#⟶ status : worshipping anakin.

[the-redcapesarecoming]

Sequel Trilogy is (Mostly) a Fuck

My spoiler-filled thoughts:

There are three things I can almost unabashedly praise: the visuals, the action, and the acting.

-All the actors give tremendous performances.

-The space combat, scale of the ships, and lightsaber/Force scenes are pulse-pounding and awesome.

-This was probably the prettiest Star Wars movie with gorgeous locations, outfits, colors, and cinematography.

There were a few visual quirks I didn’t like.

-While puppet Yoda is cool, his eyes look weird. They seem puffy or maybe his pupils are too big or something because they look weird.

-Leia flying through space like Mary Poppins is ridiculous. It looks ridiculous and it also doesn’t make sense how she did it, without any training in advanced abilities, while on the brink of death.

-Snoke looks weird as hell also. As soon as he stands up and starts walking around I noticed how weird he looks, and not in a good way. His closeups especially look bad. and he. Does. Not. Stop. Talking.

-Hux being Force choked looks weird and underwhelming for such a huge shift in their dynamic.

-It looks underwhelming when Broomboi uses the Force to grab the broom. It’s so quick and pushed to the side of the screen that most people didn’t even notice it. Also how the hell does an untrained child worker know how to use telekinesis when Anakin couldn’t as an untrained child and Luke took three years of waiting while going off of basic training to use it?

-The Falthiers look good in closeups but while in motion they seem fake as hell.

-The Porgs look like stuff animals with strings tied to their wings.

-Luke’s little twirl spin move while fighting Kylo looks weird, as did his Force feather fall while fighting Rey. Brushing dust off his shoulder after he’s fired on is bit much. A bit cheesy.

The story and the characters are almost entirely gutted.

Poe Dameron is awful in this movie.

-His whole arc is learning to be less of a hotshot and more of a leader but they went about it horribly.

-All his interactions with Leia and Holdo reek of mysogony.

-His first conflict with Leia comes out of nowhere and makes him look entirely incompetent and reckless. He has not been shown to be so ridiculously reckless in any previous material.

-His entire conflict with Holdo is ridiculously manufactured. Why is her plan kept secret? It makes no sense! She tells him that she is trying to preserve hope among the crew but she leaves them in the dark and lets them think they are waiting to die? What point is there to keeping it a secret? And then Poe starts a damn mutiny with the younger crew? Poe worships Leia and yet he suddenly starts acting out and disobeying orders and sticking it to the command, a command who is very close with Leia, all out of nowhere. All so Rian Johnson can say, “look, the guy who isn’t Whito Ren gets to do stuff! See I’m not ignoring him!!”

-Holdo is okay but she needed more of an explained background. She seems to come out of nowhere and so her very loving interactions with Leia seem weird to anyone who hasn’t read the Leia novel. Also, while her light speed suicide attack is visually magnificent, it begs the question why the Rebels never use it before, seeing how one light speed flagship can take out like thirty star destroyers.

-A ton of the old Rebellion command, like Ackbar, dies super unceremoniously. And no Lando, which blows for obvious reasons.

Why the hell are they still acting like Lupita Nyong’o is a real member of the cast when they give her one 30 second scene telling some people to find a person. Her character is so underused.

Finn and Rose are underwhelming.

-His arc is about committing himself to the cause of the Resistance.

-Her arc is about educating Finn to the evils of animal cruelty and war profiteering and saying one line about saving those you love rather than fighting those you hate which is? I don’t know? Is it profound? Is it paradoxical? I don’t know.

-DJ exists to say one line about not joining the fight, which doesn’t seem to affect Finn at all despite that being an aspect of his character. Also his betrayal comes out of nowhere and makes zero sense. How the hell was he able to sell the Resistance’s plan to the First Order when himself, Finn, and Rose don’t even know it?

