Rogue One, TFA, Solo, TLJ

Rogue One gave me a lot of what I like most about the original Star Wars trilogy. A ragtag band trying to save the universe, awesome space battles, a dark menacing enemy who seems unstoppable. Good stuff.

The Force Awakens does have a lot of A New Hope in it's DNA but ultimately that didn't bother me like it did some. It was a lot of fun. There's a few things that never felt right to me, though, like the storm-trooper who just happens to be wielding a melee weapon. That felt very anachronistic to me. I still want the b-wing shuttle, even if it's ugly as balls.

Solo was just fun. I didn't feel compelled to pick this apart as much as the others, and I think that's partially because of who the story is about. These are characters that would be likely to heavily embellish their stories in their favor at a later telling, and would likely choose to keep certain details out of their stories when telling them to others. Maybe this story isn't even quite what happened. I like feeling that freedom in this case. So if the story doesn't entirely jive with certain later events in the film, that doesn't bug me much. L3-37 was a bit much in certain ways, though. And Thandie Newton was wasted here. Tragic. The reveal at the end had me both excited and confused but mostly excited for future possibilities (although apparently Star Wars films are slowing down... honestly, that's probably a good thing in the long run).

While I initially really liked TLJ, I immediately accepted that the Finn+Rose side-story was not done very well and ultimately had little impact on the overall story. Part of me likes that the good guys failed to do something so late in the story but it just didn't jive with the story for me. I actually think Rose would have been a good addition in a different story. Her wrecking her and Finn's speeders and her cheesy line were not good in my opinion. I definitely wouldn't have seen them letting Finn suicide but this sequence of events felt wrong to me. I feel like Poe was not written the same way he was in TFA but then again, we don't see THAT much of his actual character in TFA, mainly just his bad-*** piloting skills. Leia's EVA was so stinking weird and just out of nowhere as far as her using the force. It's also weird because light-side users seem to be more aligned with letting go rather than forcing their survival. Maybe that says something about her connection to the force? The longer I've considered the movie, I've decided it feels mostly like a Star Wars film but doesn't quite fit. I'll still watch it but probably only during marathons of the series, and only because it will likely have certain elements important to the next film. Then again, maybe it will be like TPM and ultimately won't matter that much to the story and can be skipped. We'll see when IX releases.

On 8/28/2018 at 5:01 PM, FTS Gecko said:

1 - Rogue One
2 - Solo
3 - The Force Awakens
4 - the Last Jedi

Rogue One is without a doubt my personal favourite for a number of reasons. Firstly, in my opinion it fits perfectly alongside the Original Trilogy, leading directly into the events of A New Hope. It gives us one of the best space battles in the franchise, the best new original starfighter designs in the U-Wing and Striker and some really outstanding character designs (pretty much everyone on Jeddha). I'm a huge fan of Krennic as a villain as well. 

Solo's up next, mostly due to the fact that it sidesteps the traditional Rebellion/Empire conflict and gives us a look into the seedier underbelly of the galaxy.

Exactly the same ranking as you. Rogue One is the only movie that lived up to the expectations for me. The Force Awakens was nice, had some nice moments for fans and seemed like an introduction for new viewers, but then The Last Jedi was just crap. Or at least when I left the theater; now I've watched it on Netflix I'm milder, but still think it's not a good movie. Solo was entertaining, but not epic like Rogue One

1. Last Jedi

2. The Force Awakens

3. Rogue One

4. Solo

Keep in mind there is the slimmest of margins between those rankings. All four films rank from Good to Great.

...having thought about it, I think I'd probably slot The Black Hole in between TFA and TLJ.

