Why Star Wars is Dead or Already Dying (Opinion Post)

By now, most people have already seen all the Star Wars films and possibly the spin offs (I didn’t watch Solo because I knew that it would bomb considering that Disney does a poor job at regulating Lucasfilm because of Socialist femenazi Kathleen Kennedy). As I stated before on my title of the blog, the franchise is failing because of corporate sleazebags being greedy (which Disney has been since the creator’s departure ever since) and the fact that George Lucas made a monumental mistake letting Kathleen Kennedy take the reins after selling it to Disney.

I recently watched a video on Youtube regarding the possibility of Lucas stepping in and co-directing a scene for the final chapter in the latest trilogy (which of course is forever marred by episode 8 and the supporters are practically brain dead to me). Despite hearing that, I’m already past the point of caring anymore because of the foolish corporate hogs at Disney. The reason why I get the feeling that it’s already dead are because of a few factors. 1.) Fundamentals, 2.) Hiring crap writers that are Socialist/blind Marxist nutcases, 3.) Not caring about the fan input (which are THE CUSTOMERS). All 3 of those points come down to one thing: when a business is out of touch with reality and their product is garbage and they are beyond stubborn for words because of their blind arrogance that nothing is wrong, that’s when the customer’s trust goes up in flames. Disney is a brainless brand, and even though I am a hypocrite in some way of supporting it, I find myself going through the tug of war of resisting and withdrawal.

I was a fan of the franchise growing up, but even though I haven’t watched the Clone Wars animated series (and I know that it’s good by word of mouth), I always felt that the writing and the quality was in a constant state of flux. Partially because of George Lucas but it’s justifiable to a point, but mostly because of the fact that when a company doesn’t know anything about a franchise (nowadays), and then just try and wing it while inserting Screeching Jibberish Whiners BS…that is enough to tell the customer that the product is garbage.

Once you alienate your customers, how do you seriously expect to regain trust that you already destroyed utterly? It’s going to take a lot longer to repair for some, but the damage to Star Wars is irreparable.

Somewhat Impressive This Movie Is (Spoiler Free Review of The Last Jedi)

Author’s Note: This one is going to be spoiler-free for those that haven’t seen the movie. I will mention that I do rant quite a bit on this and while some mirror that of other people that have seen the film, I actually agree with some of the complaints. So no need to worry about major important information. Usually these types don’t have as much stuff put in compared to ones with spoilers. Will post one with spoilers soon.

Prior to seeing The Last Jedi, I had a gut feeling that the reviews that I heard was only a small amount and that not many fans agree with the critics. Plus I felt that the hype was way overdone. I also made a few predictions as to which characters were going to be considered ‘throwaways’ (ones that supposedly were interesting but there wasn’t much effort in terms of advancing them). Also, I felt that there were a few gags that was funny and that some or most of what was seen in the trailers was going to be in the film.

After watching the movie, I wasn’t as surprised when some or most of what I predicted actually came true. Some of the characters in terms of performance I actually liked while others were a mixed bag. Also there were a few moments that I did find funny, but at the same time I felt that the film was also trying way too hard to do so.

The opening scene was somewhat amusing but at the same time, the portrayal of each side was for the most part lackluster. The First Order clearly has the advantage against the Resistance yet they don’t really press their advantage. Partially to blame is General Hux who was the target of quite a bit of jokes and getting picked on, not just by Poe Dameron but also those in the First Order. I was thinking to myself, why the heck wasn’t there any other Generals, Captains, and the like trying to do exactly what I just brought up…press their advantage?

Most of the things that really irked me severely were as follows: plotholes…almost way too many to count, the treatment of the late Carrie Fisher’s performance (mixed bag reaction), Luke’s ‘half involvement’ in the movie (a big chunk of it), the revelation of Rey’s parents (mixed bag reaction), the lack of backstory to Snoke, the time and money wasted on the Canto Bight section of the story (which took up most of the second act of the story) and how average the fight between Finn and Captain Phasma felt because the end result was pretty obvious prior to the fight even starting.

The whole chain of command thing makes sense to a tiny degree because of the slight possibility that there might be panic incited or a mutiny (which did happen). Most of the remaining original cast was severely underutilized and to me, that was disappointing. The reason to shift focus on the new characters is a terrible excuse by everyone in Disney and Kathleen Kennedy. The movie also gave me more reason to not like the new characters as much not just because of what Rian Johnson did, but the fact that the arrogance displayed shows me that he’s way worse than George Lucas in terms of decision making. At least Mr. Lucas allowed some input to a degree (Sam Jackson asking for a “purple” lightsaber ring any bells? Plus I liked Mace Windu as a character).

Canto Bight was a total waste of time and money and effort. The reason storytelling wise just didn’t have to be that long. So many missed opportunities and I didn’t buy the reasoning for Rose and all of that. Too much political hidden messages to force a point that not many people would give a thought about. Finn was out of character to a degree and DJ was a waste and not even needed.