-The worst offence is that this entire subplot is completely pointless. They never achieve their goal and that goal doesn’t even become relevant. If it didn’t exist the movie would be entirely the same. This is a gross misuse of Finn’s character and an awful introduction for Rose as a character of significance.

-The fact that Rose kisses Finn is cool in that it’s an interracial non-white romance but weird because now there seems to be a love square with Rose liking Finn, Finn liking Rey, and Rey with her stupid thing with Kylo. In any case, it didn’t feel significant. I didn’t feel like their relationship developed to the point where her kissing him feels natural or earned. It feel like it was thrown in there to keep Finn away from Rey and Poe.

-No Finnpoe and no Finnrey.

-Violence against Finn is used for comedy again. Which is very bad.

-I will say that his fight with Phasma is pretty cool. She is towering and has such presence but Finn fights hard and I really feel that he was fighting everything the First Order stood for. I really liked how he cracked her helmet and so cracked the entire image her and the FO represent. Although it doesn’t feel like the whole fight really affects him. He’s not really changed by it. His whole arc doesn’t really go anywhere except him trying and failing to sacrifice himself, which seemed OOC to me.

-I feel like his hatred for First Order ideals are not really pushed enough even though that would be a great thing to explore. His attempted sacrifice feels like he is just trying to be a Good Guy when it should be so much more.

-I don’t like how he calls himself rebel scum. I never liked that phrase. I get the whole ‘reclaiming an insult’ thing but it’s used so often as an insult to rebels that I can’t see it as a term of endearment.

-Phasma dying is another waste of her character, a character I was very interested in having read her novel.

-I like the scene with Broomboi and the general theme of heroes coming from anywhere, but I wish they didn’t have to trash on the characters and themes of the OT to do it.

Luke fucking Skywalker.

-I can buy the whole ‘losing one’s faith then finding it again’ arc. I was willing to get behind that back when TFA came out. But they single-handedly created the worst characterization of Luke I have ever seen.

-The fact that he, even if only for a moment, legitimately thinks about killing his own nephew in his sleep because he senses the darkness in him is so OOC it might as well not be Luke Skywalker. This is Luke fucking Skywalker! The man who refused to give up on Darth Vader! Even knowing all the horrible things he’d done, Luke still held on to that hope, to the point where he was almost killed! Yes he’s skirted with darkness before but the whole point of ROTJ was that he learned his lesson! He matured and became a Jedi! This is so horribly out-of-character for him and only exists to make Crylo Ren sympathetic. They killed the Luke we knew to make Kylo sympathetic. That’s horrible.

-It really hurt hearing him say all those horrible things about the Jedi, even if he is plainly wrong.

-His scenes with Chewie, Artoo, and Yoda were all pretty good except I don’t like how Yoda destroyed the tree and claims that Rey doesn’t need that wisdom when she barely learns a damn thing from Luke. She starts her training by saying that using the Force is about lifting rocks and is shown to be wrong. At the end of the movie, she repeats that while lifting rocks. She hadn’t learned a damn thing and suddenly she’s the new heir to the Jedi? Fuck Luke I guess right? Fuck the Jedi as a real religion I guess right?

-I heard people say that Rey takes the books from the tree, which does significantly change the Yoda scene, but I didn’t catch it on my first viewing. Either way, Rey didn’t learn enough about the Jedi and the Force to make me believe she can lead a new order, books or no books, Force Ghost Luke or no Force Ghost Luke. I don’t believe she has that wisdom from what I’ve seen of her.

-Having Luke closed off to the Force is a clever way to get out of having to use Force Ghosts but it’s still dumb as hell to not use Force Ghosts except for the obligatory TESB Yoda moment. There is no indication as to why only Yoda shows up and why only at that moment.

-Finally, Luke returns to the fight. I like how he says in the beginning, “did you think I would take my laser-sword and face down the entire First Order alone?” Then by the end he actually does.

