Saga Unpopular Star Wars opinions!

I'm fine with Disney introducing

Spoiler

content from the TV shows like Maul into the films, even if it means alienating some of the more casual fans.

 

-I consider Ep. 1-6 as a complete story where every entry is essential, but there are a lot of aspects that I prefer in the Prequel Trilogy to the Original Trilogy (characters, themes, actors, music, visuals, era, lightsaber duels, etc.)
-ROTJ does everything better than ESB
-Though I have access to both the original and Special Editions, I actually prefer the latter. Excluding the Mos Eisely entrance in ANH, I liked pretty much every change.
-The Force Unleashed is one of the worst products under the Star Wars banner. It was a bad game and story when it came out, and age has only made it worse.
-There should be more main characters in the new films that are aliens. This trend of having almost nothing but human protagonists and villains is starting to suck the space opera element out of this series.
-The "used future" aesthetic of the OT should never have been brought back for the ST. The fact that the galaxy still looks like it's under Imperial Rule during a 30-year era of non-fascist peace under the New Republic is baffling and out of place. It doesn't make a lick of sense in-universe, and only makes Lucasfilm's attempts to parrot every aspect of the OT all the more apparent.
-Adam Driver is a worse actor than Hayden Christiansen. Hayden under-acted his lines, but Adam over-acts them to the point of pure cringe. He reminds me of the diabetes-inducing performance of Colin Farrell in Alexander.
-Introducing the more spiritual angle of the Force through Mortis and The Ones via The Clone Wars was great. It really added to the mythological aspect of Star Wars, really pushing it towards a fantasy feel than sci-fi...which I've always felt was a great fit for Star Wars.
-Kylo Ren is the worst-written character we have gotten on-screen to date. He is the literal embodiment of the ST's problems.
-I liked the midichlorians. I still like the midichlorians. I will continue to like the midichlorians.
-Han Solo's kids are more interesting than he is. In the EU, at least.
-I've always liked the Special Edition "Jedi Rocks" scene in Jabba's Palace, even as an adult. I don't know why, but I've always found it inexplicably-amusing. And it was a complete mind-eruption for me when I heard Sy Snootles actually speak Basic in the Clone Wars.
-Lawrence Kasdan works best when building a script around the ideas of other people. He's a good writer, but a lot of the ideas he had conceived back in the day for the characters are nothing short of awful. His unaltered vision for ROTJ are proof of that.
-I've never been that infatuated with Leia's character. She's okay. I liked Padme, Ashoka, Mara and Jaina better, personally.
-I'm still gradually making my way through the latter portion of the EU, but I'm enjoying everything I read by Troy Denning so far. Still trying to see why everyone hates his work.
-I've always enjoyed the political aspect of the Prequels, even when I was younger.
-I find Ezra's character to be really likable, and quite relatable. (The meme about him being Space Aladdin is hilarious, though).
-Releasing Star Wars movies annually creates an abundance of problems for its spin-off material. The literal appeal of the EU was getting bold and radically-impactful story arcs, but because Lucasfilm is just going to reserve that kind of universe-bending conflict for the films they're pumping out at a grueling pace. And Solo: A Star Wars story is an egrigous example that not everything that would make a great comic or novel works with the format, runtime, or tangible production differences of film. Sometimes a story just works better on a smaller scale. But now every major story is just going to be on-screen regardless of scale. It's for this reason that I feel the Nu-Canon supplementary materials are destined to linger in unimpactful, one-shot story hell for all time...and is not going to improve like so many optimistic fans believe.
-Kylo Ren's cross-saber is the THE textbook definition of wasted potential. The reason the double-bladed lightsaber was something exciting was because of all the cool things we got to see Darth Maul do with it. Nothing outside of pushing the hilt prongs into Finn's shoulder has proven that the cross-saber is anything substantially-better than a regular single-bladed saber...rendering it an aesthetic superfluidity without any practical use.
-There has yet to be a romantic sub-plot in a Star Wars movie that I care about. Books are a completely different story, though.
-There should never have been any direct, cinematic continuation of the OT, and should've focused on a new era where Luke, Han, Leia, the Empire & Rebels and the Millenium Falcon were nowhere in sight. Star Wars Legacy, Luke's ghost aside, was a great example of this: showcasing the flow of galactic history over a century later. That's a new setting, era, cast and conflict right there. Something original. Providing original things is the only way this franchise is going to interest me at all...not pandering to the nostalgic elements of prior movies.
-Attack of the Clones is a better prequel than R1.
-I would like to see more human/alien romances on screen. Having just human romances in a galaxy like Star Wars seems like a bizarre exercise in extreme selection given the number of sentient, humanoid alien races.
-KOTOR 2 is a better game than KOTOR 1.
-I would like to see a next-gen, graphically superb modern follow-up to Episode I: Racer and Racer Revenge more than another FPS set in the Star Wars Universe. Seriously, we have enough of those.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

 

^ Wow, now that's a post I can get behind. AOTC better than R1, Kylo Ren is an awful character, Denning appreciation. Even an Episode I: Racer shoutout. Nice to see someone else on the same wavelength as me.

 

Love these! I posted earlier that I actually liked Alden Ehrenreich in SW better than Adam Driver and have to agree with picking Hayden over Adam as well. Definitely choose Maul and Vader to Kylo Ren.

