Isn't this in line with the prequels? Obi-Wan says in ANH "a more civilized weapon for a more civilized time," but as demonstrated even by later entries in the OT, Obi-Wan is a fucking goddamn liar. ("Darth Vader killed your dad! He was a great pilot when I met him! He wanted you to have this lightsaber! The Jedi totally knew what the fuck they were doing! Who's Yoda?") That's the overarching point of the prequels, isn't it? That the Jedi weren't actually all that intelligent and were actually bad at their jobs and possibly as fucked up as the Sith? That "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" isn't terrible dialogue but is actually a commentary on how Obi-Wan is blinded by his hatred of the Sith?To me, that reads as not just appropriating from the original Star Wars, but deconstructing the original saga's ultimate ending. The galaxy was appreciably better at the end of ROTJ, and has since lost every goal it gained, while somehow hemorrhaging resources that it then easily in a short time reacquires in greater volume. That's quite the commentary on our heroes' efforts, basically saying that no matter how hard they tried, everything they would do would be for naught.
Many of the things that happen in TFA are things people theorized for years. Even with the deaths of both of their major leaders and destruction of their main base, the Empire would likely not disappear completely. The movie itself does have some vaguely defined "New Republic" that is publicly controlling everything and the First Order seems like it's some kind of invading force against the New Republic--and Poe Dameron, Leia et al are in a vaguely-defined "Resistance" against them. It's not really made clear at all the relationship these three entities have with each other--if the New Republic is the established government, why do they need a secret resistance to fight against the First Order? Shouldn't Leia and Poe Dameron be part of the fucking army/space navy or something? The only thing I can think of is that the First Order is some kind of weird rogue group that started as part of the public army and became a bunch of dickholes, making the New Republic Germany and the First Order into Nazis or something equivalent, I don't know. I'll totally admit this is a problem.
My theory at this point actually revolves around the Empire's splinter factions finally reuniting under the First Order and Supreme Master Overlord Fuhrer God Snoke (what an idiotic name. Snoke! I keep thinking they say Smoke and he's a Mortal Kombat character!). The Knights of Ren are only mentioned one time and are barely defined if at all inside the movie.
Luke failing to train (at least one) Jedi who ends up going to the dark side and becoming the main villain is also something everyone predicted, and it's fine because that totally makes sense. It's an amazing plot thread and carries on the entire tradition of Star Wars' character arcs; Anakin's fall to the dark side and the Last Temptation of Luke Skywalker in ROTJ are core elements of these movies, and to repeat it again is fine and dandy. What, you were expecting the Yuuzhon Vuu?
You say that but look at what awards Star Wars actually won; editing, score, sound mixing, art direction, costume design, visual effects. The plot of Star Wars is paper fucking thin and while I'll admit that it was huge, it was not that first movie that catapulted Star Wars into a cultural phenomenon. It was Empire Strikes Back. We could go back and forth on this and I'm sure there will be attempts to do so, but without Empire, well over half of what we now consider to be "Star Wars" just doesn't fucking exist. Without that, it's a story about a farm boy who shoots up a space station and a weird bad guy who's all black. Empire is where the other shoe drops and Star Wars goes from a great movie to a great movie in an amazing franchise. Even ANH doesn't quite have all the emotional beats in line--we have Obi-Wan as the surrogate father and we have all the witty dialogue, but Han Solo doesn't fully grow and Leia has no arc or character to speak of besides "being a sassy bitch." (This is a positive trait, just saying.)I haven't seen the film yet, so I'm not commenting on TFA's quality, but Hollywood has been ripping off the megahit big release popcorn film genre from Star Wars for 38 years now almost entirely without realizing that there is still a particular level of care and vision which delivered that success. There's a reason Ghostbusters works but Evolution didn't, you need more than a similar recipe and cribbed ideas. Unfortunately, Hollywood has gotten a recipe of marketing and visuals together to cover up for its flaws, so you get a lot more Transformers '07 than Matrix films succeeding, and now a whole generation of moviegoers has no idea that even popcorn films are supposed to be Raiders of the Lost Ark over Minions, Mad Max Fury Road over The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Where the movie shines is in its almost unparalleled worldbuilding that still feels fresh and unique today, and I'll completely give you that. The new movie has the umpteenth advantage there by being a goddamn sequel--all it has to do is be in the same universe and show us newer versions of the same things and we'll be happy, sure, but that doesn't disqualify it from being great. I never said it was perfect but it has all the right ducks lined up in just the right way that makes me happy, at least--happier than I was with THREE prequel movies.
DEFINITELY, but on an even cooler scale; Anakin was a guy with some anger issues and shit who wanted to get more powerful and save his wife or whatever, definitely, and there was that shoehorned in whatever bullshit about a "prophecy" to "balance the two sides" but in the end, he was just a guy who got manipulated into being an asshole.I hear Kylo Ren's angry brattiness is the type of character that Anakin should have been in the prequels.
Kylo Ren is a guy who finds out his grandfather is the biggest most legendary badass in the universe and he wants to be that guy. Fuck that, he wants to be better than that guy. He deserves it. It's his fucking birthright. Only one problem: He don't got it. He's not the most legendary badass in the universe. He's just a guy who made his own lightsaber and probably killed his uncle's wife (fan theory) and wants to be like Darth Vader, but underneath the helmet he isn't scarred from a volcano battle during the Clone Wars in a far-off planet; he's a kid with a big nose and a Bane voice changer. And that makes it all the better when he starts having the doubts and asks the helmet of his father to help "guide him back to the dark."
(I do not buy at all that he is actually speaking to Vader's force ghost...because Anakin would probably be like, "No dude, for real, dark side bad, light side good. I fucked up.")
That is probably the best way to describe it. The worst part is that I bought a ticket on the merit of seeing the movie advertised as only one of those movies, so to run into the other one midway through was...disappointing. I've come to love it though, all the same, and I like hearing Rian Johnson talk; he sounds like a dude who gets it on the same levels I do. I probably should stop judging directors on what they say in podcasts though; I didn't see Fantastic Four but it sounds like I got fucked in the ass on that one.Looper, I like to liken it to this: Looper is 2 good movies that have JACK SHIT to do with each other.
We "won" the Iraq War in 2003, but there are still insurgent forces in the country to this day. I like to think of it like that. In a different set of circumstances, it is not unheard of for a rebel group to form together under a united new banner for old reasons. (It's that what ISIS is about? I'm not up on current events.)I wouldn't go so far as to say it was decisive... I mean sure, like you say the Empire was pretty much done for with the losses they suffered at Endor and subsequent uprisings across the galaxy we saw in ROTJ. But at the same time, the Imperial Navy was massive to impose the Empire's rule over so much of the galaxy. Despite their heavy losses, they would have still had loyal Imperialists out there. Meanwhile, it took the entire Rebel Alliance to win the Battle of Endor, and they knew going into the fight they wouldn't be able to last long against the Star Destroyers, which is why they'd been planning for a quick strike and just hoping they could hold off the Star Destroyers long enough. Not to mention, they'd suffered losses in the battle as well. Despite getting lucky with their huge victory over the Empire, the Rebels still wouldn't have been a match for the remaining Imperial Navy. So it makes sense for the Rebels to take the time out to celebrate their victory. They'd need to take the time to restrengthen their own forces to take on the remaining Imperial fleet anyway.