-I like Luke as a galactic legend and uber-powerful Jedi. However, Force projection is a weird and kind of dumb power. He has his X-wing. He could have just fixed it and flown there. Then done some crazy Force power to escape with the Resistance.

-While the binary sunset scene is utterly gorgeous, Luke dying is awful. I know he is obviously a Force Ghost because he vanishes but having him die at all, especially from exhaustion of all things, is a terrible idea. His arc is about rediscovering his faith and he does. Except he doesn’t do anything with it. He shows up, reminding the galaxy that the legendary Luke Skywalker and last Jedi still exists, then just dies. He may not even show up as a Force Ghost for all we know. It seems to be all up to Rey who doesn’t know jack shit about the Jedi. Force Ghost or not, I wanted Luke in the flesh to rebuild the Jedi! I wanted Luke in the flesh to confront Kylo and rejoin Leia and return to his legendary status!

-I don’t remember exactly but I don’t think Han’s death was mentioned outside of one line, a sad look from Luke, and those dice which is so disheartening.

Rey’s character is gutted too.

-She has all this enthusiasm to learn from Luke about the Jedi and the Force but she’s suddenly super interested in the dark side and Kylo Ren.

-I hate that she starts sympathizing and insisting he can become good again even when everything he’s shown her has proved otherwise. Everything he says and does shows how evil and twisted he is and the only thing Rey goes off of is the stupid ‘Luke trying to kill Kylo’ backstory which is dumb and bad.

-She’s thrown into this sexist role of ‘this bad boy is misunderstood and I can save him from himself because I’m so good and pure and he had a rough childhood :(“. Her entire character revolves around him.

-I HATE the Kylo shirtless scene. I hate it so much. It is so out of place and he’s not even good looking and it is total pandering to the fucking freaks and fangirls.

-R*ylos are going to have a fucking field day which I hate.

-I hate that she fucking attacks Luke in the back and starts fighting him, even bringing in the fucking lightsaber, after hearing a story from a murderer she hated five minutes ago.

-The things Kylo say and do to her in this movie are textbook abuse. This coming off of the allegory for rape in the last movie. He literally tells her she’s nothing but she means something to him. That shit is so damn creepy and toxic.

-I hate that even after Kylo straight up tells her he’s still evil they suddenly fight back-to-back like they’re best fucking friends. It’s a dumb red herring to make the audience think a redemption is coming when no one should fucking want him redeemed after his actions in this movie.

-I don’t like how she’s Rey Random. Whether Kylo is lying or not, and I doubt he is because the mirror didn’t show her parents, having Rey be so unbelievably powerful in the Force makes no sense. I don’t like the explanation either. Snoke explains that because Kylo is so strong in the dark side, and I guess there isn’t any other noteworthy Force users, the Force rises in Rey to match him. That is some bull fucking shit. There isn’t some fucking Force lottery where it makes two uber powerful Force users and has them duke it out. This is like the god damn Mortis arc of TCW, which I HATE because how it becomes overly-fantasy in a stupid way.

-Snoke claims that he made their Force bond but that comes out of fucking nowhere. There is no indication he did that. The bond just happens, then halfway through the movie he just mentions that he did it. No foreshadowing whatsoever.

Kylo is the only character with a halfway decent arc.

-I guess that makes sense since this is The Kylo Show (dir. Rain “Incel” Johnson).

-I like how he gets tossed around by Snoke. I like how utterly dominating Snoke’s power is.

-I hate that Snoke dies with no backstory. We still don’t know who the fuck he is, where the fuck he came from, and why he’s so fucking powerful. I don’t hate the fact he died, and his death scene is pretty cool, I just hate how he is barely a character.

-I like the idea of Renperor and making Kylo the actual villain.

-I like how Kylo and Hux’s dynamic shifts from competitive to submissive. It’s cool seeing how now that Kylo has no one controlling him, his Force powers put him in an entirely different position from Hux.

-I like how Kylo is proven to be a shitty Supreme Leader, too focused on destroying his past rather than effectively destroying his enemies.

