This whole thing is going to have spoilers in it, and I don't want to try to separate them out. If you haven't seen a Star Wars movie that you're going to see, you might want to avoid reading this article.
Star Wars is a big setting, and I have a lot of emotional bond with it. I was born the same year Episode 4 came out (just called "Star Wars" then), and I've been tied to those movies ever since. I have fond memories of watching the original trilogy over and over again as a kid in grade school. I remember getting home from school and watching them on more days than I probably should have. I remember being able to listen to John Williams music from the movies, and being able to speak the lines occurring at the moment no matter what part of the movies the music was from. I remember numbers (like many of us) from the movies like: "1138", "TK421", and "3263827". Those movies are part of who I am. And even more than watching them too much, I feel like I learned a good portion of my personality from those movies. I think I got a portion of my moral code from them. I wouldn't be who I am now without them.
Some friends of mine and I are discussing "Episode 8: The Last Jedi". And some of those friends think it's good. I think it's bad. One of the reasons I'm being told that I dislike it is that the originals are a major point of nostalgia for me, and that I saw them as a child. So, I'm being told that the only reason I don't dislike the original trilogy is the combination of nostalgia, and being an unjaded child when I formed my opinion. But I disagree with that completely. Since that time, I've spent time looking at the old trilogy and finding big problems. Ewoks should not be able to defeat a military where the technological difference alone could have accounted for the Ewoks being defeated. This bothers me greatly about Episode 6. But I still LOVE Episode 6.
My purpose in writing this is to tear apart episodes 1 through 8 (9 doesn't exist yet as I write this), and Rogue One. I'm going to do my best to crush the movies, and see if in that process I can explain why I still LOVE episodes 4 through 6; like Rogue One; and dislike episodes 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8. And also why I think it's not nostalgia or childish ingraining. One last thing for me to mention is that I don't accept the Special Edition versions of the original trilogy. Some of the effects changes were pretty, but changing things like allowing Greedo to get a shot off are dumb enough that I just don't accept the special editions. That would be a separate review I think, and a serious flaw with Episode 4 would then be that letting Greedo shoot at all ruins the setup of Han Solo's character as a criminal willing to do bad things if it serves him.
Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
It's going to be tough to list out all the flaws with this movie. There's too much wrong with it. It's a piece of garbage, though I'll give credit to most of the actors who did the best they could with crap they were given. I guess I'll start with Palpatine's plot. His goal is to depose the chancellor of the republic in such a way that he gets to fill the seat. His plan is for a "trade federation" to block trade on his home planet... the one he's a senator for in the republic. He figures that if the chancellor can be shown to be ineffective in dealing with a planet wide problem, he can get other senators to call for a vote that will open the seat for him. So... why would a trade federation want to militarily block trade on a planet? Why would a trade federation have an army of droids? Why would Palpatine call for the trade federation to KILL the visiting Jedi diplomats, instead of just sending them back to Coruscant with bad news that the Trade Federation isn't going to go anywhere? Especially since attacking the Jedi is a way to give the current chancellor more power to act against the trade federation... which is what Palpatine doesn't want... he wants an ineffective chancellor. Not one with an excuse to act.
Palpatine's plan was garbage, but the writers made it work anyway. And they didn't stop there. Why is a planet in immediate trouble if interstellar trade is blocked? Who cares? The planet has plenty of resources to keep functioning indefinitely. Literally, the trade blockade only has a chance of harming an economy. This is not life threatening. To make the situation direr, Palpatine orders the Trade Federation to invade. Okay... if Palpatine can stop the chancellor having the ability to effectively send help now, then sure: depose the chancellor. But the writers made the chancellor ask if a team could be sent to assess the situation on Naboo, instead of remembering that freaking Jedi were sent there and came back saying that Naboo needs help. If the Jedi don't have authority to make a claim like that, and have it be believed, why bother using them as diplomats in that same situation? Why were the Jedi sent in the first place if the Senate wasn't already aware that something was wrong? And if the Jedi can't be believed on that one, why use them for anything? Why not just send a military response to check out the situation? If there's no problem, then the Jedi have a lot of explaining to do. But otherwise, hooray for decisive action. It made no sense that a man strong willed enough to become chancellor would be so powerless in the face of making that decision, and convincing the senate to agree. Eh... Maybe you can think of explanations... but Palpatine's plan depended on the chancellor bumbling a lot.
Okay. The whole underlying plot of the movie is a stupid overly-convoluted political plot that George Lucas says is from a movie that is supposed to entertain children. I suppose that's why we got the character of Jar-Jar. Honestly, I wouldn't hate Jar-Jar so much if the bits of humor weren't so... dumb. He steps in poop and makes a big deal out of it. Compare that to C3-P0 who plays the part of straight-man, primarily for Han's jokes, and Jar-Jar pales in comparison. They could have written him better. But he's a slap-stick humor addition, instead of an intelligent humor addition. But with this paragraph my real intention was to point out that while Lucas claims this movie is for children, I'm confident he's wrong. Episode 4 works for children because it's not mired in political drama. It's just exciting. People you care about are struggling to win. Episode 1 has political maneuvering instead of Storm Troopers shooting at the good guys while they try to escape.
Let's keep going. They introduce the character of Quigon Jin. There was no reason to. At all. But we got him. And he's supposed to be an example of a Jedi who is something of a maverick, but who has good ideas that the Jedi Council is just not paying attention to. But this guy who's supposed to be a good example of virtue is perfectly happy to use his overwhelming power on normal people to get what he wants, to their detriment. He's not actually a good role-model. If this movie is for children, he's conveying that it's okay to cheat and steal as long as you have the power to do it. You might argue that he's acting for the greater good, and he only cheated bad people, but are good people supposed to take shortcuts when other solutions exist? Are good people supposed to abuse power like that? It feels slimy. Instead of having this morally questionable role-model added to the story for no real benefit, we should have taken our cue from what Obiwan Kenobi said in Episode 4 about the past. He said that when he met Anakin Skywalker, Anakin was already a great pilot and a cunning warrior. That's not a child. Anakin should have been a pilot that Obiwan met during the Clone Wars... like he said to Luke. There was no need for an intermediate Jedi who's only purpose was to die so that Obiwan could get mad and fight with emotion against Darth Maul.
Speaking of Darth Maul... why would Palpatine send Maul to attack the Jedi? What benefit did he gain from that? If his purpose is to remain unnoticed, so he can create a war that gives him an excuse to take total power, why would you announce to the Jedi that there are Sith hanging around again? Why would you be so secretive about everything else and then just say "I don't care... I'll let the Jedi know I'm here."? This part of the writing is just dumb. It would have made so much more sense if Palpatine was sending Maul out to accomplish tasks in secret, and then the Jedi stumbled on him, making his discovery an accident. Then Palpatine at least isn't dumb about this one thing. Arrogance is supposed to be what the Jedi mistake is... they've grown arrogant absent any competition. Why would Palpatine do something arrogant like tip his hand assuming that the Jedi wouldn't be capable of dealing with him? Bah... it's stupid risk.
