Star Wars Episodes 7, 8, and 9 (contains spoilers) thoughts and wishlists

[US 41]

Episode 7 thoughts

I actually thought Episode 7 was very good. I've seen it 3 times now. I still think Episode 3 is probably the best one, since it shows Anakin turning into Vader, although I wish the Order 66 scenes were longer and we saw more from Anakin than him getting ready to kill younglings. Kylo Ren being Vader's grandson really didn't surprise me too much especially since in the trailers we see Kylo Ren saying he was going to finish what he (Vader) started. I'm not sure that Kylo Ren knows that Vader saved Luke in the end and died a Jedi. Maybe he does know the truth though since he does kill his father, Han Solo.

Episode 8 Wishlist (FYI Kylo Ren was saved in Episode 7 and it has been confirmed he will be in 8)

   I want to see force ghosts involved in Episode 8, especially Anakin's (as Hayden Christensen). Star Wars has basically been the story of Anakin Skywalker up to this point. I read that there are rumors of his force ghost returning with a light and dark side. I hope his light side force ghost is the only one showed, since in the end I believe he did regret joining the Dark Side. Hopefully we see Anakin try to talk some sense into Kylo Ren.
   As far as Snoke is concerned, I hope he is just a new character. I think it would be kind of stupid if he was Darth Plaguis, since Sidious already killed him off long ago.
   We'll probably see Rey and Finn become Jedi in Episode 8, trained by Luke Skywalker. I'd like to see Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker face off in 8 in a lightsaber duel, but I want it to end in a stalemate. I think Kylo Ren killing off Luke would be too similar to Vader killing Obi Wan, plus saving both characters for Episode 9 would make 9 that much more epic.
   I'd also like to see the introduction of another villian, or maybe the other knights of Ren involved in Episode 8.

[Pete from Boston]

Hayden "He's more wooden now than man" Christensen?  Abrams seems to have opted instead to return to actors that can act believably human.  Let's hope he stays on track.

[english si]

Episode 3 was the worst one as it was so predictable and relied heavily on Hayden Christensen's acting ability but gets a pass as it has the thing everyone wanted and people assumed that it can't get worse than Episode 2 (which is, don't get me wrong, a crappy movie).

Episode 2 allowed you to tune out, whereas Episode 3 (especially the first time) feels like a chore waiting for the important bits that you are waiting for that could happen at any moment, but don't for hours and hours.

[TravelingBethelite]

Episode 7 definitely lived up to the hype and the Star Wars standard, IMO. I can almost guarantee that Luke will train Rey & Finn in 8. J.J. Abrams did not disappoint in Ep.7, so I can and will trust him with the rest of the trilogy.

[empirestate]

I've never met anyone before who thought one of the prequels was the best of the saga.


iPhone

[Pete from Boston]

The third one was so bad that they actually wrote in a meeting where the surviving characters sat down at the end and hurriedly concocted half-assed explanations for all the plot lines they couldn't get to in seven previous hours of movie!  Abominable!  I laughed aloud in the theater.  Even funnier than "NOOOOOOO!"

[english si]

Jar Jar* Abrams isn't doing the sequels. Rian Johnson is taking over.

*That's clearly his name, hence why he goes by initials as almost no one likes Jar Jar**!
**Shoot me, but having rewatched Episodes I-VI last month in prep for watching Episode VII, I found Jar Jar wasn't that bad - he's no droid, sure, but he does act as a "this guy is an annoying tag along" way that C3P0 does really well in IV. He's not likeable, in or out universe, but he's not a badly written character (at least in Phantom Menace).

[US 41]

The reason I like 3 the best is because of all the lightsaber duels. I think it has more lightsaber duels than 4-7 combined. Three could have been so much better than it was though. I do wish we would have seen more from Anakin when Order 66 was happening.

I thought Episode 4 was by far the worse of the ones I've seen (I've seen all of them except 1 and 2). It seemed like it just dragged on and on with R2D2 and C3PO wondering the desert.

I thought 6 and 5 were both good, but I liked 6 slightly better than 5 because the empire was finally beaten.

BTW did anyone see SNL where Kylo Ren is on Undercover Boss?

[noelbotevera]

For me, Episode 7 was equivalent to about a couple billion tons of trash. The beginning was good, then it declines until it gets put out of its misery.

[nexus73]

I've never met anyone before who thought one of the prequels was the best of the saga.


iPhone

The prequels were my favorite since they delved heavily into the politics of the Republic and how the Empire emerged.  After reading the spoilers on Episode 7, it looks to me like Episode 4 being redone.  Big deal. 

Rick

[US 41]

For me, Episode 7 was equivalent to about a couple billion tons of trash. The beginning was good, then it declines until it gets put out of its misery.

