Sounds similar to mine. I never got to empire, and it was a while ago so I’ll need to show them star wars again. Im afraid they’ll get spoiled about the reveal before they get to see empire.
My positive opinion: at no point in any Star Wars movie has the set design, costuming, or special effects work been less than excellent. Always beautiful to look at, with a marvelous sense of place and consistency.
The Ewok movie had pretty low production values. (Though my memories of being 4 years old are not as clear on this issue…)
[edit]
Oh wait, there were two Ewok movies. Maybe my 4yo self was kinda right (about the first one).
An easy one for the all-positive thread: I finished 3 seasons of The Clone Wars, and it’s a great show. One advantage the TV show has over movies is that at 22 minutes an episode, I’ve now watched over 24 hours of Clone Wars, compared to the Star Wars movies, which also clock in at about 24 hours in total now. And I’ve still got 4 seasons of the show to go.
Rise of Skywalker should be on Disney+ now, as well as the start of the Mandalorian documentary about the making of that series. It will be tough, but I’ll try to watch Skywalker with this thread in mind and try to focus only on the positive when I watch it this week so I can report back.
I think this press release, while scant on information, has positive potential!
Have you seen it before?
Yes. I saw it opening week in the theaters. Usually Abrams is pretty good about distracting me long enough with a new shiny action sequence that I don’t notice weaknesses until after the movie is over, but that was not the case this time, sadly. So it will be interesting going in looking for the positive, because I’m pretty sure there’s lots to be mined there, I’ve just forgotten it. I’m especially looking forward to the Ocean World. I remember really enjoying that.
I can only tell you what worked for me. Don’t pay attention to the story, or at least pay as little attention as possible, because there’s a lot of it that doesn’t make a lick of sense (there’s no way that much of DS2 survives intact on Ocean World). Just go for the emotional beats. Leia dying. The ‘loss’ of Chewie. The ‘loss’ of C3PO. Rey’s reunion with Luke. Everybody showing up to fight the new fleet of Star Destroyers. The ‘return’ of Han. The fight with the Emperor. The reunion of the three friends at the end. And others. Those still work, or they did for me. The ‘story’ - such as it is - was enough to get me from point to point. If I wanted it to make logical sense for me, I’d probably hate it as much as a lot of people seem to.
As I reinstalled Jedi Knight after couple decades I first decided to do a full Star Wars marathon (well full according to me, since I ignore the “not my canon” disney trilogy).
So I have a 4K prequel trilogy, entirety of Clone Wars and Rebels, followed by Rogue One and Despecialized Original Trilogy, followed by Mandalorian to watch. I haven’t seen any of those TV series yet.
I wonder how long that’s gonna take me, but I am really excited to delve into it (yes I enjoy prequels too, possibly because I was 12 when Ep1 came out). And after ROTJ I will start playing Kyle Katarn.
I just discovered this thread! I LOVE this idea, and can play along easily. Beyond the original trilogy, I am not blind to any of the movies flaws, but I absolutely enjoy them overall – even episode 2, which for me is the least good, still has moments to enjoy.
The original trilogy is just beautiful, start to finish. The heart, the humor, the dialogue – everything worked about this for me, every single time. I don’t even need to break it down movie by movie.
Episode 1 - I’ve always been an apologist. Yes, large portions have issues. But I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sheer euphoria I felt in theaters – I was born in '80, so I was introduced to the original trilogy on VHS. I watched the re-releases in theaters, but this was all brand new to me, and was such a glorious spectacle. The opening crawl, I was giddy, and man – the adrenaline rush as we saw two Jedi in their prime just slicing through droids – I was elated. We’d never seen Jedi kick ass like that. Then we muddle through some stuff, and get a wonderful Ben-Hur style podracing scene. The excitement from that carried me through until the final battle, which is just…amazing. I still love watching that, and consider it one of the best-choreographed fight scenes ever. In the energy beam hallway, seeing Maul pacing, Qui-Gon calmly meditating, and young Obi-Wan antsy – that scene summed up so much about their characters. And Qui-Gon Jinn is one of my favorite characters from the Star Wars universe. I really like episode 1.
