What's the WORST Star Wars movie?

[scruffygrognard]

...You might want to do a recount there, scruffygrognard.

Johnathan

I was going to add Solo but changed my mind... and then forgot to edit the # of films. D'oh!

 

[Stalker0]

It's always the same attacks on TLJ and I tire of arguing them, but let's do this again:

1. Killing Snoke and Phasma was such a waste
Really? Snoke in TFA was literally just a talking head, so I struggle to see why he's so interesting. Also, his death is probably one of the more badass moments in TLJ. Taken out while reading the mind of the person that kills him, it's a great moment. Too often, you wonder, why wouldn't a telepath see their death coming? And this is a great way to show how it could happen.
As for Phasma, she has the Boba Fett disease. Great looking character, really built up, but also a bit of paper tiger. She also caves instantly in TFA and shuts down the shields guarding the planet and is ignomiously dumped in the garbage. That's all in the movie that introduces her. And again, it's not like her death is meaningless, it happens at the hands of Finn when he finally announces himself as "Rebel scum".

Snoke wasn't interesting, that is why he is a waste. He's a shadow in TFA, so we don't need to know too much. But we experience him in TLJ, and he's incredibly lame. His death is also comical to me.

Phasma honestly was worse than Boba Fett for 2 reasons:

Narratively: Phasma has a direct and personal connection to Finn as his superior officer. This could be a great foil for Finn to play off of, he's own personal villain. But no, they fight for 30 secs and then she gets killed by the environment.

Metagame: Beyond the movie, the Phasma character was massively hyped up in the interviews and media. So you go into the movie thinking she is going to be a major villain, not someone who could barely be considered a mini boss.

Just a total waste, she could have been used to bring out a lot more of Finn's character, instead of tossed to the scrap heap.

2. Finn has no character development and Canto Blight is a pointless diversion
I put these together because it's a weird contradiction I often see in all the fuming over this movie. Now, I'll confess that I think the pacing is a little off and that Canto Blight feels long. But it is a part of world-building and stuff that the prequels try and fail and that Andor does much better in showing class distinction and how people that aren't part of the Empire (or First Order) or the Rebellion (or Resistance) views the conflict. These are the ultra wealthy who's profits will be fine no matter who wins. And showing them is a key element in Finn's character development. In TFA, he was only about two things: getting away from the First Order and saving Rey. He never commits to anything outside of himself. That's how he starts in TLJ, and Canto Blight and DJ show him others who are the same moralistically speaking. So by when he finally calls himself "Rebel scum", that's him committing to a cause. That's been his arc.

Overall Finn still gets very little growth in the movie, and the little bit he does in Canto does not excuse the garbage that is that like 45 minute chunk of the movie. They could have done all of that development in another scene without skipping a beat.

3. Holdo Maneuver breaks Star Wars
Ah yes, the "I can believe in lasers blowing up planets, wizards with laser swords, but two ships smashing into one another causing a big explosion violates my suspension of disbelief" defence. Next thing you know, a fighter will somehow manage to take out a Super Star Destroyer that has only one bridge? Nonsense.

The problem is not suspension of disbelief, I have no issues with the idea that a hyperdrive ship can suicide ram into larger vessels. My issue is....than why don't they keep doing it? There is only one death star because it took massive resources to make....and even then the emperor still wanted a second one, because yeah if you can make giant space lasers, your going to make more than one.

Fighters in the star wars universe have been shown to be very very dangerous....which is why all major vessels have fighter escorts....makes perfect sense.

Now again this is where the movie could have salvaged it. Have the maneuver have been Holdo's plan the whole time. She picked a point in space previously, and had hyperdrive computers calculate it to the nth degree (taking weeks of calculations), she had been planning at some point to lure the enemy into a trap using this hyperdrive bomb idea, and was keeping it in the backpocket. So instead of them stupidly moving to a base, she was leading the empire into a trap she had been preparing. Holy crap, ok now this Holdo is a tactical badass, and the holdo maneuver becomes something awesome that can't be replicated, because it took precise planning and positioning, and not just something done on a whim. That's why this stuff is so frustrating to me, its actually not that hard to have your cake and eat it too. You can have your bad ass maneuver AND explain it rationally in a way that makes sense with your world building.

 

[Vael]

Overall Finn still gets very little growth in the movie, and the little bit he does in Canto does not excuse the garbage that is that like 45 minute chunk of the movie. They could have done all of that development in another scene without skipping a beat.

Tell me, how much time is spent on Canto Bight? How much of the movie's runtime? How close do you think you are?
Here's the answer:

• Rose and Finn arrive on Canto Bight at the 54 minute mark in the movie, the scene ends with their arrest 3 and a half minutes later.
• They awake in prison at roughly 1:03, and escape the planet seven minutes later, at the 1:10 mark.

So, roughly 10 minutes of screentime is spent on Canto Bight. If you want to, I can add the conversation between DJ and Finn on the ship as they head off to infiltrate the command ship, that'll add two more minutes.

The problem is not suspension of disbelief, I have no issues with the idea that a hyperdrive ship can suicide ram into larger vessels. My issue is....than why don't they keep doing it?

Why we don't have more suicide attackers and kamikazes in fiction is something that feels self explanatory to me. Maybe every pilot in Independence Day should've tried to pull a Randy Quaid. The Borg couldn't adapt to every Starfleet vessel engaging in ramming.

 

[MGibster]

Covenant is better than RoS ymmv of course.

I couldn't agree more. Covenant was a disappointment, the writers and producers of RoS should be embarrassed. The actors did fine, but they should be embarrassed just by being associated with such a bad movie.

 

[Stalker0]

Why we don't have more suicide attackers and kamikazes in fiction is something that feels self explanatory to me.

Yet....they make a suicide bomber the crux of the entire Rebel victory in that movie. If you don't want suicide bombers, maybe you shouldn't make them so darn effective?

 

[Stalker0]

So, roughly 10 minutes of screentime is spent on Canto Bight.

So a 10 minute scene literally felt like 45 to me.... if that doesn't tell you how boring that scene is I don't know what would.

 

[Argyle King]

8, 9, and R1 for me.

R1 was 15 minutes of a good movie at the end, but I had to sit through the mess of the rest of it to get to that.

I don't particularly like the prequels either, but -when contrasted against 8 and 9- they seem okay by comparison.

I liked Force Awakens. I felt that it would have made a pretty good soft reboot and a way to transition from old characters to new characters (and actors) if the following two movies would have been better.

 

[Gradine]

Say what you will about Rise of Skywalker, and I will, it was an absolute mess of a movie that walked back the everything the previous film set up in order to appease toxic bad faith critics who weren't going to be pleased anyway, but say what you will about Rise of Skywalker, but damn the whole astral projection lightsaber duel early on was heckin' cool.

Real shame about, well, everything else really

 

[Haplo781]

Yet....they make a suicide bomber the crux of the entire Rebel victory in that movie. If you don't want suicide bombers, maybe you shouldn't make them so darn effective?

A kamikaze pilot killed 3000 people in a terror attack 22 years ago. And that's why we've been dealing with constant kamikaze terror attacks ever since.

oh wait no

 

[Zardnaar]

Say what you will about Rise of Skywalker, and I will, it was an absolute mess of a movie that walked back the everything the previous film set up in order to appease toxic bad faith critics who weren't going to be pleased anyway, but say what you will about Rise of Skywalker, but damn the whole astral projection lightsaber duel early on was heckin' cool.

Real shame about, well, everything else really

It looked pretty.