• bblkargonaut@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    I just wanted to see Luke in the role of obi wan or Yoda after decades of Jedi training be a hero and pass on his legacy by training the next generation. But I would have been ok with one heroic lightsaber battle, and a reunion with han, chewy and Leia.

    Watching the last Jedi and seeing someone who tossed his blade away because he saw the good in essentially “Space Hitler” try to kill his own nephew because he was having a nightmare so out of character. Then having him overdose on the force and die like a chump, broke me. I left the theater in silence. The last Jedi is also the only star wars movie with out a light saber fight. No blades ever touched.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    ·
    2 days ago

    The original trilogy was hero’s journey stuff, mythology for a modern age. Episode 6 was the weakest, though.

    The prequel trilogy was an envisioned world - for all of its writing weaknesses, it felt like a living, breathing universe.

    The sequel trilogy was lifeless. 7 was an okay start, and I actually quite enjoyed it despite being derivative, but 8 was muddled trash (how many times did Poe commit mutiny while they were doing the slow-mo chase?) and 9 was dreadfully mediocre.

    And this is coming from someone who loves many of the spin-off media on their own merits, many even more than I love the prequel trilogy.

    It’s not nostalgia. Some of us just genuinely dislike how shit the sequel trilogy was, and how bad they did our boy John Boyega after episode 7.

    • Enkrod@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      2 days ago

      And the problem is not even the corporate wokeism (although it’s feels about as insincere as all of the current corporate wokewashing) it’s just… bad writing. “Lifeless” is absolutely on point as a description for the sequels. It felt like they only existed to yank my nostalgia while at the same time trying to do so with less thought and love poured into them. Plastic, lifeless, sanitized, insincere, corporate profit driven nostalgia-fodder CAN NOT compare to simply good writing, actors with chemistry and sincerity.

      I watched 7, suffered through 8 and didn’t even care about watching 9. Yes, I am nostalgic, but that’s precisely what the sequels were created to evoke. But just nostalgia isn’t enough!

      Like you, I really enjoyed most of the spin-offs. They had a story to tell and they had direction, believable characters and did not feel like just trying to yank my nostalgia for the original trilogy. I mean… they DID yank my nostalgia, but then they went above and beyond that and told interesting stories.

      • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        I watched 7, suffered through 8 and didn’t even care about watching 9.

        I almost didn’t watch 9. Then a friend of mine who’d walked out of the theater while watching 8 told me 9 was actually good. So I took his word for it. Episode 9 was okay. Not good or bad. Felt like they were trying to cram two movies into one. But, without getting into spoilers, compared to 8, 9 was still okay.

  • Qwazpoi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    2 days ago

    Solo had L3-37 who was presented as being a self made individual literally and she was also humanized with her body and movement being less stuffy and robotic and more human. I remember people complaining she was woke.

    Maybe it’s woke to advocate for someone having equal rights or wanting to be viewed equal to people when the story presents her as someone who is self-aware, capable of emotions, and desires freedom. She certainly uses a lot of terms that I guess people who are worried about wokeness might find off-putting.

    BUT, here’s the thing most of the time when she says that she wants fair treatment or equal rights it’s presented as a joke. Even her losing her body and the ability to freely move and pursue her own goals is treated as something of a happy ending. Remember the whole movie where she said she wants freedom and autonomy and how she’s a self made droid? Well now she’s shackled inside a computer with no ability to escape, but it’s a happy ending because the audience wasn’t meant to take her seriously.

    So in that the context of Solo the people who were complaining about wokeness were missing the forest through the trees, when the only messaging that could really be considered “woke” was something that was treated as a joke in the movie. I wouldn’t be surprised if people complaining about wokeness are just people who are upset if minorities or gay people exist and they use the term to hide behind and avoid outright saying it

    (I’m aware that there’s more Star Wars than just Solo, but I haven’t seen all the new stuff and was mostly using it as an example)

  • theneverfox@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    2 days ago

    No, the writing was just bad.

