Your preferred Sequel Trilogy Episode
- Thread starter Gaith
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The Force Awakens.
But only by default. I find it middling at best, intentionally derivative and sorely lacking in storytelling terms. It encapsulates everything I find annoying about JJ's filmmaking sensibilities.
I choose it because the next one was far worse and the third one is so bad I can still scarcely believe they okayed it.
But only by default. I find it middling at best, intentionally derivative and sorely lacking in storytelling terms. It encapsulates everything I find annoying about JJ's filmmaking sensibilities.
I choose it because the next one was far worse and the third one is so bad I can still scarcely believe they okayed it.
Wow, I have the same opinion!
If you'd asked me this a year ago I might have chosen The Last Jedi, as I appreciated how it used Force Awakens' overly familiar story and its own Empire Strikes Back elements to set up expectations and then subvert them. But then I wrote five pages on the movie, trying to figure out why it divided fans so much, and I ended up meeting its critics halfway. I still like the movie, I think it made a lot of good choices, but I can't overlook its flaws anymore.
I had a different reaction to Rise of Skywalker than some fans, because the early reviews were so scathing that I just spoiled the whole film for myself before watching it. The movie couldn't disappoint me because I'd already given up on it and knew exactly how bad it was going to get. Though I'm the kind of guy that loses interest in something when I know how it's going end, I'm just impatiently waiting for the movie to get on with it, and yet Rise wasn't hard for me to sit through. I found it watchable even knowing where it was going, so I have to give it credit for that. It's still the worst of the three, but I didn't hate it.
So Force Awakens wins by default. It set out to give fans a classic fun Star Wars experience, after the awkward dialogue and grim political drama of the prequels, and it succeeded. In fact it basically IS Star Wars, except with worse world building that makes it hard to connect the dots between it and the original trilogy.
I had a different reaction to Rise of Skywalker than some fans, because the early reviews were so scathing that I just spoiled the whole film for myself before watching it. The movie couldn't disappoint me because I'd already given up on it and knew exactly how bad it was going to get. Though I'm the kind of guy that loses interest in something when I know how it's going end, I'm just impatiently waiting for the movie to get on with it, and yet Rise wasn't hard for me to sit through. I found it watchable even knowing where it was going, so I have to give it credit for that. It's still the worst of the three, but I didn't hate it.
So Force Awakens wins by default. It set out to give fans a classic fun Star Wars experience, after the awkward dialogue and grim political drama of the prequels, and it succeeded. In fact it basically IS Star Wars, except with worse world building that makes it hard to connect the dots between it and the original trilogy.
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As someone who disliked both TFA and TLJ, I found TRoS relatively enjoyable, in a dumb popcorn fun kind of way, so it gets my vote.
Top 5 reasons TRoS is the best Sequel Trilogy episode
Top 5 reasons TRoS is the best Sequel Trilogy episode
I like all three, and I debated between The Force Awaken and The Rise of Skywalker, and ended up going with The Force Awakens. For me it's the one that best captures the fun adventure feel that I think of when I think of Star War. The Last Jedi is probably the best overall of the three, but it's tone and style was so different from the others that I can't quite call it my favorite.
All three are equally bad.
The Force Awakens. It's not even close.
In terms of best procuded and movie that feels like a thought through script, I'd say TFA. But it's also just a copy of A New Hope.
TLJ did so many things differently than what we came to expect from Star Wars, that it definitely gets points from. I also found this movie's take on Luke quite interesting.
TROS has some amazing action going for it, and the entire final battle is one I still think looks amazing, especially when the Rag Tag Fleet arrives. But I can never watch it in one sitting. It bores me quite quickly.
TLJ did so many things differently than what we came to expect from Star Wars, that it definitely gets points from. I also found this movie's take on Luke quite interesting.
TROS has some amazing action going for it, and the entire final battle is one I still think looks amazing, especially when the Rag Tag Fleet arrives. But I can never watch it in one sitting. It bores me quite quickly.
I wish I had your enthusiasm for that scene. Maybe it'll grow on me. Certainly it was a field day for so-called "fleet junkies". I do think too much of the material was left on the cutting room floor.
Yeah, I'll admit, I'm a bit of a fleet junkie.
Well, there are a couple of shared plot points, but the "slavish copying" comes in The Force Awakens from A New Hope. There wasn't even an attempt to do anything original in that movie.TROS didn't throw it all out.
While slavishly copying the plot structure of TESB.
They aren't mutually exclusive.
TLJ's copying of ESB is way more than "a couple of shared plot points," IMO.
ESB: the rebels are holed up on a white snow planet they must escape from. The Force-using character goes to a boggy, desolate planet, where he meets a legendary Jedi Master who's a lot snarkier than he expected, and who's reluctant to train him. Eventually, however, the Jedi Master gets a pep talk from a Force Ghost, and decides to do so. The Force-using character has a disturbing vision in a Dark Side cave regarding his lineage, and runs off before his training is complete. Meanwhile, the main non-Force using character, on a small ship chased by the Empire, goes to a civilian area to meet a potential ally, who double-crosses them. But, at least the guy and woman on this mission may be falling in love? Anyhow, the Force-using character learns a devastating truth about the helmeted Sith enemy (he's his dad!), and the heroes limp away to freedom, but at least they have each other.
TLJ: The Force-using character goes to a boggy, desolate planet, where she meets a legendary Jedi Master who's a lot snarkier than he expected, and who's reluctant to train her. Eventually, however, the Jedi Master gets a pep talk from a Force Ghost, and decides to do so. The Force-using character has a disturbing vision in a Dark Side cave regarding her lineage, and runs off before her training is complete. Meanwhile, the main non-Force using character, on a small ship chased by the Empire, goes to a civilian area to meet a potential ally, who double-crosses them. But, at least the guy and woman on this mission may be falling in love? Anyhow, the Force-using character learns a devastating truth about the helmeted Sith enemy (he's beyond redemption!), and the heroes limp away to freedom, but at least they have each other.
And now, a RotJ bonus round!
RotJ: disillusioned by a secret kept by a Jedi elder (that Vader is Luke's dad), the Force-using character willingly surrenders to meet the Sith master and his apprentice, hoping to turn his apprentice back towards the Light Side. The Sith apprentice betrays and kills his master. Around this time, the surviving Jedi Master dies a peaceful death on his boggy, desolate planet.
TLJ: disillusioned by a secret kept by a Jedi elder (that Luke is partly to blame for Ben's fall to the Dark Side), the Force-using character willingly surrenders to meet the Sith master and his apprentice, hoping to turn his apprentice back towards the Light Side. The Sith apprentice betrays and kills his master. Around this time, the surviving Jedi Master dies a peaceful death on his boggy, desolate planet.
Yeahhhhhhh... that's a lot of common plot points.
Yeah, I'd probably say TFA, if only because of the enormous excitement of a new trilogy after having waited for so long.
To be fair, Last Jedi wasn't stealing from Empire Strikes Back, it was echoing it. It was written with the expectation that many fans would know Empire inside and out, and were expecting another barely disguised retread like Force Awakens.
TFA uses its recycled Star Wars elements in an attempt to recreate the same magic and give people the experience they're expecting, but TLJ uses familiar Empire elements to play with those expectations. It gives the audience a map and then takes unexpected detours. And by repeating chunks of both ESB and ROTJ, it leaves nothing for the third movie to recycle, putting the saga in uncharted territory where anything can happen.
Though how successful it was at pulling that off is up for debate.
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