This was ALWAYS going to happen. There was no way around it. To have a sequel you need conflict and drama. You need a problem to be solved. An enemy. The galaxy needs to be in danger.That inherently means the heroes had to fail. The Empire need to come back. There's no way around it beyond pulling a brand new unseen enemy out of your ass and forcing it into the world. And that almost never works and everyone would complain "this doesn't feel like Star Wars".No True Scotsman. He's the thing… there is a big spike of people rating this movie a "1" is high. Higher than
Phantom Menace. But a solid majority of viewers rate this movie the same or higher than
Phantom Menace. The people who hate the movie are a small, insignificant percentage. Most people, casual AND hardcore *liked* this film.Based on what? The one data point we have is
Solo, but it's foolish to draw any reliable conclusion from a single data point. Maybe people just didn't want a Solo movie? Maybe people were scared off by the drama of the changing directors? Maybe it came too soon after TLJ and people weren't ready for more Star Wars. Maybe too many people needed a break from big blockbuster movies after
Deadpool 2 released the week before and
Infinity War three weeks prior? People seem very excited for both the new Star Wars streaming shows on Disney+ and Episode IX. Because kids care about the quality of a movie when they buy their toys? Yeah… I don't think so. I have an eight-year-old. He'll watch anything.The toys were released too far ahead of the movie, so they weren't available during holidays, or when people cared about the movie. They dropped in September and weren't able to hold interest until December. Also, if you read the toy threads, the big complaint is that the diversity of the toys is limited. There were fewer new aliens, vehicles, and the like. Toys bought from the previous movie would work. And there's some complaints about quality. It's unrelated to TLJ and would have happened even if TLJ was a smash.That's just wrong.It isn't limited to Star Wars. Toy sales are down across the board. By 2%. Haso revenue dropped 2% as well. But rival Mattel dropped 12%And Toys R Us closing also hit toy sales hard, as there were fewer places to buy said toys.BS.There is a very clear racist and sexist hatred for the movie and its actors. Again, when you look at the number of 1-star ratings for the film, that percentage is twice as high for men than women. If the film was just bad, both genders would rate it equally, like they had done with every prior Star Wars film.While you may believe your own complaints aren't based in misogyny (I can't say) don't kid yourself and pretend the hatred doesn't exist.
RUINED FOREVER!!TLJ made 1.3 billion at the box office alone, and an untold amount on disc, VOD, and steaming. That's probably pure profit of 3/4 of a billion dollars. That's deep trouble?Does anyone remotely think for a SECOND that Episode IX won't do equally well? Especially since it will have been a year-and-a-half since
Solo and people are already gagging for more Star Wars...
TFA made 700 million on 2 billion so yeah IIDK if TLJ actually made that much I assume they spent less pushing it in places like CHina where they flew a heap of stormtroopers out to pose on the wall.
I'm not pretending the hatred doesn't exist, squeaky wheels tend to get as lot of grease. TLJ is not a one star movie, its way to early to call IX one way or another. THeres enough wrong with TLJ as is I htink from plot points or likeable charatcers or where tdo you go from here.
For example if you are a Rey fan what do you do with her in IX. Do you want her to defeat Kylo or redeem him or something else. Kylo is weak he has been losing since TFA so its not very dramatic if he loses again. What hobbies or interests does Rey have (Luke wanted to go to the academy).
Getting away from Rey we'll look at Finn. He runs like a coward in TFA. We'll give him a pass it happens early in the movie, like Han towards the end of the movie he is a hero- he has found his courage. TLJ rolls around and he is running again back to where he started.
Poe. Was not actually in TFA that much but we know he is a damn good pilot and that is shown later in the film. TLJ rolls around he he gets his squadron killed of to the last man (women), even the death star run had a few survivors. They portray him as a hot head right through the film.
Kylo Ren.
Comes across as a whiny kid. They didnt seem to follow up on his thing about Snoke training him at the end of TFA.
HUx
Hux was great in TFA, I kinda want to pay money to see him lose. Gets used as comic relief.
Phasma.
Potentially a great new character. And then she oses again for the 2nd movie in a row. Looks kewl her look can't back up her lameness as a villain.
Snoke
Heres your new big bad, he is interesting and now he is dead. It was kind of clever how they portrayed him reading Kylos mood though. They got rid of him a one movie to early this would have been a great scene for the 3rd movie.
And this is how the characters are barely tied together. They were hinting at a romance angle with Rey and Finn for example. Nope that lead no where as well. Anaklns lightsaber scene in TFA interesting yes, nope it got broken. New big ass ship, nope got trashed as well. JJ seeded lots of little plot hooks. There is subverting audience expectations (the farm girl saves the prince) and then there is the chainsaw approach. They never even really put much effort into explaining the First Order and how they are so powerful post Endor. A simple line about the rebirth of the empire rising from the ashes would have been fine you don't need to put a massive amount into it.
Its not just limited to Rey its everything good from TFA basically was not followed up on or thrown away. As bad at TPM and AotC were (and they were bad) it had better world building and character development. Didn't care about Anakin or Padme in the prequels that much but Obi Wan was good. Anakin was decent enough in RoTS.
And its not just Rey using force powers untrained we have a kid using telekinesis as well. Seeing Rey plow through everything unscathed might work alright in a different genre like a super hero movie but even in an action movie the protagonist isn't usually portrayed as invincible. John McClane in Die Hard. Kinda works better in cartoons.
The reason people seem excited about the Disney cartoons was Rebels was very good, tied it back to the OT and Clone Wars well and used returning characters like Thrawn and Ahsoka well. Ahsoka was annoying when she debuted (because she was a kid a'la Anakin in TPM) but she is great now. You also cared about the new characters like Sabine, Hera, Ezra. The best Star Wars since the OT has been the cartoons.
Fantasy Booking
TFA mostly as is. In the end scene Kylo kills Han, Chewie takes the shot. Kylo being a powerful bad guy negates it a'la vader, uses somethign like a force shield or feels it coming and dodges it.
Rey gets away and the movie proceeds to the duel. Kylo is unwounded and owns Rey+ Finn but they survive but Kylo is wounded in the duel (the heroes flee). Otherwise the duel roughly happens as is. The crack opens in the ground and the movie ends more or less as is.
In a hypothetical part XIII Rey gets trained, Kylo also gets trained, Snoke sends him out and about and Rey and him have a brief encounter. Like Anakin and Obi Wan they try using force powers on each other but they counter it. Episode XIII ends Snoke is still around and Rey+Kylos encounter is a draw. In Part IX Rey encounters Lukes force ghost, some revelation, later on we get the final. They have the throne room scene and then Rey and Kylo face each other and if its a combat Rey wins. All this really changes is.
1. Kylo is powerful in TFA. He is an effective villain can stop blaster bolts in mid air and can dodge bowcaster shots or otherwise survive them.
2. While powerful he is not vader. Gets more training, so does Kylo. Rey is a better student, encounter 2 is a draw makes it different from Empire where Vader wins.
3. Something happens to Rey and she gets even more powerful (she learns to draw on the dark side perhaps). She has enough power to now go and defeat Kylo/Snoke. Anakin and Luke both took down Sith lords in the 3rd movie, Snoke/Kylo are not Sith but you get my point.
