Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

All six of the new ones are shit. The only good one that felt anything like the originals is rogue one. That is very good.

Compared to the original trilogy, none of the final 6 films really stack up, but I was able to enjoy Revenge of the Sith and Force Awakens for what it was - maybe they felt like decent films because the other 4 ranged from the utter nonsense to just silly and boring, I don't know.
 
I've now watched the entire Skywalker series in the space of about 10 days.

My first rookie mistake was thinking the episodes were numbered in the order they were released. So I watched the Phantom Menace thinking it was the first ever Star Wars film. I didn't look at the year it was released, so I spent the whole film thinking 'this seems a bit modern for a 1977 film'.

Anyway, I finished Episode 1, and then went back to the start and watched Episode 4 and continued to watch them all in theatrical release order.

I don't know what the general consensus is about the films, but I feel like the story never really reached the heights of the original trilogy. The prequels were terrible, but the sequels, although clearly better, also fall way short of the originals. Revenge of the Sith was probably better than any of the final trilogy though, so the prequels has that going for it. Force Awakens was pretty good, but it got progressively worse with each subsequent film and now I kind of wish I hadn't bothered with any of it.

4, 5, 6 were great.
3 and 7 were pretty decent.
8 and 9 were bang average.
1 and 2 were genuinely awful

Pretty much. 7 was essentially a remake of 4, 9 was an hour of utter mess, and than an average remake of 6.
To be fair, 7-9 suffered from two complete changes of direction when being written, which didn't help and was just bad planning.

And Rogue One knocks all but a couple out of the park.
 
I can forgive the errors in Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones because they were very clearly building a story, with a coherent plot (that also tied in extremely nicely with the Original Trilogy).
 
I've now watched the entire Skywalker series in the space of about 10 days.

My first rookie mistake was thinking the episodes were numbered in the order they were released. So I watched the Phantom Menace thinking it was the first ever Star Wars film. I didn't look at the year it was released, so I spent the whole film thinking 'this seems a bit modern for a 1977 film'.

Anyway, I finished Episode 1, and then went back to the start and watched Episode 4 and continued to watch them all in theatrical release order.

I don't know what the general consensus is about the films, but I feel like the story never really reached the heights of the original trilogy. The prequels were terrible, but the sequels, although clearly better, also fall way short of the originals. Revenge of the Sith was probably better than any of the final trilogy though, so the prequels has that going for it. Force Awakens was pretty good, but it got progressively worse with each subsequent film and now I kind of wish I hadn't bothered with any of it.

4, 5, 6 were great.
3 and 7 were pretty decent.
8 and 9 were bang average.
1 and 2 were genuinely awful

My family and I watched the entire nine plus Rogue One and Solo in chronological order (Star Wars chronology). My wife and I are in our 50s; son 15, daughter 14. Here's our combined ranking.

11. I
10. II
T9. III, VIII, IX
6. VI
5. Rogue One
4. VII
3. Solo
2. V
1. IV

Interesting that the kids really liked Solo where as the parents really liked Rogue 1. Seems odd we ranked VII above VI (I wouldn't) but I think the ladies of the house identify more with Rey. We all agreed the prequels weren't very good with 8 and 9 passable.

Personally I like Rogue 1 second best after IV. I'd seen them all before of course and the one that improves the most on second viewing is Solo I think, whereas there's some pretty bad acting and dialogue in VI. I think the first half an hour of VII is excellent but -- very sad to say -- once Han and Chewy hone in, the pic goes downhill.
 
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Pretty much. 7 was essentially a remake of 4, 9 was an hour of utter mess, and than an average remake of 6.
To be fair, 7-9 suffered from two complete changes of direction when being written, which didn't help and was just bad planning.

And Rogue One knocks all but a couple out of the park.

I must admit I kind of liked that it was pretty much a modern version of 4 because it hinted that they had learnt from the disaster the prequels were and it actually filled me with hope that 8 and 9 were going to be great and the whole series was gearing up to go out with a bang - which makes 8 and 9 all the more disappointing.
 
My family and I watched the entire nine plus Rogue One and Solo in chronological order (Star Wars chronology). My wife and I are in our 50s; son 15, daughter 14. Here's our combined ranking.

11. I
10. II
T9. III, VIII, IX
6. VI
5. Rogue One
4. VII
3. Solo
2. V
1. IV

Interesting that the kids really liked Solo where as the parents really liked Rogue 1. Seems odd we ranked VII above VI (I wouldn't) but I think the ladies of the house identify more with Rey. We all agreed the prequels weren't very good 8 and 9 passable.