Then there's that other point: Anakin is a child when he's found in the prequels. I'll expand on that. Because of his introduction, we have the misfortune of having to put up with attempts at humor around a child bumbling through combat in space. Sure. The Force helped him. But it's completely unnecessary to telling us the story of Darth Vader. The same is true of the pod races. What was that? Forty-five minutes of the movie taken up by an exercise in special effects that really also had no bearing on the story. What a waste of precious time in a setting that I love so much. I only get 9 Star Wars movies (not counting the specials) in 40 years. And the one that's supposed to kick off the whole story wastes 45 minutes on a freaking pod race? Ugh... I'm just angry about this.
Imagine that the writers of Episode 1 had actually paid attention to the original trilogy, and Obiwan's recounting of Luke's father's past. We probably start during the clone wars, and Anakin is a pilot that's not involved in the war. Obiwan runs into him and notices the connection to the Force. Obiwan starts requesting him for missions or something, and Obiwan eventually tells Anakin that he wants to train him in the ways of the Force. Anakin is sort of struggling with it, and talks to his brother Owen who thinks Anakin shouldn't get involved. Obiwan talks to Yoda about wanting to train Anakin, and Yoda warns that there's danger in starting the training so late in life, and that he feels unease around training Anakin. Obiwan thinks it's worth the risk and thinks he can handle any challenges... and Anakin eventually decides Obiwan is the path he wants to follow. The end of the movie is Anakin beginning his training. Maybe he's even met a female character that will end up being Luke and Leia's mom... but it doesn't have to be a queen or something like that... just some awesome badass woman. And we can skip the creepy thing they actually did in Episode 1.
Okay... I'll stop there for now. I hope it's clear why I dislike Episode 1 despite it being a Star Wars movie. I don't think my jadedness as an adult is causing it. I think the fact that the movie is awful is causing it. On to Episode 2...
Episode 2: Attack of the Clones
The clone war should have already been established in Episode 1, and it should actually have had something to do with Clones. What we are actually given is a big political disagreement that results in war, and the army on one side is mostly clones, and the army on the other side is mostly droids. This is not a recipe for something called a "clone war". If I had planned on something called the clone wars, I would probably have made it be about the morality of creating and using clones. Why aren't they full citizens? Why do they have to lose their rights because they were made in a test tube? They're still living beings. Lots of interesting morality material there... but honestly, Star Wars isn't supposed to be about deep thinking. It's an adventure story that's supposed to make you feel sorrow and joy. So, I probably would have called it the "Separatist War"... where a faction wanted to leave the republic and did so with violence... still manipulated by Palpatine. You still get to have Palpatine be a manipulator in the shadows gathering power for himself. That's a good part of this story. But we got something confusing instead.
There are really two major complaints beyond my initial thought of the whole premise being wrong (should have followed Obiwan's story instead of continuing the broken crap that was Episode 1). The first is that the romance between Anakin and Padme was terrible. The lines were awful; the connection wasn't really believable; and the only scene in all of the Star Wars movies that I fast forward through is that dumb scene in a field with the cow creatures that Anakin rides. What a piece of garbage. Instead of a teenage awkward dating story, I want to see the story of how Anakin and Padme (whatever form she takes in the alternate story) fall in love. Han and Leia make sense to me. They're in the struggle together having to deal with each other a lot, and Han is the cocky guy that keeps telling Leia of his interest, and she resists, and you want to see them end up together. Anakin is an emotionally stunted sociopath that craves his precious at all costs, and it makes no sense at all that Padme has any interest in him at all. The romance in Episode 2 is so forced that it's just impossible to accept. Anakin should be going through Obiwan's training and spending a lot of time with a woman that is awesome and drawing his attention. Two basic paths he's splitting his attention between, and two paths that both make sense.
The second thing that particularly bothers me about episode 2 is that it completely ruins the mystique and awe of the Jedi. The idea that you could have 20 Jedi run into a battle with flying bug things, and have a bunch of them die drops them from the level of mysterious and powerful to assembly line and cannon fodder. It's... awful. Why would you do that? I don't want to see a special effects extravaganza of lightsabers all over a battlefield. I want to see one or two Jedi at a time dealing with situations far bigger than them... like Luke joining the rebellion and being important to their destruction of the first death star. Not a squad of Jedi fighting the cannon fodder on equal footing. Just awful.
A final though of note for Episode 2 is that the writers exhibited their laziness again when they gave R2-D2 little jets he could fly with. There was no reason to give him the ability to fly. What a stupid thing. Why not just skip the over-done special effects for the droid foundry and assembly plant? Why make it so that the only way R2 can get around is to fly?
Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith
This is possibly the least offensive of the prequels. But it's still bad. The movie has the same problem that Episodes 1 and 2 have which is that the entire story should have been based on Obiwan Kenobi's telling of history instead of the new illogical thing that doesn't work very well. But that's just a sweeping complaint with all the prequels. I'll give you a few things more specific to Episode 3.
To begin with, it's sad to me that the novelization of the movie does a MUCH better job of telling the story that the movie was trying to tell. Star Wars is one of those settings where it starts as a movie, and has to be adapted for books, which to me generally means the movie will be better than the book. The design of it is for movies. Usually it's the other way around, where the book is far superior to the movie because the movie is an adaptation of the book. But in this case... the adapted book is so much better than the movie when it shouldn't be. Anakin's struggle between the light and dark side is so much more logical in the book. That's really the big thing. But a simple difference to point out is the scene where Obiwan and the clones go after Grievous. In the movie you see Obiwan joking with Captain Cody a bit, and Captain Cody hands Obiwan back the lightsaber he dropped. You can see briefly they have a good working relationship, just before Order 66 is given and Cody has to try to kill Obiwan. The movie doesn't make a deal about it, but if you think about it, Captain Cody is a named clone that Obiwan works with a lot. They banter, and seem to enjoy each other's company. And it SHOULD be a jarring thing that the clones are suddenly totally okay with trying to kill the Jedi they've been working with for so long. It should be totally apparent that the clones are something different. They've had their humanity stripped away to the point where they feel no emotional connection of true friendship. The book shares Cody's thoughts as he receives Order 66, and he quips in thoughts that he laments having gotten the order just after having given the lightsaber back to Obiwan. This is a very poignant moment where you are faced with the realization that Cody doesn't care about trying to kill Obiwan. He can think joking thoughts about it. And you don't get that depth from the movie.