It is a really long movie and it feels like a lot happened, but in actuality it has never been more the same.

-The First Order has basically taken over the galaxy. They were very strong and they’re still very strong.

-The Resistance is shot to shit. They were an underdog and now they’re even more of an underdog.

-The Jedi are in need of restoring. They were destroyed, were thought to be coming back, destroyed again, and are now thought to be coming back again.

-Finn is now a sure hearted Resistance fighter. He left the FO, fought with the Resistance, tries leaving, then joins back with the Resistance.  

-Poe is a Resistance leader. He was a Resistance leader, suddenly becomes a shitty one, then becomes a good one again.

-Rey has the Force. She could use the Force and fight really well with a lightsaber, and now she still can.

-Kylo Ren is the Supreme Leader. His is the only meaningful development. He was a stooge of Snoke’s, finally saw the chance to kill him and seize power, and did it.

-Luke is dead, probably a Force Ghost but that’s unknown currently. He was a great Jedi, then suddenly becomes an incredibly shitty person, then becomes depressed and bitter, then gets better, then dies.

-The state of the galaxy is still the status quo of the beginning of the OT. Any real story and character development is either undone, minimal, or unnecessary.

  Most of the humour didn’t work for me.

-It was way too Marvel-like, always undercutting the tension, suspense, and drama for a cheap laugh.

-Some of it worked, especially when it was in a scene designed for comedic relief rather than during what should be a serious moment.

I don’t think there was any new music. What gives? All I heard was music from TFA and the OT. This is the most disappointing Star Wars soundtrack ever.

I get that these are made for kids, now more than ever, but this shows a marked difference between Lucas!Star Wars and Disney!Star Wars.

-Under George Lucas, it told a complete story utilizing mythical archetypes that ensured it would always be a timeless tale. On top of that, he created a deeply complex galaxy with immeasurable developed cultures and rich lore. He created boundary-pushing technology to sell all of this to the audience. And through it all, he kept it fun and enjoyable for everyone.

-Under Disney, it has become just another big budget movie franchise, akin to the MCU and Transformers, where the characters and plot never move forward and they can keep pumping these easily-marketable flicks out with minimal effort at innovation and good story-telling. They just reuse the aesthetic of the OT and slowly destroy and replace the characters we love with their own poorly developed versions.

-I love the diverse casting and female lead for kids to look up to, but this isn’t true Star Wars. It can’t stand next to episodes 1-6 as worthy sequels to a modern myth. That’s not totally a bad thing though. This is made for a new generation and they do seem to be enjoying these heroes and villains. But it isn’t truly Star Wars. It won’t hold up. It’s not timeless. The saga wasn’t continued because there was a story to tell, it was continued to make money. It’s too focused on ignoring the prequels and destroying the OT to replace it with their own brand of Star Wars.

-Really, I wish we got the story that takes place between episode 6 and 7 rather than this. I wanted to see the New Republic. I wanted to see Luke travel the galaxy and teach new Jedi. I wanted to see Ben’s fall to the dark side if they were going to go that route. It feels like Disney destroyed everything the OT characters fought for and accomplished so they could reuse OT aesthetics and draw in that crowd of fans.

-I was willing to give it a chance after TFA, but this is a new and different franchise under Disney. And that comes with a bit of good and a lot of bad.

-For me, true Star Wars is episode 1 to the immediate aftermath of episode 6 (where everything is still good for the characters and galaxy) and all the canon material in between (books, comics, shows, movies). The exception is the non-canon 2003 Clone Wars series which I count as canon and love even more than the canon 2008 The Clone Wars series, which I also count as canon despite them contradicting each other.

-I’m not jumping ship and giving up on Disney!Star Wars altogether, but I do certainly mark the sequel trilogy and whole sequel era as distinct from Lucas!Star Wars and the canon content spanning episodes 1-6. I am not holding nearly as much of a stake in the sequel era as I was.