Overrated/Underrated Geek Media

[payn]

Rise of Skywalker was JJ throwing a tantrum that so many of his toys had been broken by Johnson. RoS' problems are 100% due to "no one talked about this trilogy ahead of time and JJ got his feelings hurt."

TLJ could have been universally praised as the best movie of all time and JJ would still have been trying to undo it.

I dont think it was all JJs fault. A lot of People HATED TLJ.

 

[Ryujin]

Underrated: Star Trek: Enterprise. It's not top of the line Star Trek by any means, but there are some stand-out characters among the main cast and guests. I think it suffers from a few key problems - 1) the theme music is jarringly non-Star Trekish, 2) it bogs down a bit in the Xindi storyline which dominates too much of the time, and 3) it wasn't distributed in syndication. Trying to anchor the UPN with it, I think, limited its reach. The prior 3 Star Trek series had all been readily available to me on one of my local channels through syndication and ran a full 7 seasons each - but by being UPN which was carried locally on a weakly transmitted CW station meant I couldn't watch it.

Unfortunately while some of the characters worked quite well, and there were a few good episodes, its largest failing was in not giving the audience what they had so long awaited; the founding of The Federation. The ongoing storylines that they pursued were... odd.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I dont think it was all JJs fault. A lot of People HATED TLJ.

For sure. But that doesn't explain much of RoS' badness.

"We didn't like that Luke Skywalker is so disillusioned, so the natural response is to have people riding horses across the outer hull of a starship."

 

[billd91]

I dont think it was all JJs fault. A lot of People HATED TLJ.

Last Jedi has its problems. It largely wastes Finn on a dumb side story and Johnson very much paints himself into a corner with being unambiguous about the amount of time passing during the fleet pursuit and Resistance pleas not being answered. And it's a bleak corner to get stuck in.
The Poe/Leia and Rey/Luke/Kylo Ren story arcs are, however, utterly fantastic.

 

[payn]

For sure. But that doesn't explain much of RoS' badness.

"We didn't like that Luke Skywalker is so disillusioned, so the natural response is to have people riding horses across the outer hull of a starship."

Or chewies dead...Just kidding. C3PO wiped out...just kidding. Pretty gutless writing there.

 

[payn]

Last Jedi has its problems. It largely wastes Finn on a dumb side story and Johnson very much paints himself into a corner with being unambiguous about the amount of time passing during the fleet pursuit and Resistance pleas not being answered. And it's a bleak corner to get stuck in.
The Poe/Leia and Rey/Luke/Kylo Ren story arcs are, however, utterly fantastic.

Yeah, I get folks liked the overall attempt at breaking the skywalker wheel and whatever, but the film had big problems. I mean, the recreating the O.J. Simpson bronco chase in space was certainly a decision...

 

[Shades of Eternity]

sorry guys
the star wars sequals fail for the simple fact they didn't have a plan and they didn't write like any one of their cast could die at any time (puts down rose for leia and akbar).

both lord of the rings and the mcu knew this and built countermeasures. into their design.

all three movies should have been done at the same time and not have a director go leroy jenkins in the middle of a trilogy.
(the last jedi would have been a fine movie if it didn't mess up the trilogy).

now let's go somewhere that contentious.
underrated: Book of Boba Fett.

Tem and Ming knocked it out of the park and thematically it works as Boba learns how to balence his absolutely predatory nature with his desire to be a protector now.

plus he beats his mentor to death with a stick.

Season 02 please!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I dont think it was all JJs fault. A lot of People HATED TLJ.

Yes, but they hated it for really bad reasons.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If JJ hadn't gotten his knickers in a twist, TLJ set up some really exciting alternate possibilities for a third movie:

• Show us what Kylo Ren looks like ruling the First Order instead of, weirdly, the status quo being essentially the same after he ganked Snoke
• The Resistance is now small enough to fit into a single starship, rather than being a galaxy-wide rebellion -- show us how a small handful of rebels fights back and rebuilds
• The villains have essentially won -- what do they do with their grip on the galaxy other than, you know, stuff stays essentially the same?
• Luke Skywalker, at last, is dead. But the awakening Force (remember that?) may be calling to a new generation of Force sensitives -- show us Kylo Ren and Rey each racing to find those kids first
• With the Jedi gone, the Knights of Ren are the most powerful group of Force sensitives in the galaxy -- do something with them

TLJ's extended casino heist thing was a fine idea that would have been a great TV episode or two on Disney+, but which was a weird diversion for the movie, and "we're running in hyperspace and it'll take however long the sidequests to complete before the chase is up" was also not great.

But it is high art compared to Rise of Skywalker and the responsible thing for JJ/Disney to have done was to say "great, let's show how this time of darkness can make the best damned Star Wars trilogy finale ever." The Empire Strikes Back ended on a bleak note and Return of the Jedi (which was a pretty mediocre movie, IMO -- any time Lucas says "it's for the kids," someone needs to take him for a walk away from the writer's room) was all about triumphing over dark times. The third prequel movie could and should have been the same instead of whatever the heck it was about.

 

[payn]

Yes, but they hated it for really bad reasons.

Some of them, yeah, absolutely. A shame they side lined Rose.