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drwexNormally I write up the movies I see within a few days. Sometimes I wait to read others' commentaries (which I usually avoid beforehand because spoilers) afterward in order to help coalesce my thinking. This time it was more of a "hey, I could do this other thing."
I think part of it was that I went in with relatively high expectations - The Force Awakens introduced us to the idea that there were more Star Wars stories to tell and gave us an intriguing and moderately well-fleshed female lead. Yes, it was a ton of fan service and I wasn't all that impressed but OK, it had potential.
This movie... does not. It's a mess. It's full of characters that are supposed to have interesting backstories and interesting interactions and who get us set up for the events of the (real) first Star Wars movie and
everyone dies. I mean, everyone. Dead. Bewm. Which left me feeling not only vastly unsatisfied, but actively annoyed.
I mean, what's the point? Sure, there are heroic deaths and watching a Star Wars-style re-enactment of the troops getting slaughtered on the beach lends some poignancy to the moment. But mostly people don't die heroically here. They get nuked by a stupid spiteful bad guy who's not supposed to be that important.
Others have pointed out that this slaughtering of all the original engineers (hey, you never need people to come back and fix something, right?) and wiping out of who-knows-how-much original records and back-ups is just absurdly stupid. He should've been force-choked right out an airlock for that move. To me that just epitomizes how dumb this movie is.
I do realize that they can't alter canon here, never mind other places where they've altered it post facto (Han shot first; deal with it). But the story of Star Wars is of a galaxy-spanning rebellion. There's absolutely no reason that Jyn and maybe some of the other characters can't exist somewhere else within the Rebellion. The people and stories of this movie could be fruitful - there've been plenty of canonical Star Wars stories that haven't involved interacting with the main characters of the big-screen movies. But no.
The best thing this movie has going for it is a snarky robot in a very Pixar style. But it dies, too. So much for that.
The second-best thing is Donnie Yen, whom I always enjoy watching do his thing and I love how he blends his style with the Star Wars mythos. But he dies, too. So much for that.
I think part of it was that I went in with relatively high expectations - The Force Awakens introduced us to the idea that there were more Star Wars stories to tell and gave us an intriguing and moderately well-fleshed female lead. Yes, it was a ton of fan service and I wasn't all that impressed but OK, it had potential.
This movie... does not. It's a mess. It's full of characters that are supposed to have interesting backstories and interesting interactions and who get us set up for the events of the (real) first Star Wars movie and
everyone dies. I mean, everyone. Dead. Bewm. Which left me feeling not only vastly unsatisfied, but actively annoyed.
I mean, what's the point? Sure, there are heroic deaths and watching a Star Wars-style re-enactment of the troops getting slaughtered on the beach lends some poignancy to the moment. But mostly people don't die heroically here. They get nuked by a stupid spiteful bad guy who's not supposed to be that important.
Others have pointed out that this slaughtering of all the original engineers (hey, you never need people to come back and fix something, right?) and wiping out of who-knows-how-much original records and back-ups is just absurdly stupid. He should've been force-choked right out an airlock for that move. To me that just epitomizes how dumb this movie is.
I do realize that they can't alter canon here, never mind other places where they've altered it post facto (Han shot first; deal with it). But the story of Star Wars is of a galaxy-spanning rebellion. There's absolutely no reason that Jyn and maybe some of the other characters can't exist somewhere else within the Rebellion. The people and stories of this movie could be fruitful - there've been plenty of canonical Star Wars stories that haven't involved interacting with the main characters of the big-screen movies. But no.
The best thing this movie has going for it is a snarky robot in a very Pixar style. But it dies, too. So much for that.
The second-best thing is Donnie Yen, whom I always enjoy watching do his thing and I love how he blends his style with the Star Wars mythos. But he dies, too. So much for that.