Personally I like Rogue 1 second best after IV. I'd seen them all before of course and the one that improves the most on second viewing is Solo I think, whereas there's some pretty bad acting and dialogue in VI. I think the first half an hour of VII is excellent but -- very sad to say -- once Han and Chewy hone in, the pic goes downhill.

The bold part I agree with.

I must admit I haven't yet watched Rogue One and Solo. I plan on watching them in the next couple of days.

If I was judging 7, 8, 9 as stand alone sci-fi action films, they actually weren't that bad, but they're Star Wars films so they get to be judged with those expectations.
 
I’m still trying to workout where ‘The Mandolorian’ fits in!!

Is it Yoda? If so why are there storm troopers when they only arrive into the films during episode 2 Attack of the Clones, and Yoda is a fully fledged Jedi master!! If it’s not Yoda, then who the fuck is it.

As for the last Skywalker, it’s ok, 7 out of 10, kids enjoy it but us adults look too much into them instead of just taking them for what they are.
 
Watched the prequels recently with my son and they were not as bad as I remembered. There are some bits that make me want to put my foot through the TV ie Anytime Anakin and Padme are on screen together. I haven't seen the original 3 for a while so there may be some frequency bias at play but for me Last Jedi is my favourite. I do like Rogue One as well. Solo left me a little bored.
 
I’m still trying to workout where ‘The Mandolorian’ fits in!!

Is it Yoda? If so why are there storm troopers when they only arrive into the films during episode 2 Attack of the Clones, and Yoda is a fully fledged Jedi master!! If it’s not Yoda, then who the fuck is it.

As for the last Skywalker, it’s ok, 7 out of 10, kids enjoy it but us adults look too much into them instead of just taking them for what they are.

I'm about 1 and a half episodes into this. I literally gasped when they revealed this in-demand bounty was baby Yoda or some kind of descendent of the Yoda species.
 
Watched the prequels recently with my son and they were not as bad as I remembered. There are some bits that make me want to put my foot through the TV ie Anytime Anakin and Padme are on screen together. I haven't seen the original 3 for a while so there may be some frequency bias at play but for me Last Jedi is my favourite. I do like Rogue One as well. Solo left me a little bored.

The reason why I dislike 2 the most is because they were pushing this Anakin/Padme love story so much and I just wasn't buying it. I'm not sure if the dude who played teenage Anakin was just a poor actor or if the lines he was fed were just that bad. Probably a bit of both. The overall premise of 1 was fine for me, but again, the acting, the over the top CGI stuff just ruined it. I also don't think we needed a whole film dedicated to a 9 year old Anakin.
 
I must admit I kind of liked that it was pretty much a modern version of 4 because it hinted that they had learnt from the disaster the prequels were and it actually filled me with hope that 8 and 9 were going to be great and the whole series was gearing up to go out with a bang - which makes 8 and 9 all the more disappointing.

They forgot to employ anyone with any significant acting ability (Ridley), or if they had any, it was drummed out of them by giving them nothing to do (Boyega).

Not a lot of charisma from the new cast outside Isaacs (? - Poe Dameron).
 
The bold part I agree with.

I must admit I haven't yet watched Rogue One and Solo. I plan on watching them in the next couple of days.

If I was judging 7, 8, 9 as stand alone sci-fi action films, they actually weren't that bad, but they're Star Wars films so they get to be judged with those expectations.

Solo has some good twists -- you just have to get it out of your head that this isn't Harrison Ford. Woody Harrleson is great in it too.

I like Rogue One because it's gritty. It's about moral conflict and sacrifice -- and actually has something to say about it. Yet still has some good characters, some funny lines, all the action, bad guys you don't like, etc. And it ties so neatly into IV.
 
They forgot to employ anyone with any significant acting ability (Ridley), or if they had any, it was drummed out of them by giving them nothing to do (Boyega).

Not a lot of charisma from the new cast outside Isaacs (? - Poe Dameron).

My favourite was actually the dude who played Kylo Ren, mostly because he was the character with the most depth. We got to know his background, watched his conflicting emotions - he played that part really well. I didn't mind Rey's character, and Finn was fine too, I just needed more depth to them, which we only started getting with Rey towards the end of 9. I try not to criticise films to deeply and get nit-picky with them, but I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been to be a Star Wars fan in the last 40 years, having spent so many years waiting for these films.
 
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Solo has some good twists -- you just have to get it out of your head that this isn't Harrison Ford. Woody Harrleson is great in it too.