Episode 2 - The weakest in the series for me, but there’s still a lot of fun here. I rather enjoyed the opening scene, chasing the assassin through the streets. I liked watching Obi-Wan grow into the mentorship role. The battle with all the Jedi at Geonosis is fun – and I like watching that open up out of the arena and spill all over the planet. The fight against Dooku at the end was great, and I loved seeing Yoda actually exhibit what makes him a Jedi Master.
Episode 3 - I haven’t seen this as many times as the other 2, for some reason, but I’ve always felt like it was pretty solid. Much less filler, much less cheese, solid story. Watching everything come together, and seeing the rise of Vader – always good.
Ewan McGregor always seemed like he was having a great time in these movies, and that carried them along nicely.
Rogue One - All the love has been spilled all over this one. I’ve only actually seen it once – I guess it’s time for a rewatch! – but it was Star Wars, through and through, and it was wonderful.
Solo - I enjoyed it. There were a lot of great little moments that really spoke to Han’s character, and Donald Glover nailed Young Lando, and I want more of him. And I’m never sad about seeing Emilia Clarke, in any capacity. Another one I need to rewatch, but I liked it well enough when I saw it in theaters.
I actually just rewatched episodes 7 and 8, and will start 9 shortly.
Episode 7 - I love it. The callbacks and parallels to the original trilogy worked for me. I felt like the snappy dialogue – especially Poe – was finally getting back to the humor of the original trilogy that we didn’t really get in the prequels. The new characters they introduced were great, and seeing Han and Chewie in the Falcon again – “Chewie, we’re home” – worked great emotionally. The conflict in Kyle, the death of Han – these worked for me. And I absolutely adore Rey.
Episode 8 - It’s a shame Disney didn’t put together an overarching vision, because 7 and 8 are both really good movies, they just weren’t exactly on the same page. The Last Jedi did SO MANY great things through. The discussion of Rian Johnson subverting expectations has been had, but it really works in this movie, overall. Our characters grew, and I enjoyed seeing Luke again, and his struggles with the legacy he’s leaving behind. And Carrie Fisher. <3 So much good in this movie, and it’s a fun ride start to finish.
I’m about to rewatch 9, and I’ll come back when I do, but in theaters I mostly enjoyed it, even if it’s a bit of a mess. I can certainly find positive in it, and I always felt like JJ had an impossible task in trying to adequately wrap up one of the most beloved sagas in cinematic history. EDIT – Rewatched episode 9. Some great emotional beats, and the Rey/Kylo stuff is really good. Plenty to criticize, but that’s been done to death in other threads. I don’t have too much trouble just enjoying the ride, and it’s definitely never boring. The low point in the new trilogy, but still better than the prequels, IMHO.
I need to finish up Clone Wars (which, what I’ve seen is excellent) and Rebels (also very solid), but I’ll be damned if The Mandalorian isn’t the best thing to happen to Star Wars since the original trilogy, and I have so much love for it. I just rewatched it over the past week, as well, and it’s just so, so good.
Donald Glover is the reason to watch Solo. Easily the best thing in the film.
I want a Donald Glover Mandalorian style TV series.
I said the exact same thing to a friend…yesterday, I think. Maybe the day before? I would LOVE to see a Young Lando series on D+ with Donald Glover. He was just damn fantastic.
Would be cool.
Well duh! Its Lando, cool is his middle name.
Heading into twilight, spreading out our wings tonight (night… night… night…)
What movie had X-Wings flying around and through that disc-shaped space station?? I don’t recognize it.
You mean the one first visible at 0:30 then again at 1:15 and 1:47?
That’s Rogue One, which is my favorite of all the Disney films.
It also has the incredible mustache of Anton Merrick seen in the video thumbnail.
Yeah, that’s the one. Rogue One was my best guess. I haven’t seen it since the theaters.
I’ve watched it, I think, 4 times since theaters. Which, for me, is positively lavish given how much time I spend watching TV. (<5 hours a week, and that’s if I watch a movie with the wife)
Man, I love X-wings. Thank you for sharing that.
That video definitely accomplishes one thing. It shows just how far CGI has come since A New Hope.