Category: Lucasfilm

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Review

12/20/2019

Release Date: December 20, 2019

Star Wars Just Died

The problem with Star Wars isn't that fans have grown up and want the same things they did as kids. Yes, there has been a weird revival in how the public sees the prequel trilogy—but that has nothing to do with the quality of those terrible movies. I believed that there would always be a couple of things that each entry in the franchise would excel at. Form the prequels to Solo, I can point to moments worth watching on YouTube or some of their great music. Trying to close the book on a 42-year-old story was a problem from the start. The Rise of Skywalker has killed Star Wars; it's officially a husk of its former self as the proliferation of Baby Yoda is its only hope.

When The Last Jedi came out, I didn't want to admit to myself that a Star Wars film was terrible. I gave it a high score, praising what it got right and trying to ignore the filmmaking aspects that would have been bad in any other movie. Enough time has passed for me to realize my mistake, but also that it was still better than anything in the prequel trilogy. I wish I still had the blind fanaticism to shield myself from this latest installment.

The Rise of Skywalker is offensive because it was boring; it's terrible because the plot doesn't make sense. You don't need to bring up the rest of the series to prove this is a bad movie as it dies on its own merits. For the first third, I was having flashbacks to 6 Underground and how the continuous cutting and nonstop pace made it hard to settle in for the over two-hour runtime. The Rise of Skywalker is in a hurry to get itself over and done with as its breakneck pace never slowed down. Characters are continually jumping to their next objective as so much grown has to be covered.

While trying to erase everything that The Last Jedi stood for and having its own story, The Rise of Skywalker doesn't take the time to get everything right. It's sloppy, rushed, and offensive. In the place of substance, it relies on blatant uses of nostalgia in a weaponized form. Continually using music from the original trilogy to try and cover up everything wrong with the movie. I would go, "I remember liking this song, and it meaning something." It continually mines past films as a cheap party trick, and when it finally gets to its own story, all hell breaks loose.

The villain in this turd on fire is ridiculous. The way all of the antagonists are setup is a tragedy. The leaps in logic for Rey and her abilities in the force are unfounded. What ends up happening to certain characters is complete bullshit. Pretending like this is ok, that it would be fine to accept what has happened as normal, would be a mistake.

It surprised me that I wasn't angry while watching this movie. I usually can get irritated if a film gets on my nerves, but that didn't happen here. I think JJ Abrams's greatest accomplishment is that the presentation is good enough, so the only emotion I had was boredom. I was utterly bored, and none of the humor worked for me. Some will say that this is a hilarious movie, but if the stakes in your film don't matter and I don't care what's happening, then I can't laugh when forced humor is thrown at me. I genuinely laughed on three separate occasions, which is very low for the sheer volume of jokes that is put in every scene.

The actors tried to do a good job with the material that they were given. I think they were collateral damage in the decisions that were being made. They, along with fans, were wronged so they should not be blamed. Just because their characters suck, doesn't mean its their fault. Please do not harass them online for the failure that is this movie.

I can't believe I'm about to say this. Rise of Skywalker is the worst movie in the Star Wars franchise. While there are tons of technical and presentation problems in the prequels, there were still aspects to them that breathed life into the franchise. The Rise of Skywalker is devoid of any magic; it doesn't feel like the same thing. I can't think of one scene that you could watch on YouTube, and all of the music is ripped out of the old movies. This is bottom barrel stuff, and I couldn't watch it again. Star Wars is dead as a movie-going experience, and while I might have to see the eventual follow-up to review, I won't take pleasure in doing it.

2/10
There is no reason to see the movie if you are not a die hard fan, don't waste your time

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Solo: A Star Wars Story - Review

5/25/2018

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Release Date: May 25, 2018

The Han Solo You Know?

The backlash from Star Wars: The Last Jedi is palpable. The destruction in the wake of fans who felt betrayed by a pointless movie, throwing the merits it had in the trash compactor, is visible. They have the right to be angry at reviewers for praising that movie, though none of them are. All that pent up anger leads us to Solo: A Star Wars Story, the latest story told from a galaxy far, far away.