I thought it got stupid when Rey beat Kylo Ren at the end. Rey had zero experience with a lightsaber. Yes Rey knew she was strong with the force, but I mean Kylo Ren was strong enough to stop a laser beam in midair. Even an injured Kylo should be able to beat Rey. He had no trouble with Finn. 

[Duke87]

I've never met anyone before who thought one of the prequels was the best of the saga.

The prequels do not deserve the bad rap they get. They are different from the original trilogy, certainly, but they take place in a radically different time period in the galaxy, showing the dying days of a corrupt republic rather than a rebellion against an oppressive empire. With this accepted and accounted for, the movies hold their own and the common complaints about them can all be rebutted.

People wanted to see the origin story of Darth Vader the badass, and the idea of young Darth Vader being a whiny emo was entirely counter to that expectation. But for good reason: it makes sense. Darth Vader's apparent badassery is merely a smokescreen for the fact that underneath that mask is a scared little boy driven insane by a lust for power. Hell, the fact that he has a mask and never actually shows his face until he overcomes his fear and redeems himself is perfect symbolism.

People hated Jar Jar for being a bumbling idiot, but this ultimately became an important plot point since Palpatine was able to use him as a useful fool to propose emergency powers. Was it necessary for his bumbling in Episode I to be as over the top as it was? No, but at the same time, why is it a point of criticism? I, for one, never found Jar Jar to be annoying. His antics are funny, dammit.

People made fun of Anakin's horrible pick up lines, and yes, they are horrible, but from a socially awkward kid who's never kissed a girl before, do you expect otherwise? People criticise Padme for falling for Anakin, saying she should be better than that, but their relationship makes sense: both of them were denied a proper childhood (Anakin from being whisked away to be trained as a Jedi, Padme from being whisked away to become involved in Nubian politics), both of them lead crazy messed up lives and by building a relationship are attempting to create some semblance of normalcy.

People made fun of Darth Vader's "Noooo!", but, c'mon, how would you have handled that differently? Is that not a perfectly understandable reaction from someone learning that he just killed his wife who he was trying desperately to save? And remember: Darth Vader is not a macho man. He is a scared little boy. The mask merely, well, masks this.



As for Episode 7, I will gladly join anyone hating on that. The experience of seeing the movie opening night was great, but the movie itself was meh.
- The plot was quite chaotic and difficult to follow, like they tried to squeeze more into one movie than really properly fits.
- Finn and Poe become friends way too quickly for it to be believable.
- Kylo Ren is able to use the force in seemingly ridiculous and absurd ways (making a blaster bolt hover in midair? Directly reading people's minds? Yeah no).
- Rey seemingly manages to go from not knowing what the force even is to having substantial mastery of it in the blink of an eye, which not even Anakin the midichlorian-juiced messiah was able to do.
- The Godwin's Law scene was completely uncalled for. Blatant imagery of the Third Reich has no place in Star Wars, even if it accompanies the supremely evil simultaneous destruction of multiple planets.
- There was way too much rehash of scenes and ideas from previous movies purely for the sake of fanservice. We didn't need another scene in a trench to blow up a big bad spaceship. The original scene has been parodied a million times, you know your franchise has jumped the shark when it is parodying itself.
- Han has inexplicably devolved as a character, he's a smuggler again despite having wholly left that life behind by the end of Episode 6, and he's seemingly less competent at it than he was before.
- And, last but not least: George Lucas didn't write it. It was crafted by a conglomerate media corporation to be a blockbuster, not made by its rightful author as a work of art. Imagine if Apple Records decided to make a new Beatles album without either of the surviving Beatles involved. It would pretty much automatically suck, right? Well, the same phenomenon can be seen with Star Wars, except it actually happened.

[triplemultiplex]

Prequels will always be hamstrung by canon and everyone knowing what's going to happen.

The Force Awakens does have echos of A New Hope in that we have two characters plucked out of obscurity by events and they just happen to be specially inclined visa vi The Force.  And the super-sized Death Star planet is way too familiar.  But I still liked it.
It was such a rush when the opening credits rolled and we had that famously great John Williams score.  After 10 years, that alone was worth the price of admission.

I liked that the death of Han Solo is significant for the development of Kylo Ren as a character.  Abrams totally telegraphed it in that scene by having the light in that space suddenly cut out moments before Han gets skewered.  It was an exhilarating moment between the light going out and the light saber going on because I suddenly knew what was about to happen. I'm glad I didn't know about it coming into the movie.  That feeling right there was also worth the price of admission.