That's just one example, but almost everything in the movie is better portrayed in the book, right down to making it more believable that Anakin would choose the dark side to the point of betraying Mace Windu, and trying to kill his teacher and friend Obiwan. I'm really disappointed in the movie for its failings in telling its own story.
I'm also really disappointed in the lightsaber fight between Obiwan and Grievous. Grievous boasts about being trained in a bunch of fighting styles, and then just spins the lightsabers really fast. It's kind of ridiculous. Instead of seeing computer-controlled actions attacking Obiwan from multiple angles at once and attacks just after another to force Obiwan to parry in one place and deal with an attack from another place... They could have made that choreography so much cooler. Instead... it was silly.
And then... there's Yoda's fight with Palpatine. It didn't feel like two massively powerful Force users in contest. It felt like the writers couldn't come up with anything better than Palpatine throwing senate platforms at Yoda. And Yoda still trying to use his lightsaber. Why did they even draw lightsabers? At that point of mastery, the lightsaber shouldn't be necessary. I feel let down by that fight too.
And then possibly the dumbest thing in the movie is the lightsaber fight between Obiwan and Anakin. Instead of an emotionally charged fight between two people who really care about each other struggling to defeat the other... we have people swinging on ropes over a lava river... for 45 minutes. That's probably an exaggeration, but you don't get meaning in a scene by making it into a special effects extravaganza that lasts too long. This should have been one of the most emotionally powerful scenes in the entire series of movies, but instead it's just long-winded and goofy. I get that the story is that Anakin got burned near lava... and you could have had an excellent lightsaber fight between the two just on the shore there... instead of on weird spans over lava, rope swings, and standing on hovering droids. I wanted more verbal interaction too. More of Obiwan pleading with Anakin... more trying to figure out why Anakin would murder children. I wanted more of Anakin showing the struggle with his facial expressions... the realization that he's doing something very wrong, but going forward anyway. I want to understand the anguish he's feeling. I want to understand that he's mad at Obiwan for not saving him. There's so much going on under the surface in this fight, and the movie gives us the flashy piece of crap instead.
That's enough for Episode 3.
Rogue One
I'll start by saying I really like this movie. There's a lot in it that I enjoyed thoroughly, and felt like it adds to the story of episodes 1 through 8. The characters are done really well, to the point where I was crying in the theater each time one of the characters died. I LOVE when writers can make me care about characters that much. But I'm here to bash movies, so I'll do that.
My first complaint is that I HATED a particular line that Vader had. It's a scene where the sniveling imperial officer who is the head of the Death Star project is trying to take credit for good things and shift blame for bad things in a conversation with Vader. At the end of the conversation, the officer asks if he gets to keep his command, and Vader, finally tired of the simpering fool, uses the Force to choke him and says...
"Don't choke on your aspirations"
What a stupid line. Darth Vader doesn't make cheesy dad jokes when he's trying to be intimidating. He's just intimidating. He should have said something like "go away" after choking him. Nice and simple and scary. It damaged my impression of Darth Vader to think he might say something so dumb.
The next thing that jarred me out of reverie was that it seems like R2-D2 and C3-P0 perform impossible transportation for the setting. The attempt at stealing Death Star data is already underway, and the rebels figure out that they should help. So, they send all the ships they can. They show the ships taking off from Yavin IV, and they show R2 and 3PO standing there at the hangar watching those ships take off to head for the fight. Princess Leia aboard her Tantive IV Blockade Runner, is with the fleet helping to get the Death Star plans. At the end of the movie, Leia and the plans are racing away, next to be seen over Tatooine with the Imperials capturing her. The plans escape the ship in the care of R2. In case you haven't seen the problem: R2 and 3PO are on Yavin IV when the rebels go to get the Death Star plans... the same planet they're trying to get the plans back to. The droids are also on the Tantive IV when it gets captured. When did the droids make that trip? If Leia went back to Yavin to pick them up, she would have already succeeded in her mission to bring the plans back to the secret rebel base. And if the droids could leave after the rest of the fleet and catch up with Leia, why was it so hard for Leia to get back to Yavin IV? And all they had to do in Rogue One was to have the Droids make their comments from on the Tantive IV as it's leaving Yavin IV. That's the only difference required.
My next problem with Rogue One is the CGI faces. I can appreciate them doing it... but they were too recognizable as CGI faces. It was also jarring.
My final complaint with Rogue One is basically that it messes up the timeline a fair amount. But that's partly because George Lucas didn't put a lot of thought into the technology of the setting. He uses it to tell his story, and the technology just does whatever it needs to at the time to make the story keep going. But this makes it very hard to write more material for it. The first example is faster than light communication and data transmission. They have the technology to do it. You can see it in the communication between Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine in Empire Strikes back. Vader is talking to the big hologram head. Palpatine is not in the same star system as Vader, and you get enough data to stream a big hologram and the audio, two-way. Now consider the Death Star plans. Using the same basic technology, why couldn't Leia have sent the plans directly to Yavin IV before the empire caught up to her at the beginning of Episode IV? She's on an interstellar craft with communications ability.
Another inconsistency important to my last point about Rogue One, is that traveling through hyperspace seems to take random amounts of time. I'll point back to Lucas using it for whatever he needed at the time. Actually, in the original trilogy, hyperspace travel seems to take a while in general. The trip from Tatooine to Alderaan seemed to take a few days. All the hyperspace travel seems to take a decent amount of time. But in the prequels and in Rogue One, hyperspace travel seems to take maybe an hour at most from the outer rim to the core.
Now that I have those two things laid out, the end of Rogue One has two basic problems: The Rebels should have started transmitting the plans immediately, and Darth Vader shouldn't have been as freaking awesome as he was. I've already really mentioned why that first one is a problem. The second one is important to character progression though. Darth Vader has an incredibly awesome scene at the end of Rogue one. He's fighting like a dozen rebels with blasters, and he just wades in, parrying shots with his lightsaber, and blocking shots with his hand, while he uses the Force to slam people all over the place, and cuts others down with his sword. It's fast paced; hectic; exciting; and a display of the power of Darth Vader. And he's moving fast through the whole thing.
