I wouldn't disagree with that. I remember wanting to like those prequels but hated them. I get all the criticism with the Disney Star Wars films but found them more entertaining. At least Disney has an excuse being Disney so you don't expect too much. You would think the original creator would do better but no idea what Lucas was trying to do with those prequels. Jar Jar, goofy bumbling Anakin, midichlorians, Samual L Jackson jedi, and then you have things like that slave kid wearing braces. For whatever reason, I can put up with Mary Poppins Leia, Rose, ships running out of fuel, kamikaze ships, emo Kylo Ren, and all that.

RUMOR... from a "reliable" source....

The EWOKS will be BACK in EP9

Wow.....

I just watched it his past weekend. What a shitty movie. If this is what the public wants now, then film as an art film is truly dead. Not just SJW at every chance, but what a CGI mess.

I will say that the first encounter with Spider Man and Mysterio was pretty cool, it was right out of the Silver Age Comics.

New Star Wars ride opening soon.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/03/tech/star-wars-rise-of-the-resistance-ride/index.html

Dead on both points.

They got everything wrong in Far From Home, specifically Mysterio. Should have been focused on using his gas agents to mentally destroy his enemies, drive Peter insane, hurt those close to him, etc. Like that scene when they were fighting at the construction site. Also introduce J Jonah Jameson pubically attacking Spiderman in this movie. Peter just cant take it & mentally cracks. But a cerebral superhero film does not cut it for today's dumbed down audiences.

So we got Mysterio using mcguffin "Stark Tech" to put on elaborate unrealistic holograms of destruction. Dumb dumb dumb. And also focused on a bunch of unlikeable unfunny dumbass teenagers. Ready for movie Spiderman to grow the eff up & get married already. Blows my mind that movie made over $1B. Same goes for Captain Marvel & Back Panther. These are not great movies than deserve a second viewing or a bluray purchase.

Endgame was the peak for me. As these movie get worse, you're going to see less people going. Most will scoff at that statement, but if they start pushing agendas & turn off the hard core fans like they did with Star Wars, then they'll cook the golden goose too.

That’s no rumor, that’s confirmed. Look at this quick shot from a recent promo. Warrick Davis in the Wicket suit again.

Just call it Episode 9: The Kitchen Sink. They throwing everything in & it’s going to be a fricking mess.

37DBCE63-2D08-4D26-BBB7-81E0FE735F85 (resized).jpeg

oh....

for fucks sake....

Yes! Good! Join the Dark side. First stop, ewok forest town, next stop Binkssssss!

I hear you, but I still think it at least somehow resembles the first few encounters with Mysterio, and that part I enjoyed.

The rest was trash. Raimi used Jameson so well in the first Spider Man movie, and he's virtually gone. Plus SM's spider sense is also gone, that was what he used to be one step ahead. But since they made him Superman power wise, guess it doesn't matter as much.

I heard the Ewoks are throwing a huge party at the end of Episode 9. After The Battle of Endor the Ewoks went into business as party and event planners. The Episode 9 party is supposed to be epic, much bigger than the ROTJ one. There's rumors going around that the Ewoks even managed to book force ghost Luke to make an appearance.

Lmao....seriously? what the hell is happening over there? Isn't there one real SW fan working in that outfit? I swear, I hope someone makes a documentary about this colossal F*ck up. This is like Borat in space.

I thought Mando episode 4 was ok, but can see now it’s more of an episodic series not a long arc story (at least at the moment). I guess it’ll be like Kung Fu series. Whatever I’ll watch it but I’m not at all overly impressed as some people were leading to believe that it would be epic TV.

Honestly its a better strategic move for the 1st season to be episodic. People are jumping in and out to see if its worth watching. If they need to watch each episode to understand - this kills it for them. This is compounded by Disney doing a weekly release vs netflix dump all at once approach.

Im hoping season 2 starts building in some bigger arcs.