Admiral Holdo was another character that I didn’t like very much. Reasoning for taking command while Leia was comatose after her use of the Force was bland at best. Had it been shown that she used the Force to go against the pull of the vacuum of space and be able to save who she could, I would have found that more believable.

The one offs on interesting characters is a major issue and letdown because lets face it…the writing was terrible. I was curious about Phasma and Snoke but now JJ Abrams has a mountain load of work to do for the last episode and by bloody Nora he had better study the mistakes that Johnson defends because of Disney and Kathleen Kennedy. If they think average fans of Star Wars won’t notice the agenda that they’re pushing…guess again.

Regarding Snoke, I will admit that if it was a waste of time by Abrams to add such a nonsense character because of the executives at Disney…it would give me more reason to dislike the company because despite the money they keep getting, the quality is deteriorating faster than lightspeed literally. When you have individuals that are narrow minded as leaders that don’t care about people in general…the structure is absolutely doomed from the start. That is also the case with Admiral Holdo. Johnson just didn’t do the franchise justice and Disney can’t make competent decision-making because of the higher ups. If you really want to care about a franchise and have it do well…you seriously have to forget about monetary gain. If it does well and both average people and fans like it…then it’s money well spent. Video games have the excuse to make average results but with something like Star Wars…I think the lack of more involvement by George Lucas is what will kill the franchise in the end no matter how much money is made.

Now that I have gotten the negative stuff out of my mind, let me tell you what was good about the film (which is very very few).

Few jokes were well made while others were bland and fall flat. Poe trolling Hux as an example (so-so)

BB-8 trying to plug the leaking from the fighter (good)

Luke being sarcastic to Rey during the first lesson (really good)

Luke literally telling off his nephew Ben during the fight on Crait (good)

The Force chats between Rey and Kylo (really good)

Chewbacca trying to shoo away the porgs so he could eat in peace (really good)

R2-D2 trying to convince Luke to train Rey (good)

Snoke showing some of his abilities (really good)

Porgs being cute and a little annoying at the same time (really good)

The character development for Rey, Kylo and Luke was…alright. Not really great but I can give it a small pass. A few quotes stood out to me than others.

Overall rating: 7/10

For a Stand Alone The Force is Strong with This One (Review of Rogue One)

Author’s Notes: Major spoilers for the movie Rogue One. If you don’t want to be spoiled please go straight to the section titled “Overall Thoughts”.
[I know that the movie is doing very well at the box office and I was going to post this weeks ago but hesitated].

