In a galaxy far, far away... [Star Wars omnibus thread]

[Rare White Ape]

I'd say if you (somehow) have never seen any, go in release order.

If you have and just want to re-watch them all, go in story chronological order, with Rogue 1 thrown in before A New Hope.

All of these suggestions miss one critical point: being there when the films were released.

Experiencing the swell of pop culture fandom as each Star Wars nears release in the cinema for the first time is one massive part of it for me.

I think the films have to be seen in release order, but you miss out on the anticipation of the unknown. You miss the wondering where the story started (for the prequels), you miss out on seeing where it goes after RotJ (for the sequels), and you miss the chill up the spine when you realise that ship that Leia was on in Rogue One was the Tantive IV so that must mean Vader’s ship is the Devastator and they’re heading straight for the rendezvous over Tatooine that started it all, nearly 40 years after it first entered our eyeballs and scrambled our brains.

The films aren’t just about the individual stores that you watch some time later on Blu-Ray. They’re about everything else that happens; the meta story of Star Wars, and no watch order can capture that.

[MR2 Fan]

so people have been asking what others are looking forward to most in 2019...Avengers: End Game or Star Wars Episode 9.


Seriously, after all of the other flaws of Episode 8, the other one is that it didn't really end with unanswered questions or a cliffhanger where I feel compelled to watch Episode 9. Unless JJ retcons the whole thing (which is entirely possible), there's nothing in the plot that I'm really concerned about finishing.

The more I think about The Last Jedi, the more I dislike it

[Rare White Ape]

I’ve started watching Resistance. I’ve gone through five episodes and I think it’s excellent.

I mostly put that down to the art style, which is a departure from their previous shows Rebels and Clone Wars. Instead of the shaded, Pixar-esque look, they’ve leaned heavily on a flatter cel-shaded style with sharper lines and finer details. I think it has avoided the uncanny valley better by looking more like a 2D animated show than a 3D one, even though it’s still fully 3D. It actually reminds me quite a lot of Breath of the Wild (otherwise known as the game I’ll refer to far more often in other contexts than I should) and makes me wanna have a Zelda-like game made in that world

The main character Kaz is basically a carbon copy of the protagonist from Rebels, except he’s a pilot, not a Jedi, so I’ll sometimes refer to him as Flying Ezra. There’s a lot of similarities here already. He’s got issues with his father, a senator in the New Republic (Ezra lost his parents), he’s a misfit in a strange environment (Ezra, a local miscreant, was adopted by freedom fighters) and he’s a boy learning tough lessons about his place in the galaxy (erm, same for Ezra I guess, but on a much larger scale where the wrong choice could lead down a dark path and result in the total destruction of the Rebel Alliance).

The story takes place well and truly before Poe Dameron finds the map that leads to Skywalker, so you’ve got a bit of a time limit before it potentially doevetails into The Force Awakens, but no too strict. Poe has left BB8 with Kaz and you get some early encounters with a burgeoning First Order, including Captain Phasma. I can’t wait to see where this goes over the next few seasons.

[FaultyMario]

I don't remember if I had watched a complete showing of E7, so last night I sat with the boy and went thru with it. But oh my god, fucking cartoonish crap.

Abrams is so overrated, there's no nuance to characters, He had to get a lot of those original trilogy characters (with the original cast members!) just to get his story moving; that's shit that would have you fail storytelling 101.

You now how people make fun of McGregor for failing miserably at delivering the awful dialogue in some of the prequel scenes? Well, compared to Adam Driver... I wonder why Kylo Ren doesn't twirl his moustache before an action scene.

I just don't see any future paths for this story that can successfully create any cohesive narrative.

[MR2 Fan]

I don't remember if I had watched a complete showing of E7, so last night I sat with the boy and went thru with it. But oh my god, fucking cartoonish crap.

Abrams is so overrated, there's no nuance to characters, He had to get a lot of those original trilogy characters (with the original cast members!) just to get his story moving; that's shit that would have you fail storytelling 101.

You now how people make fun of McGregor for failing miserably at delivering the awful dialogue in some of the prequel scenes? Well, compared to Adam Driver... I wonder why Kylo Ren doesn't twirl his moustache before an action scene.

I just don't see any future paths for this story that can successfully create any cohesive narrative.

Did you see Ep 8? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that one then!

[FaultyMario]

Right now, I'd rather rewatch Rebels, because I didn't do a proper sitdown with the kid. He'd watch it from free-to-air TV on saturday mornings and I'd be doing all sorts of other things, but in those minutes I did sit down, it seemed a pretty solid narrative.

But yeah, E8 is on my list.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I had no issues with actors’ performances. I just thought the story was lacking or unoriginal. Almost the same story as ep 4, recycled again in 7.

As for 8, I was hoping for some sort of amazing surprise like Vader telling Luke he’s his daddy..., but the only surprise I got out of it was how pointless meaningless everything was... movie could’ve been made shorter...

Unless everything is some sort of huge setup for 9? So I guess it’s still possible for 9 to end up awesome and redeem the previous 2 films, but not holding my breath.

As for McGregor, yeah, I can’t stand him in most films. He has this annoying stupid prick quality that I found annoying in the prequels... also hated him in the remade Beauty and the Beast... However, I did like him in Moulin Rouge though. He played that love struck annoying stupid prick perfectly!

[FaultyMario]

I had no issues with actors’ performances.

My complain is that the story relied too much on them, the movie threw its weight on their performances without giving the audience much ground to the emotions of the characters. If it were a dialogue it'd been like this:

Ep7: Kylo is a suffering monster, but it's all anchored in his past.
Audience: Cool!, tell me more.
Ep7: I can't because it'd reveal stuff that i'm saving for later.
Audience: Oh come on, tell us now, it's a bit douchey.
Ep7: Sorry, you're going to have watch the next movie.


Audience: Dude, Finn's getting too touchy with Rey... Is that going anywhere?
Ep7: Can't tell you now!
Audience: What the fuck, man? You're supposed to tell us, that's the whole point.

[MR2 Fan]

Hah, you really should watch Ep 8 then if you think Ep 7 is bad about that! It's on a whole other level

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yes, 8 won’t tell you much more. Just toss in more distractions and confusions. It added more questions than answers.

Hopefully these 2 movies are some sort of awesome setup for the final one. Because otherwise I think the franchise will be doomed because it would totally piss me off enough to stop watching anymore of it.

Anyway, I wouldn’t mind more films like Rogue 1 or Solo though.