Do we close in on how we feel EP9 will perform? Flop or does this thing redeem itself?
More SJW plot rumors out there, hope these are not true.

Don't spoil the eye gouging pain for me! I wish to puke directly in the theater to show my disdain that night.

It will suck. spoiled.
I’m not seeing it.

I am looking forward to the dumpster fire afterwards though.

I can't honestly think of how someone could sum up the 9 movies in just 2 hours after the train wreck Last Jedi basically derailed everything that was set up in Force Awakens, not to mention the original trilogy too. From certain aspects JJ Abrams has to almost totally start over in this movie while simultaneously closing the series all in the same film. I'm not sure how that could be done well.

I think it's closer to three hours....

Just read something about a writer saying how many story arcs it'll wrap up. Headline was all I read. Let's just say, the number is extraordinarily high.......

I’m willing to accept that Luke is in the shower alive and episodes 7 and 8 were just R2D2’s bad dream and they start over and make the films that should have been made in the first place. Basically that the Republic has been reestablishing itself the last 30 years but faces an insurgency from the dark side and cultists who worship the legacy of Vader and the Emperor.

You could actually explore those far reaching systems where people preferred the order and structure of the empire to the chaos of the struggling republic.

Can somebody grab and post the WSJ article on Disney/Star Wars from today called "Dark Side of Star Wars"? I bet it's enlightening.

Having seen all of the youtube videos discussing plot leaks, if this movie is even half as bad as what they are saying....God help us all.

If you hate TLJ and The Rise of Skywalker, and oh yeah, by the way, you hate the first three movies too, you might as well just say that you hate Star Wars. Like it or not, those installments make up a huge percentage of the overall tale. I'm a huge fan of Empire Strikes back. But if that's all I like, I dislike Star Wars because I only like 1/9 of it.

I read it. It’s says what you can guess it says, in summary: if you don’t like the new trilogy you’re either old and out of touch or you don’t like women or minorities. It wasn’t critical of the plot or arc in any meaningful way.

It also had some quotes from Iger saying something along the lines of Disney gets unfair criticism for every attempt to update the lore, even if it’s an update of “small things”.

It basically blamed the fans for having high expectations or holding Disney to any quality standards...

Man, now I want to read it even more!

It's okay to admit you're wrong, talentless or just plain suck. Or even simply have missed the mark.

The Disney crew seem to entirely miss that level of reflection or accountability. Must be the fans then...or George Lucas. Or of course...both.

I think this is what the fanbase gets for shitting all over Lucas' ego. He made mistakes, but clearly he was bruised, backed off, and walked away.

Now, we have Disney as a result.

It wasn’t the most over the top piece I’ve seen on this subject. Just more of the same with them telling everyone if they want to fit in and not be considered an old stick in the mud then you must enjoy the current trilogy (or at least not complain, I suppose that was inferred).

I actually viewed this article as an improvement on the garbage stories from last year, they at least didn’t accuse those of us who were not completely enthralled by TLJ as being Russian bots this time...

I agree about missing the mark....even Lucas has been critical, and this is his baby. So no, it's not us, it's them. I read a Daisy Ridley interview where the author says the Fandom Menace will hate anything the new trilogy brings regardless if it's good or bad. Really? what about most of us liking R1 or the other half that liked TFA? To me that's the most frustrating thing about all of this, they don't think we have a legit gripe. They dismiss us as misogynistic and anti female. Well, what a bunch of crap. Again I ask what about R1 then, how come there was no backlash with that film? I think it's a culmination of things, bad management (KK), bad writing (RJ and JJ) and bad directing (RJ). Mark Hamill was telegraphing this is not his Luke Skywalker, he went as far as calling it Jake Skywalker...we also have Lucas questioning the story after watching TFA. No it's not the fans...

Seems any type of real reflection would only come from another franchise mouse turd at the box office.
Probably unlikely at this point.
Kennedy is a real piece of work.

