Posted on 04/23/2018 4:11:24 PM PDT by tbw2
I like both Star Wars and Star Trek. I’ve seen all of the Star Wars and Star Trek movies, and while watching the kids, even saw a number of Clone Wars cartoon episodes. I’ve seen most episodes of Star Trek, every series, though I’ve barely been able to watch Star Trek: Discovery except the Mirror Universe episodes. I say this so that my criticism is not mistaken for “you just don’t like the franchises.”
And I think modern politics and shifts in storytelling are hurting both science fiction universes.
(Excerpt) Read more at libertyislandmag.com ...
https://libertyislandmag.com/2018/04/23/did-star-wars-jump-the-shark-or-was-it-devoured-by-parasites/
When that beloved franchise got dragged down the PC cesspool, the rats and vermin took it over.
Yes, and the parasites are called “Ewoks!”
Mark
Did they?
Star wars died in the 80’s when Return of the Muppet came out.
The prequels do not even deserve the title “movie”
I could not even get through the first 20 minutes of the SJW releases.
Robot Chicken is the best thing that ever happened to that franchise.
They jumped the shark when they made Star Wars II in 1980. None of the sequels or antecedents that I have seen are as good as Star Wars I, which I stood in long lines to watch multiple times in 1977.
The directors and producers seem to hate the fans, and are determined to turn both the shows into something completely different than what made them hits. Star Trek is no longer about boldly going where no man (or one) has gone before, but going where no one wants to go. What little science it had has been completely stripped. Star Wars is no longer about the epic conflict of good vs. evil, but about ridiculous justice issues that liberals feel is so important.
The fact that The Last Jedi scored 91% on Rotten Tomatoes with professional (read: leftist) film critics but only 47% with audiences should have been a big clue for Disney. Ditto post-TLJ toy sales falling off a cliff.
Yes, the shark has jumped for Star Wars. I wanted to like TLJ, truly I did. But when Rian Johnson had Luke Skywalker non-chalantly toss his light sabre over his shoulder into the ocean in the **very first scene** is when I had realized that Johnson was giving a big FU to the franchise. Small wonder that Mark Hamill had griped about the film to the point Disney had to muzzle him.
What amazes me is that Disney let Rian Johnson wreck the franchise so thoroughly that there is nothing left going forward, where Kylo and General Hux are so laughable as antagonists that it leaves JJ Abrams screwed for the third film.
The original storyline was to have the Wookie planet. The Empire had taken over and was holding them in slavery. Well, slavery and Wookies made some sensitive people cringe, so they gave us Ewoks instead.
There’s PC crap mixed in but to be fair the problem with SW series of late is Disney affinities to dumb down basic Star Wars narratives and try to kill of all of the beloved characters as soon as possible to promote the new characters. Rey’s parentage doesn’t seem to matter in these which is stupid since parentage is a huge part, not exclusively, where the Force is passed down to; Rey automatically does advanced Jedi moves without any training whatsoever, she’s even surprised by her own master moves. They killed off Admiral Ackbar and others in a footnote statement. They just popped up with the Death Star planet with no explanation other than it’s ready for use. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
On top of that; everyone wanted Luke vs Kylo Ren fight and they dropped to ball in that to much frustration
The Ewoks were the initial parasites, and then Jar Jar Binks killed them off. Can’t bring myself to take them seriously ever since then, especially when now they are into politically correct remakes of earlier movies. Perhaps if they had had Jar Jar Binks meet a particularly cruel fate involving prolonged torture or dismemberment they could have redeemed themselves, but it didn’t happen.
The new trilogy is basically sjwars now and just a vehicle for propaganda. Even the prequels are better because at least they aren’t trying to push an agenda.
The only thing left is a proper jump the shark theme...Kylo and Rey get married to bring balance to The Force.
I thought the first two were great fun. Even “Return of the Jedi” started off Ok but like everyone else, the Ewoks were just too much.
After that it just took itself too seriously and it didn’t matter how bad they were to some fans.
I will watch the last one when it comes out on free TV but after trying to watch the one before and having to turn it off from boredom, my hopes are not high.
I disagree. "The Empire Strikes Back" is arguably better than "Star Wars".
We needed (or at least we could tolerate) one or two more films starting from that situation with those characters. If they weren't made, fans would be clamoring for them, until they were.
I don't see much point in the next series of three films. There was something lacking in those pictures.
But I don't think one can blame whatever's wrong in the current series on political correctness. Make everybody White and the movies wouldn't be any better.
Star Wars jumped the shark the moment Leia was blown out into space and somehow returned to the spaceship using Mary Poppins superpowers.
From that point forward, I really couldn’t take much of “The Last Jedi” ... it felt like they hacked and spliced a decent beginning sequence (yes, I know bombers/flying fortresses in space are useless, but man did it look “futuristic WWII cool”), ending sequence (I liked Crait ... salt and all), and sword fighting sequence with a bunch of nonsense.
I didn’t mind the Ewoks. I would have loved to have seen a final battle on the Wookie homeworld, but that wasn’t practical back in the early 80s. The Ewoks weren’t the shark jump. They kind of worked in my humble opinion.
I didn’t like the prequels. I didn’t *hate* them ... I actually didn’t mind “The Phantom Menace” ... but Attack of the Clones really made me want to join the empire and put an end to anti-talents Natale Portman and the kid that played Anakin ... Haydensen, that’s his name :-) . Still, nothing in those really reeked of shark jumping.
That takes us to “The Force Awakens” ... I enjoyed this one. It was a great nostalgia trip and I actually liked the new characters. I dug the fact that it mostly centered around Han Solo. I didn’t mind that Rey seemed to start using her Jedi powers “conveniently” (what were they calling her? Mary Sue? :-) ). I had a good time watching it and still like it after seeing it a few more times.
After that came Rogue One ... I thought it was a great setup for “A New Hope”. It’s always tough to make a prequel, but they crafted a pretty slick movie to tell the tale of how the Rebels were able to snag the plans for the Death Star.
Then came “The Last Jedi”. Everything was fine up until Carrie Fisher is blown out into space. Now ... if you’re going to do something like this in a Star Wars movie, plan on spending some money to make it look a bit real. Or, better yet, write something else. However, who in their right mind thinks “Let’s blow her out into space, then have her look like Mary Poppins when she floats back to the spacecraft, but almost dies”. That scene looked *horrible* and made absolutely no sense even when suspending disbelief.
The movie only gets worse from there. The sword fight was cool and the final sequence was rather good (and Kylo Ren also becomes a really interesting character though I know most here on FR can’t stand him) ... but only 1/3 of the film is worth watching. The rest is filler garbage mixed with implied PC nonsense.
I suspect the next one (the “last” one of this “Skywalker” series) will be a decent movie, but when the middle story of your trilogy stinks to high hell, almost worse than “Attack of the Clones”, nothing will save the final act. Nothing. I have absolutely no desire to sit through that in a theater when its released next year.
I’m hoping Solo is a good movie. Han can’t afford to be PC. They could make a pretty cool set of films centered around Han and Chewbacca, but I doubt Disney wants to go that route.
As for the entire Skywalker story, I really hope they all simply become one with the Force and all vanish. The only parts of that entire series I’ll sit through are Rogue One and Ep IV thru VII ... anything afterwards is useless :-).
There was always politics in the movies.
Cue the guy who posted the articles about George Lucas admiring the Viet Cong or the posters who thought the Evil Empire was Abraham Lincoln's America.
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