Even if the trip from that planet in Rogue One took a week or a month, they make a point of it being Princess Leia with the plans at the end of Rogue One on her ship that's getting chased at the beginning of Episode 4. And Darth Vader switches in that small period of time from being the super powerful machine of death, to what he should be in Episode 4 when he faces Obiwan Kenobi. Vader is using mostly droid parts for his body, and he's forced to wear the suit and the breathing apparatus because he's so badly injured from being burned. His body doesn't work right, and he can't even breathe right. He's also supposed to be older at this point... not as spry as he used to be. The fight as written in Episode 4 is very likely a better representation. No matter how much I loved seeing Vader go full throttle in Rogue One, I think it was a mistake to make him that athletic at that point in the timeline. Not only because he shouldn't be that athletic anymore, but because it doesn't make sense that he'd be so spry one day, and then creaky and slower the next.
Along the same lines, there was little reason for Rogue One to choose to bump their story right up against the timeline of Episode 4. The impression you get during Episode 4 is that the plans have to be hand carried for some reason, and for some reason, Leia couldn't just bring her ship with the most important data ever directly to the rebel base. She's got the plans, and she's trying to find Obiwan Kenobi to come back and help the rebellion. Really those things should have been separate tasks... but... I guess I'll complain about it in my tear down of Episode 4. Back to Rogue One. What they should have done was tell the story of why the plans took so much effort, including the implied time that Darth Vader has been searching for the leaked plans. I really like the characters they introduce in Rogue One, but we really didn't NEED as much time spent on building the main character's back story. And the movie could have nearly started with the stealing of the plans, and then been about the struggle to get the plans somewhere useful. I want an explanation for why the plans couldn't be transmitted. I want to understand in a way that makes good sense and story how we got to the point where Leia is fleeing imperial capture over Tatooine... a backwater world nowhere near her base. Yeah... seeking Obiwan... but he should have been sought after by someone else, and Leia should have brought the plans right where they're needed.
I'm talking more about Episode 4 now anyway, so...
Episode 4: A New Hope
I LOVE Episode 4. But... I recognize that it has lots of flaws. Many of which can be explained by saying "it's a space opera adventure story that's meant to be fun.", but the question my friend asked is: why is it okay for the original trilogy to have lots of flaws, and why do you pick on the new movies so much about having flaws? In my effort to answer that question, I'm going to point out flaws in the originals as I see them. I'll use them for comparison to the new movie flaws, and also to explain why I love the original trilogy despite flaws.
The first thing in Episode 4 that stands out to me is the scene where Obiwan explains that the people who slaughtered jawas had to be imperial troops because the local riff-raff is not as precise and accurate as imperial troops. This bothers me because as we all know, imperial troops are shown to be anything but impressively efficient throughout the original trilogy. So, they make Obiwan a liar (again).
Next is the lack of cauterization when Obiwan cuts off the guy's arm in the Cantina. Some fan theories I guess suggest the species of the guy has blood that doesn't clot like that or something, but it's a detail that requires explanation outside of the movie... which I tend to disapprove of.
In the Death Star when Luke and Leia are running away from the group of storm troopers, they get to the chasm with the bridge and the door, and they close the door, so the storm troopers can't get to them yet. Luke blasts the controls... which are also the bridge controls. They're stuck there as a way to have a good old-fashioned chandelier/rope/whip/whatever swing across a chasm. It's fine, and fun... but there's a line delivered in my opinion at the wrong time. When Luke and Leia are still trying to figure out what to do, she says: "They're coming through!" before anything actually happens. The door doesn't start opening until later. It feels like the line is delivered at the wrong time.
The trash compactor scene is fine and exciting, but it's always bothered me that standing in water that comes up to mid-shin also somehow leaves enough room for Luke to disappear completely under the surface. It wouldn't be as exciting a scene without it, but how does the snake monster pull Luke down to a depth where he's not affecting the surface at all with his struggling? How does Luke disappear down there? It's not that deep.
Oh wait... earlier scene... another oddly delivered line, this time by Harrison Ford. The Millennium Falcon is caught in the Death Star's tractor beam, and you see Chewy and Han struggling to make the ship do something to break free. Han realizes he can't break the ship free, so before he burns out his engines he decides to shut them down. He says something like: "I'm at full power. I'm going to have to shut down the engines. They're not gonna get me without a fight.". This always struck me as odd the way he delivers the line. The way he says it, it sounds like shutting down the engines is somehow his way of fighting back. I think it should have been delivered more like...
Frantically, Han is working the controls, realizes he has to shut down, and says, "I'm at full power. I'm going to have to shut down the engines.". He works some more controls, and the ship stops shaking so much as it stops straining against the tractor beam. He turns to the people with him, and in a calmer serious tone says, "They're not gonna get me without a fight."
To me, the separation would make that scene make more sense. Instead of it feeling like an out of place line, it becomes the natural progression of Han's thoughts. He realizes he can't break free of the tractor beam, and tells the people he's with that he intends to go down fighting. This also makes Obiwan's next line about not being able to win, but there being alternatives to fighting, make a smoother connection too.
Back to the story progression, the Death Star comes out of hyperspace on the wrong side of the planet to fire on the rebel base. This is to build tension of course, and where they come out might just have been on that side of the planet. I can accept that. But if the death star can blow up planets... why not destroy the planet? I suppose maybe the recharge time on the super weapon might have been too much, and the rebels could flee or something? This one isn't that bad really... but it does beg a few questions, and while not a flaw necessarily, it might cause a few fans to wonder a bit about what's going on.
The last thing I consider a flaw in the movie is the logic behind the trench run... the climactic battle. Don't get me wrong. That scene is one of my top three favorite scenes in all of Star Wars. The tension and story... uh... sorry... I need to bash the movie. The scene has a big flaw (in my opinion) around why the rebel fighters need to go into the trench to make the shot at the exhaust port. We're given an explanation about not being able to use "rays" because it's ray shielded. So, shooting the "lasers" down the hole won't work. It's guided torpedoes they need to use. Okay... I'll accept that as setting logic. And I even accept that the torpedoes can alter their own course to turn town the hole. We have missile technology today that looks for weak points in structures and steers itself toward things like windows and doors. The only complaint I have with this so far is that for some reason the fighters had to be flown to a certain point to fire the torpedoes at the right time, so they could turn down the exhaust port at the right time.
One more bit of faulty logic here is the big one: Why did they have to fly down the trench? The gun turrets on the surface were having a hard time hitting them already. So much so that they decided to launch fighters of their own to go after the rebel ships. And even inside the trench, the gun turrets were shooting at them, so there's no benefit in terms of evading turret fire. In fact, staying in a trench instead of evasively maneuvering seems like a bad idea since the turrets have one path to shoot down to get you. Why couldn't the rebel ships just fly to near the exhaust; point their ships pretty close to down the shaft; and let the computer guided missiles do their thing? How did the Force help Luke at all in that situation? What I think should have happened is that the exhaust port was also the area with the densest population of gun turrets, and no one was able to fly close enough to fire the missiles such that they wouldn't be shot down themselves. Then Luke's connection to the Force supporting his piloting let's him be the only one that can get close enough without dying before getting the lock, and firing the missiles.