My fellow Pinside moderators have incorrectly accused me of trolling this position for years, but the Phantom Menace is my favorite Star Wars movie. I have my reasons: Darth Maul, amazing sound track, Liam Neesom, world building with the functional Jedi order and senate, the incredibly well done final act of the movie, etc. Many things that bothered others (Jar Jar, Anikin) didn’t bother me at all for whatever reason. I did not like AotC.

People like different things.

Menace was better than clones. It’s issue was killing off both of the best new characters too soon.
Always thought simply having more prequel aliens speak alien vs English would have changed perceptions as well.

Me too. I have seen every star wars movie in the theater opening day since the 1997 re release special editions. I skipped Solo because I didn't care about the story and I hated TLJ. I really want to see how Rise of Skywalker is opening night, but I just cant bring myself to pay to see it and take my family. I will wait and if the word of mouth is good, I will probably go on a $5 Thursday by myself.

Now I usually see each movie at least twice in the theater, I saw Rogue One three times with different groups because I loved that movie. Rise of Skywalker will still have a $100+ million opening weekend and make a billion dollars. It should do more than that though considering it is the final movie in a nine part series.

Also my girlfriend and I look forward to Friday mornings to watch the Mandolorian. Good show, just the right amount of length per episode to watch before work.

That is a disappointment. Coming from the WSJ, I thought it would have been more realistic than the SJW pieces.

Look - it's quite easy to see what the game is. Same thing happened with the Ghostbusters reboot - it sucked so everybody hates women and didn't like it because it had a female cast. That is their automatic response because they can't and won't admit the filmmakers completely failed at their objective and/or the studio interference and other interests prevented a good product to be created (these films are all products, not art anymore).

Their theory doesn't hold water as shown by many examples - Ripley in Aliens is the one that comes to mind and that was 39 years ago? Hell - Lucas used Karen Allen in Raiders of the Lost Ark who was a great alpha character...did anybody bitch?

Good for you for having your own opinion, most of all for being able to validate and explain it to others.

I'd say I like Menace just after Star Wars. Both do a fantastic job at world, um galaxy building, and they both seem somewhat encapsulated within themselves, as in single based products. Sure, Empire is the best "film" as in creating and ratcheting up drama, but it clearly doesn't make sense if it was handed to someone in a bubble.

Menace has a sense of wonder, that Star Wars did, and even someone like Jar Jar and the Gungans add to that. Pod Racing does too. There's less grim in that side, the Anakin side of the world, and the grimness is left for the political struggles. They're nicely divided.

The effects are dated sure, but man I remember listening to that score for the first time, and seeing the incredible Struzan poster work, and going to see "Meet Joe Black" just to see the first trailer! Nothing beats that timeframe for me, excitement wise. Not to mention that amazing midnight toylaunch!

In a social media aware world, it's crazy and pathetic Disney can't replicate the above paragraph I just wrote, but discredit the dude as much as many have, the is one large difference between this trilogy, and the two prior ones....

I miss ya George!

Haha, you're crazy man, but the best art is usually created by crazy people. So it's all good.

I hope you haven't been drinking straight kerosene. Gotta add sumthin' to that shit before downing it!

I remember the clip of him saying, as a young twit, how he wanted to make movies where people either loved or hated them. Well, he is a master at that, that's for sure!

Johnson is a nitwit. That is for certain.

I forgot about the toy launch. I worked for Rite Aid at the time and ordered extra Phantom Menace action figures. We got boxes of it in 3 or 4 days before we were allowed to sell it. I went through them all and picked out one of everything. Still have them in my garage somewhere. What a waste of money.

The Phantom menace wasn’t too bad despite Padme and Anakins atrocious acting in it. Attack of the Clones is unwatchable now just because the CGI is so dated and they used just way too much of it.

