Star Wars Episode 9 currently the 3rd lowest reviewed movie in the series by critics

[aiwass]

I hated The Force Awakens. I thought it was boring, and it felt really obvious that it was trying hard to capture the Star Wars feel, and it failed. The Last Jedi, to me, was even worse. The subversion at every turn was not cute or interesting, it just made everything bleak and it single-handedly nearly ruined the entire franchise for me. The trilogy was already off to a crap start and this pretty much killed it.

Going into this, I was ready to hate-watch it... then something weird happened. I really enjoyed it. Somehow a lot of the problems I had with the previous two were gone; no more Guardians of the Galaxy non-joke lines and awkward pauses. There wasn't any beating the audience over the head with a particular agenda. They managed to make a film that captured the spirit of the franchise just right--at no point, to me, did it feel forced. This was just Star Wars. Still, I wouldn't call it a good, quality movie. A lot of the criticisms I do agree with, but to me it felt like JJ knew he had been written into a corner, so he basically said "fuck it" and did whatever he wanted in the most over-the-top, almost Doctor Who levels of campiness. I think the last two felt pretentious, like they demanded to be taken seriously. This movie is just having fun with it.

If The Force Awakens is a 5/10 and The Last Jedi is a 3/10, I'd put The Rise of Skywalker at a 6.5/10. The bar has been set so unbelievably low, that I'm sure the score would be lower if the last two had been any good at all.

So between this and The Mandalorian, hopefully they will realize they need their own George Lucas-type to oversee the continuity and have a grand vision for the franchise moving forward. Maybe that Dave Filoni guy?

Last edited by aiwass - on 21 December 2019