As almost everybody knows, and surely all Star Wars fans know, a lot of people had major issues with the recent sequel trilogy. In fact, if we thought that fans had been disappointed with the prequels, it is nothing compared with the sequels.
What were some of the problems with the latest movies? Well, The Force Awakens was considered the best of the movies, generally, and by far. Most people really enjoyed it. However, it felt like it lacked some imagination, as for all intents and purposes, it followed the original story lines to such a degree that it lacked originality.
Then came The Last Jedi. Whatever criticisms people had about it, I do not think that anyone can say that it lacked imagination. It took what felt like a very familiar - some might argue predictable - story, or Star Wars saga, and flipped it on it's head. And while Rian Johnson had some very interesting ideas, many of these ideas maybe should have been saved for future Star Wars movies separate from the Skywalker saga. Plus, there were aspects of it that were simply unbelievable, like a certain someone being blown out into space literally, and then freezing, before suddenly coming back to life, despite the frozen conditions in space, as well as lacking oxygen. Plus, a lot of people did not like what happened to Luke Skywalker. I can kind of see both sides of the story in that regard, because in fact, Luke's reluctance is in keeping with other Jedi masters of the past, who like Luke, went into self-imposed exile when things went really wrong. The visuals for this movie were stunning, yet it also felt like Johnson kind of went to extraordinary lengths to throw a monkey wrench into the Star Wars machinery. Again, many of the ideas were good, but would likely have been more welcome with less familiar characters.
Then came the last movie, The Rise of Skywalker, which felt rushed and forced. It lacked the imagination of The Last Jedi, yet it seemed to copy one aspect of it: it went quite extraordinary lengths to go an entirely different direction, in an effort to restore more conventional Star Wars themes. However, to that end, certain aspects did not work. The one that most people, myself included, had the most problem with was the return of Emperor Palpatine. Not only did his return feel like the ultimate example of a lack of imagination, but it also negated Anakin Skywalker's/Darth Vader's self-sacrifice to save his son at the end of Return of the Jedi, which you can argue was six episodes in the making. A lot of people also had issues with Padme suddenly becoming a Palpatine, after she herself seemed to acknowledge that she came from parents who seemed to signify nothing, and who abandoned her. There were plenty of other issues, including one big one for me: how did such a weakened version of Palpatine somehow manage to power that fleet of thousands of Star Destroyers if he was so much weaker than ever before? For that matter, how did he suddenly grow back missing fingers and such? In the original trilogy, Palpatine always seemed like a very menacing figure. In this one, he did not feel scary at all. Frankly, another villain would have been much preferable.
In any case, I digress. These are things that were already discussed in my reviews of these movies, and it hardly feels like the time to rehash all of those issues. Suffice to say, I was disappointed with numerous aspects of the latest trilogy, but I also would not go so far as to suggest that it ruined my childhood, or anything. That is just going way too far, if you ask me.
That said, there were definitely some issues that people had with the latest trilogy, and some were so angry with it that they wanted the whole thing scrapped.
Well evidently, some of the issues that people had with the Star Wars story, as it came to be in this latest trilogy, were addressed in the popular television show, the Mandalorian, which seems to have taken over in terms of Star Wars magic. Many fans now view this television series as the new, "real" Star Wars to get excited about. Having seen the first two seasons (and this reminds me that I never really finished the reviews that I meant to do and publish), I would have to concur.
Apparently, Star Wars shows in the future will continue to try and iron out some of the wrinkles that the last trilogy, and particularly the last movie, likely created.
Should be interesting!
Future Star Wars Shows Will Reportedly Fix Issues Fans Had With Rise Of Skywalker by Joe Pring, December 2020:
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