One final thing: Chewbacca should have gotten the medal with the others. And that's it for my list of flaws for Episode 4. At least what I can think of sitting here doing this typing.
Episode 5: Empire Strikes Back
We start out on Hoth. Hmm... The only thing Hoth brings to mind is the inconsistency of shield technology in Star Wars. They use force-fields to keep air in the hangars, but ships can fly through. And then on Hoth, you have a shield that can deflect any bombardment, but walkers can get close to the generator and just shoot it. I feel like more explanation is needed there. But I'm guessing the ground-based shield was a bit like an umbrella that the space bound star destroyers couldn't shoot under. And then for some reason, "ion cannons" ignore any shields the star destroyers might have had up, and disables them easily... but for some reason, the imperials couldn't shoot the generator with an ion cannon of their own to take down the shield? So... there's a bit of the logical issues here.
The next piece in Episode 5 that has always bothered me is that I don't think that even today do I really understand what was supposed to be conveyed by Luke's experience in "the cave" on Dagobah during his Jedi training with Yoda. Luke notices a sensation of cold coming from the cave that makes him very interested. He straps on his weapon belt, and Yoda tells him he won't need the weapons, but Luke takes them anyway. He walks into the cave, and sees Darth Vader. He draws his lightsaber, and fight Darth Vader, and wins by cutting his head off. But the face plate has been destroyed, and Luke sees his own face behind the mask. Later, Yoda refers to the experience as Luke's failure at the cave.
I've read a lot of the extended universe material and a lot of fan theories; talked to friends; and really just thought about it for a long time. Still, I don't have a satisfactory meaning behind that part of the story. I have thought for a long time that maybe Luke's face being there was to suggest the familial relation before Darth Vader said something. But then how is it a failure? Was the meaning supposed to be that Luke brought weapons with him, and so only ended up hurting himself by choosing to fight? What was Luke supposed to do? If as Yoda suggested he hadn't brought his weapons, what would have happened? Episode 5 is (as I understand it) widely considered the best of the original trilogy, but this scene hampers my enjoyment enough that it is not my favorite of the three. I really like the rest of the training... but the experience with the cave is just confusing enough that it stands out as a problem in my mind.
Really the last thing that sticks out to me in Episode 5 is a timeline issue, sort of like Rogue One has. Luke, Chewy, Han, and Leia all leave Hoth at the same time. Luke jumps to hyperspace to go to Dagobah. Depending on how far it is, it might take a day or two for Luke to get there. Or if the movie does its inconsistent travel speed thing, maybe Luke is there in an hour. Meanwhile, Chewy, Han, and Leia are dealing with a broken hyperdrive, and so spend some time evading the empire. Not sure how much time... but maybe a few hours? And then they spend some amount of time flying to Bespin to get help repairing the hyperdrive. These are star systems that are lightyears apart, and it's reasonable for the Falcon to traverse that distance without a hyperdrive in a reasonable amount of time. That part... yeah that part bothers me, but let's stick with the timeline issue, and assume their trip also takes a few days, since we don't have a lot to go on.
The Falcon reaches Bespin, and before Luke shows up, they convey to us what seems like maybe a couple days at most. Maybe even as little as a few hours. In total, depending on the indistinct travel time, I'll guess that the Falcon and crew spend about a week between leaving Hoth and when Luke meets back up with them at Bespin. Now Luke is on Dagobah. He's going through Jedi training, and they imply that the training is over a decent period of time including Yoda making meals, weather changing, different training exercises, and so on. And they say that Luke is trained well enough after this period of time that he knows what he needs to know to use the Force well enough for his needs... which include facing freaking Darth Vader. To me, that takes more than a week. I'd guess months of training without breaks for anything but food and sleep. But just based on what the movie shows, I'd guess Luke was with Yoda for three or four weeks.
My problem is that the timelines don't seem to match. I think with a single line from Han when plotting a course to Bespin saying that the trip would take a few months without hyperdrive, but they would get there, would solve the problem. I suppose this is more of a nitpick for me then. And maybe I should go back to traveling between star systems without a drive that is the explanation for faster than light travel. Without that hyperdrive, it should take years for Han, Leia, and Chewy to make it anywhere useful.
Episode 6: Return of the Jedi
This is currently my favorite of the original trilogy because it has the best scene in all of Star Wars in it accompanied by the brilliant music of John Williams. I can't discount the possibility of new information or realizations, but the lightsaber fight between Luke Skywalker and his father Darth Vader might be as close to perfect as possible. On top of having the best scene, there's not a lot I can complain about in this movie. But the one complaint is pretty big I guess.
Ewoks are my big complaint. When George Lucas started writing this story, his intention was to use wookiees as the primitive race that they found, and suddenly you have a ferocious band of super strong wookiees helping the rebels instead of barely mobile teddy bears that look like they're going to lose their balance when they walk. I have a distinct memory of a scene when the storm troopers and ewoks are fighting where you can clearly see an arrow hit a storm trooper, and the arrow harmlessly bounces off the armor. There's another scene where ewoks are dropping rocks on storm troopers who are armed with blasters. All the storm troopers have to do as the rocks are bouncing off of them is run a few steps further away, turn around, and start picking off ewoks. It doesn't make sense to me that the storm troopers would even be slowed down by ewoks. The ewoks should have suffered 90% loss, and run away and hid. That's it.
The stupid log trap where logs roll under the feet of the AT-ST, and for some reason it wobbles and collapses. You can see it start to wobble before the logs even reach it. It's crap. The swinging log trap might work to crush an AT-ST, but when did the ewoks set that up near the imperial base without the imperials noticing? And how perfect would their timing have to be to hit the AT-ST? The trip line was the simplest that might have worked... if they had anchored the line to some trees instead of just holding on to the rope.
The ewoks were a dumb choice in my opinion. What should they have done instead? Leaned on existing background, and used the wookiees like they originally intended. The existing background is that Han used to be an imperial officer, and he left the service because of the enslavement of alien species... he left while rescuing Chewbacca from slavery. So, there's already precedent for the Empire using other species as slaves, including the wookiees. And orbiting the lush green tall treed planet is the second Death Star project where they need huge amounts of labor. Assembly camps on the moon putting together the parts that get ferried up to the Death Star. So, wookiees can be used as the local force that the rebellion meets up with. It becomes a liberation and a destruction using an awesome species that could actually handle fighting storm troopers. I lament the missed opportunity on this one.