I like Rogue One because it's gritty. It's about moral conflict and sacrifice -- and actually has something to say about it. Yet still has some good characters, some funny lines, all the action, bad guys you don't like, etc. And it ties so neatly into IV.

I've watched the trailers, and I can tell I'm going to like Rogue One more but I'll watch them both with an open mind.
 
The prequels suffered from no one telling Lucas they were shite, I listened to a podcast with JW Rinzler who worked at the time at Lucasfilm, he said they knew before it was released it was crap, however it made a shit load of cash because it was the first film for 17 years.
The prequels could’ve been so much better if darker but it was just a toy fest for Lucas to sell, I believe many kids who saw these films love them after all it’s aimed at them, unfortunately fanboys (myself included) wanted so much more, we wanted the Vader that appears at the end of Rogue One (probably the best 5 mins in all the films).
The sequels just seemed to be remakes of the originals and the abortion of the Last Jedi effectively killed the franchise, Abrams tried to save it in the Episode 9 but the damage had been done.
Rogue One is brilliant and I like Solo as well, but the originals will always be the best. For the franchise to move forward they will have to go to a different time period, Taika Watiti has been given a film and after his direction on Mandalorian plus his other films I have high hopes as long as Disney leave him alone.
In regard Mandalorian it’s set 5 years after Return of the Jedi, it is not baby Yoda but the same species, which has never been named. Hopefully Disney learn from this series and allow Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau writing, producing and input into the films, Filoni is Star Wars through and through a fan, a gem and produced the Star Wars rebels and Mandalorian, he gets it and that’s translated so far to the screen, as long as Kathleen Kennedy keeps her nose out.
 
I’m still trying to workout where ‘The Mandolorian’ fits in!!

Is it Yoda? If so why are there storm troopers when they only arrive into the films during episode 2 Attack of the Clones, and Yoda is a fully fledged Jedi master!! If it’s not Yoda, then who the fuck is it.

The Mandalorian is set a few years after Return of the Jedi. 'Baby Yoda' is merely one of Yoda's species, who have never been officially named (in order to maintain the mystery around Yoda). People just call the child 'Baby Yoda.'

As it is set after ROTJ, the Stormtroopers and Moff Gideon are one of the Imperial Remnants that formed in the political vacuum after Palpatine's death (yes, he did die on the Second Death Star, regardless of what Disney would have us believe). Moff Gideon must have been a high ranking Imperial official, as he has a version of the title that Tarkin had in A New Hope and Rogue One (Grand Moff).

Interestingly - *spoiler alert* - it has been linked in the past few days that Disney have hired Temuera Morrison (the actor who played Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones) to play Boba Fett in the second season of The Mandalorian. So, he evidently got out of the Sarlacc pit at some point!
 
The prequels suffered from no one telling Lucas they were shite, I listened to a podcast with JW Rinzler who worked at the time at Lucasfilm, he said they knew before it was released it was crap, however it made a shit load of cash because it was the first film for 17 years.
The prequels could’ve been so much better if darker but it was just a toy fest for Lucas to sell, I believe many kids who saw these films love them after all it’s aimed at them, unfortunately fanboys (myself included) wanted so much more, we wanted the Vader that appears at the end of Rogue One (probably the best 5 mins in all the films).
The sequels just seemed to be remakes of the originals and the abortion of the Last Jedi effectively killed the franchise, Abrams tried to save it in the Episode 9 but the damage had been done.
Rogue One is brilliant and I like Solo as well, but the originals will always be the best. For the franchise to move forward they will have to go to a different time period, Taika Watiti has been given a film and after his direction on Mandalorian plus his other films I have high hopes as long as Disney leave him alone.
In regard Mandalorian it’s set 5 years after Return of the Jedi, it is not baby Yoda but the same species, which has never been named. Hopefully Disney learn from this series and allow Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau writing, producing and input into the films, Filoni is Star Wars through and through a fan, a gem and produced the Star Wars rebels and Mandalorian, he gets it and that’s translated so far to the screen, as long as Kathleen Kennedy keeps her nose out.
Looks like you got there first regarding the Mandalorian!

I think there is the basis of a really good trilogy there with the Prequels. Despite the terrible writing and some cringe-inducing acting, there are some plots (particularly Palpatine's arch) which are really good. I think they also did a good job of showing the corruption and hypocrisy of the Jedi in the late Republic era.

The question I ask anyone after they have watched the Sequel trilogy is: are we in a better position at the end of Rise of Skywalker, than we were at the end of Return of the Jedi? There is only one answer to that.
 

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