[Tyson]

I mean the modern process of editing films i.e. digital 'non-linear editing' or NLE for short. Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, etc. *All* modern movies are made with NLEs - and Lucas created the most influential, called EditDroid, from which all others are derived.

Ah, gotcha.

[ctviggen]

We did not see this over the weekend (saw Spies in Disguise instead). Will go to see it next weekend, though.

I always suspend my belief for any movie.  For instance, the original Star Wars movies have explosions occurring in the vacuum of space.  I immediately knew that wasn't true.

I do hate that I can't watch the original 3 movies without the editing performed where they added in crap just because they could.

I might not be the best person to review these things, because I like the Ewoks. I actually liked this movie as one of the best of the original three.  I believe the main consensus is that the second movie is the best of the three, but I liked that the least of the three.

After all the comments, I'll just assume I have to suspend my belief and not look closely at the plot. That'll be easy for me, as that's what I do anyway.   

[hifix]

The original Star wars (for me) was a "galactic western".
Now its an all inclusive with some "kung fu" rolled in.
And you're supposed to like it.

I'm out.

[wilsynet]

Folsom:  I really really liked Rogue One.  Big fan.

Hifix: Laser swords and space samurai you're in, but kung fu you're out?

[charmerci]

Star Wars has always been an excuse for the CGI artists and audiences to have fun, not an intergalactic retelling of "Gone with the Wind" or "Lawrence of Arabia".  Real plots require real characters, not cartoon figures.

+1

I've seen them all except this last one, which I will go see this weekend. I'm pretty much a movie snob but not really with sci-fi because you have to suspend belief sometimes. I can forgive a premise that doesn't make sense IF the movie maker stays consistent with that premise or doesn't go to far where I say "come on, no one would do that!" or "that's just ridiculous" , removing me from the "fake world" that I am temporarily inhabiting.

Frankly, none of the SW movies were as bad as people say, nor were they as great as they say, though in re-watching the Ewoks really could have been left out or changed. Ugh. But yes, the first SW's were definitely groundbreaking.

[daledeee]

I always go to the theatre knowing something about the movie.  This was the first time in my life I really felt like I wasted my time. I have seen all the previous movies and liked them all.  This one suffers from poor story line, character development and no surprises,  I felt like this was just to fulfill a contract. 

[Wind Chaser]

Phantom Menace was the breaking point for me. I can’t imagine any of them being worse than that. The success of the very first instalment, initiated the era of the blockbu$ter. The franchise that followed was only about making money. These movies are not about art, they are simply pandering to broadest audience po$$ible... children.

[wushuliu]

Star Wars has always been an excuse for the CGI artists and audiences to have fun, not an intergalactic retelling of "Gone with the Wind" or "Lawrence of Arabia".  Real plots require real characters, not cartoon figures.

I'm not a Star Wars fanatic but this also isn't true. The originals are firmly rooted in both serious cinematic and storytelling roots. It's well known that the first was heavily influenced by Lucas' love of Kurosawa films as well as Jungian/Joseph Campbell 'Hero with a thousand faces' mythic research. Those 'cartoon figures' are in fact 'archetypes' and deliberately so. There's a reason Campbell used Star Wars extensively to discuss his work. I'd easily argue that the original Star Wars is as dense as Lawrence of Arabia. The great accomplishment is that Lucas managed to succeed in still making it popcorn fare.

Star Wars and it's accomplishments - both visible and not - are so ingrained in popular culture that it's really difficult to grasp just how revolutionary the first 3 were.

[Tyson]

Phantom Menace was the breaking point for me. I can’t imagine any of them being worse than that. The success of the very first instalment, initiated the era of the blockbu$ter. The franchise that followed was only about making money. These movies are not about art, they are simply pandering to broadest audience po$$ible... children.

I agree, which is why I don't try to get any higher level artistic value out of any of them.  For that I watch actual arthouse movies.  But even within the "not arthouse" level movies like Star Wars, some are well done and others are not well done.  I completely agree with you - Phantom Menace = not well done. 

The latest Disney versions, while no more (or less) non-sensical than all the others, from a plot standpoint, at least look good and have high production values.  Unlike Ep 1-3, which were non-sensical and looked bad (in spite of how much $$ was spent on them).

I will say that the super fans of this series are hilarious.  On the one hand they complain that there's "no creativity" in 1-3 and 7-9, but then the moment someone veers off the beaten path even a little (ep 8 ), they all complain that it's "not being true".  Haha, that's some unintentionally hilarious stuff, right there.

