#(rogue one is first <3 and return of the jedi is 3rd)

[spikeythespians]

okay I hear you but am I the only one who genuinely loves the prequels??

If the Star Wars Prequels used negative reviews in their promo photos

[thegirlwholied]

SW anon - So I have tried to watch the whole thing before but I could never really get past the start. I watched ep IV a few years back (and in 2018 I watched it while it playing with a live orchestra which really enhanced the experience) and ofc I’ve known most of what happens bc my mom and brother have been fans of it (and ofc all the references to it in shows and it being everywhere) but the thing about the original trilogy that I found difficult to watch was very much the acting being off

Gov SW anon continued - but I think I’m gonna watch the clone wars show next as I feel like the general universe and people speak to me more than the skywalker and co. story speaks to me. But I’ll probably try and get back to the prequels afterwards (at least just to have seen them) but also bc I’ve been on tumblr for so long and I’ve encountered so much about the new movies with Finn, Poe and rey (I already know I don’t like kylo) that I’m interested to see what comes before that

Seeing Ep IV with a live orchestra sounds fantastic as the music is incredible. <3

I must admit I haven’t gotten properly into the Clone Wars show! I’ve tried, & did jump in to (and enjoy) the finale ~ and certain Mandalorian episodes strongly remind me of the show’s tone ~ but it has yet to hit me right in the place where I care. What I appreciate about it & what it’s brought into the Star Wars universe is still on a more distant level, not visceral. 

I most love that The Mandalorian is truly exploring & taking advantage of the wider Star Wars universe beyond Skywalker & co. (but boy do I also love Skywalker & co.) There is an exciting amount of potential in the newly-announced projects too I love characters outside of a universe’s main chosen-one story. In 6th grade, I was obsessed with the X-Wing book series, which were definitely really marketed toward adult guys but whoops, I had found the deep Star Wars section of the library! And the first line of that series, introducing the main character, is “You’re good, but you’re no Luke Skywalker.” And in a way, that’s the Mandalorian too, to the audience if not himself ~ good, but no Luke Skywalker. Not a Jedi, not meant to bring balance to the Force, a sidestory in the main universe’s struggle.  I (from what I’ve seen/know of) get the impression that’s how Ahsoka sees herself ~ ‘you’re good, but you’re no Anakin Skywalker’. 

Of course, for that contrast to work, first you need a Luke Skywalker.

it’s interesting you mention OT acting feeling off as I would use that exact word to describe how I feel about the acting in some episodes of The Mandalorian. In some I love it! Other times... I hesitate to say ‘like a video game’ as I mean no insult to the well-developed video game characters out there but yeah, it hits me like the actor’s aware they’re essentially in a live-action video game cut scene.

But. I truly love the acting in the original trilogy! ...but also as I type this I’m watching a movie from 1944 and acting style certainly varies by decade, & mileage varies as to personal taste... but also I will never be objective about Star Wars which I have loved since I was six... but also I studied film history in college and firmly believe Star Wars, the original trilogy is just objectively good if not quite everybody’s cup of tea (...okay maybe Return of the Jedi is not quite as objectively good, but I still love it so much and given the work it had to do wrapping up the original trilogy, hey, it did its job successfully and with Ewoks). 

I love the twinkling, wry humor & also gravitas of Alec Guinness. There’s that sense of amusement as he talks to Han, as he waves off the storm troopers, and even in the “let go, Luke”... but always the right weight in the right moments imho

Luke & Han particularly can both be petulant in different ways, & they’re all quippy & brash & even cavalier at times in what in context ~ especially when you rewatch A New Hope right after Rogue One ~ in Very Serious Situations! and I love them for it. 

Carrie Fisher’s accent does shift in the one scene (which I have never minded and definitely went around as a kid trying to say ‘Governor Tarkin’ exactly the way she does), and young Mark Hamill’s Luke can be Dramatic & the Most Petulant but understandably (& prettily) so, and... yeah I probably could muster a criticism for Harrison Ford but also I *can’t*! There are some ridiculous Han Solo moments in Return of the Jedi especially, but also I love him/them/just about every choice these movies made. They just hit on magic.

