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

Likes:

The droids in the new canon. L3 wasn't as great as BB-8 or K-2, but still one of the highlights of Solo.
The spin-off/Anthology films have been great so far.

 

The good: I love R1 and in theory the idea of the anthologies. I haven't seen Solo yet and I'm excited to see it because I have always wanted to see a SW movie that isn't actually a war movie so much as just people hanging out in the gffa. Like R1, it feels like the old EU come to life. It feels like it's for the fans that just love this universe as I do, and I really appreciate that.

The bad: My dislike can be summed up in one word: disorganization. It plagues almost every aspect of the creative world at LF. To a lesser extent, and this is also a part of that I think, is LF's lack of courage in creativity. The disorganization is in the lack of a vision obviously. That applies to the saga, the seemingly random anthologies (also I find their marketing for the purpose of the anthology films really really terrible), and the new EU that is consistently undermined and contradicted by the movies. I have almost reached the point where I don't see the point of the Story Group because they really don't care about stuff being consistent, and then they come up with really silly explanations on Twitter to explain inconsistencies. It comes across incompetent to me and also like a punishment to fans who read the extended canon. I like reading the novels and the comics, but I keep experiencing over and over the pointlessness of them.

The lack of creativity goes along with that, imo, because it feels like with the movies and the shows, LF is obsessed with riding the OT to the exclusion of creating a larger vision and story that would be cohesive and have a point. Even TLJ, the movie that is supposedly "different" cribs so much from the OT, to the point of plagiarism at times. I find it embarrassing. I hear that in Solo, there's a character that is so painfully obviously Rocket from GotG, so even when they're straying from their LF source material, they're ripping off other currently successful ideas. The lack of creativity goes with the disorganization to me, because instead of coming up with a large vision for the gffa that they want to tell across different time periods and in different ways, they just keep coming up with random new stories in this one, small setting. The fact that the two future anthology movies currently almost confirmed are Obi and Boba Fett just reinforces this. The gffa is bigger than the OT characters and I really think LF is missing the boat on the larger appeal of the gffa. It's a fantasy land for fairy tales. Yes we love the OT characters. I will see any movie they make about Lando or Obi or Boba. However, what I really want to see are new epic stories, preferably involving force use (good grief what is it going to take to get a variety of new force using characters??) that span different time periods and settings in this galaxy.

 

@AhsokaSolo nice post.

As Solo looks to be the first box office “miss” ever for a SW movie, your points deserve a lot more discussion.

Where does LF go from here? Does Solo’s box office drive them to fix the issues you have called out, or not?

At this point, with JJ Abrams helming the next film to be released, my guess is they double down on the OT nostalgia. What do you think?

 

Probably, but one thing's for sure: Episode IX can't be a double down carbon copy of Return of the Jedi like TFA was with ANH.

 

@PCCViking oh it can be a carbon coby - I am sure it would actually turn more people off than on, but I have no doubt that LF is considering it.

For my part, I have always wanted 9 to end more like 3...surprise us with an ending that sets up new stories and new adventures. The whole wrapping everything up in a pretty bow ending never excited me. But I bet that’s what we will get.

 

Remember we have RJ's separate new trilogy, which should have a new story & characters.

 

@SithLordDarthRichie which I am very excited about for sure.

 

Well, with Snoke's "death", I doubt they can repeat that in Episode IX, because that was the carbon copy scene from ROTJ. As for rescuing someone from a gangster to start off IX, no one has been captured, at least by the end of TLJ.

 

But Starkiller 2 could definitely still be on the table, LOL

 

I was horrified when I heard Disney has got it's hands on Star Wars.

The whole issiue of diversity really gets to me those saying they don't care about race seem to be the most racist.
Finn is black not a problem Peo is I am not sure but again not a problem Ray is a girl once again not a problem.
Kylo Ren is the bad guy and he is white Hux is white in fact the whole first order seems to be full of white middle aged men.

Rogue One all our heros are all different races and genders again not a problem.
The bad guys are all middle aged white men.

The Last Jedi more of the same.

Solo again mixed race and gender cast and again the two bad guys are middle aged white men.

I am a middle aged white man as are all the bad guys in Disney Star Wars.

Next is the feminist bull Ray does not want her hand held.
Ray and Jin can beat up loads of men no problem with no help from men.
Admiral holdo seems to hate men and with that purple hair also.
Peo was shown to be a moron that needed a strong feminist to whip him into shape.
The robot in Solo was a SJW for robot rights.
And Lando is now Pan Sexual what ever that means.

Not going to debate any of these things Star Wars was meant to been an escape I don't want to pay to have an agenda rammed down my neck.

These movies have many other problems which I will address in another post.

Whatever happened just making a good story in A Galaxy Far Far AWAY?

 

Lucas had political stuff in A New Hope & the whole of the Prequels.

 

Like:

Rogue One and the idea of Anthology movies.
Most of Rebels. Hera and Kanan were great additions.
Quite a bunch of comics and novels. Characters like Aphra and Sloane.
Vader in the new canon. He is a beast. Sometimes too much, but still better than a lot of old canon portrayals.

Dislike:

The ST.
As @AhsokaSolo said, the seemingly lack of organization and planning, as well as lack of creativity. The galaxy after ROTJ feels small, repetitive, depressing and boring.
The storylines they gave to the OT3.
Lack of diversity in the output material.
Lack of cohesive continuity in the new canon despite the existence of the storygroup.

 

This is a private board that has rules I will follow them.

 

Can Vader ever be too powerful?

I mean, that is his whole gimmick with being the chosen one

 

Sorry but I call this a lazy argument. Lucas' politics never compromised the flow of the storytelling. LFL's absolute overpowering need to "kill the past" is hurting this franchise.
I always see these complaints that there's Anti-vietnam in the OT and Anti-Bush and Anti-Iraq War in the PT. But even if it's there it was never so pronounced that it ever took me out of the story.