Episode 7: The Force Awakens
I've already written a whole blog post about this for Episode 7. It's here:
http://highdex.blogspot.com/2016/05/my-thoughts-on-star-wars-episode-7.html
That was written in May of 2016, and I've had time to think since then. But really... most of what I complain about in that post is still true, and still my opinion. So, I'll recap a little here, but you should read that separate post if you are reading through all this to understand my thinking on the Star Wars series of movies.
The single biggest problem with episode 7 is that it is a literal copy of Episode 4. We have the young new Force sensitive hero stuck on a desert planet (Luke and Rey). You have the swashbuckling anti-hero that doesn't want to be involved (Han and Finn). You have the powerful fascist military organization as the bad guys (Empire and First Order). You have the powerful dark side villain working for that organization (Darth Vader and Kylo Renn). You have a droid carrying vital secret information that both sides desperately want (Death Star plans in R2-D2 and the Skywalker map in BB-8). You have the heroes escaping the desert planet while being fired on by bad guys. You have heroes going to the seedy bar to find help. You have the Force sensitive hero inheriting a lightsaber. You have a major character dying at the hands of the evil Force user (Obiwan dying at the hands of Vader, and Han dying at the hands of Ren). You have the super weapon capable of destroying planets and the requisite rebel/resistance attack on it to destroy it.
The next big problem for me is that bizarre map that leads to Luke. Who made that map? Why is such a huge portion of the galaxy not identifiable by the part of the map they had? Why is part of it stored in R2-D2? Why is a map to a planet that Luke is on a path through space, instead of just coordinates for one system? Why isn't it a jumbled path of lines between systems to suggest that someone is following clue to Luke's whereabouts? Like if they knew he was searching for something, and knew where he started, maybe they had to follow the same clues, and kept finding places he'd been, I might get it... but then why is the destination already in R2-D2? Why does the First Order have a part of the map in the archives? The map is infuriatingly stupid.
My next huge problem with Episode 7 is that they destroyed the character of Han Solo. I know Harrison Ford demanded that Han die this time around, and I'm totally okay with the character dying in the movie. But the backstory they built for Han in the 30 years since the Battle of Endor ruins the character. I'll say that I loved the scene where Han is telling the new kids that the Force is real. I loved the writing they did for Han where he's trying to talk his way out of trouble, and where he's talking to Fin and Chewy when they first get to Star Killer Base... great writing for those lines. But the backstory writing was awful. Think back to Han in episodes 4 through 6, and you have possibly the best character growth of any character in Star Wars. You start with a selfish greedy smuggler, and you get watch him grow into a guy that cares about others, and is willing to risk himself for others. We get to see him fall in love with Leia. And it's so much better done than the stupid love story between Anakin and Padme. And now this much-loved character is a deadbeat husband.
How long does he not even try to communicate with his wife that he chased for years? Maybe his son turning to the dark side was enough for him to run away, but that didn't make it a good thing. That makes Han a piece of crap. It's like the writers were trying to skewer the old characters. Like they were rubbing in our faces that we couldn't stop them from destroying something we loved. And there's no reason for Han's character or the major plot lines around him to have gone that way. There was no reason at all to split up Han and Leia. A much better story could have been written that got us to the same place of Han dying at his son's hands, without turning Han into a detestable person. What a horrid frustrating piece of the story.
The next problem with Episode 7 is that it makes no sense that the galaxy after 30 years is still basically in the same position it was when the Empire was in power. The First Order is an unchecked military power, and the rebels are still rebels. They joke about it in Episode 8 where Leia says something about how it makes no sense that the people who are the legitimate government are still running around like they did when they were the rebellion. And she's right. Thirty YEARS. And somehow the Empire/First-Order still command a huge military force and have resources enough to convert a planet into a weapon. I just don't know how to justify that. The First Order should be an upstart organization. It should be the new threat. And the rebels should have helped to create a new working republic with volunteer member systems, and so on. The First Order should have to operate in secrecy, and barely have the resource to be a contender. This part makes no sense.
The last important complaint I have with Episode 7 is Star Killer Base itself. Not only does it complete the cycle of copying Episode 4's plot exactly, but how does it work? It supposedly sucks power from a star until the star is out of power. I have to sigh and feel disheartened at the writers for this one. I know that the power to destroy a planet with the Death Stars was already a big stretch. And I'm okay with the idea as a motivation in this setting to destroy the weapon. But it's a step much too far for me to deal with to suggest that all the power of a star could be absorbed into a planet without destroying the planet. We're talking about a ball of power that lasts billions of years. BILLIONS of YEARS. How are we supposed to accept that this is possible? And, why isn't that technology used all over the place? How could a ship ever need to be refueled? Just put a star battery on the ship, and have it absorb sun power for about a minute, and then watch it go for centuries on the power it absorbed? Why not just fit your fleet of star destroyers with these batteries, and some amped up weapons? Maybe not destroying a whole planet, but wiping countries off the face of a planet, and you have dozens of these ships. Even if one is destroyed, you still have more... instead of putting all your eggs in the maintenance nightmare of Starkiller Base. I could ask that about the Death Stars too, but they tried those things, learned they were a bad idea, and then the First Order comes along and tries again. It was a step too far, and I just can't stand Starkiller Base.
Okay that was more than a recap I guess.
Episode 8: The Last Jedi
The newest movie in the series, and the latest chronologically in the story. I went in to watching this movie with hope. Not as much as when the prequels came out and I had my blind excitement for something that would turn out to be heartbreakingly bad... but it was definitely hope. It's not quite as much of a copy of Episode 5 as Episode 7 is of 4. But it still shares the general theme of the Empire/First-Order accomplishing damage to the good guys. I get that this is part of the larger arc, and that it's a good part of the story to make it seem like the good guys have something to worry about or there wouldn't be tension at the end of the story... but... after all the other copying, I'm just disappointed that they followed the same formula without any details that are real deviations.
Anyway, I've only seen this movie once so far. My memory of it is not great yet. So, this analysis might be less detailed. I'll do my best.
The first thing I hated about this movie was the concept. We have the Rebels fleeing their base, hoping to get away before the Empire gets there with their superior fire power. The rebels get into space and make the hyperspace jump, thinking they got away. The Empire has some new tracking thing, so they can follow, and bam, they're in the same situation as before... Empire is bearing down on them, and the rebels don't know how to get away. And it's tenser because the rebels are running out of fuel. Despite power technology that can absorb a freaking star, the ships are running out of fuel. And these are ships that were presumably just fueled up on the surface of the planet that they were escaping. The premise of the whole movie is that the Empire is chasing the Rebels while the Rebels are running out of fuel... and for some reason the rebels can stay just far enough ahead that only the longest-range weapons of the imperial ships can reach them... so the shields will hold just fine while we wait to see how they get out of this one.
