Saga Post something positive about a SW film you're not fond of -

TLJ - The Snoke guard fight scene is fantastic!

 

Well, I like Rey and Daisy Ridley.

If she worked with Lucas instead of Abrams, her acting would be more smooth, flowing. When Lucas worked with Natalie Portman, she watched movies with Lauren Bacall, Audrie Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn. Abrams's direction looks like he doesn't care about his actress.

 

Battle droids unfolding to that music just before the Naboo fight is pretty cool.

Across the Stars is a beautiful piece of music, both the Lake Country and Natalie Portman in the lake country setting are gorgeous, the Jango/Obi-Wan fight in the rain is very cool, and actually seeing a legion of Jedi fighting together in a movie is satisfying, even though they were fighting robots rather than darksiders.


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you do know there have been decades of criticism about George directing actors?

 

Your point being?

TLJ: It's masterfully directed.

 

TPM - At least you have Natalie Portman to look at.
AOTC - I like the seismic charges.
ROTS - As embarrassing it is to watch, the delivery of some of Ian McDiarmids lines make me chuckle.
TFA - The Han and Kylo scene.
TLJ - The gimpy bird things, porgs I think they're called.
TROS - C-3PO doing a heroic act.

 

This is true. All scenes with Rey, Kylo and Snoke on the great Star Destroyer are great.

 

I forgot one significant thing about TROS: Leia was well integrated, all things considered. She's mostly just responding to what others say, but the way they wrote scenes around existing footage of her was really clever. I think it works really well. If I hadn't known that Carrie wasn't actively involved in the making of the film, I would've assumed that she was. You can really feel her presence. That's a testament to the stellar performance of everyone involved.
I'm especially impressed by the visual work on Leia herself. I can hardly believe Carrie wasn't actually wearing that outfit!

 

The Phantom Menace reveals the politics of the SW universe and is purely George's imagination. We really get into his head!

 

TFA - The Falcon/TIE fighter action sequence on Jakku was great.

TLJ - The throne room fight scene was impressive.

TROS - I'd have to drag myself into watching it again (only seen it once) but I do recall liking the scene with Han and Ben.

 

I like this reaction from Rey in TLJ when Luke has given his explanation of what the Force is : "Yeah... but what... is it?"

 

TROS - The desert chase was colorful and exciting.

 

SAGA

Return of the Jedi - The first hour is an absolute ordeal for me to drudge through--between Jabba's Muppet Show and the Care Bears Adventure on Endor--but the film launches into hyperspace once Luke turns himself in to Vader. Truly, a mediocre movie salvaged by a firecracker of a third act.
Attack of the Clones - Williams's Across the Stars is one of the great love themes in cinema. The end sequence is hands-down the finest of the six films, a breathtaking montage that, if expanded upon, would have established Lucas as a virtuoso silent-filmmaker.


DISNEY PAP

The Force Awakens - Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Adam Driver give it the ol' college try.
The Last Jedi - Adam Driver and Mark Hamill deliver the two best franchise performances since Sir Alec.
(Didn't see TLJ)

 

Rise of Skywalker - Chewie gets finally a medal.
Despite being one of the worst of the ST it had some more interesting moments/easter eggs.

 

Chewbacca is a great character overall and has some super cool scenes in SOLO.

 

TLJ - Most of the Crait sequences are great.

 

all the saga for me...

 

Although I wouldn't go as far as to say he doesn't care about them, I do agree his acting direction is much less subtle and nuanced-it's basically just in your face-bombastic, "turn to the camera and look shocked!" sort of over-acting. This is evident in more than just his SW films. But it's almost like he was so adamant that the acting not resemble the more subdued performances throughout part of the PT, that he decided to just go resolutely and completely in the opposite extreme.

NOW, say what one will about Rian Johnson and his treatment of TLJ, I will agree he got good performances out of the actors in that film.

 

while I liked TLJ.. i thought it was Daisys worst performance
its funny talking about directors being worse at directing actors than George as that was the biggest criticism of him as a director

 

AOTC - gave me more of the Coruscant that I felt cheated from in TPM.

 

TFA -- uhmmm... I liked the first meaning in the opening crawl: "Luke Skywalker has vanished". I mean, every review you can read of TFA nowadays includes the word "[so much] potential. I disagree 99.9% but this sentence actually has some weight and sense of mysticism.

 

Canady was pretty dope in TLJ. I’d love to see a cameo of him earlier in the timeline during his Imperial days.

 

I really liked the island setting at the end of TFA

 

I think TLJ would also deserve credit for that since we see the most of that setting there

 

The Force Awakens is actually a fun Star Wars movie. The problem is it doesn't hold up years later because they never had a plan for the ST. All of the mystery boxes feel hollow now, and the movie just doesn't hold up after watching 7,8,9. But I give JJ credit as it's a damn fun SW standalone movie with likeable new characters!