And I Have Opinions
2024 has definitely been the year of the sagas for me. It started with The Lord of the Ring trilogy, which I’d never seen, and it continued with one (or better, a bunch of trilogies) that I knew quite better but for some reason hadn’t been watching in a while. The one set in a galaxy far far away.
These two were the pieces of media every one of my nerdy college mates cited as the peak movies, the non-plus ultra, the ones every true geek knew by heart and loved with all themselves. When it came to Star Wars, as a bonus, sure you were encouraged to have your own opinions about these movies, but they better not steer too far away from what was widely accepted if you didn’t want to become “the poser”.
Episodes IV-V-VI were so much better of the child targeted cash grab that were Episodes I-II-III, you know the deal, right? And the funniest thing is that the vast majority of people holding this very opinion (myself included) were actually kids or barely teenagers when the prequel trilogy came out. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure why were we already playing old grumpies about that. But luckily those days are long gone now, and I’m old and grumpy for real, and I’m here to share my new hot takes about the three trilogies plus Rogue One and Solo.
If you’re curious but you know me and are afraid it’s going to be too long and hard to follow, I’m publishing a condensed version of this article on Medium. If you think you’ve got this instead then buckle up.
The sequels (episodes VII-VIII-IX) make even less sense the second time around
Now you’re right. I’ve spent a good paragraph criticizing people saying the same exact thing about the prequels and now I start off with this. I feel it’s not the same kind of criticism though, and I hope you’ll find out if you have the patience to bear with me until the end, because I’m going to have opinions about the prequels as well, of course.
Thing is: after Return of the Jedi we had a finally peaceful galaxy thanks to the definitive defeat of the evil galactic empire and the death of emperor Palpatine, burned to oblivion inside a starship reactor. You’ll figure out why the bold italic shortly. There’s no motivation as to why the First Order takes power in such a short time, and why the institution of the Republic are nowhere to be seen and the good guys are once again “the Resistance”.
Not a clue, not an indication why the First Order was born, about what happened to the senate (I guess it had been reinstated, right?). As much as they pretty much let the Empire happen the first time around, I doubt that this time they wouldn’t have fought against this new menace, especially in such a short timeframe.
The only movie of the third trilogy worth saving is The Last Jedi
All these words to say that they’d better go straight for a reboot if they felt the need to make the saga appeal to the new generations, because I don’t think the new movies are a very good introduction to it. In an era where pretty much every piece of media is rebooted, I really can’t see why they decided to continue the story instead, since they clearly didn’t have anything new to say.
Ep. VII is modelled after Ep. IV and makes no mystery about it. I could write a ton of words to try and tell you how much I hated Episode IX, but I hated it so much that I don’t want to waste any space nor time about it. I’ll just say that if you have to resuscitate the big bad guy, the super-dead and annihilated big bad guy from a story decades old, maybe (just maybe) you didn’t have all this ground to base your story on.
And in doing this, it undid a good part of the few things its predecessor tried to do right. Because yes, among the three newest movies, The Last Jedi is the only one who tried to walk on its own legs, to motivate the need of a new trilogy.
It tried to offer a different perspective about the Jedi way, about how unrealistic and potentially harmful certain views can be. It was a subtle tentative of course, more subtle than the one in “The Acolyte” (shame on Disney for mishandling it the way they did) but still much clearer than the half-assed mess that is Anakin’s handling by the Jedi council in the prequels.
It made fun of how everyone (even in real life) think about the Force, and I couldn’t help but reading between the line and taking it as a stab to the religious approach many people have when it comes to judging the Star Wars Movies in hindsight. It showed how ridiculous it is to remain anchored to the past without even making an effort to understand why or to think if it even makes sense, and I appreciated it so much.
Yes, there were also a lot of wtf moment, like the scene with Leia in space and the treatment of general Holdo (was it supposed to be a plot twist?), but episode VIII remains the best of the new trilogy.
