Things you like and dislike about the Disney era so far? SEE WARNING ON PAGE 7

Like: Pretty much everything. TFA is one of my top 3 Star Wars movies, and R1 is number 4. I'm excited to see where the ST goes!

Dislike: I would have liked to see TCW finish out properly.

 

I am ok with disney SW because if it sucks than I enjoy my EU..
And if Disney makes Good SW, I enjoy EU and Disney.
Right now I give Disney a B on content

 

Like: Pretty much everything too. Especially giving women more of the spotlight than before. JJ gave me one great movie and who is now my favorite SW character, Rey. So neat to see a female central protagonist. Bringing back Mark, Carrie and Harrison was a great idea. Also, I loved Rogue One, I'm currently enjoying Bloodline and I'm going to watch Rebels, finally. It looks good. Making Thrawn, my favorite villain, canon. I'm looking forward to Solo and the trailers for The Last Jedi are amazing. I thank them for continually honoring Carrie.

Dislike: Starkiller Base was a bad idea. And though I'm happy with him returning, I would've got another talented director to helm Episode IX, instead of JJ. I wish Rian Johnson chose to return.

 

Like: I love the level of filmmaking that is going into the new movies, and how excited I am to see each one. They look beautiful, are superbly cast and feel like they have a spirit/ about them that's reminiscent of what originally drew me to this saga. I think that it's going fabulously so far, on the whole...two films, ha.

Dislike: Novels with one-word titles based on character names, as well as the feeling that the books are just thin supplements to what's onscreen. CGI faces used to simulate real actors, which is something that I hope doesn't turn into a long-term trend. Ahsoka's different look on Rebels. 'Canon' being such a big thing, to the point that it almost overwhelms all other subjects of discussion anymore.

 

Like: Hype everytwhere, discussions everywhere, many ways to spend the time well;
Dislike: New EU, excluding couple comic book series, the story of the new movies.

 

I love Rogue One that's for sure! I'm looking more forward to Solo: A Star Wars Story than I am The Last Jedi. So what I like about the Disney era of Star Wars is indeed the anthology films!

 

Like: How they've placed women and POC at the forefront of the franchise. Star Wars has never been so diverse.

Dislike: A storytelling philosophy that prioritizes repeating what worked and banking on nostalgia. I'm a tad less annoyed with this now than I was two years ago, but it sure would be nice if they'd let Star Wars get weird again

 

Dislike: The very concept of George Lucas not owning Star Wars and Lucasfilm. For better or for worse, the two have always been inseparable to me. Lucas isn't just the creator of Star Wars, he's intrinsically part of the story. I agree he wrote some stilted dialogue. Here's the thing about the prequels - all the ideas are great. The execution was lacking, but the vision was unique.

Lucasfilm was something special - a completely independent movie studio. It was the antithesis of big Hollywood...and now one of the biggest Hollywood conglomerates owns Star Wars. It's just sad to me - Star Wars just doesn't have the freedom to be outright weird or different that it once had. I'm not talking about strange aliens or locales. George Lucas wasn't afraid to make very different movies. Sometimes it paid off and other times it didn't, but one thing you can't say is that he played it safe.

I don't know what it is, but there is something that just doesn't feel quite right to me about the new films. They sound like Star Wars, look like Star Wars, but I just feel like there is something deep down that is missing.

I dislike the cancelling of The Clone Wars....tragic really. I hope they someday allow Dave Filoni to go back and finish the series.


I probably haven't explained well my thoughts on this subject, but they're complicated. I really enjoyed The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi looks great. But there's something really sad about this trilogy. I'm just not connecting with Rey, Finn, and Poe. I liked them well enough, but the idea of the story continuing beyond Episode IX without Luke starring only these characters is just uninteresting to me...and that's a little disheartening. I'm not opposed to the introduction of new characters. Ahsoka is one of my favorite Star Wars characters - hell Clone Wars introduced a ton of great characters like Cad Bane, Hondo Ohnaka, Captain Rex, etc. I will say Finn is easily my favorite of the new characters - Poe and Rey are just a little bit too bland and boring. They just don't have interesting personalities to me. Poe's personality is...dashing pilot, but without the charm of Han Solo. Rey's personality is ... serious all the time and super proficient at things.This era of the story just feels hollow and uninteresting. It feels like the Star Wars galaxy is getting smaller, not larger. The possibilities are shrinking, not expanding. There's something about the way this story is being told to me feels like it is approaching the end of something rather than the dawn of a new era.

