Star Wars *SOLO*

I forgot about the space Jesus thing. Yeah, I hated that too.

And midichlorians aren't aliens, they're basically bacteria from how it's described in the movie. Imagine if the Common Cold gave you telekinesis. That's midichlorians.

I'm kind of torn on Revenge of the Sith? It does have some cool stuff. As far as first acts go, the one in Revenge is up there. Better than in the previous two movies, and maaaaaaybe better than Return of the Jedi, which'd make it my second favorite to the Battle on Hoth. So, it opens strong.

Later on, there are some great individual moments. Obi-Wan fighting General Grievous, Order 66, the final duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin, the fight between Yoda and Palpatine... there are moments where I thought this might be a great movie.

Unfortunately, there's also some stuff that really irks me. Padme goes from being a mostly interesting and cool character in Phantom Menace, to a sometimes really cool and interesting character in Attack of the Clones, to... just... Anakin's love interest. Completely. She has no other bearing on the plot than to die and drive Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader. That is just... so lame, and such a waste of a really good character.

Also, as previously mentioned, Palpatine being behind everything is super, super lame and robs a potentially interesting story of any kind of thematic depth. There's this whole conspiracy, a constructed war, a Senate perpetually in danger from fascists, separatists, and possible even theologians, but.... none of those potential conflicts are explored because they're not real because everything is Palpatine. It's... it's all Palpatine.

Hey, maybe waging war on the separatists in the name of democracy is itself a failing of that democracy? I think Pamde has like, one line about this but otherwise, the separatists are Palptines pawns so they're evil so it doesn't matter.

Even the Jedi acknowledge the danger of taking control of the Senate in the name of protecting Democracy from Fascism. Is there an interesting conflict here? No.

Wow, the Senate happily accepts Palpatine as Emperor! What does this say? Nothing. Again, Padme has like, one line about it. Other than that, nothing.

Okay, so, it doesn't have much going for it in terms of complexity, but how about Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader! He's previously expressed interest in both fascism and the dark side, perhaps his transformation into Darth Vader was inevitable? Oh, no, he's tricked into becoming Darth Vader by Palpatine because Padme is going to die in childbirth.... of course.


Attack of the Clones is clearly the worse movie is we're speaking clearly, but Revenge of the Sith honestly just bothers me more because it had so many chances to be more than it was and achieve greatness and it just.... doesn't. It's just happy with letting the evil space wizard be behind everything instead of letting the rise of the empire and Darth Vader be an actually interesting story than maybe even says something about these characters and this world. No, it's all the fault of a single character. And all of that is just.... so, so lame. It just.... irks me, so much.

Attack of the Clones is the worse movie, but Revenge of the Sith is the more frustrating movie.

this is where the fun begins

The Force Awakens is my favorite movie so far.

There's something about this one that allowed me to connect with it on a level I couldn't with the others. I have no doubt part of that is the awe factor. This movie hasn't been taken into the popular culture yet, so whereas I thought stuff like the Battle on Hoth was cool, I couldn't be awed by it because I knew it was coming, and I generally knew what it looked like. On the other hand, when those X-Wings flew in across the water and Poe Dameron started blasting Tie-fighter after Tie-Fighter out of the sky, I was smiling ear to ear.

I also never expected this film to either: redeem the series after the prequels. bring back the magic of the originals. or take a bold new direction and drive the series forwards. So, not being weighted down by my expectations, I do think I may have enjoyed this film possibly more than some lifelong Star Wars fans.

This is not to say that my enjoyment of TFA was solely due to metatextual reasons, in fact, t wasn't even mostly because of that. It's simply because, narratively, this is a better movie. Hot Take, I know, but from my recent experience of the others: They all suffer from very similar problems. Clunky, stiff dialogue, awkward plotting, unbalanced pacing, etc. In the better movies like ESB or ROTJ, these are minor issues that simply drag the film down a bit. In the worse movies like AOTC, ROTS, and even in the okay-good movies like TPM and ANH, these really hurt overall enjoyment of the movies. Honestly, I think the issue might be even worse in the ones that are just good but not great. My biggest issue with A New Hope is that it's slow, and seems to just sort of bid its time between big action beats. The pacing in that movie is almost shockingly bad even as it excels at worldbuilding and character.

The Force Awakens is the first movie in the series to not have those issues. The dialogue flows really well and conveys a lot of character and emotion while being precise and snappy. The pacing allows for a movie that connects big action beats with slower character moments in a much more natural way as opposed to the stop and start pacing of previous films. The plot is tied tightly into character and theme, allowing for far less moments of "wait why is that happening?".

