Yeah, it’s funny because I like about half of TLJ, and it’s apparently all the things that annoy everyone else. Luke dying, Rey not having famous parents, Snoke dying and not being explained, all wonderful decisions. If they retcon that (can fanwank it as not a retcon, could just be that Kylo lied) and Rey is a Skywalker all along, I will be disappointed.
I thought the point of TLJ was that “Skywalkers” don’t matter. That its time to let go of the past.
Also…reintroducing the Emperor now?? This is the most pointless saga ever. What are the stakes?? Whats going on?? Who is in charge?? Snoke is dead. The first orders fleet seems puny and decimated. Palpatine had vast powers and a lot of resources. What the hell does Ben have? The Rebellion was down to like ten people!
Going into ROTJ we knew who the bad guys were and what the good guys need to accomplish. I got no clue going into Ep.9 and a handful of characters i have no investment in.
I thought that was what Kylo Ren said, not necessarily the point of the movie. Rey did, after all, take the Jedi books at the end. Also, this *is *still part of the Skywalker saga, so regardless of Kylo’s plea to Rey, Skywalkers do still matter to the story.
Neat trailer.
Emperor Palpatine is back? Yeesh.
heh if I remember in the expanded universe … they discovered palpatine was cloning himself or parts of because of the toll the dark side took on him physically
and someone brings a full clone back online and luke joins him for a while …
Its one of the reasons that although luke was an arch mage level jedi he was exiled and pretty much banned from doing anything useful officially by the “new jedi council”
Like I said years ago … disneys cherry picking the EU for what they need and heck with the rest ….
On the plus side, Ian McDiarmid is a decent actor and can out-act the rest of the cast combined with just a sneer.
Seems like a good spot to “reset” the Star Wars universe for whatever they want.
They are clearing the decks to let them do almost anything after this.
I doubt Disney wants to be beholden to any pesky Star Wars canon down the road.
They already did that, when they bought out Lucas. The only canon they’re beholden to is the canon they’ve established themselves. Which they can throw out if they want, but I think people are going to want *some *kind of continuity between pictures.
I’m guessing (and I’m not alone) that “Skywalker” will be the new mythical group of warrior/protectors that replace the Jedi.
Just to maintain our reputation for pedantry, the trailer shows it with “The”.
I meant it isn’t “rise of THE Skywalker” (yes, I also got it wrong. it is “The Rise of Skywalker”)
Brian
Of course they are.
These are exactly my feelings too. I actually came away from the teaser with doubtful concern.
And I thought that it was unambiguously clear that The Last Jedi was better than The Force Awakens, and found it refreshing that they were going in new directions. Most of the criticisms people have of TLJ seem tome to be things that were forced into the movie by Abrams’ decisions.
To who? Not to a lot of people. It was neither fish nor fowl nor good red meat. Johnson made a mess of the plot and the pacing and the characterization but all would have been forgiven had he ACTUALLY been as daring as he was PRETENDING he was. The end of the movie should have been Rey agreeing to join Kylo. And then you see Chewie coming to pick up the survivors in the Falcon and Leia asks what happened to Rey and CREDITS. You have to wait until the next movie to find out if she turned or she was playing him to save her friends. THAT would have been daring and ballsy. What we got was a cop-out.
Critics gave TLJ a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.
I agree with Chronos. It was, by far, a better movie than TFA simply by virtue of taking shots at existing belief systems. Making the force a thing for everyone and not just some special branch of wizardry is a major step forward right there. Taking a shot at the Jedi as being all good is another one. By any rational analysis the jedi are idiots who brought about their own downfall and cost the lives of billions. They need to be replaced with something new and better and Johnson took the first steps toward that.
That a bunch of superannuated children couldn’t deal with any form of change or new story beats shows their own limitations, not Johnson’s.
I feel the same way. I loved TLJ.
And if Star Wars was a franchise meant to please movie critics, that would be meaningful. Also, it’s disingenuous and insulting to call everyone who disliked TLJ “superannuated children.” But typical.
No, you seem determined to say that not getting what you wanted is a fair criticism of the movie. It’s not. Those are entirely subjective and personal reasons, not about what’s in the film, but what you thought ought to be in the film. That’s like complaining about Lord Of The Rings because it didn’t have unicorns in it.
I’m not saying you should like the movie, I don’t care if you did or didn’t, that’s up to you. But you can’t blame the movie for it not having what you wanted. You’ll never be happy with anything with that attitude.
Sure they bought the rights to do whatever they please but to keep the IP running they cannot just completely ignore canon.
So, they need to segue out of the canon and this is that.
Narrow the “old” stories through a choke point and then expand on the other side. On the other side you can do whatever you want because you are not bound to any “rules” (or at least very few).
If I was Disney with the IP I would certainly want to clear the decks so I (Disney) could do whatever I (Disney) pleased.
As a Star Wars fan I would stick to canon but apparently that is not as profitable.
RJ didn’t introduce this to the canon. The Clone Wars already made the Jedi out to be deeply flawed and showed that they were largely responsible for their own downfall. Hell, AOTC and ROTS did as well.