    I strongly prefer strong female leads (and my tastes only get more LGBT when it comes to novels), but those movies were terrible. Just horrendous. I still can’t bring myself to watch episode 9, or anything star wars since then

    I’m not even that big a star wars fan. I love sci-fi and fantasy, because I love the new ideas they contain - star wars was never special to me, it was just good

    I’ll never forget leaving the theater after episode 7, my whole department took off to see it on release. I just remember everyone being relatively satisfied, even the extreme star wars nerds, but I just looked at my team lead who I shared an office with. .

    We used to talk about Star wars all the time, especially the extended universe, but we looked at each other and I saw pain in his expression, and I knew I shared the same look. I don’t think we ever spoke about Star wars again

    And after episode 8, I now just feel dread when I see a blaster.

    It wasn’t that nostalgic for me, it wasn’t that my standards were unreachable - they were just bad movies.

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        The dialog was always mediocre to bad, but otherwise the writing was pretty good. Characters had growth arcs, acted in understandable ways given their characterization.

    • beebarfbadger@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      The less said about the sequel trilogy, the better, but do yourself a favour and don’t miss out on watching Andor just because of the movies. That show is just really good and also incidentally Star Wars.

      • theneverfox@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        The bad batch is apparently also great, along with the latest clone war seasons (according to my friend at least)

        I’m just not ready… Seeing Star wars just fills me with negative feelings. I hope I’ll get there one day - I loved the EU and the more they accept back into cannon the more I want to get back into it… But I just can’t give it another chance yet

        • beebarfbadger@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 day ago

          The thing is that, depending on your tastes, there’s a good chance at least some of the new content will appeal to people, but I do absolutely understand getting that bad aftertaste every time you remember that it all leads canonically into those three movies and … nyeeeerrrrgghhh.

          By the way, it seems that even a good portion of the producers seem to at least partially share that feeling, which makes it doubly sad that disney is making almost everyone shoehorn in some hint of retroactively created foreshadowing with the goal of explaining that no, palps returning that way isn’t the ass-pull it obviously was at all, nuh-uh!

        • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 day ago

          I’m just not ready…

          I’m almost the same way. I’m not really feeling negative about it, though. I just feel nothing towards it, which is almost worse. Like you said, though… maybe some day. The interest is still there somewhat, just not nearly enough for me to act on it.

    • CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      2 days ago

      After I saw 7, I thought, okay the story is super derivative, but I’m actually connecting with the characters like I used to in the original trilogy. Watching the prequels I was never fooled at any point into thinking these were actual humans on screen, but this time I felt something. So leaving the theater, I thought, well, at worst 8 and 9 will be a lot of fun, if you don’t focus on the plot.

      It turned out that a portion of 8 was like that for me (I thought the scenes between Rey and Kylo were very cool) and the rest was stuff I never wanted to see again. And then 9’s plot was nonsensical to the point that I don’t think I’ll ever want to subject myself to it again.

      I’ll never ever understand why even the most cynical studio in the world would want 7, 8, and 9 to be made without even a skeleton of a plot drawn out for the whole trilogy before starting on the first movie. It’s absolutely insane to me.

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      “I bypassed the compressor!”

      Still sucks that some audience minds associate character to actor a bit too much. Rei’s actor didn’t do anything wrong, and she deserves future chances.

    • mossy_@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      Watched any good movies with strong female leads lately? I just watched Birds of Prey and thought it was the best live action DC movie in a long time

      • theneverfox@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        I’m intrigued, I’m not a big fan of DC movies but I’m willing to give them another chance. Could you give me a quick synopsis?

        • mossy_@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 day ago

          Hmm. Harley Quinn breaks up with Joker, meaning all of the people she’s pissed off are no longer afraid to go after her. Along the way she meets the ensemble cast of heroines who also want to fight criminals and they team up for some grand finale where they all fight bad guys together.

          Very basic fare, so if you don’t like superhero movies (it’s a saturated market, I don’t blame anyone who does) then skip it. But it does feature Ewan McGregor playing a guy who likes peeling people’s faces off which was a funny tone shift.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 days ago

      For me the issue is not only the bad writing, but the over saturation of content as well.

      There are just too many spinoffs and sequels now, ever since Disney bought the rights. I got bored of The Mandalorian halfway into season 1. Same goes for Obi Wan. Rogue One was great, but I didn’t bother with Solo or even Episode IX. Stopped paying attention after that.