Is that really the best that the writers could come up with? I mean, let's forget that the Empire (not going to bother calling them the First Order anymore) is still the more powerful organization despite the rebels being part of the New Republic that's supposed to have been built up over the last 30 years... let's forget that this scenario shouldn't have happened at all. But let's use the foundation of the power-balance situation they're in, and build a better story.
The movie opens to a control room for a resistance base somewhere and we see some resistance personnel chatting until a sensor warning goes off. A wing of Imperial Star Destroyers pops into range from hyperspace, and closes distance to begin bombarding the planet and base. The people in the base are shocked. How did the Empire find them? There was no intelligence traffic suggesting the Empire was anywhere near this system. What is going on? The base scrambles its defenses and manages to launch a few fighters but it's not anywhere near enough. The base is getting pummeled and will be destroyed. One of the guys on duty at the beginning has the presence of mind to send a message to let others know what happened.
The resistance main headquarters gets the message, and is worried about how the base was found. They send a team (probably including Poe) to investigate, and while the investigation is getting under way, over the course of days, more of the satellite resistance bases get attacked and destroyed... all with messages saying the Star Destroyers just showed up without any warning and stared destroying everything. The Resistance figures out that it's not just a one-off thing, and that the Empire seems to have a source of information or way of finding the bases quickly. The movie becomes figuring out how they're finding the bases so easily and dealing with that, and in the end, the Empire finds the main headquarters, and the rebels have to flee.
We have our Empire Strikes Back theme where the bad guys are making some serious progress, and we didn't have to introduce the concept of running out of fuel, or of a tracking technology that works instantly through hyperspace. We get the tension of "the resistance is being wiped out"; we get a way for Leia to be concerned from a control room; and we get lots of excuses to have space battles and/or ground battles as each base is found. And we don't have to put up with the shaky explanation of running out of fuel as the ships remain at a safe distance for the whole movie. The main premise of the movie was done with terrible writing.
Now to more of the detailed complaints.
Continuing the character assassination of the original trilogy characters, we get Luke and Leia being... broken. I think broken is the right word. Han was severely damaged as a character in Episode 7. Luke is severely damage as a character in Episode 8. And Leia is stuck being underused in Episode 8. I'll start by focusing on Leia.
With the stupid "we're running from the Empire for the entire movie" plot, Leia is stuck on the ship she's on, and she doesn't get to really do anything. What has she been up to the last 30 years? Why didn't she train with Luke? Where is her lightsaber? Can we please see her use her power in a cool way? No? We get to see her get blown out of a space ship, and then fly herself back using the Force? I just... Han, Luke, and Leia are the characters I want to see. Anakin has died, so his story is over, but the three main characters were still alive. I wanted to see the new characters introduced as part of the story around the old characters. I don't like that what we got was the awesome characters I really care about playing little side roles. Instead of bringing me back into the Star Wars Universe with the things I am desperate to see, I get bad writing for the main plot, and Leia is a completely unnecessary character that is so criminally underused in Episode 8.
The writers should have given Leia time to shine as a Jedi. The movie shouldn't have been called "The Last Jedi". Leia should have had a chance to take part in a battle that she got to affect the course of with her power. And imagine the more poignant moment possible if she faced her son. If Luke's backstory wasn't so messed up (which I'll get to), and we could have the moment with Leia and her son... Leia knowing he killed Han... his father... ugh... it could have been worthy of being called "epic". But it wasn't. And now Carrie Fisher is gone from us. She passed away in reality. Her last gift as an actress... the last inclusion of Princess Leia in a story and setting that means so much to so many of us, and Leia is a secondary character who's one shining moment was a goofy one that can be summed up as "Hey I survived being sucked into space".
Yeah, I wanted the new movies to be about the old characters, and the story of them passing the torch to the new characters. Not the new characters and the old characters just sort of incidentally show up in the story. My big problem with the handling of Leia in Episode 8 is that the handling sucked, and the situation never gave her a real chance to shine.
Now on to Luke. He suffers the same problem as Leia, but to a lesser degree. He IS part of the main story, but he's still a side character. He has the one scene at the end where he's awesome, but then he dies... from over-exertion? Through the whole movie he's going through his own personal growth as he decides to get back involved. That part I liked well enough... but the character I followed and wanted to see more of was used as a sort of weak foolish underpinning for the Kylo Ren story, and then he dies. That's not what I wanted to see for Luke Skywalker. This is the Jedi who redeemed the much-feared Darth Vader, and saved the rebellion against the empire. I don't mind that he screwed up with Kylo to explain him, but the 30 years of Luke founding a new Jedi Order, and building up a legacy... I wanted to see Luke do more. I wanted him to not die at the end of this. I want the writers to stop killing off the characters that shouldn't be killed off yet. I understand Han dying. But it's not Luke's time yet. And I'm angry at the writers for screwing this up so badly.
Notice I've only talked about the main plot, and the two characters I wanted to have the story focus on so far. We still have Rey, Finn, and Poe to talk about. And Snoke. And Kylo. Hmm...
Poe. I actually liked Poe's part in this one. This is one of the few things I think the writers did well. The brash pilot choosing to go for the prize he can see, that results in the deaths of a bunch of his fellow resistance people, even if he succeeded in his goal, was an excellent foundation for Poe starting to learn a lesson in patience. I like that he did things I want the hero of a story to do, but then each time learned a little more about what it means to decide things with your allies' lives on the line. He learned more about the burden of leadership. I liked seeing that arc. But while most of the writing around that was okay, the last bit where the acting leader just didn't tell him... expected him to follow orders that seemed wrong without question seemed off. It's a few hundred people working together, and being the kind of leader that jumps into a role, and immediately expects loyalty from everyone without any history to draw on together... seems stupid. That's a nitpick though. I don't consider Poe’s arc to be an overall flaw.
Finn. I like his character... but he was entirely unnecessary to the story too. We didn't need any of the bit about going to the casino to find a code breaker. It was a heavy-handed commentary on the lack of morals in business. I agree with the commentary... but why was it part of my escapist adventure story? Entirely useless to the story. They could have left Finn in medical recovery for the whole movie and it wouldn't have really mattered.
Rey and Kylo... I can't decide what I think of their conversations via the Force. But I guess the question of whether they could like and respect each other was okay. I also don't know if I like Rey being unrelated to anyone from before. Just a random person that coincidentally went through the same basic situation that Luke did but on a different desert planet... I don't know.