I want the story to continue past Episode IX - but only if it still includes Luke, Chewbacca, R2, 3PO, and maybe Lando. These new characters just aren't interesting enough to carry the story all on their own. I don't like the idea of Rey essentially just taking over what was Luke's destiny. For 20 years I've imagined Luke rebuilding a new Jedi Order after the Emperor is defeated. If Luke doesn't come out of this trilogy alive, doesn't rebuild the Jedi, instead leaves that legacy to Rey it will basically entirely defeat the purpose of the things that happened in the original trilogy which is really ironic to me. If that were to happen, the new film makers, so obsessed with the original trilogy that they try to recreate it on screen with new characters will have basically rendered the events of the movies they loved so much to be completely irrelevant.

I don't like the aversion the new directors and writers seem to have to the prequel movies. As I said before, execution was lacking, but the ideas were great. I personally enjoyed Episodes I and III quite a bit. I think the new directors and writers are of the generation that hates the prequel movies. They are people who grew up as young kids in the theater watching the original trilogy and that's great. I grew up with the OT as well. But their obsession with the OT era of Star Wars has lead them to justifying the Galaxy not changing in 30 years....to recreating the exact same scenario despite the logical loops. They think of Jedi as a lone warrior and thus I doubt we'll ever see the Jedi Order rebuilt as it should have been. Instead of telling new stories, finding a way to synthesize the good ideas the prequels introduced, making a cohesive story that feels like it is not only a sequel to the OT, but also the PT, they're basically ignoring the prequel era and instead finding a way to tell stories that would have made more sense if they were told in 1996 or 1997.


I know this sounds really negative - I thin it's more my concerns and fears for the future of the story. Again, it's strange because I actually enjoyed The Force Awakens. I'm just not excited for Star Wars the way I used to be. It doesn't spur in me a desire to be creative, to tell my own stories, it just doesn't spark my imagination in the same way. Probably because the new films feel a bit too derivative, a bit too manufactured. I'll be more confident in the future of Star Wars if they make certain decisions in Episode IX - namely to keep Luke alive and let him become the heir to the Jedi he was meant to be, not Rey. I haven't watched The Force Awakens since it was first released. I really enjoyed it when I first saw it, but as I've pondered the movie over the past couple years my esteem for it has faded. Perhaps I've forgotten the things I liked, but I feel like it might just be that once the hype dissipated there was a lack of substance - like junk food, tastes great at first, but ultimately unfulfilling in the long term? I don't know.

Likes: Well I enjoy Rebels. It sucks that Disney, with all of their money, aren't willing to spend he money to pay for better animation. It sucks that George didn't secure the future of The Clone Wars before selling to Disney. I wish he had stipulated they let that series run its' course in the deal - even if it was personally funded. They're the last of his ideas - the last of his legacy and impact on the series.


I really enjoyed Rogue One as well. Great movie, great characters.


I kind of wish Dave Filoni was at the creative helm of Star Wars rather than Kathleen Kennedy. Kennedy may have more experience in an executive role and in that sense have a better idea of the art of movie making. But Dave worked with George one on one for a decade - I feel like as a storyteller he is the closest thing to an apprentice to George Lucas. I wish he was at the reigns of directing the story.

 

Like: Making new Star Wars movies.

Dislike: Not making them as awesome as Lucas' Star Wars movies.

Not that was ever going to happen or will ever likely happen even once nevermind 6 times.

So since I didn't expect them to be great then I'm happy with them being good and they have been.

TFA is the weakest of the two by FAR so the real question for me is will there be more like TFA or more like R1?

TLJ will start to tell the tale.

 

Likes: the new movies (although by no means perfect I think TFA is pretty great, and Rogue One is good but less successful in execution), some of the novels (Lost Stars, From a Certain Point of View, Inferno Squad), and a few of the Marvel comic book miniseries (Han, Maul, Shattered Empire, Phasma and Chewbacca) and the Poe Dameron ongoing.

Dislikes: Rebels (it's disappointing and never seems to rise above the level of just being adequate), some of the Marvel comics (Darth Vaders, Star Wars ongoing), some of the novels (Catalyst, Aftermath), the lack of good video games (hopefully to change very soon with BF2), and finally the SW fandom.

 

Rebels can't take the same risk that TCW did sadly.

 

Like: Virtually everything. There's been a stark improvement in content compared to recent history. Everything has been hugely upgraded, from the writing to the acting to the effects. I get to look fwd to a new SW movie every year. The spin-offs, something Lucas spoke of in the early 80's are now a reality. They've added a great new dimension to the Saga, & the possibilities with them are endless. SW is in a better place than it's been in for decades, or possibly ever.