[Woodsea]

IX was better than VIII.  The jokes fell flat for every audience member yesterday except for one member in a sold-out theatre.  My 21 yr daughter and I had to quiz each other on the drive home on what happened in some scenes or just to explain them. 
So much was going in the movie that my old self never felt sleepy, which happens...I admit more than I care to admit.
The Mandalorian is a bright spark in the Star Wars galaxy, the jokes are spot on and the character development is very well done.
I still prefer the logic of Star Trek.

[Tyson]

I still think the animated series The Clone Wars is the best take on the Star Wars universe.  And you can stream it for free if you have Disney+.  The Mandalorian is also very good. 

[charmerci]

So, I'm didn't really like this for my standard Hollywood movie reasons.

Why do these movies have to bigger and longer, more explosive, last second, oh-my-gosh-how-are-they-
EVER-going-to-get-out-of-this-completely-hopeless? situations? Bigger! Bigger! More! More!

I get that there are premises that kind of defy logic but movies really need to stick to them. I'm tired of the last second, 'oh let's just write it this way" to give the audience more suspense scripts.

I mean, I mostly like the story and the adventures but after a while, it was "oh, they are going into the symbolic, psychological, dark depths to pull themselves out again" far too many times. I liked 7 and 8 better than this one.

I am disappointed because with a few tweaks, it would have been much better.

[Cowboy]

New to the forum...and first post, but we did see 9 this weekend after (re)watching 7 & 8 the two evenings before at home.  7 was as good as I remembered, I fell asleep in the middle of 8, and had my eyelids peeled back while watching 9 at the very large IMAX in 3d at Imax volume.  The visuals were great of course, I found parts a bit repetitive (the recent viewings of 7 & 8 had something to do with that I think...) along with some real blockbuster moments and some touching moments (Leia, Kylo).  Family was split on the ending.....I won't ppost spoilers, but you know what I'm talking about.  We were all confused by the plot threads left hanging and a few shifts of story line (apparently major edits to cut the running time down)...definitely Disney's hand at work and definitely not as satisfying as it could have been for purists, but an OK end to this series.

We are liking the Mandalorian in general, the comment that it's "trying not to suck" is pretty spot on.

[Letitroll98]

These last two reviews are spot on to me.  It was a terrible movie, jerky and disjointed in it's plot and editing, and I loved it.  Strictly for it being the end of this lifelong saga for me.  As a young man I waited in long lines and searched for two seats together to see this miracle of movie making, and waited the two years or so between each installment as I got married, bought a house, and went through the changes we encounter in life.  Then the excitement that it wasn't over, the first three episodes coming out, children being born, into middle age.  Then as an older man these last three episodes, new and old characters, all of us watching our children age.  Then that last scene, no spoilers here, but to have it all come fill circle near the end of my life as I watched in reserved seating reclining loungers mounted in stadium enclosure rising up to a balcony.  I really don't care how bad some of the installments were, I loved it all.

[charmerci]

...was started out different than what we saw!


https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/star-wars-leak-reveals-colin-110833623.html

[Rob Babcock]

I loved the real Star Wars filmed, loathed the prequels and largely can't be bothered by the new Disney products.  The only one I actually liked was Rogue One; it did have to bend a bit to fit canon but it had a tremendous cast and was a well written film IMO.  It was also nice to simply have a standalone film that wasn't just the setup to a few more.  I didn't loathe The Force Awakens even though it was more reboot/remake than sequel.  Daisy Ridley had an innocent charm, Oscar Isaac was great and the effects were pretty good.  The Solo film didn't look appealing enough to bother with (and indeed, it hasn't seemed worth the hour to watch it on Netflix, at least while I still have a couple episodes of BoJack Horseman left!).  The Last Jedi was simply so awful that I don't care enough to see the last installment.  Adam Driver was nominated for an Oscar but in typical SW fashion he's so bad here he probably couldn't use this performance to score a role in a Hallmark Xmas movie.  And LUKE DESERVED BETTER!   No continuity, no consistency, etc.  Just a waste of everyone's time.  Well, except for the folks that make a billion dollars from it.

As a lifelong Star Wars fan I'm not sure where this leave me.  Clearly buying the IP rights doesn't really make new films less of an imitation/counterfeit.  A legal one but there's no artistic or creative ties to the real films.  Nor have any of the post-original-triliogy films added anything meaningful to canon.  I guess I'm not all that interested after a half dozen disappointing sequels.  The one exception though would be films based on the Knights of the Old Republic games.  They actually had a better story line than any of the films!  If we could get Guillermo Del Toro or Peter Jackson to direct I'd buy my tickets now!

[wushuliu]

The Mandalorian is better than all three of these sequels.

[OzarkTom]

The Mandalorian is better than all three of these sequels.

+100