Oh! And let's talk about theme! I really appreciate what the film is trying to do as far as basically being a "reboot" or A New Hope, but taking that as the framework for a metafictional story about legacy. You see this in the interactions between the old and new cast, with Rey forming a close bond with Han Solo that is almost parental, as well as the actual parental relationship between Han and Ben. This connection is at times subverted and reaffirmed, which I think rather than keeping the film from making a statement, allows it to say that legacy can both hold you back and help you. Perhaps not a powerful statement by itself, but the sheer amount of sentimentalism injected into the delivery of this message allows it to resonant very deeply. And the film keeps doing this: BB-8 and R2-D2, Kylo Ren and Darth Vader, the First Order and the Empire. Rather than just being reskins as I think a lot of people view these elements, I think this was on purpose to allow the film to affirm its legacy as a Star Wars film and what that means both for older fans and newer fans, but to also subvert that relationship(it definetly does more affirming than subverting, at least in this one).

Also, there are far fewer space wizards so far, so that's nice. It allows characters to have agency.

Still, I think sticking on theme too long would be a mistake because while I think it's maybe deeper than people give it credit for, themes are still not the film's main interest. I'd peg that as character and emotion, which, thankfully, I'm more of a character girl anyway! I can forgive thematically/structurally weak stories if they have strong characters(this is why I still say I'm a Walking Dead fan). Thankfully, The Force Awakens is strong in all of these aspects, but character especially.

Finn is maybe one of my favorite Star Wars characters. He's funny, loyal, and incredibly driven, but held back by cowardice, past trauma, and maybe even a bit of self-loathing. There's an internal conflict present in him that the film exploits in really interesting ways. He's the first one to use Luke's lightsaber and he saves Poe, but he's also a liar and a coward. His devotion to Rey and Poe just endears him to me so much, that I'm already saying he's gonna be my favorite character of the new trilogy.

Rey follows closely behind. Holy wow that extended introduction to her is such a great use of visual storytelling. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's a really strong use of the medium to characterize her before we've even heard her say anything. And, she's a really great character once we get into the action. Her facade of confidence, torn between wanting to be part of something larger and being held back by her past, outright fear and confusion of the force and her role as hero conflicting with an undeniable attraction to both... Like Finn, she's defined by conflict(in fact, seeing as this is also a big part of Kylo Ren's character, being torn between the dark and the light side, I'm willing to say this is a purposeful motif), and also like Finn, she's just such a charming and likeable character.

Poe is awesome. He's explored the least, but he's awesome. He's just a cool, handsome, charming action hero. Love that guy.

And Kylo Ren is, so far, a great villain. He fits really well into the two themes of legacy and conflict. His whole purpose is to live up to Darth Vader, and fearing he will not be able to, even though he's far closer to Anakin than he could imagine. That central conflict between light and dark that comes to a head with his confrontation with Han Solo is also a really interesting part of his character. He's alternately scary and pitiful, and sometimes even both at the same time.

Also, all of the returning cast is great but if I talked about literally every character then that'd be the whole post. As it is, it's probably most of the post.

So... yeah. Craft wish, I think this is the best film, and I certainly just flat-out enjoyed in the most. I'm tempted to give it a 10/10, because, within my scoring scale, a 10/10 is symbolic of simply being an all-time Favorite. Well, I'd need to sit on it more, I literally just saw it, but I'm giving it a 10*, with the * noting that this is temporary, and will either be made permanaent or reduced to a 9 based on how i feel about it after a couple months.

So, new scale:

The Force Awakens (10*) > Empire Strikes Back (9) > Return of the Jedi (8.5) > A New Hope (7) > The Phantom Menace (7) > Attack of the Clones (3) > Revenge of the Sith (0) (given that the zero is also symbolic, I've decided ROTS deserves a 0)

I wouldn't even mind the fact that Rey's absurdly good at everything if she was at least likeable, but she's just so god damn boring, we've seen her character 1000 times before and done much better, especially when stacked up to the best of the new trilogy's characters (Finn, Kylo, Poe).

I'm really excited to see The Last Jedi because the divide between people who think it's the worst movie of the series and people who think it's the best movie of the series is so sharp that at the very least, it's got to be interesting.

Well, I'm not certain I like Rey more than Luke, or the new main trio more than the originals yet. As of the first movie, I think Rey is better than Luke, but also I felt Mark Hamill didn't really get into the role until Empire Strikes Back. I like Han in the originals a lot more than Poe in the new trilogy so far, and Finn... well, Finn doesn't really fit as an analog for anyone in the originals really, so, yeah.