Overrated/Underrated Geek Media

[billd91]

The Empire Strikes Back ended on a bleak note...

I'd say semi-bleak note. Luke may have gotten maimed, but we see him getting the cybernetic replacement. Han has been captured by a bounty hunter, but the movie ends on our heroes setting plans in motion. And, perhaps most of all, in the backdrop is the massing Rebel fleet. The heroes took a hit, but it's a setback, they and their fellow Rebels aren't crippled by any means.

I hate to say it, but I think even the TERF (She Who Shall Not Be Named) learned more from Empire than the Sequel Trilogy team did. When Moldy Voldy comes back, it's a shock and horrible blow, but the book ends with Dumbledore setting forces in motion in response and his allies rising to the call, raising the mood from one of despair to one of resilience. The Resistance may get rescued by Rey and Chewie with the Falcon, but that's a small relief. And the kid using the Force on the casino planet isn't much help since it's a generational seed taking root and wouldn't help the next movie unless Rise of Skywalker had been set WAY in the future.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

There's a definite "separate the art from the artist" thing. You don't want to look into the lead singer, if you don't already know.

I had completely memory holed that until now.
shudder.
I'm going to need a new song for this.

 

[cbwjm]

If the Last Jedi was really that good then The Rise of Skywalker would not have been such a huge clustertruck that I have never shown it to my Dad.

For me, The Rise of Skywalker was underrated, I really quite enjoyed it after the last jedi which I felt was a let down. Last jedi still had some cool bits, but there were parts of the film that I felt could have been left out.

 

[cbwjm]

Overrated: Uncanny X-Men after the death of Jean Grey. It was effing dynamite before that, but after Jean's suicide it really kind of sputters out over the course of the next few years. Much of the chemistry that had been growing between characters starts to get staler and staler. As much as I respect Chris Claremont (particularly his Avengers Annual #10), he ended up being with the title too long.

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.

Star Trek enterprise is one of my favourite trek shows. I think I liked that it was the start of earth's exploration of the stars.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I'm pretty sure the OP intentionally didn't define under/over rate or what community is being referenced so we could choose that as part of our selections. For example, I know Captain Power is well rated by its fan base (isn't everything?). But I consider it underrated because the larger fanbases of throwback shows largely ignore it. There's major interest in old Saturday morning cartoons (where Power originally aired), but those fanbases generally ignore it. There's big fanbases for cheesy sci-fi stuff (like Red Dwarf or Thunderbirds, as I mentioned), but Power never seems to get grouped in with those. Hence, it is underrated, even in the circles that would normally support it.

That was not the intended point of the comment you referenced. Since it is the second time, I was clearly not clear and I will edit my response.

It is fairly germane to my other post (regarding OP intent), though, so I'll combo off of it. My interpretation was that Captain Power's situation is that it isn't as popular as it should be, but that it is not under-rated. I can understand why you differ on this, though.

This was absolutely NOT supposed to be the place to rehash the BS about The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker one more time.

Yeah. If people enjoy themselves, I generally say have at it. However, yet another discussion about either new Star Wars or new Star Trek makes me want to run away and take a disinfecting shower.

 

[billd91]

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.

Well, I mean yeah, LotR was shot all at once (barring reshoots) but that was probably more to save on budget than countermeasures for someone croaking mid-trilogy release. Carrie was really only 60 when she died though, maybe with her history of drug abuse someone was thinking along those lines...

And I don't really buy MCU having built-in countermeasures. Their release timeline and stories sure look like they got hit hard with Jonathan Majors's legal troubles. So, if they have countermeasures, they're incomplete.

 

[billd91]

God that opening theme song was terrible...

And the funny part of that is the Paramount+ app on the smart TV in our bedroom will allow us to skip the starting (yay!) but the app on our X-Box-One in our living room doesn't (booo!).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And the kid using the Force on the casino planet isn't much help since it's a generational seed taking root and wouldn't help the next movie unless Rise of Skywalker had been set WAY in the future.

Which would have been great, incidentally. Give us a time jump and show us how terrible things have gotten and show our heroes leading a new rebellion that they had to start from scratch that isn't just Mon Mothma and company standing around a glowing circular table again.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Overrated franchise: Every fantasy series with books the size of a phone book that still requires 11 volumes to tell a complete story

Underrated franchise: Stand alone novels and, especially, short stories

 

[Shades of Eternity]

Well, I mean yeah, LotR was shot all at once (barring reshoots) but that was probably more to save on budget than countermeasures for someone croaking mid-trilogy release. Carrie was really only 60 when she died though, maybe with her history of drug abuse someone was thinking along those lines...

And I don't really buy MCU having built-in countermeasures. Their release timeline and stories sure look like they got hit hard with Jonathan Majors's legal troubles. So, if they have countermeasures, they're incomplete.

true but they really made sure stan got to the finish line of end game.