True but the exposition at the start of Ep 1 dedicated to really dry economics is not the best way to kick off what is supposed to be an epic space fantasy series.
“Hey guys, you love Jedi’s, lasers and exotic locales right? Well we’ll get to that but right now we’re going to start a crash course on Macroeconomics 101”
There’s really better ways to introduce political intrigue…
The Force Awakens was pleasant, and well-made, if a bit safe. Opened tons of possibilities.
The Last Jedi was a thoroughly enjoyable mess of a film. Lots of interesting ideas. Some things didn’t work. But it inspired plenty of spirited conversation, which was good, if your SW fan friends weren’t jerks.
The Rise of Skywalker was an absolute trainwreck, caused mainly by JJ Abrams trying to placate internet edgelords. Truncated plotlines, sidelined characters, fetch quests galore.
And even so, saying any of these films is worse than any of the three prequel films has hot-take vibes. The closest any of them get is TRoS’s complete incoherence. We know the prequels were written as they were made, and that’s what TRoS felt like to me. JJ’s mystery boxes caught up to him, and swallowed the trilogy whole.
“Okay, we’ve got to figure out where Star Wars goes from here. Let’s set up a plot line for the final trilogy, something that makes up for the prequels and gives a fitting ending to the beloved characters that-”
“Nah, let’s just make it up as we go. It’s Star Wars, nobody notices or cares about continuity or consistency. Now, they made TWO movies with the Doom Sphere or whatever, right? Let’s just do that again. Okay, c’mon, let’s go, I want this trilogy on my desk by five!”
Yeah, I have to agree. He was an annoying goofball, but at least we didn’t really have to see him much past the first movie. But still, for the most part, the characters in the prequels and sequels lacked personality and didn’t endear themselves to the audience.
Boyega absolutely has a valid point that his character devolved into essentially tokenism. While one could argue the original movies focused mainly on Luke, the other characters all had their parts and felt like real people. We can sum up who they are in a sentence or two. Finn went from someone who looked like was going to have an important story arch, possibly even the center of the trilogy, do basically being shelved. You’re doing a disservice to the actor, fans, and story not utilizing the characters you brought in.
In general, the characters were all plot devices to get to a new amazing wiz-bang action sequence.
Rogue One, The Mandalorian, and The Clone Wars and Rebels (and to a degree Star Wars Resistance) animated series all have shown what interesting characters and solid story telling can be engaging. The story doesn’t even really need to be that complex. The prequels required so much exposition, and the sequels felt like it was shoe horning in mysteries that didn’t pan out.
By that standard, Episode I is awesome.
Disney and Lucas basically made the same choices, the only difference is that Lucas had a consistent ego driving the prequels so even as bad and disjointed as they are he will never be at bad as writing a nostalgic script than JJ Abrams - the man behind screwing up two big nostalgic film franchises in a row for the same reasons. Why anyone decides to get JJ Abrams to make anything is beyond me, but getting him for Star Wars after his Star Trek movies was clearly going to fail.
When Disney let Rian take a swing and make a competent and interesting story that would be controversial, it was as better story decision than Lucas has made since the 80s. The problem is that Disney then backed down to the pressure of very public assholes as well as letting Abrams back into the fold.
Combine the different visions with the top aggressive schedule and it was doomed to make Rise of Skywalker, easily the single worst Star Wars movie.
It’s funny you bring up the Last Starfighter, because that movie was the first time I remember really trying to imagine what happened before and after what we saw. Maybe it’s better I was never told. 
Yeah -they were pretty much making it all up as they went along -and it shows.
there are episodes that are amazing, episodes which are not.
some of the bad ones are eye rolling, but i think some of the greatest moments in all of star wars are in clone wars. There are online guides about what to watch and what to avoid…
I’d go for a Y&R style Star Wars series. I mean secret parentage, masked interlopers, lost identities, reformation and relapse are all bread and butter on soaps. Although I’d rather “The Stars of Our Lives”
It’s not well explained in the movies, but in the screenplays, novelizations and various still-canon eu stuff, it’s made very clear that Anakin has prophetic dreams that basically are always true. Perks of being the chosen one.
So while Padme dying in childbirth is technologically absurd, Anakin’s whole life experience is to pay attention to his force visions because they’re true.
I sort of hope so, that’s what Rogue One did that everything since ep. 6 missed: the world should look and feel like Starwars.
Any explanation that isn’t presented within the movies themselves doesn’t count toward redeeming those movies.
rogue one?
i think you’ve just written the first on-topic post of this thread. 
star wars should have propelled the actors to big name stars – instead it became this unfortunate mirror of american politics
the queer and non-white character stories got sidelined, and straight white stories got shoe-horned-in instead. the actors were then relentlessly attacked online because it was obvious disney wasn’t standing up for them on film or in the press.
it’s not a great choice for actors – sign up with disney to work on these blockbuster projects and you wind up targeted by the fans.
Final season is amazeballs!
My personal theory is Palpatine killed Padme via the force. Someone of his power could just remotely drain her life, especially if she was in a weakened state from childbirth. It would seal Vader’s fall, claiming he caused her death, and add to his feelings of failure and guilt to manipulate him further.
Though… this brings up something interesting I thought about the other day. Vader knew about Luke, but was genuinely surprised about Leia. Did he not know she had twins? Did she keep this fact from Anakin?
Working theory I came up with my GF, Padme was going to keep Luke, but trade Leia for some bitchin’ Space Boots. And then people would be like, “Wow, nice Space Boots!”
“Thanks!”
“Were they expensive?”
“Funny story about that…”
I still think the Clone Wars series missed a major opportunity to address the elephant in the room: The Jedi were complicit in the enslavement of an entire race of human beings created for the sole purpose of acting as cannon fodder.
In doing so, the Jedi order demonstrated that it had already become hopelessly corrupted from within long before the Sith destroyed them.
I LOVE Benicio Del Toro, but didn’t really like his character at all in the movie. I also found Rose’s motivations not very good either. And they way they wrote her character off with a super awkward cringey scene… Jesus Christ, if you don’t want to use a character any more, just don’t use them. It is a huge galaxy and she could have just been doing something else.
But I can not understand how fucking stupid you have to be to not like a character or their actions - which were in the script they didn’t write - and then go after the actors. Criticizing the work is fair game. Even criticizing the performance is fair if you actually elaborate on what one found wrong. But going after the ACTORS - Jesus Christ, you people lost the fucking plot. It’s a movie, fucking relax. I guess if you have to write a letter say you didn’t like it, direct it at the people who made up and green lit the plot.
Escape from New York is the same way. The exposition is dropped in as little hints in drips and it gets your mind wandering about