      The only Star Wars content I’m looking forward to is the remake of Knights of the Old Republic, and only because the original was among the best RPGs I’ve ever played. Couldn’t care less about anything else. Disney killed off my enthusiasm for the franchise. Maybe I just wasn’t as much of a fan as I thought I was…

      • bitwaba@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 days ago

        Solo was pretty alright - worth seeing once. And Andor was fantastic.

        Seriously, if you like star wars but find everything you’ve seen under the Disney release umbrella to be underwhelming at best, watch Andor. It is incredible. The worst thing about it is it is proof that good Star Wars content can be made today, and instead all the make is garbage.

    • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

      Star wars, star trek, loads of other shows have suffered the same problem here.

      I don’t mind female leads or LGBT, or Latin / Asian / African or whatever typenof actors, none of it is a problem, ehy should it be?

      I mind when the writing is cringe worthy bad, but I’m supposed to like the show because of reasons like

      “the main actor is black, … AND A WOMAN, gasp!”

      or

      “But 30 percent of the characters are gay, it MUST be good now, RIGHT?”

      or

      “That widely know character with a rich and very well defined backstory is now a stone cold murderer AND lesbian, this show rocks!”

      I’m tired of existing shoes being ruined this way. You want to make a show where all characters are black transgender women? Go ahead, make a NEW show, leave existing stories alone. If the writing is good, I’ll watch it, I don’t need a brave gay black Winnie Pooh.

      But that won’t happen, because they’ll take an existing show, shoehorn in a whole bunch of check boxes, black check, gay check, ooohhh bisexual check! And that’s it. Writing? Oh yeah, sure, we’ll have someone throw up over paper and we’ll use that because we have all the checkboxes, we gon be great!

      And another show lies ruined.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 days ago

    This unrealistic hypothetical includes way too much reasoning attempted with the “woke agenda” guy…

  • Tier 1 Build-A-Bear 🧸@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 day ago

    Andor is not on the same level as acolyte and it’s not even close.

    There’s just so much shit now it’s what you’ve gotten used to.

    That said, yes, the prequels and it had their issues but they’re still enjoyable. Acolyte on the other hand is a dumpster fire. I swear it was written by an ai, pretty much every element has been seen in Star wars before if you strip away the names.

    I like campy star wars but at least come up with something new

  • cordlesslamp@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    2 days ago

    Old Star Wars: Jedi is all about training, discipline, and resist temptations.

    Disney’s Star Wars: FAT JEDI.

  • menas@lemmy.wtf
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    2 days ago

    The goal was to make a Flash Gordon adaptation. So objectively, this is a failure. A very cool one

  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    Well, George Lucas has been gaslighting us about the OT for decades

    Imagine your kid watches Return of the Jedi and asks: “Why did they make every ship’s computer so primitive when they could apparently do CGI characters back then?” That will make you feel old.

  • muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    12 hours ago

    Define woke in this meme cos woke means multiple thibgs to multiple people.

    Disney has ruined star wars if that because of a woke agenda or just shit writing it depends on ur definition of woke.

  • LordGimp@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 days ago

    No I miss old star wars content. Specifically where Luke and Leia make out and where exactly George was going with that shit.

    Jokes aside, pronouns is the dumbest possible hill to die on with regards to the starwars universe. OF COURSE gender is going to work differently when you put a bunch of wildly different species together. Gender dimorphism is not some universal rule the rest of the galaxy has to follow. Hell, sexual dimorphism isn’t even universal ON EARTH. why the fuck wouldn’t you run into a them or xir every now and then? What about those bug people from clone wars? You think bug people are gonna have mommies and daddies or what?

  • crossover@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    89
    ·
    3 days ago

    Obligatory “just watch Andor” comment.

    Seriously. Go and watch Andor. It proves that good Star Wars content can be made. It has a diverse cast. You just need good writing and a vision. That’s what’s missing from the new content.

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      But I don’t want quality content when I open up a Star Wars series. I want the same old Republic vs Empire setting, some easygoing action with light sabers, bit of humor, a couple of furry characters and plot holes I can drive a truck through.

      Edit: make that a barge. I want to drive a barge through not a truck.