The original and prequel trilogies are worthwhile viewing. The sequel trilogy, however, presents a different case. While George Lucas provided story treatments during the 2012 sale, these were ultimately discarded. The sequels also marked the end of the Expanded Universe, removed from canon to allow creative freedom for filmmakers. Given that the stories deviate significantly from Lucas’s original vision, is there really a compelling reason to watch them?
The sequels suck but Andor is a legit masterpiece.
AFAIK, there’s only three Star Wars films. Episode IV, V and VI.
I would say:
The Force Awakens: Not bad, basically a knock-off of A New Hope story-wise but it feels like Star Wars and is pretty harmless fun.
Rogue One: Probably the best of the Disney Star Wars movies IMO, although it does have a couple of dodgy “bringing back an old actor as CGI” scenes.
The Last Jedi: Lots of people hate this one, I’m slightly more forgiving. I think it tried to do something a bit weird and different, and it didn’t really work. But I do appreciate the effort of not just playing it safe.
Solo: A Star Wars Story: Another one that seems to get a lot of heat, but I thought it was pretty inoffensive. Although my brain did kind of delete most of it as soon as it was over lol.
The Rise of Skywalker: Legitimately one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I can’t even call it a bad movie, because it’s essentially just a random series of Star Wars-themed sounds and images that batter you for what feels to be about a year and a half before it mercifully ends, taking with it any good will towards the franchise you might have had left.
the force awakens
My only issue with TFA isn’t the movie itself. It’s just that it sets up so much good stuff that the rest of the trilogy just doesn’t do fuck all with. There are some really cool story points, some incredible characters, and amazing acting. Then just garbage through the next two.
Rouge One
Yeah this is easily the best star wars movies IMO. It’s hectic, and all over the place, and there’s a ton of characters, then it just all clicks together in the last little bit of the movie. No spoilers or anything but you absolutely need to watch this. I genuinely can’t over recommend this enough, it’s a golden movie. Then go watch Andor, its easily the best Star wars TV and there are a couple scenes id nominate for top 10 TV scenes of all time. It’s the prequel to Rouge One and goes over Cassian Andor (main character in Rouge One) story.
Solo
I actually really enjoyed Solo. Its not super relevant to the greater star wars saga, and its not the most ground breaking piece of cinema ever. But its fun and enjoyable, just go into it with the idea that its “filler content” for the rest of them.
TL:DR I mostly agree with you
Ive been tempted to watch it all chronologically
Regarding The Last Jedi - I agree that it tried something different, and that wasn’t a bad approach. What killed it for me however was the amount of slapstick and Marvel-esque humor. Star Wars always felt like mostly serious movies - sure, there was always goofy stuff like the trash chute monster or Jar Jar, but all in all they had the air of movies that take themselves seriously (probably due to the space opera nature).
TLJ was the first movie where I didn’t feel any of that. The first scene basically took a shit on a beloved character by way of cheap slapstick, and that never stopped.
No.
They are all terrible movies, with droid-like performances, plot holes the size of a Sarlacc pit and effects and fight choreographies as pointless as the little pistons on the exterior of a surrogate hand.
Mark Hamill should be ashamed of agreeing to participate in them, even more to compensate the fact that apparently Ford cannot help himself from doing it here and in the Indy movies.
I recommend Rogue One, the Clone Wars, and Bad Batch
There’s nothing magic about Lucas’s vision. But JJ Abrams vision is exclusively “bigger is better”. Death Star destroys planets? Well, this Death Star IS a planet. And it kills multiple planets, and it’s called Starkiller, and it shoots through hyperspace.
Star Destroyer? Let’s make each one a Death Star. With a big gun. And you can ride horses on the hull.
Stormtroopers? They fly now.
(Godzilla? Uhh… My monster is just as big as Godzilla, and it’s only a baby.)
Yes
The sequels suck.
The Mandalorian, Rogue One, Andor, Ahsoka, The Clone Wars The Bad Batch, all range from great to decent. Hell, even the Boba Fett and Obi Wan series were okay.
The animated stuff like clone wars and rebels make the filoniverse come alive. Early mandalorian was great, andor was as well. So skip the movies and enjoy good star wars stuff instead.
Only if you want to get filled in on how bad they were. Otherwise, nah. Just watch the critics and you’ll get the gist of it.
See, here’s how it is-
The movies suck ass. BUT the story still continues. And it continues in a way that I personally am liking so far. The new Ahsoka show, the mandalorian, etc. have worked out pretty fine. So I you want to be invested in the franchise (I would recommend this), then try watching the sequels.
The prequels for example imo sucked-ish too. It’s the surrounding story and shows that made them a lot cooler (the clone wars especially).
BUT the story still continues. And it continues in a way that I personally am liking so far. The new Ahsoka show, the mandalorian, etc. have worked out pretty fine.
Biggest problem is that they butchered Luke character beyond repair in TLJ. Luke is destiny to fail to understand why he won against the emperor and he can’t understand that the message of no attachments from the prequel era jedi is totally wrong and bullshit. In the Expanded Universe that Disney killed Luke succeed on that and the new jedis understand the force better, in the Disney canon the character that probably will do that is Rey. There’s absolute nothing that Filoni and the others creators can do to fix this.
I watched all of the trilogy of trilogies with my dad in theaters, so they will always have a special place in my heart. I enjoyed all of them for that reason, but I look at the sequels as good entertainment for the afternoon, but I’m not interested in seeing them again. I also don’t intend to watch any of the shows. I’m sure they are good, or at least momentarily entertaining, but I’m not so interested/invested in the franchise anymore. I’ve moved on.
I enjoyed The Force Awakens, but the other two I enjoyed more for just cool individual scenes (lightsaber boat battle, etc) than the movies themselves.
I very much enjoyed Force Awakens and Rise of Skywalker. Last Jedi was painfully bad IMO. I like those other two much more than any of the prequels, true to Lucas’ vision or not.
But, it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks, if you want to watch them then do. And if you do, and you like them, then all good. And if you do watch them, but don’t like them, also all good. And if you decide not to watch them, also also all good.
Life’s too short to worry about a bunch of movies.