• R1 I wouldn't call it good. MY expectations were pretty low after TFA but it was a fun movie with good action at the end. It reminded me of all the other FFG Star Wars Games to the point I am convinced the screenwriters just played a game of Star Wars Rebellion and called that their script.
• TLJ Half liked, half hated; I was on the side that liked it a little but only because it started with throwing shade on TFA (which I didn't care for). Again no one liked Casino planet which felt like a return to the prequels. I would say it was funny that EA turned Battlefront 2 into a Casino game but that is for another thread.
• TFA It was supposed to kick off a new trilogy and alleviate the fears of additional $tar War$ movies, instead it was a rehash of the first movie which didn't alleviate my fears. Afterwards I felt the same way I did feeling after watching The Phantom Menace. At least they didn't destroy Star Killer base on accident this time.
• SASWS Yeah this movie was a dumpster fire. Despite all the problems in development that was well known and the polarization that the last movie cause creating a total lack of consumer interest in any more $tar War$ movies, I saw it anyways and was not impressed. It felt so out of place, the whole "I got my last name from an imperial officer" set the tone and it was awful. Hyperfuel which had never been a thing before TLJ, also no flight academy, instead we got mudtroopers which I guess is supposed to be the Imperial Army which are worse than Stormtroopers. Don't even get me started on Lando and his would be sexbot. #notmyhansolo

Solo was TRASH. Not even Woody could save that crap story. And he is the greatest actor of his generation.

Rogue One was fantastic.

EP 7 was decent but way too much a remake of the original trilogy all rolled into one.

Ep 8... man. I walked out of there saying [bleep] Disney. [bleep] JJ. what a stupid name. Absolutely hated it. But had committed to seeing it again, and that time didnt hate it as much. Then my kids wanted to see it, so I saw it a third time, and could get on board with it, and finally it played after Solo at the drive in on a special 3 film night, and I actually started liking it. My initial response was definately due to my expectations of what and who Luke SHOULD be, based on my lifetime of fantasies and years of reading the EU, instead of enjoying how the story is going down.

R1, Solo, TFA..... is there another one?

On 10/6/2018 at 1:33 AM, Marinealver said:

• Hyperfuel which had never been a thing before TLJ

To be fair, midichlorians. (Let's just all be thankful that Disney rescued Star Wars from George Lucas before he took us to the molecular level and had people adventuring inside other people hunting or fighting or doing whatever with the Whills).

I have liked all the films so far, some more than others.

Rogue One was awesome because, although in the Star Wars universe, it was more about regular people and not magic force users. It was refreshing.

Solo was good. It was fun and funny. There were a few missteps but good overall.

The Force Awakens was made well but was basically episode 4.

The Last Jedi was good. I had no problem with the twists to some fans' hopes/questions that episode 7 brought up. I don't understand why people would get mad because the film didn't turn out how people thought/hoped it would. I did not care for the whole casino world, it felt a bit heavy handed.

To be fair, midichlorians existed since the beginning. George mentioned them in the original writings prior to ANH on the big screen in '77. I'm not bothered by them.

But I was bothered by Rian turning TLJ into the "I gotcha" movie. At every crossroads, he went with the option the audience would never guess just for the sake of "I gotcha".

After seeing the few episodes of Resistance that have aired as of this post, I kinda feel like they should have been aired BEFORE the TFA and TLJ, at least it looks like they are doing some world building.. time will tell though I suppose.

Still, for a KIDS show, Resistance isnt that bad.. and so far, no jedi no sith, which i like as it shows 'everyday people'

Rogue One

Solo

The Force Awakens

The Last Jedi

TLJ>RO>TFO>Solo

TLJ becomes more and more masterful every time I watch it. This is a movie that I'll re-watch in 10 years and STILL be blown away by it.

Rogue One gets it's ranking because of the last 20 minutes. Best space battle of all time and that counts for alot. ALOT!

TFO will always have a magical place because it was the beginning of Star Wars coming back to us. This was magic, tangible excitement! Plus it had little things that made it really shine, like the Stormtroopers walking the other way while Kylo Ren was going nuts... And Harrison Ford completely owned that movie.

Solo, while being a well-made film, didn't hit any of my "Must have" criteria. It wasn't a December movie, so didn't make me feel all Christmas-minded when seeing it... it didn't have an epic space battle (minor space battle and was forgettable), and our heroes were never in danger, as you know they all end up ok because you've seen future films. These things kinda put it in last place. And I like it still... it just never was gonna rank that high when it's a backstory and I can never really feel on the edge of my seat.

57 minutes ago, Crabbok said:

TLJ>RO>TFO>Solo

TLJ becomes more and more masterful every time I watch it. This is a movie that I'll re-watch in 10 years and STILL be blown away by it.

My feeling exactly! If it was not for 30+years of nostalgia build up, I could actually see me liking TLJ better than ESB which has always been my favorite episode.