was overall a good character. He was almost seen as the movie version of Kyle Katarn from the Dark forces and Jedi knight game series. However he could not live up to the Stormtrooper turned Jedi. Finn starting as a Stormtrooper that eventually decided that he was not going to be a cold hearted killer that would kill without question. He kidnaps the Resistance Pilot Poe and they flee the Star Destroyer to collect the BB unit and try to reach the Resistance. He would on his travels meet Han Solo and Chewbacca where he would be told that the tales of the Jedi are true, shortly afterwards he gets given the Lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker which he would use to try and fight off a Stormtrooper attack. He would also lead a suicide gambit to bring down the shields of the Death Star 3 (sigh), where he would stand against the poster villain in a lightsaber on lightsaber fight.
Remove the cowardly, Jar Jar like comic parts and you have an amazing character right here.
Hate number 4,
The treatment of the new Characters, Well I went over Rey already so I will skip her. Finn had his character arc remade in the LJ, this made no sense. Poe was made pathetic to make way for a new female leader character made to replace Leia in the movie. Kylo Ren was made pathetic the moment Rey got introduced. As soon as she arrived and took BB-8 he went to a tantrum throwing crying emo waste of space. General Hux became a rag doll where you face palm when you see him. Snoke is a Joke (pun intended) and Phasma is forgettable and brings nothing to the table. LJ wasn't better.
Like number 5,
Trailers, Now I loved the trailers. More so than the movies. They made me excited to see the movies however we now know what we are to expect.
Hate number 5,
Weak social agendas. Star Wars was about getting lost in a galaxy far far away now it is about Pro women, Anti white males. They push an arc about animal cruelty and capitalism yet they forget that there are human slaves in the same scenes. You watch the movies thinking that they are just ticking of a check list.
Like number 6,
Locations, some of these places are absolutely beautiful.
Hate number 6,
Weak Characters, When LJ was coming out I was looking forward to seeing what Rose and Holdo was going to bring to the table, I was interested to see what the character D-J was going to be like and the character I was most interested in knowing more about and seeing on the big screen was Tallie Lintra.
I was looking forward to seeing an A-wing pilot fight against the first order along with Poe, I was thinking we might get a new Wedge Antillies that will with no doubt perform some incredible FEATs in a fast and maneuverable interceptor. She dies with seconds of screen time, OMFG. Why even have a name for her? this is pathetic.
D-J is a waste-man. Rose's character was so poor the actor got targeted by so much hate that it is speculated that she left social media. Finally Holdo is the embodiment of the Feminazi ideal. I hate everything about her character especially when better ones had to die to make way for her. She is a disgrace.
Like number 7,
Battle at Takodana, This was awesome. The X-wings especially, Poe was masterful in the air.....a little too much so. the score was great and the ground battle just gets you imagination worked up on what could happen in the future.
Hate number 7,
Everything about the story in the LJ, Now this is a classic on how not to write a story. Rian Johnson should feel ashamed of himself and the creative directors at Lucasfilm should have a serious look at themselves or hand in their notices for letting something like this go through.
The story missed crucial elements from the start. How did the first order take over the galaxy already, is there no resistance to this take over even after they lost their greatest weapon?
A real world scenario like this would be if North Korea were to nuke the UN, lose all their nuclear power to the US Marines yet still complete world domination that day without any armed forces moving to invade.
It makes no sense. The galaxy rallied and fought against the Empire for about 20 years and they are going to be taken over just like that? this is not how things work!
Why is Leia flying? What the hell happened to Luke? Why doesn't anyone care about what happened to Han? How is Rey so powerful? Why is Finn doing the same story arc, has he got amnesia or something? Why are those bombers so terrible? Why are the First order so useless? Who is Snoke and how did he manage to do all this?
Everything about this movie is pathetic and it should be renamed Space Balls 2: The last of the Shwartz, it would suit it better.
Like number 8,
Art Design, I am not overly keen on the Stormtroopers new design however the rest of it is amazing. Well done to the artists.
Hate number 8,
That Yoda puppet, No matter how Rian Johnson spins this, that puppet is terrible. I was so disgusted I vocally said in the cinema "What the fuck is that?" and spoke the person I came to the cinema with about it during that scene. It was terrible. They were talking about using the same mold from the Empire Strikes Back, using the same people to paint it and making it a true representation and recreation of the puppet.
Like number 9,
Special effects, The people behind this should be very proud of their work. It looks wornderful.
Hate number 9,
Rian Johnson, Rian Johnson is always talking about Subverting expectations however it is not always a good thing. If I invited you to a birthday party and gave you a goody bag you would expect some cake, but if I gave you a massive kick in the genitals and said that I wanted to subvert your expectations you would be angry. How can he not expect this outrage?
Also, if i meet that man I will do just this, offer my hand then kick him hard enough to cause him serious damage and say "look I subverted your expectations, did you like it?".
I hope his career goes down in flames with this movie.
Like number 10,
Sound effects, the Sound effects are very good, the blasters and when the blasters connect sounds very good. Top draw talent over there in every department with the exception of the story writers and directors.
Hate number 10,
Killing the franchise, There is no tension anymore. No threat, no challenge and no mystery, there is nothing anymore.
The original cast have been killed off and the one remaining has passed away, god rest her soul.
The new characters are not interesting and don't bring anything to the table.
The stories are terrible and people are not interested in finding out what happens next.
There is no villains that can push our "heroes" to the brink.
It is just going to be a terrible movie about a massive army without end that has complete control over the galaxy for some reason that has got to battle a dozen or so people who have the most overpowered character in movie history who could eliminate every single one in an afternoon without any training or build up. She just wins. In fact she has already won. They could probably finish the saga with a trailer and no one will care.
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