While I enjoyed Episode 7 a lot, I fully expect the franchise to be diluted to the point of irrelevance by those assholes at Disney.  That is literally the plan.  They are going to be cranking them out as fast as they can until everyone gets sick of them; exactly what they've done with all the superhero movies.  Say what you will about the prequels; at least Lucas didn't shove them down our throats in consecutive years the way Disney is going to for the rest of the decade.  By doing this, they are robbing fans of one of the integral experiences of the Star Wars franchise: waiting years in between installments to allow anticipation to build.  Star Wars is about to become routine and ordinary just to feed the insufferable Hollywood money machine.  It may come to pass that someone going to see a Star Wars movie will be shown trailers for the next Star Wars movie.  Keep that in mind when you start seeing trailers for Rogue One this summer. 

[Pete from Boston]

I've never met anyone before who thought one of the prequels was the best of the saga.


iPhone

The prequels were my favorite since they delved heavily into the politics of the Republic and how the Empire emerged.  After reading the spoilers on Episode 7, it looks to me like Episode 4 being redone.  Big deal. 

The political backstory was overwrought and unfocused.  This probably has a lot to do with why they ran out of time to, you know, finish the story.

I've never met anyone before who thought one of the prequels was the best of the saga.

The prequels do not deserve the bad rap they get. They are different from the original trilogy, certainly, but they take place in a radically different time period in the galaxy, showing the dying days of a corrupt republic rather than a rebellion against an oppressive empire. With this accepted and accounted for, the movies hold their own and the common complaints about them can all be rebutted.

People wanted to see the origin story of Darth Vader the badass, and the idea of young Darth Vader being a whiny emo was entirely counter to that expectation. But for good reason: it makes sense. Darth Vader's apparent badassery is merely a smokescreen for the fact that underneath that mask is a scared little boy driven insane by a lust for power. Hell, the fact that he has a mask and never actually shows his face until he overcomes his fear and redeems himself is perfect symbolism.

People hated Jar Jar for being a bumbling idiot, but this ultimately became an important plot point since Palpatine was able to use him as a useful fool to propose emergency powers. Was it necessary for his bumbling in Episode I to be as over the top as it was? No, but at the same time, why is it a point of criticism? I, for one, never found Jar Jar to be annoying. His antics are funny, dammit.

People made fun of Anakin's horrible pick up lines, and yes, they are horrible, but from a socially awkward kid who's never kissed a girl before, do you expect otherwise? People criticise Padme for falling for Anakin, saying she should be better than that, but their relationship makes sense: both of them were denied a proper childhood (Anakin from being whisked away to be trained as a Jedi, Padme from being whisked away to become involved in Nubian politics), both of them lead crazy messed up lives and by building a relationship are attempting to create some semblance of normalcy.

People made fun of Darth Vader's "Noooo!", but, c'mon, how would you have handled that differently? Is that not a perfectly understandable reaction from someone learning that he just killed his wife who he was trying desperately to save? And remember: Darth Vader is not a macho man. He is a scared little boy. The mask merely, well, masks this.

You missed all of my problems with those movies.

They looked dopey.  There was a great line back when the first one came out where the CG was too slick and someone supervising the animators had to go and get a box of rusty junk and tools and showerheads and things, dump it in front of them, and say "THIS is the look."  Apparently he should have dumped it on their heads, because the message never quite got through.

The acting... my god.  Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman gave the least relatable performances in all seven movies (yes, I'm including the Power Droid in that assessment).  Acting requires a certain amount of looking and sounding like the audience isn't there.  They never, ever sounded like they weren't overacting.  This may not be entirely their fault–there are writers and directors involved–but the effect was what it was regardless.  The first three movies, while certainty not Oscar performances, were full of off-the-cuff dialogue and reactions of surprise, annoyance, panic.  The three prequels felt like every single scene was extremely careful, unnatural, and staged.

Lucas lost sight of the basics once he had a million gazillion dollars and all the technological toys in the world.  He never got over the flaws of the first three, but somehow was the only person in the world that missed that those flaws were part of what made it so good.  Who feels a sense of gritty desperation when everything looks beautiful and perfect, and every line sounds like it's the fourteenth take?

I'm glad Lucas is out.  He made a wonderful thing but lost sight of so much of what made it so good.  He trotted out Van Hagar when people wanted Diver Down.

Edit: Forgot to add, lightsaber duels are like getting laid–at first it is magical, and you remember each one because they are rare and very meaningful.  When it gets to the point that you'll screw anybody that comes along, though, it's no longer interesting to anyone paying attention.  It was nice to finally see something slightly different in the new one, someone who had no training at all try to use one awkwardly.  But really, save your lightsaber for someone special.  We've seen every one of your moves before.