The magic’s there for me from the music swelling as Luke looks yearningly into the twin suns (the cinematography!), but where it really hits is the up-and-running chemistry between all three of the main actors starting the “Luke, we’re gonna have company” scene, and then, boom, it’s the garbage chute, it’s the you’re-braver-than-I-thought/he-certainly-has-courage, for-luck, here-they-come of it all and the movie is flying. 

...and I will never forgive the sequels for, avoiding spoilers as it sounds like you’re familiar but haven’t seen them, not giving us any true interaction scenes between Rey & Finn & Poe all together until the 3rd movie. While I still so appreciated finally getting that & what we got, for me it was just not just too little but too late. I love the casting & acting for all 3 of those characters, but while fandom’s taken and run with the combination, and they had plenty of chemistry... it should have been up-and-running so much sooner. 

And the prequels just... well, even seeing them in theaters at a susceptible age, the Lord of the Rings movies were coming out at the same time and that did them no favors in comparison. As someone who judges movies above all on dialogue, that... also did them no favors. (Beyond the OT I may have a Nontraditional ranking of Star Wars movies). 

The short version of my prequels & sequels take is that both missed that cinematic magic for me, outside of certain scenes, though I still enjoy them as part of The Whole Thing That Is Star Wars Which I Love. Rogue One had that magic; I know and see the criticism of the early editing & introduction-of-Jyn’s-background-and-Krennic-and-Galen scene, but, to me, that movie is perfect. Solo was solid - maybe not magic, but reliably enjoyable, and I’ve been meaning to rewatch. The prequels & sequels... the lows are very low and the highs are very high, in terms of how they hit me. 

I feel like I’d probably sum them up as Prequels: Good Star Wars, Bad Movies, and Sequels: Good Movies, Bad Star Wars, which may seem a little harsh or too kind on one side or another but gets at my take at the worldbuilding vs. just the cinema of it all. The bread scene in Force Awakens, the salt planet in Last Jedi, the dyad-duel-in-dual-locations in Rise of Skywalker? Gorgeous. Individual scenes’ acting & dialogue is sound for me. And yet. All three sequels’ choices in respect to the entire Star Wars universe and existing characters AND its new characters? ...Tonally inconsistent with each other *and* ultimately with the themes of the OT. Whereas the prequels did so much worldbuilding, and its politics, and I’ll see gifs and think ‘yes actually, is it better than I remember?’... and then I’ll catch one on TV & it’s the Padme & Anakin romance or even Anakin & Obi-Wan’s buddy scene dialogue at the beginning of Rise of Skywalker and the answer will come, clearly: “noooooooooooooooo.”

(...this got long. Which I tend to do when I care, about fiction in any form, and with the prequels/sequels: the ingredients were there to be magic. And just-misses are more frustrating than swing-and-misses. A la, you won’t find me complaining about the Star Wars Holiday Special!) 

(...OK so I haven’t seen all of the Star Wars Holiday Special, and I’m sort of aiming to watch it through this holiday season, since what other year than 2020 seems more appropriate? So I won’t promise not to complain about the Holiday Special but I mostly expect to laugh at it.)

(That said I found the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special an absolute, surprising, laugh-out-loud delight; 9/10 would recommend & yes, 1 point deduction as I will nitpick character consistency even when they are Legos.)

[meldusa0123]

The Last Jedi - A Second Take

I just went and saw TLJ for a second time tonight, and I’m glad I did.

I’ll open with a bit of back story and warn when the spoilers come...

I saw the movie the first time the Saturday after the release - in keeping with tradition with my teen son.  We’ve seen all the new ones the first time together and I truly hope this tradition continues.  I’ve been a fan since my first movie-theater film was Return of the Jedi when I was 5.  My dad took me and we watched all the episodes together whenever they came on TV throughout my childhood.

So, nearly a week after the official release of TLJ, my son is in a super teeny mood so I joke about going to see it again to cheer him up - something about how he’s acting like Emo Ren again...  Dad and little sister agree!  Win!

