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 :-).
And then there was Rogue One, so many years later that was....eh, decent.
Everything else was pure crap.
Lucas would have been hailed as a genius if only he had done the proper thing and died early.
The point of Rey was emphasized at the end of VIII: you don’t have to be of certain bloodlines to be a force-sensitive. See the little slave-boy call the broom to himself...and then sweep ordinarily.
Yoda, after lighting up the tree (knowing all the while Rey got the books out) saying something like “she has everything she needs (within her already, as I see it)”.
The point of Leia’s flight? Still thinking about that one. Not ready to dismiss it as a bit of fluff. When she blew out my first thought was “oh, that’s how they’re dealing with Dead Carrie. Good thing they had imagery they could use....” —unlike Mockingjay II, where they had to bring Haymitch to read a letter from Plutarch instead of having Dead Philip just walk in and talk to the girl.
Agree with Leia super-powering herself to a coma.
I think I see it the same way you do.
Also, Rey had no real training yet is, apparently, the next Yoda. Can I say “girl power”!!
ugh...
That cocktail gown wearing General in The Last Jedi was terrible. I wouldn’t want to take orders from a clown like that.