The original and prequel trilogies are worthwhile viewing. The sequel trilogy, however, presents a different case. While George Lucas provided story treatments during the 2012 sale, these were ultimately discarded. The sequels also marked the end of the Expanded Universe, removed from canon to allow creative freedom for filmmakers. Given that the stories deviate significantly from Lucas’s original vision, is there really a compelling reason to watch them?
I would say:
The Force Awakens: Not bad, basically a knock-off of A New Hope story-wise but it feels like Star Wars and is pretty harmless fun.
Rogue One: Probably the best of the Disney Star Wars movies IMO, although it does have a couple of dodgy “bringing back an old actor as CGI” scenes.
The Last Jedi: Lots of people hate this one, I’m slightly more forgiving. I think it tried to do something a bit weird and different, and it didn’t really work. But I do appreciate the effort of not just playing it safe.
Solo: A Star Wars Story: Another one that seems to get a lot of heat, but I thought it was pretty inoffensive. Although my brain did kind of delete most of it as soon as it was over lol.
The Rise of Skywalker: Legitimately one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I can’t even call it a bad movie, because it’s essentially just a random series of Star Wars-themed sounds and images that batter you for what feels to be about a year and a half before it mercifully ends, taking with it any good will towards the franchise you might have had left.
the force awakens
My only issue with TFA isn’t the movie itself. It’s just that it sets up so much good stuff that the rest of the trilogy just doesn’t do fuck all with. There are some really cool story points, some incredible characters, and amazing acting. Then just garbage through the next two.
Rouge One
Yeah this is easily the best star wars movies IMO. It’s hectic, and all over the place, and there’s a ton of characters, then it just all clicks together in the last little bit of the movie. No spoilers or anything but you absolutely need to watch this. I genuinely can’t over recommend this enough, it’s a golden movie. Then go watch Andor, its easily the best Star wars TV and there are a couple scenes id nominate for top 10 TV scenes of all time. It’s the prequel to Rouge One and goes over Cassian Andor (main character in Rouge One) story.
Solo
I actually really enjoyed Solo. Its not super relevant to the greater star wars saga, and its not the most ground breaking piece of cinema ever. But its fun and enjoyable, just go into it with the idea that its “filler content” for the rest of them.
TL:DR I mostly agree with you
Ive been tempted to watch it all chronologically
I’m gonna die on the hill that rogue one was unnecessary.
Its a cool ass movie, but the “everything must have detailed in universe lore”-culture annoys me so much. Especially regarding a franchise that started as metaphoric of a story as star wars.
Like I don’t need in-universe guides to enjoy old kung fu hero movies with floaty wallruns and rooftop jumps. Its all metaphor and stylistic choice.
Why do I need midichlorians and shoehorned blueprint fudging? Plus the ending was so predictable, i was disappointed when realising they really didn’t come up with a better out than what i guessed before sitting down in the theater.
Explaining the Death Star plans isn’t the point of the movie though. It’s really a movie to say “okay, you’ve seen the Rebellion through the eyes of the heroes, and the Clone Wars from the point of view of Jedi. Now let’s see how it looked like from the point of view of the random soldiers that were also there and aren’t mentioned by name”
It’s really a movie to show the other side of the revolt against the Empire. (And, even though it’s not a movie, Andor continues this idea and is giving us a frankly impressive result)
And really I’d say that just the fact that Rogue One is really the first movie to give some room to normal, non Jedi people makes it so important.
I wish i could agree with you, but some critical moments still hinge on “totally not a jedi” force user with staff. Unless I’m misremembering, its been a while.
Don’t get me wrong it’s a good movie, I just don’t share the hype. The premise is cool, but to me personally, it falls a bit flat.
Maybe, but Rogue One also gave us Andor.
One hundred percent, certified banger and I love it.
For sure. I would say that for me, Rogue One didn’t live up to the hype that it has until that final 20 minutes. The final 20 minutes made it all worth it.
I kind of wish that JJ Abrams did all three films. TLJ really threw away a lot of what was set up in TFA. TROS is basically unforgivable regardless though.
Regarding The Last Jedi - I agree that it tried something different, and that wasn’t a bad approach. What killed it for me however was the amount of slapstick and Marvel-esque humor. Star Wars always felt like mostly serious movies - sure, there was always goofy stuff like the trash chute monster or Jar Jar, but all in all they had the air of movies that take themselves seriously (probably due to the space opera nature).