The first time I saw this film, I did go into it with certain expectations - too many - and few of them were met.  I set myself up for disappointment, I think.  I’m what my son would call an “OG” - Original Generation fan, I was there when they released the Films We Do Not Talk About, so I am SUPER critical of these new films.  I had no trouble liking The Force Awakens or Rogue One - I loved the new characters and the re-introduction to the old (I did read several previously-canon books, so I knew what we had lost when those were removed from the story, as it were).  I understand they can’t be the Leia, Han and Luke we grew up with - they’re freaking 70+ years old! And they hadn’t been these characters in 30+ years... I mean, give them a break!

I didn’t mind the echos back to the original releases... it was nostalgic for me.

So, now to my thoughts of TLJ.

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

1. After all the build up and predictions and contemplation of what Luke would do when Rey handed him his lightsaber, I think his reaction is perfect.  No words he would have spoken would have worked there.  We would have picked it apart and some would have given up right then and there.

2. Ben Shapiro mentioned the gravity issue with the bombers.  I was having to suspend my disbelief for the fact that the open bay doors didn’t cause asphyxiation for the pilot down there.  But if the ship is creating gravity WITHOUT the spinning that creates centrifugal force, then perhaps the larger ship creates its own gravitation pull to smaller ships and objects.  I suppose there could be an atmosphere of some kind that the bomber ship could have pressurized to as well....

3. I didn’t buy the force connection with Rey and Kylo at first.  When Snoke revealed he caused it, I could accept it a little easier.  Upon the second viewing, I was digging it.  Their connection does make sense, but what about the connection at the end of the film, after Snoke is supposedly dead?

4. Finn and Rose.  Many think this adventure was a complete waste of time.  I could see that, too - at first.  But I also remember that the first time I watched Star Wars with my younger daughter, I explained to her that in some movies, there are 2 or 3 stories happening at once.  She later pointed out to me that in most Star Wars movies, there are 3 stories happening simultaneously.  She looks for this in all movies now and tells me when she sees it.  This adventure with Finn and Rose is that 3rd story.

5. Finn and Rose.  The romance here was not where I thought we were going to go.  I was sure that Rey and Finn were venturing down a road BUT, consider the following: A) There’s always a romance building somewhere in Star Wars movies (a.k.a. Fairy Tales), B) There was going to be the set up for Poe and Rey to meet and maybe... C) The code breaker is now set up to take Lando’s place

6. Purple Hair’s place.  Why didn’t Laura Dern’s character just tell Poe what she was doing?  Because she doesn’t know Poe and doesn’t have to trust him.  He was just demoted and isn’t in the inner circle.  Granted, she could have saved them all a lot of trouble, but then we wouldn’t have had another hour to watch *sarcasm

7. Echoes.  The echoes to Return really bothered me in this movie, but I get it.  Kylo taking Rey up to Snoke’s throne room was pretty predictable and I wasn’t a fan.  I do love how Kylo took out Snoke and I didn’t thing it was a cheap trick.  I just wish we knew more about Snoke, like most fans.  Showing Rey the rebel fleet in the viewer was predictable as well, I mean really?  But their battle in the throne room after Snoke is dead was AWESOME.  Kylo’s response afterward was the MOST disappointing thing in the film.

8. Kylo’s whiny butt.  Why?  Why couldn’t he have joined Rey?  Seeing it again though, Rey does say ‘Ben, don’t do this’, like she, too can’t believe those words are in the script.  Path of least resistance, DUDE.

9. The two suns.  Shortly after we first meet Luke and he’s dreaming of adventure while still on Tatooine, he watches the two suns set.  When we lose Luke, he sees two suns rising on a planet that is the complete opposite of the desert planet he grew up on.  I thought - if you lived on just one binary solar planet, how often might you see the suns rise OR set together?  It may be a rare occurrence like our own solar eclipses.  But to see one set of suns set together and a whole other set of suns rise together is probably significant.  Or maybe not, but I think the look on Luke’s face at the end tells us he might not have seen this before or did he just not think much of it the other times he saw it?  (I’d like to see if someone has done some kind of calculations of the probability of this happening...)

Okay - that’s all I can pound out on the keyboard tonight, though I know I have more to say. Not that anyone will read this or care, but I feel better!!

Time to snooze.  After all - It’s only 4 days until CHRISTMAS!!