Outside of the original films, The Phantom Menace comes closest to getting it right. The opening 15 minutes of the film is just like Lucas based the originals on, an old fashioned serial. The action starts quickly, and when Liam struggles to get through the door with his saber, that added a bit of realism for me. Take out Jar Jar, Anakin, and the horrible CGI battle at the end, and it would have been much better.

Yeah, they weren't great. But I'm going to give him a pass on the prequels, he was trying out new technology and his directing skills were basically on ice for something like 20 yrs.

Phantom was also the last Star Wars movie to push movie watching technology forward in any meaningful manner, and it deserves some credit for that as well. What Avatar is recognized as doing for 3D technology, Phantom should be credited for doing for audio.

Dolby Digital Surround EX was a huge step forward and combined with the new seating arrangements (stadium style) the theaters were doing really created the modern theater environment we enjoy today.

Dolby Digital Surround EX employed a then unheard of 6.1-channel theatrical surround sound format, and added an additional rear center channel to the 5.1-channel format used in most high end brand theaters of the day. The speakers, which were positioned along the sides and rear of the theater, were wired to create more realistic sound effects that were far smoother and more accurately placed than the then existing systems. This is fundamentally the same sound format we have today.

The pod race scene was designed to feature this incredible audio and at the time in the 90’s it blew everyone away. Phantom Menace was not poorly received at the time of release by the masses, it just became cool to dislike it later and Jar Jar and Anikan were easy targets.

I guess the state of star wars is pretty bad if we're fondly reminiscing over the good old days of the phantom menace

It's okay that people like it.

I was a crazy fuck in my early twenties then. I think I saw that damn thing 14 times in the theater. Half were at a local dollar theater.

It was far better than American Pie, which was playing at the local theater around that time, that's for sure!

It's been popular for so long to shit on the prequels, that I think it's just ingrained in culture to hate them. It's sad, as it's the most complete, refreshing, and sincere Star Wars Trilogy that will ever exist.

We'll have to agree to disagree. It's fine that people like them, but the prequels are some of the finest examples of shit filmmaking out there. 3 is watchable at best. 1 and 2 are bad on almost every level. And it ain't because of jar jar or Jake Loyd. The directing, writing, dialogue, acting, plot, pacing, editing... all horrid. To the point that it's dumbfounding. People don't hate the prequels because it's ingrained in our culture. They hate them because they're garbage. Like I said, it's fine to like them. I like my fair share of horrible movies. But let's not try to pretend that the prequels are some kind if misunderstood classics here.

The 2nd and 3rd one were garbage. Almost unwatchable for me.

When I saw that C3PO go through that Droid factory, I made a vow never to watch Clones again.

I think it's almost impossible to separate the OT from our psyches at this point, as much as we do the Prequels or these newer, lesser films.

The reality is these are all still solid popcorn fantasy movies at best. I can't even think of one single scene, at this point, where I felt shifted, changed, pondered, etc from a character engaging the world around them, or directly interacting with another character or part of the world.

Visually they take us to another world, but they're far from being incredible films. Incredible movies, sure! And the ideas they speak towards, represent, and have us get excited by are amazing, but these films don't really exist to challenge us or make us ponder aspects of life.

So I think when we hold the OT as sacrosanct, it's really in such a specific way and vision.

Hell, I've watched some Gaspar Noe, and a couple older Wim Wenders films lately, that made me reflect, had me excited to discuss ideas, and wonder what the intent of the film maker or actor was in very specific ways.

Star Wars on the other hand, always got me visually excited to see and wonder about new worlds, but I doubt that I've ever truly wondered a good bit about myself, the acts of humanity and nature of it, or anything on a larger, more moving scale....

Though, Palpatine at least is pretty amazing to take in at times. I guess, not for long though....

I personally think when Vader turns and throws the Emperor to his death is the best, but regardless, we feel that we because we have invested in the characters and believe in our own way, that it is reality, or that it's real to them.

Everything after the originals are just comic book type of scenarios, and that is partly due to CGI, partly to shitty writing and party due to shitty directing.