I'm pretty angry. I love the Original Trilogy of Star Wars. I recognize it has significant flaws, but what story under a microscope doesn't have any flaws? I just love the original trilogy because it's so engrossing and magical and wonderful. And some of the extended universe stuff I've read has been pretty great too. I'm partial to the Thrawn trilogy, though it too has flaws. So, why am I angry? Because I'm thinking about the prequels, and the new episodes 7 and 8. I'll write more about what I'm thinking because this blog post is basically a journal entry about what I think, but first I'm linking the previous Star Wars related blog posts...
My review of Episode 7: The Force Awakens
http://highdex.blogspot.com/2016/05/my-thoughts-on-star-wars-episode-7.html
My review of the lightsaber fighting from episodes 1 to 7
http://highdex.blogspot.com/2016/12/star-wars-lightsaber-duel-scenes-review.html
My review of Star Wars: Rogue One
http://highdex.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-new-star-wars-movie-rogue-one.html
My enormous essay about the flaws from episodes 1 to 8, and Rogue One
http://highdex.blogspot.com/2017/12/star-wars-flaws.html
And my specific review of Episode 8: The Last Jedi
http://highdex.blogspot.com/2017/12/star-wars-episode-8-last-jedi-review.html
I was re-reading some of those reviews, and I was becoming angry because something so important to me as the original trilogy was methodically bound and tortured, and I'm powerless to change it. When Episode 1: The Phantom Menace came out, it was the first new Star Wars in the series of episodes in sixteen years. I was so excited. I waited in line for hours to make sure I'd get tickets and good seats. Yeah this was before you could order your ticket online and choose your seat when you bought the ticket. Part of me misses that time. But I'm digressing. I remember being excited and seeing the movie repeatedly... loving every second.
And the only reason I loved every second is that I was blinded by my love of Star Wars. It was lightsabers, Jedi, space ships, lasers that don't make sense, the first look at flashy lightsaber fighting. I remember being excited and happy.
That excitement lasted through Episode 2 as well, but the cracks were starting to show for me. The love plot line was awful from the beginning. A setup that wouldn't lead to love in any reality supported by lines that were just confusing in how bad they were... it started to show through from that for me, that something was wrong. At the time, I was even excited about the stupid flipping gerbil lightsaber fight. I was just excited to see Yoda using a lightsaber. I didn't know at the time how wrong I was.
I don't remember really how things shaped up after that. It feels like a slow realization that the prequels are an unmitigated failure at being good movies that can proudly be part of the Star Wars story. But one giant nudge in my understanding came from an excellent movie review of Episode 1 that put into words exactly what is wrong with the first movie. It opened my mind to critical thinking applied to Star Wars. I already knew the prequels were bad. The review gave me the kick I needed to put my own thoughts into a defined form.
Here's a link to the review: http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episode-1-the-phantom-menace/ . It's 70 minutes, and it's more fun to watch than Episode 1 by a wide margin. I heartily recommend it. Seriously. Next time you consider watching one of the prequels... watch this instead. It's better entertainment, and makes so much more sense.
So, the prequels came out, and I slowly realized that they sucked. I was left with loving the original trilogy, and feeling betrayed by George Lucas for the awfulness that he forced on us. This coming on the heels of the special editions of the original trilogy that also in general made the movies worse. Greedo never got a shot off. It's important to the setup of Han's character, as a foundation for the incredibly good character growth that he has through the original three movies. Lucas putting in a shot by Greedo is just dumb and wrong. Another tangent. Sorry.
I feel like a happy dog that was being treated well by its owner, and then suddenly for no reason the owner starts hitting me. With a bat.
If you want to see my wording on why the prequels are so bad, take a look at that really long essay I linked at the beginning of the article about the flaws in Star Wars. I'm furious that Lucas screwed it up so badly.
Another side note: I've had a friend try to tell me the prequels weren't that bad saying things like "the pod racing is reminiscent of chariot racing from the old movies that this is a nod to." The same friend told me that I probably also am harsher with the prequels (and newer movies) because I am clinging to nostalgia of the opinions I formed of the original trilogy when I was a kid. But no. He's wrong. Making nods to old movies that had some inspirations for Lucas doesn't make a movie good, and the sheer volume of awful crap in the prequels is so far beyond the flaws in the original trilogy that I don't even understand how it's not blatantly obvious to my friend that it's not a skew in my judgement, but problem with the writing of the prequels.
Now I'm left with thinking that whatever magic happened to create the original trilogy (probably people willing to tell Lucas his idea needs work) is gone. I feel like there's no way for new Star Wars to come out that I'll like.
Episode 7: The Force Awakens comes out. I'm excited again because it's still new Star Wars for me to see. But I have a distinct hesitation... like the dog that's been beaten for no reason just doing everything it can to avoid its owner.
Episode 7 is pretty bad too. I like the new characters: Rey, Finn, and Kylo. But... they're... well... Who cares about them yet? If you're going to set the story in the numbered episodes of STAR WARS... I want to know about the story I love. I want to know what is going on with the original characters. What SHOULD have happened in Episode 7 is that we see how things are going with Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewy. Darth Vader's story has ended, but the characters I love from his story are still there, and there's so much potential for what they've been up to. And giving us that small amount of good back story would have been a solid way to bring us back into the story after more than 30 years. And then you start adding the new characters that will pick up the torch and continue. I like Rey, Finn, and Kylo... but they introduced me wrong.
Now to the story they did give us... it was a near carbon copy of Episode 4. Read my review (linked above) of Episode 7. I have a paragraph in there dedicated to telling you the points I noticed that are copied directly from Episode 4. It's... sad. And then another of my points: Why did they character-assassinate Han? Why is his back story for the past 30 years so crappy? It's awful. I'm angry.
Episode 7 had a little redeeming value, which is why I don't hate it like I hate the prequels, but it's really a bad movie with a bad set up for the story to continue. The only thing that might have been interesting was Rey's mysterious past. And then Episode 8 went and threw that away. I suspect to make a point about it not mattering if you're from powerful people or not... but who cares?
Episode 8 was awful. Very nearly as awful as the prequels. I mean, they had the bad setup from episode 7, so I can't be surprised. But, it went above and beyond to go aw far away from a story I'd like as possible. They criminally under-use Leia... they have an okay character arc for Luke, but then he dies of exhaustion at the end, when it would have been better by immeasurable amounts to let him live and contribute directly in future movies instead of as a Force Ghost. The basic plot of the movie sucks. Finn doesn't matter. The side stories just waste time and give us nothing for our time...
I think I'm angry because I love the original trilogy, and every major motion picture in the numbered episodes has been a bitter disappointment since then. There was so much potential. So much. And Lucas and Disney pissed it away. Like it meant nothing. I'm angry and heartbroken.
That's enough for now.
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