[ET21]

I enjoyed all of them equally (except jar-jar in 1), fuck the negativity. Bring me rogue one 

[kurumi]

Scenes I want to see in 8 and 9:

• Someone forgets to charge their lightsaber ("shit man, lemme borrow yours! I'm at 3%!")
• Someone carjacks a Death Star and flies away. The First Order gives chase in another Death Star.
• R2D2 discovers in-app purchases and demands 2 Star Wars quatloos before doing anything
• Rey listens to Wookie language tapes while flying the Falcon
• Continued use of the Force wears away an eons-ago constructed barrier between this dimension and the next. Empire and Rebels have to join together to fight a threat against all sentient life in the galaxy

[kkt]

Continued use of the Force wears away an eons-ago constructed barrier between this dimension and the next. Empire and Rebels have to join together to fight a threat against all sentient life in the galaxy

The Borg?

[english si]

Continued use of the Force wears away an eons-ago constructed barrier between this dimension and the next. Empire and Rebels have to join together to fight a threat against all sentient life in the galaxy

The Borg?

The Expanded Universe explained why the Empire built a Death Star to crush a small rebellion, and then built another one, despite the great cost - the Emperor saw a coming threat from outside the Galaxy that needed weapons of that size to defeat

Sadly it's not Canon anymore (VII erased it), but half the Galaxy's population was killed by this invasion, including all but one of Han and Leia's kids (creating the rift between them and Kylo Ren).

[english si]

They looked dopey.  There was a great line back when the first one came out where the CG was too slick and someone supervising the animators had to go and get a box of rusty junk and tools and showerheads and things, dump it in front of them, and say "THIS is the look."  Apparently he should have dumped it on their heads, because the message never quite got through.

That was, by far, the worst crime of the prequels. The annoying woman sat next to me in the cinema for VII might have rudely been very noisely mocking the 'retro' aspects of it, but it looked like Star Wars ought to.

The prequels look like the the remastered original trilogy, rather than what people loved.

The acting... my god.  Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman gave the least relatable performances in all seven movies ... The three prequels felt like every single scene was extremely careful, unnatural, and staged.

Agree, I think it is clear given that many decent actors (Portman, McGregor, Jackson) are acting worse than they ever had, that there was some deliberate direction that they must ham it up (damn Lucas). Cinema Sins is right when they point out that Luke in IV was nearly as bad as Anakin in II and III and the whininess is common in both characters and may have been a conscience choice to make Anakin so annoyingly hammy.

However III shows clearly the difference in class between mediocre Christensen (and bored-out-of-her-skull-Portman) and (both decent and trying) McGregor and even if you can overlook the poor direction, telling them to ham it, you can see why it made little sense to have Christensen's acting carry the plot.

[Rothman]

The prequels sucked.  That's all there is to it.

"Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo."

*drops mic*

[ET21]

Continued use of the Force wears away an eons-ago constructed barrier between this dimension and the next. Empire and Rebels have to join together to fight a threat against all sentient life in the galaxy

The Borg?

The Expanded Universe explained why the Empire built a Death Star to crush a small rebellion, and then built another one, despite the great cost - the Emperor saw a coming threat from outside the Galaxy that needed weapons of that size to defeat

Sadly it's not Canon anymore (VII erased it), but half the Galaxy's population was killed by this invasion, including all but one of Han and Leia's kids (creating the rift between them and Kylo Ren).

Only Anakin Solo was killed during the Vong War, but this did cause Jacen to start turning towards the dark side to become Caedus in the postwar era and into the 2nd GCW. I liked how they did bring that part of the EU into VII

[Buffaboy]

I didn't like the latest one, it felt like all the others. All of the 80's Star Wars' introduced new characters and concepts.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

For me, Episode 7 was equivalent to about a couple billion tons of trash. The beginning was good, then it declines until it gets put out of its misery.

I thought it got stupid when Rey beat Kylo Ren at the end. Rey had zero experience with a lightsaber. Yes Rey knew she was strong with the force, but I mean Kylo Ren was strong enough to stop a laser beam in midair. Even an injured Kylo should be able to beat Rey. He had no trouble with Finn. 

My thought about this was that they were trying to explain how Ren hadn't "completed" his training and still had weaknesses. For example, Chewie shot him with the crossbow blaster right after he killed Han. When the fuck has a strong Force character been shot by a single blaster bolt like that? So I think Ren while strong was still incomplete.

[Revive 755]

For example, Chewie shot him with the crossbow blaster right after he killed Han. When the fuck has a strong Force character been shot by a single blaster bolt like that? So I think Ren while strong was still incomplete.

I take it Luke taking a shot to his right hand in the early half of Episode 6 is not counting?

[Pete from Boston]

For example, Chewie shot him with the crossbow blaster right after he killed Han. When the fuck has a strong Force character been shot by a single blaster bolt like that? So I think Ren while strong was still incomplete.

I take it Luke taking a shot to his right hand in the early half of Episode 6 is not counting?

You'll remember that he left his instruction when Yoda told him he wasn't done.