Quoted from ForceFlow:
I agree--I think Disney really botched things. I really expected more.
Dropping all the expanded universe material like it didn't matter, and then with Kathleen Kennedy recently saying "we have no source material" is kind of a slap in the face. I have bookshelves full of 40 years worth of star wars books. That is a heck of a lot of source material right there. Not to mention all the decades of comic books and video games out there. There is an incredible abundance of source material. Even if you can't use the original trilogy characters, there are plenty of side stories and pre/post trilogy adventures to explore and expand upon, as well as fascinating characters.
I agree--I've re-watched it a few times and liked it for the most part, but do have some issues with it. Some of the contemporary moments/dialog that get shoehorned in kind of remove me from the moment.
The others (TFA, TLJ, and Solo) I haven't had a huge desire to see more than twice.
I think with a solid team of fans without much corporate involvement would have resulted in something much better. Some of the fan fiction films out there that I've seen are incredibly creative and often times left me wanting more.
With Disney's treatment of the films, I haven't really been left wanting more. I don't have high hopes for the latest film.
At least with the Mandalorian, it returns to exploring an interesting area of Star Wars lore. Which is what Disney should've done in the first place.
Fully agreed on all counts. I think they made a massive miscalculation in throwing away all the extended universe stuff. Somehow they underestimated the investment fans have made in all the material.
That said, I do sort of understand - it would have taken years to untangle that ball of yarn, and I'm sure in order to get big name directors onboard, they had to let them tell whatever stories they wanted to tell. That misfired too -spectacularly so with TLJ, and Solo.
With Rogue One, yeah it wasn't perfect, but the 'feel' of the movie, and the out-of-the-way story they told really felt like "STAR WARS!" for the first time to me. It's the only one, INCLUDING TFA (which I quite liked) that I will actually stop to watch if I see it's on.
The Mandalorian has done a lot in that respect as well. The prequels never felt really like Star wars; they were too clean, certainly too CGI for it to feel like a "used future," as George Lucas originally envisioned with EP IV. They didn't feel used, and they hardly felt like the future. Mandalorian nailed that aesthetic, especially when they went back to Tatooine. Add that to an intriguing story (also majorly bombed by the prequels, Solo and TLJ) and you've got a good show. Jon Favreau saves another franchise. Seriously, they need to give him a damn medal.