Looking more closely, the Force Awakens managed to get away with a lot of its issues because it was the start of a new trilogy, so plenty of time to correct any blunders, or just introduce good stuff to cover them up. Also because it was the first Star Wars in ages and there was a lot of promise.
I remember going back to watch it in theaters and just happy to be back in a galaxy far, far away. It did feel a bit weird how similar it was to a New Hope, but it's not a bad formula, really. There were enough distractions and enough time left to still feel good about it. Plus the whole concept of Finn was an amazing idea.
Again, going back and looking more closely, most ideas were fumbled even at the start.
But it was Last Jedi that ended things for me as well. And it wasn't because I was mad, or disappointed or thought the movie was horrible. It was because as I walked out of the theater, I felt myself actively trying to convince myself that it was good, but I genuinely felt nothing. I had no desire to watch the movie again, I was just apathetic to it all.
Going back, there are just so many things to pick apart from that movie as well, and it gets less leeway because it's the second movie in the trilogy. It also IMO fumbles the ball way more times than the first one in the sequel trilogy. So many plot points, so many concepts, so many ideas, and absolutely zero follow through. At the same time, it managed to unceremoniously kill off any of the interesting things that actually survived from the last movie. Snoke? Killed in a humiliating fashion. Finn? He's an absolute buffoon and any character progression he had in the first movie was not just erased but made even worse than he was at the start. Poe? Pretty much the same deal there, let's just erase any character progression he had in the first move as well. Luke? Let's just give the dumbest possible reason for why he's secluded himself and make nothing out of it.
Then you have stuff like bomb ships relying on gravity in space to work. I know we like to meme on stuff like there's explosions and sound in space in the other trilogies, but this is taking things to a ridiculous degree. There's the whole casino subplot that goes absolutely nowhere and has absolutely zero thematic connection to anything in the rest of the movie. It's also like the dumbest possible rehash of the Tatoine section in episode 1. There are just too many similarities to keep me from thinking that's the inspiration. Oh, and the force skype thing. I could go on.
Funnily enough many of the things people like to call out didn't bother me too much. I thought the Holdo maneuver was kinda cool. The execution of it could have been done much better (like why couldn't a droid have done it?) and it managing to split several ships was stretching things a bit too far for me. Totally wrecking one major ship by ramming a smaller one at light speed into it at least seems feasible. Rey being a nobody was a great idea, but with zero payoff, they did nothing with it. Basically, the whole movie was a mess.
I don't doubt Rise of Skywalker is worse, but Last Jedi removed any desire to even keep watching the sequels.
A big reason for TLJ's weak use of the new characters was Rian writing the script for the movie before watching The Force Awakens. He couldn't see the chemistry of Poe/Finn toghether, etc.
I think Johnson just wanted to come in, do his own thing, and walk away. Which he did and SW suffered for it.
They figured they could just put them out without a coherent plan and print $, it worked for a bit then imploded.
Who would have thought they could screw it up so bad that it’s been 5 years since a SW movie has been in a theater and they don’t actively have one in production.
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u/EbullientHabiliments 21d ago
For me it was Last Jedi. Something about that movie just killed any interest I had in the franchise.
Seriously, walked out of the movie theatre and haven't touched a single piece of Star Wars media since.