TLJ was the first movie where I didn’t feel any of that. The first scene basically took a shit on a beloved character by way of cheap slapstick, and that never stopped.
Boy, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Ah yes, thank you for your detailed and useful critique of my comment. Let me respond in kind:
No u!
TLJ is legitimately one of the best Star Wars movies, and Luke’s characterization in it, right down to rejecting the lightsaber, is more in-line with his characterization in the OT than anything else he’s ever been in, including everything in Legends and the new expanded universe canon.
You might notice that I agree with you regarding Luke? I didn’t criticize those aspects of the movie.
You said the first scene, by which I assume you’re referencing when Rey hands him the lightsaber and he tosses it away, “basically took a shit on a beloved character by way of cheap slapstick,” which I thoroughly disagree with. I think him rejecting the lightsaber is perfectly in character with what we saw in the OT and the 30 years of character development since.
My guy, I literally say that my issue is the slapstick way he rejects the saber. I don’t have an issue with him rejecting it, I have an issue with him throwing it away for a cheap laugh.
He could have laid it down, he could have given it back to Rey - anything is better than him carelessly throwing it over his shoulder.
Agree with all that.
Maybe bit more negative on both Last Jedi and the Solo movie. I don’t even remember if I actually watched the whole Solo movie because it was so forgettable.
Rise of the Skywalker, any bad review I read heavily underestimated how terrible of a Star Wars movie it is. Like, really bad. I held of watching it for many years, had the lowest of low expectations. And it still hit me how bad it was.
The sequels suck but Andor is a legit masterpiece.
I recommend Rogue One, the Clone Wars, and Bad Batch
I would add Rebels. First season is a liiiiittle more kid friendly and toned down than it really needed to be, the rest of it is fantastic and finished the story of Darth Maul.
If you hadn’t heard Maul and Ventress are getting their own show. She has hair!
There’s nothing magic about Lucas’s vision. But JJ Abrams vision is exclusively “bigger is better”. Death Star destroys planets? Well, this Death Star IS a planet. And it kills multiple planets, and it’s called Starkiller, and it shoots through hyperspace.
Star Destroyer? Let’s make each one a Death Star. With a big gun. And you can ride horses on the hull.
Stormtroopers? They fly now.
(Godzilla? Uhh… My monster is just as big as Godzilla, and it’s only a baby.)
AFAIK, there’s only three Star Wars films. Episode IV, V and VI.
Rogue One is good.
I’d argue you should watch A New Hope because it was groundbreaking at the time, Empire Strikes Back because it’s amazing by any standard, and Return of the Jedi only if you crave resolution. Then watch Rogue One because it’s borderline better than Empire Strikes Back.
There’s only 2 good Star Wars movies that are good by the standards of modern cinema.
They were fun to watch but I don’t take anything from Disney as canon except for rogue one and andor
The animated stuff like clone wars and rebels make the filoniverse come alive. Early mandalorian was great, andor was as well. So skip the movies and enjoy good star wars stuff instead.
Bad Batch got so close to delving into Palpatines force clone experiments, and went some dark places.
Yeah I still enjoyed it overall
First one is alright. Second one jumps off a cliff. Third starts off on a new cliff to jump off from
i think they’re worth watching just so you can see how bad they are and how much disney fumbled the bag by hiring the worst people imaginable to write/direct the garbage.
it really shines how much they finally “got it” by hiring Tony Gilroy to come in to fix/salvage Rogue One before letting him loose with Andor - arguably the greatest Star Wars ever made that’s on par with the originals.
The sequels suck.
The Mandalorian, Rogue One, Andor, Ahsoka, The Clone Wars The Bad Batch, all range from great to decent. Hell, even the Boba Fett and Obi Wan series were okay.
I don’t think they’re as groundbreaking as the original trilogy (my preferred trilogy) but they’re still watchable. Sometimes you gotta take things with a pinch of salt, even your favorite movie franchise.
I can rewatch the prequels. But the sequels are to me a single time popcorn movie.
I liked the starkiller base scene.
I liked the first one from the sequel trilogy, the second one made me hate movies for a while. It was so bad, inconsistent and out of character. I couldn’t force myself to watch the third one, and lost interest in the franchise altogether.
no, you shouldn’t have watched the prequels either.
Yes