 

Lucas' politics totally killed the flow of the Prequels.
It's why large chunks of the Prequels are boring (aside from bad romance scenes and terrible dialogue).
TPM's senate business & trade disputes slow the movie down

 

Disagree. I saw OT in the 90s and went right into PT. I never experienced a disconnect.

 

At least the social justice stuff is throw away lines. Usually during a comedy bit or action sequence.

Not lengthy political scenes of people in rooms talking about whatever that the PT had

 

I also disagree. The political intrigue is one of the many prequel qualities I enjoy.

The "politics" of the ST are not intriguing, even though I agree the superficial bullet points.

 

The overall idea of Palpatine rising to power by manipulating the system was fine.

I felt TFA should've done more with showing the size & state of the Republic at that time.
The one major scene set in the Senate with Leia got cut

 

- I mostly have enjoyed the live-action movies thus far... mostly. Despite that I don't think any of 'em are anywhere close to the quality of the Lucas movies, they're still mostly enjoyable... mostly. I'm looking forward to more.

- I found most "Rebels" episodes to be incredibly mediocre, though--especially after TCW. Boring characters, uninteresting stories, mediocre animation. And some really poor narrative choices (example: characters beating up stormtroopers while throwing out cheesy oneliners. Ugh).

- I mostly liked the comics. I've never been a big comic book reader (except for a few of the old ones in the '80s) but I started since the EU "reset."

(Side note: I find it quite frankly *baffling* that we got "Rebels" instead of an animated series set between ANH and ESB. This would've been the most obvious thing to do, if I were Disney. Yeah, the comics explore how Vader found out Luke is his son, show how the Empire chased the rebels across the galaxy, etc. but it would have been so much more satisfying to see that on screen. Also, that would've been much more popular--especially, I'm guessing, with fans who (unlike me) didn't enjoy the prequels. Instead, we got the lame "Rebels." Anyway.... rant over.)

- I tried a couple of the novels and gave up.

Conclusion: overall, a mixed bag.

 

How so? Some examples would be helpful.

If you ever expect the novels and comics to include any vital info RE the films, you’re always going to be disappointed. LFL doesn’t want viewers to have to be knee deep in lore to understand things, and that’s a good thing.

Again, you’re going to have to help me here with some examples. Other than some broad strokes (like “learning from a hermit” or “the big bad guy being betrayed by his lieutenant”), TLJ isn’t really copying off the OT that much.

Who? Again, help me out here.

 

I’m not talking about technicalities. I’m talking about story irrelevancies and contradictions. And man I’m so tired right now lol. I’d have to look up a bunch of stuff to make a conclusive list, but the various TFA books contradict each other and the movie, not to mention TLJ in things like the force vision and things characters say. Rey’s Survival Guide and all the books with Rey somehow neglect to ever mention she’s a slave. None of the “clues” or even just facts of her backstory mattered at all and I doubt RJ even knew them. The new Last Shot messes up the timeline for Han and it’s weird because Han is in mourning over Qi’ra like she’s dead years later, different stories depict Leia’s “first” time on Crait, aftermath timeline screws up Leia’s pregnancy with Kylo’s age, Bloodline didn’t lead to any themes or point in TLJ despite RJ supposedly giving input to tie it together, Legends of Luke Skywalker has zero to do with the Luke in TLJ, which is weird because OT comics now make OT Luke sound more like TLJ Luke than OT Luke, did Snoke go after young Ben or not, no clear story in sight nor consistency (Leia doesn’t know who Snoke is in Bloodline and Kylo is already with Luke). LF should be using the new canon to promote the new movies and tie it together with little nods. Instead I’d bet money JJ and RJ know virtually zero that’s in the expanded stuff about these characters.

By pointlessness, I mean irrelevance in that movie makers don’t know anything in the books and nobody at LF cares if the books or comics are later contradicted. I don’t mean that the books are vital to films. Of course they shouldn’t be. I don’t need to have it explained to me how not to enjoy fiction related to SW lol. I have plenty that I really love that are irrelevant to the movies. I love Ahsoka, Dr. Aphra, Catalyst, etc., although I think I’m switching my primary space comic fix over to the new Black Panther series. What a great start, wow.

Uhhhhhhhh I’m tempted to agree to disagree because of so much disagreement lol, but I’ll point out the obvious ones: RotJ throne room scene duplicated with practically straight up lifted dialogue; Falcon in the Death Star duplicated in Crait cave; Rey’s obsession with saving her stalker Kylo (not to mention her belief that she’ll be better at it than daddy Han) makes zero character or story sense besides she’s the Luke of this series and that’s her role; heroes separated between force story and rebel story; speaking of which, the whole Rebels vs. Empire thing has been done lol; notHothit’sSalt aka Crait + notWalkersthey’rebigger!; Rebels attacked at their base at the beginning by Empire so they run... okay I said I’d just do the obvious ones so I’ll move on.

I said that before I saw Solo. I had read that and I believed it from trailers. After seeing the movie, I get why people thought that with the multi-armed pilot, but actually that character’s personality was extremely muted compared to Rocket. I see some inspiration there but it’s not a copy. It did feel a bit like they were trying to recreate GotG with Han as Starlord, the Rocket character, Qi’ra as Gamora (family of bad guys but hated them) but it was very loose inspiration the way it should be, unlike the ST to the OT, and it didn’t bother me at all. I thought Solo was great.

 

Things I like: The Force Awakens, Solo and Rogue One. Thing I dislike: The Last Jedi humor and treatment of Luke.