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Originally Posted by JimDiGriz
Rogue One is interesting because it starts...not very well at all. Even the Rogue One title credit looks poor and unfinished. It starts off a bit like a tv movie in a way but...
it builds. And builds. Until it becomes easily my favourite recent Star Wars film and the next best after the original trilogy.
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I think that's why I love it so much too. After my first viewing, I liked the movie. But every time I watched it home afterwards, I grew to love it more and more. And now that you've said that, I think that's why - the way it builds. So many other SW movies love to start with that flash-bang scene right away, and R1 takes it's time. There are some action set pieces on Jedda and Eadu, but we know they're just the appetizers. And when that final sequence starts, it becomes an absolute slice of fried gold.
For a while there, I would defend the movie by using the last act as the proof of it's goodness, but it wouldn't be as good without the build up.
I think if you asked me to rank the films, ANH and ESB would be the top two (interchangeable in rank) and R1 and ROTJ would be tied for third. It truly feels like a lost piece of saga unearthed after 40 years and I'm so glad I was here to experience it.
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Originally Posted by steel_breeze
Not sure where to put this post, so I might as well just put it here, in the "Complete Saga" category....
I know there's a lot of toxic negativity that swirls around these forums, but I want to take a moment just to say, as an aging 47-year-old fan who's digging the whole "Disney era"... how freaking lucky are we to have TEN pretty kickass live action STAR WARS movies??? I mean, seriously.
I was six in 1977 when the first movie came out, and I was 28 in 1999 when the prequels hit. And in all that time, I only knew a universe where there were these three amazing movies that transported me to "a galaxy far, far away...." (aside from Holiday Special and Ewok movies, which I also ravenously sought out when they aired). Admittedly, it took me more than ten years to warm to the prequels, but I finally shed my hate for them in 2015.
Since May of this year, I've been watching all TEN flicks in chronological "in universe" order -- including SOLO in the theaters, in its proper place between Episode III and ROGUE ONE -- and I'm just blown away that this huge sweeping epic even exists, after only knowing three core movies for SO long. Every installment is pure joy, for me. Every moment makes me feel like a kid again, playing with my action figures and imagining what could possibly "happen next".
I'm sorry for all the disappointed fans out there who probably think this post is sickeningly positive, or written by some wacky "Disney shill or fanboy" (which is not the case, I assure you)... and I'm not blind to each installment's shortcomings, either; I pretentiously consider myself a "true cinephile" and even a bit of a "film historian", so I feel I know what's objectively considered to be "good or bad cinematic storytelling". I don't think any of the STAR WARS films are perfect, and many of them even verge on "guilty pleasure"... but they ALL succeed in transporting me to my happy place, every time. And that's all I ask from them.
Oh, and John Williams rules.
May the Force be with us all, for a long, long time to come....
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I'm a little younger than you, according to my parents my first exposure was the ANH re-release in 1978 when I was 4, but as far back as my memory goes - there was Star Wars. The toys, the Underoos, the lunchbox, but more importantly the role model that was Luke Skywalker - a simple farmboy thrust into an incredible situation who rises to the challenge.
I too have had my ups and downs with the franchise. When The Phantom Menace came out, I loved it. My wife and I saw it 12 times in the theater. But then the internet told me to hate it. Then I decided they were okay. And then I began to follow people on tumblr who made fan edits of scenes and videos that showed the scope and tragedy of the prequels and how they fit in with the OT and then the sequels came and there was a whole new generation of fans.
I still remember walking through the office at work with my phone in my pocket and it buzzed with a news alert - Disney had bought Lucasfilm and was going to make new Star Wars films. I paused right there amongst the cubicles and stared at my phone, truly thunderstruck.
I used to engage the haters, but it's become so tiresome. If they don't want to enjoy it, I won't try to force them (heh). But those that want to learn and explore the themes and the archetypes and even the tropes, I will gladly discuss my thoughts and feelings.
I'm glad folks like you are out there with me. We are so, so lucky to be alive while this sage is being made. To see it's birth and youth and coming of age and re-invention all over again.
May the Force be with us... all of us.