Let's get it out of the way, Alden Ehrenreich does a great job acting in this movie. Is the character he's playing named Han Solo? Yes. Is that the Han Solo you know? No. This is not an unpopular thing to say about the movie. Yes, this is not the Han Solo you know, but I think it is a character that works in this movie. Want me to say a really unpopular thing? Donald Glover is not a very good Lando. Though, just like with Ehrenreich, I think that the character he plays works in this movie as well.

Everyone does a good enough job in the movie acting wise. The characters they are playing might not be the renditions you are familiar with, but it's fine. This movie is fine. It's not the wide-eyed try hard that the Last Jedi was, but averages out to be about the same. There were no breathtaking moments, at no point did I fear for the safety of the characters. It's the same problem that the prequels had. How can you be scared for a character if you know that they live? Obviously different kinds of stakes would need to be created to create suspense, but there really was none. It was a light-hearted movie throughout.

Sure, the movie had to have slower sadder moments, but this movie really reminds me of A New Hope. I can believe that the screenwriters for this movie had ties to the original trilogy. This could have been what all the new Star Wars movies could have turned out to be. And that is where this movie is really hurt, bad storytelling. This movie suffers from the same problem Deadpool 2 did, who is the bad guy. With a wannabe twist and bad pacing, the main problem with this movie is it not having focus.

Another really annoying thing about this movie was the music. Who thought that the peppy music 80% of the time was the way to go? This aspect really made me think of A New Hope without the nuance. All that cool music from the trailers and the energy they brought isn't to be seen either.

The one positive thing I can say about the movie is a storytelling element that most people wouldn't recognize, partly because it is misused and not fully fleshed out. I can't specifically call it out because it would spoil the movie. But, it's about characters and their relationships, which I have a soft spot for.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is not good. I kinda liked the jumbled mixed bag that it was. It had a tone of little references to other things in Star Wars that have no purpose. I guess that you could see this movie, but there really is no reason to.

6/10
They put an SJW droid into the movie, wtf Kennedy?

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Review

12/15/2017

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Release Date: December 15, 2017

A New Direction

Every mainline Star Wars movie has been very similar to each other up until this point. People forget that Star Wars was always a series targeting families and children. Though there was great wonder and stories surrounding the movies, that tone never seeped into the movies themselves. The stories that populated the rest of the Star Wars universe were always different in tone, and I think people have come to expect that from the movies. Fan theories and wondering where the movies will take you can and are poisonous. This happened when the Matrix trilogy came out and I hope it doesn't happen here.

When The Force Awakens came out, people were ecstatic. The excitement overwhelmed people into overlooking the faults that the movie still bears. This movie does not have that blinding cloud for me, so when I say that the Last Jedi is good enough , I mean it.

The Last Jedi has the best cinematography of any Star Wars movie. There are so many beautiful shots that could be posters themselves, such attention the framing of the movie really went a long way in making the movie feel new. This is important because it reflects on the new direction that no other main Star Wars movie has gone. This isn't a rehash of Empire Strikes Back like the Force Awakens was just A New Hope. There is a new feeling to the movie that can throw some people off, but I'm glad that it happened.

This change does not come without consequences though. The first casualty to the new direction is pacing. This movie is not paced out well. The story beats are not well cut together. You will go from intense scene to more of the same. Any example would give away the plot of the movie, but think about it this way. Imagine a Nascar race, but instead of watching one lap, it cuts halfway through to a car in a pitstop getting its tire changed. When that happens you would think to yourself, "I didn't even get to finish that moment". That is the majority of this movie.

The next problem is overarching story vs micro story. There is finally some real character development at the expense of what the story actually achieves. You finally get some truly great moments of characters coming into their own, but not really progressing. This movie doesn't answer the questions you might have had, but it wasn't made to. All the fan theories and speculation might make you really not like the result that you get. In short, the total story leaves you in a state too similar to the one it starts off in, it feels like nothing is achieved in the movie.