The more I think about it, the more I regret not being able to enjoy the big reveal at the end of ep.V
I knew who Darth Vader really was way before I watched Star Wars for the first time, being born almost a decade after the screening of episode V. If some crazy scientist finds a way to selective cancel memories from one’s brain, I’d use it to re-watch the prequel trilogy with a clear mind.
Maybe I’d find Episode IV more interesting than I did, and the reveal itself would really leave me speechless, impressing me even more. Or maybe I’d watch it looking for clues, suspecting something big was cooking. Unfortunately, I guess we’ll never know.
What I know is that the reveal was really well built (and yes, it adds to my regret), with all the ambiguity about the fate of Anakin Skywalker when Luke asks about it. All mixed with his visions and premonitions, his fear to become like his father without even actually knowing who his father really was.
I literally imagine jigsaw pieces falling into their place as the “No, I am your father” drops, but again: we’ll never know.
I wish we saw more of Leia in the original trilogy
It is true that when we meet her, she’s an important player in the Resistance to the Empire, with an active role in stealing the Death Star plans. It’s her who sends the message to Obi-Wan, the message that starts it all. But still…
I know that she’s an unconventional female lead for the time (it was almost 50 years ago, after all), and I know that Luke is supposed to be the one who saves the day. Again, it was the 70’s. It is definitely wrong to judge a piece of media decades old with the lens of today: history must be preserved, the good and the bad parts about it. Included pop culture of an era, they give an insight about the cultural environment that inspired and sparked it.
But still…
Solo and even more Rogue One are nice additions to the main story mythology.
I’m not totally sold on Han Solo becoming the disillusioned scoundrel we see in the main trilogy because of the betrayal he experienced. It’s a story that feels a bit predictable after being told so many times, and I wished they took their time to think about something more original. Still, the movie is fun to watch and the actor playing young Han is a perfect choice for him. And the story, while coming from overused tropes, works very well.
Rogue One is more complicated, as you’re basically watching a mission that is doomed to fail and this is something quite rare in the history of movies. But it’s a movie that manages to give hope despite the fact that they all die in the end, and I think it’s no easy feat. Even if I didn’t know the entire story, the end of the movie really gives a new hope to the galaxy, being perfectly tied to the beginning of Episode IV.
Also, after seeing and enjoying Cassian Andor’s tv show it felt so good to see him at the head of the rebels. As if to confirm how is growth path hinted and started in the series worked out.
The prequel trilogy had the potential to become the best among the three trilogies
But of course they wasted it. It’s a product of its own time for sure, and meshes very well with it, just like the original trilogy is expression of the late 70s-early 80s hero journey-like movies.
Watching episodes I-II-III now, with everything that’s going on in the West, it feels like they would have been the perfect occasion to introduce a discourse around the fragility of a political system such as the Republic when people put their own interest ahead of the institutions and find someone bad and determined enough to exploit the fracture they create. Who knows, maybe the world right now would be quite different if this message was expressed better.
I am perfectly ok with Anakin being drawn to the dark side because of his feelings and his fear of losing the people he loves. It would have been the perfect moment to show how the Jedi way and their obsessive application of stoicism made more harm than good to Anakin, because having feelings is normal and human, and suppressing them in the name of who knows what is what makes them dangerous.
Instead they just painted him as a reckless whiny boy with a momma complex and arrogance, as if those were the things that led him into the emperor’s opened claws while the Jedi council sat on their asses judging him to have feelings and insecurities. Not the fact that nobody listened to him except for someone who just used his weaknesses to exploit him: he was an asshole to begin with, case closed. Again, today’s history was already told, but in a way that made it almost impossible to pay attention to.
In conclusion
Ok, I think I’ve said a lot. I hope to stir a good-hearted discussion about it, because as much as I tend to have strong opinions about the media I consume, I also like to hear what other people thing about those same pieces of media (polite discussion with motivated standpoints, I mean).
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