Before I saw Episode 8 and there was still mystery about Rey... I had my own hypothesis that took some cues from the Extended Universe stuff. In the extended universe books, Luke gets married to Mara Jade. He has a wife. So, I imagined that the writers for the movie might use some of the ideas that readers liked, and I imagined that in this story Luke also got married, and had kids. And in this scenario, Rey would be probably 7 to 10 years younger than Ben Solo. I imagined Luke and Mara running the new Jedi Academy, and Ben Solo is much farther along than Rey who as a young child is learning the basics. Ben falls to the dark side when Rey is as old as she was when she got dropped off on her desert planet... and he and his Knight of Ren (whatever that is) surprise the Jedi Order with a betrayal. Luke and Mara decide that to protect Rey (their daughter), they'll hide her somewhere until the Knights of Ren can be dealt with. Mara takes off with Rey in a fast ship and successfully delivers her, without Luke knowing where she'll be. Mara gets intercepted on the way back, and gets killed by Kylo Ren. So, the Jedi order is falling apart, and Luke doesn't know where his daughter is.
People outside the order don't really know what's going on, but Luke doesn't have a chance to explain a lot. He goes into hiding to protect places he might go from being attacked by the Knights of Ren and the new organization: The First Order. And in hiding, he begins searching for his daughter who is just waiting for him to find her. But in the first movie she gets swept up onto a path that leads her right to him.
I figured in such a scenario, Rey suppressed the memory as traumatic. And maybe Kylo sort of recognizes her, but isn't sure because he didn't pay a lot of attention to his cousin before.
Instead of that, we get the writers telling us that Kylo at least is trying to make Rey believe she's from no one in particular. I don't know what I think of that. I think I prefer my idea.
But back to what the movie actually did, and Snoke. Snoke is an odd character for me. Where did he come from? Who is he? How does he know so much about the Force? What are the Knights of Ren and why don't they exist in any of the history? A lot of interesting things could be done with Snoke. But I feel like they didn't bother. I mean... the scene where Kylo kills him is pretty cool. But the character of Snoke could have been much deeper and very interesting. I still want an explanation, but I feel like we're not getting one because he was a throw away character.
In total, I'm left feeling like the movie was a bad addition to the Star Wars Universe. The main plot was much too contrived and could have been better written; The side bits were not impressive; The writers failed in a miserable way to use the original trilogy characters in a good way; They failed to use the new characters in a good way; And I think the only scene I really enjoyed was the new Force trick Luke used to project himself to the other planet. I enjoyed his face off with the imperial walkers and Kylo. I liked his apologizing to Kylo. And I thought it was horrendously stupid that just as Luke finds his way back to participating, he dies of exhaustion. I'm disappointed and saddened.
Conclusion
I feel now like it's glaringly obvious that the flaws in the fundamental writing of the new movies (episodes 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8) are at a level far beyond the flaws from the original trilogy. I admit the original trilogy had some pretty big flaws, but none of them broke my ability to enjoy the movie. Episodes 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 all have flaws that just blow my mind in a bad way. And none of them has a scene that blows my mind in a good way.
To continue that thought...
Episode 4 has the trench run at the end. I pointed out logical flaws in that scene, but the emotional content of the scene is pure excellence. I lean forward; my eyes go wide; my heart rate increases; and I am completely engrossed in that scene every time it happens, even though it has flaws, and even though I've seen it dozens of times.
Episode 5 has moments like Han wasting no time and firing on Darth Vader the moment they see each other. It's an incredible character moment that I love. It also has the excellent lightsaber fight between Luke and Vader. You can see the inexperience and brashness of Luke. You can see Vader toying with Luke. You can see the progression as Luke starts to realize he's not a match for Vader. And you get the wonderful moment of Vader telling Luke who he really is.
And Episode 6 has the lightsaber fight between Luke and his father that is in my opinion the best scene in all the Star Wars movies. The emotion so well portrayed in that fight... with Luke losing control at the fear of his sister being in danger... I love that scene so much it's hard to convey. It brings me to tears.
If we switch to peak scenes of the other movies... only Rogue One has scenes that come close. Episode 1's most probable choice is the lightsaber fight between Darth Maul and the two Jedi... but that scene doesn't have any emotional content for the viewer. No one cares about the death of Quigon because he's a crappy character that isn't useful to the series. And even the choreography gets terrible at the point where Obiwan jumps over Maul protected only by his plot armor. I go into more detail about why that fight sucks in my post about all the lightsaber fights in the movies up to episode 7:
http://highdex.blogspot.com/2016/12/star-wars-lightsaber-duel-scenes-review.html
Episode 2's most probable choice for peak scene is the lightsaber fight that starts with Obiwan and Anakin versus Dooku, and transitions to Yoda versus Dooku... but while I appreciate what they convey for Obiwan and Anakin, the bit with Yoda is just wrong. You can read more about that in the same post I linked above.
Episode 3's most probable choice for peak scene is the lightsaber fight between Obiwan and Anakin... and that's terrible. Again... see the appraisal in my above linked blog post about the lightsaber fights in episodes 1 to 7.
Episode 7's most probable choice for peak scene is... hmm... uh... the lightsaber fight between Rey and Kylo Ren? Hmm... yeah I don't know. I guess it's the lightsaber fight. Maybe Han's death? But I kind of hate the scene of Han's death because Han is stupid in it. I'm totally fine with, and supportive of Han dying in that movie. I just didn't want it to be such a pathetic moment. Oh wait... potentially my favorite part of Episode 7 is when Chewbacca goes into beast mode because his best friend just died. Chewy shoots Kylo, tears through gobs of storm troopers that don't stand a chance, and then blows a hole in the building so the fighters can get at the juicy bits. Okay... Episode 7 has one emotionally stirring scene that's pretty good. And I've said that I don't hate 7 & 8 like I hate the prequels... but to me 7 still didn't make it up to the bar of the original trilogy... primarily I think because of how it ruined Han's character before killing him.
Episode 8's most probable choice for peak scene is Luke's stand against the walkers and Kylo. Very cool scene. But the rest of the movie has no real benefit, and just as Luke is getting back into the action he dies? What a stupid choice by the writers. The new Star Wars stories shouldn't treat the original characters as garbage to be thrown away like they did. They're the main characters. They should have been used to introduce the new characters, and treated with respect. Instead we get a disconnected introduction to new characters with the main characters being side characters who are mistreated. Luke has his one cool scene, but Episode 8 is really bad. Not as bad as the prequels... but... still really bad.
And so my conclusion is that it's not a matter of nostalgia or child-like innocence versus adult jadedness. My conclusion is that it's the awful writing for the new movies. And Rogue One is actually an indicator to me that it's not nostalgia and innocence. It's one of the new movies, and includes Darth Vader. It has some big flaws that I point out... but I still like that movie more than I like 7 & 8, and a lot more than the prequels.