Dislike: Very little. Perhaps just the behind the scenes dramas. Although it's really just gossip that shouldn't concern an audience. What's on the screen is all that matters.

 

So if Disney buys 21st century fox does that mean we get the Fox fanfare back?

 

Interesting post Jedi Master Chuck, I do kind of share your feelings about Lucas as I think the PT's basic concept was fine but the execution was lacking, Lucas would IMHO have been better served keeping the producer and conceptual role for me that he'd obviously had much more recent experience with during much of the 80's with someone else handling the direction and writing.

I do think you can a lot of Lucas's legacy built into his company though as obviously those involved worked with him previously to creatively. I felt personally that we saw this more on Rogue One than we did TFA myself which felt more like a JJ Abrams film to me.

It won't be popular with some but honestly Abrams is the main thing I dislike about Disney era SW, to me he's just not a film maker on the level of the very best blockbuster directors, I find his work formulaic, lacking in inspiration and geared far too much to first viewing entertainment. The result for me is TFA whilst lacking in the clear flaws of the PT was simply not a very interesting piece of cinema which I fear has rather poisoned the well for the ST as a whole.

 

Like, SW helping raise the value of my Disney stock.

Dislike, everything Disney is doing to SW, especially using their "Nucanon" to retcon and change the original 6 films.

 

How exactly are they "changing the films"? It's not like Disney have released a Special Special Edition altering existing footage - the films are still there - and the events themselves haven't changed since the Blu-Ray.


Retconning tie-in media statements (even ones by Lucas) is not quite the same as "retconning the films themselves".

 

They are using tie-in media as a backdoor way to change the meanings or interpretations of the events in the films. For example, Filoni retconing that old rebel guy on Endor as Capt Rex. Rouge One suggesting the rebel forces are much larger than what either ANH or TESB implied, though it is suggest they have grown to a decent size post TESB by ROTJ. Rebels, retconning A wings esisting before ANH, while ROTJ implies they are new rebel craft evolution late in the war.

 

You realize a lot of that could apply to Legends, right?

 

It does apply to legends, it is why I dislike spin off media in general, either old EU or NuEU, both are different sides of the same coin.

 

"What's implied" is highly subjective though.

 

DISLIKE

The modern blockbuster normalization of Star Wars...as a whole. Historically inspired pop-myth replaced with nostalgia driven pop-fandom. The B-serial tone/aesthetic replaced with aforesaid modern histrionics. Bona fide melodramatic emotion specific to characters and themes replaced with 'quick work' sentimentalism merely intent on priming audiences. Absurdism replaced with situation comedy. Shallow PR rhetoric.

LIKE (alternately, "exceptions")

The continuation of visual effects/production design of the highest technical quality. John Williams. Ben Burtt. Rogue One, or at least certain aspects of it that rise above mediocrity. The prospect of an upcoming, entirely original storyline trilogy.

 

Like:
- Rebels, Forces of Destiny, some comics/books, enjoyable movies even if imperfect and some of the new characters who have become new favorites. John Williams.

Dislike:
- TCW not having a proper ending (even when Disney clearly has the means to finish it but whatever), tracing in comics, fans acting like their opinion is the superior one. Over-reliance on the OT and its characters. One movie per year. Some new villains.

 

Like:
TFA, Rogue One, Rebels, several comics, Lego TFA video game.

Dislike:
Aftermath novels. They feel more like parodies rather than something that expands the universe.

EA's handling of Star Wars video games. When it was announced that Battlefront was getting rebooted, I was excited but was disappointing with the lack of content from past titles and even as it's own game, it's pretty empty. They could've improved upon what Pandemic introduced like having a more in depth squad system, Galactic Conquest maps that aren't lifted from Instant Action, players can maybe receive special buffs depending on what kind of command posts they capture, or even dynamic events similar to Battlefield 4's leveloution feature. With the whole lootbox fiasco surrounding the 2017 Battlefront, this would probably be a good time to give the license to a different developer like Obsidian or CD Projekt Red

 

LIKE: Rogue One, season 2 finale of Rebels -- amazing episode, Bloodline novel by Claudia Gray
DISLIKE: How they made some really good EU content non-canon for no reason (Stuff like the Bane trilogy and Revan could have been left alone and not interfered with the story they're making now), the ridiculous prices of EA Battlefront & Battlefront 2, cancelling of Starwars 1313 game

MIXED FEELINGS: TFA and Aftermath novels

 

Very happy. Breathed new life into the franchise; so happy with Rebels and Forces of Destiny, too. Have no real dislikes, but I hope Disney returns to the PT era at some point.