As a movie, this is a good one. As a Star Wars movie, this is a mixed bag. It is in peek form when it acknowledges its legacy and uses that as a building block into creating a deeper story. The most harm it does to itself is trying to work with the new characters that were established in the last movie.

The biggest difference between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi is that after The Force Awakens, you wanted more. After this movie, you don't feel like you want more. All the questions that the first movie gave you are answered in this one, though many people will not like those answers.

I really appreciate the classic storytelling that was infused into this movie. There was more balance to each side and a mirroring effect that really helped you understand the motivations of the Rebellion and the New Order. It is ironic in a way because it takes a sledgehammer to what Star Wars could have been going forward. The two sides are forever morphed into things that are unfamiliar, even to the prequels.

This movie felt more like a platform that comics, tv series, and books will build upon to flesh out the Star Wars universe. It satiated the desire for a new Star Wars barely but left a trail of pain behind it. With this movie, it is now more apparent than ever that there was never a plan for this trilogy. People defended The Force Awakens by saying that the whole story was already planned out and that everything would fall into place. This argument truly holds no real weight, but then was made even worse when it was revealed that there was no official plan.

This movie is a beautiful mess. A mess, but one that was filmed beautifully. I would recommend you see it on a huge screen if you are a casual Star Wars fan and all the way to super Star Wars nerdom. If you go to the movies for fun, you don't have to watch this.

7/10
What Happened?

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Rouge One: A star wars story - Review

12/16/2016

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Release Date: December 16, 2016

Rebellions are Built on Hope

The latest movie in the Star Wars universe takes place in an unlikely place. It happens between the prequals and the original trilogy, having the job to bridge that gap. The story is a magnification of one line of dialogue in the very first Star Wars movie released, Star Wars. At least that is what it was called when it first came out, now it is more commonly know as A New Hope.

Rogue One is the first in a new series of Star Wars movies that will seperate the main films from each other. You can think of them filling the off year when the main star has to take a break. These movies promised to be different than the main Star Wars movies by providing you with genre shifts and tonal differences, and this one delivers on that promise.

The Star Wars formula is set in stone by now, though good movies, it has become apparent that that formula is the reason Episode VII was not panned by everyone. This newest movie on the other hand, deffinitly brought change where it might have been dangerous to do so. Star Wars is a beloved franchise that would be wise not to disrupt the its core audience. (cough Kathleen Kennedy)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was first introduced to the public as a BlackHawk Down style of movie, which to me sounded really interesting. The final product sees another brunette female protagonist lead the charge of a rag tag group. But in this case, it seems less egregious than when Episode VII did it. This movie also has the added bonus of not having a Marry Sue, but that is an after thought.

To get into the nitty gritty, Rogue One is a great movie no doubt about it. It is a personal look at the stories of people in a world where there is almost no hope. It takes you on a full character arc that has meaning and warmpth. It invites you into a disgruntled world and surprises you with how deep it can go. It's not perfect albeit, with way too many cuts at the beginning, it took a while for it to settle down. With more establishing shots it finally eased into the masterpiece it finally became.

That's right, this is the best Star Wars movie ever made period. The movie has real stakes and real consequences that have an impact. I found a salty tear role down my face twords the end of the movie, and the movie earned that reaction from me. Though my time with these characters brief, I hope one day I will be able to experience them again. This due to the fact there is not a planed follow up since the next anthology film is the Han Solo movie.(Uh another brunette female, not Han Solo himself... nevermind)

It is surprising to see such a success story from a movie that had to underwent extensive reshoots, but it paid off big time. Overall, Rogue One blew me out of the water and the whole year of movies. There are a couple of movies I have to still see, but this one will probably be in the top 3 no problem.

9.5/10
They took out a lot of scenes from the early trailers thank goodness

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Review

Solo: A Star Wars Story - Review

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Review

Rouge One: A star wars story - Review

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