 

Absolutely. R1 and AOTC do share the distinction of being the more action-heavy of films in the saga, but aside from the Death Star plans, nothing even remotely essential or impactful is established in R1. You can take the last enjoyable 30 minutes of that movie, and miss nothing. I like R1 a lot, but AOTC laid the groundwork for everything I'd love about Star Wars for the next ten years: Hayden as Anakin, the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan in his prime, Jedi Knights participating in huge battles, Padme's desperate attempts at a non-war diplomacy, Count Dooku, and so much more.
I'm still early in Denning's work, so I'll have to keep reading all the way through FOTJ to really assess my appreciation of him. However, I've seen Kylo Ren in one movie, and that's all it's taken me to despise both his character and actor.

Happy to see I'm not alone in my opinions, especially those about Kylo Ren. I literally can't understand everyone's obsession with him--he hasn't done anything worth talking about. At least nothing that was better done by villains with less screen time, and those younger than him, in the case of Anakin.

 

Not all CGI was bad. I prefer CGI Yoda specifically, his facial expressions and emotional range are better. Think it was silly to put him in TLJ for 'tradition's' sake.

 

The Indie genre? Hard to do without Harrison Ford, a fedora and...

Oh, you meant independent and not Indiana Jones. Nevermind.

 

Indeed. His facial expressions in ROTS are nothing short of spectacular. I especially love that look of hardened, no-nonsense defiance he shoots Palpatine when they're locked in Force Lightning. Just fantastic.

Also, call me insane, but I also really liked the CG on those alien beasts in the Geonosis Arena. The green Acklay in particular was really cool...the motions on his legs reminded me of the Arachnid from Starship Troopers.

 

On a related note, the much-maligned Geonosis arena scene is one of my absolute favorites. It's Star Wars firing on all cylinders.

 

I mean, technically because Lucas funded the whole thing, The Empire Strikes Back was an independent film...

 

- I enjoy the Disney movies thus far, but none of them even remotely approach the quality of the Lucas movies.
- Rogue One was enjoyable but it doesn't feel like Star Wars for the most part. It's too BSG-style serious, without levity. Star Wars--especially ANH--is pretty goofy at times. Still a good film though, especially the last half hour.
- Speaking of which, I wish GL had gone a bit further in his special editions than he did. I particularly wish he made the destruction of Alderaan a bit more dramatic. Include reaction shots of Alderanian people, including Bail, and all that stuff. I saw some YouTube video a while back of someone who edited something like what I'd like to see using footage of other movies, and it came pretty close.
- TCW was great. Rebels for the most part sucks.

 

I absolutely agree with this. Seeing a horde of Jedi partake in a massive battle at the center of that arena made my jaw drop as a kid. It was something I had been dreaming about since hearing Ben Kenobi's reminiscing of the Jedi being "guardians of peace and justice in the Republic" during the Hut Scene in ANH.

That entire finale really was exhilarating, because we go from the Arena Beasts, to that massive Jedi Battle, and then to the sprawling warscape of the Clone Troopers besieging the Droid Army. Let me tell you, that one shot that happens after one of the Federation Command Ships crashes down after being shot from afar, causing a blanket of dust to hurl across the battlefield, and then having the camera dive in to show the Clones and Droids in a frenzied firefight that illuminates the dustcloud with red and blue blastershots---that was one of my favorite shots in the entire saga.

This is why I compare R1 to AOTC on a consistent basis. Both start a bit slow, but rapidly pick up pace with their characters and plot after a wobbly first act, and then compensate by having a mind-numbingly satisfying conclusion.

 

I regarded AOTC as the best SW film when I first saw it in 2002. My opinion of it has changed since, but I don't get all the hate towards it. The waterfall scene is one of my favourite non-action scenes in the entire saga, when we first glimpsed Anakin's fascist leanings! It gave me chills in the cinema. I also loved the passive aggressive chat between Obi-wan and Jango when they first met. The prequels get a lot of bashing, but I rate AOTC above Eps 6, 7 and 8.

 

Confession time, is it? Well, I, er...



*looks around nervously*



...really like ewoks.

 

Like, Ewok movie level like? Or even Ewoks cartoon level?

 

I keep hoping that it gets the reevaluation that TPM apparently got, but I think people will always be hung up on the romance & effects not being convincing(the romance works for me especially within the context, and the effects really have never bothered me and were innovative for its time). I think it's really the only film in the prequel trilogy to strike a balance tonally and the story is extremely interesting being a hodgepodge of noir, pulp, star-crossed romance, western, and dystopian scifi. I think it was also the most difficult film to make from a story-telling perspective, because it had to provide the connective tissue between Menace & Sith and I think it does a wonderful job on that level too.

 

Was TPM re-evalued? The reviews for the 3D release a few years back were even worse than the original reviews. It still finishes at or near the bottom of every poll that's ever conducted.

 

Han Solo is the most overrated character in SW history.

 

More so from fans. It seems that it has leap-frogged both AOTC and ROTS in some circles. It's definitely still a polarizing film, but not the complete doormat it was once perceived to be.

 

I deplore the omission of Lapti-Nek and the Ewok celebration in the newer edits (special editions??) Of RotJ

 

Imagine a Pink Floyd version for Lapti-Nek

 

Oh boy, here I go.
*rubs hands together in anticipation*


I think Alden Ehrenreich is a better/more interesting Han Solo than Harrison Ford.