When I first heard about this movie after going through the half-baked average movie that is The Force Awakens (mind you I liked it, but it wasn’t as great), I thought the title for this movie itself almost sounded like a title for a fanfiction or short novel. Some people would think of it as a sort of insert story while others might see it as a “prequel” although it didn’t feel that way after I saw the trailer for Rogue One. Despite serving as an in-between fill in on episodes III and IV, I recently heard about a book called Catalyst which turns out serves to try and introduce some characters from Rogue One and give them some backstory (I tend to find myself doing the whole story thing backwards as of late [read said book after watching movie instead of before]).  
However, this seems to be the case for many so-called fans that likely didn’t bother/come up with a plethora of excuses to not make an effort in trying to read those so-called connection novels as I would put them. 
What’s pretty clear for many fans is that this so-called story is actually illustrating the first paragraph in the opening crawl of Episode IV: A New Hope. Most or maybe many of us probably don’t remember it line by line but I’m certain that there are some that do know it line by line.
“It’s a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire”.
(Those of you that are wondering, that happens to be it)
Despite not having watched that CGI animated series of Star Wars (The Clone Wars) [not the animated one that served as a tie-in between episodes II and III], I realize that there’s some characters that I would likely not have heard of as well as ones that I have very little information about.
To get a better understanding of some of the characters, the novel Catalyst would have helped to give some background. What was pretty clear about this movie is that the main objective was clear. Now how that went about is where it got interesting.
That’s not to say that there were some great lines. Particularly with the reprogrammed Imperial droid K2-SO (portrayed by Alan Tudyk). Those that have heard of the actor might recognize him from a few films. The only one I can easily recall in my mind just as quickly was when he played as “Dutch” in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. I think that the script writers gave him some of the good lines in the film with regards to being comic relief. Arguably, Forest Whitaker despite having some screentime but not a lot,did a good job portraying Saw Gerrera and also Donnie Yen did a good job playing a blind character, Chirrut Imwe. Those that aren’t familiar with the latter actor, he portrays Bruce Li’s teacher Ip Man in the films of the titular character.
I will admit while I was watching the film, my ears were also keeping an eye out for any particular themes that poked out. There were quite a few noticeable cameos and a few impressive insertions thanks to ILM. Before I get to those small tidbits, I would first like to take note of the fact that I once came across on Youtube a so-called theory regarding the person in the bacta tank (like the one used in Empire Strikes Back) and how it might have referred to the character Snoke from Episode VII. First of all, Rogue One is between Episodes III and IV. There is no way that he would be in there. What was really clear when I first heard about this is that when I saw that scene, it was clear that Darth Vader was in there. How I figured that out before the movie came out just based from the trailer alone: the hooded figure was definitely not Palpatine since he was busy on Coruscant managing his Empire, second, when the shot of Darth Vader coming out to meet with the character known as Krennic (the one wearing white).
The soundtrack had a few noticeable parts inserted from the other Star Wars films (“Imperial March”, the “Main Theme” of Star Wars, the Force theme, just to name a few) as well as other tracks that I felt gave the film a sense of hope despite difficult times as well as some touching moments. I really felt sympathetic to Galen and his family considering that the Empire was just as treacherous as the Republic (despite the fact that the mentioning of how corrupt politicians are in the Republic has been noted by Count Dooku and likely other characters). Surprisingly, there’s a scene from A New Hope in which Obi-Wan tells Luke when he hesitates to go with the Jedi to Alderaan that Leia needs their help and that he (Obi-Wan) is “getting too old for this sort of thing”, a few seconds in, there’s a part in the soundtrack of A New Hope in which composer Michael Giacchino draws a reference to in a couple of tracks for the Rogue One soundtrack.
Now to get to the cameos. To start off with…the droids. There was a Gonk droid (that box looking one) on Jedha, as well as an Imperial Probe Droid (from Empire Strikes Back), the little Mouse droid that the Stormtroopers chase, and let’s not forget C-3PO & R2-D2. Also…I did spot Chopper from Rebels for a split second when the Rebels learn about the successful infiltration on Scarif. Next, the temporary insert of the Leaders of Red and Gold teams during the space battle of Scarif. I immediately recognized the Red Leader because as memory serves…he doesn’t  explain to Luke Skywalker why they were down a pilot in episode IV just that they are. Turns out Red 5 was shot down during the Battle of Scarif.
Noted, there are probably other tiny connections that I spotted that I probably have little to no knowledge of since I would consider myself an “average” Star Wars fan. One thing that I did find interesting was the portrayal of the kyber crystals, the ones that power up a lightsaber. Considering that Jyn’s was clear led me to think that it’s likely similar to Ashoka’s lightsaber which is shown as white, but that’s just my thought on how they’re portrayed in both the games and the TV series.
I will admit that considering the film had some new stuff mixed in with what was familiar to every Star Wars fan, particularly the ships and then some of the new places. However, I am pretty certain that some references to director Gareth Edwards was spotted during the scene with Saw Gererra on Jedha. As for memorable lines, I think it’s safe to say that while K2-SO had the best funny lines, there were also some that I think will stick with me for quite a while. One of them being from Jyn’s mother, when she tells Jyn to “Trust in the Force” before defending herself and her husband Galen from Imperial forces. I have a slightly long list of quotes so…again, slight SPOILERS. Skip ahead to Overall Thoughts to avoid.
“Congratulations…you are being rescued” – K2-SO
“Why does she get a blaster and I don’t?” – K2-SO
“Do you want to know the probability of her using it against you?” (after moment of silence) “It’s high. It’s very high”. K2-SO
“I find that answer vague and unconvincing”. – K2-SO
“Did you know that wasn’t me?” (after Jyn shot a droid that look exactly like it) – K2-SO 
“You almost shot me.”- Chirrut Îmwe
“You’re welcome.”- Baze Malbus
“Be careful not to choke on your aspirations Director” – Darth Vader to Director Krennic as he Force Chokes him.
“It’s Rogue. Rogue One” – Bodhi Rook.

“Rogue One? There is no Rogue One”.

“Well there is now”. – K2-SO 

“Uh…Rogue One…pulling away”. – Bodhi Rook 

“Pulling away”. – K2-SO.

“What chance do we have? The question is what choice?” – Jyn Erso.
“May the Force be with us” – Jyn Erso.
Overall thoughts:
While this movie does serve as a tie-in to Episodes III & IV, I felt that the overall story was quite well written and that despite not having read the novel Catalyst yet, that I was able to feel for most of these characters that made up the Rebel Alliance…and particularly for the Erso family. When I saw the scene in which Jyn watches the holorecording of her father Galen explaining to her why he did what he did and how to destroy the Death Star as he expresses his love for his daughter, I felt a slight lump in my throat as she tries to understand and recall what her father is saying just as the capital of Jedha is destroyed. The screen time that Darth Vader had as well as the fact that James Earl Jones re-enacted the voice for the character sent slight shivers over me as well as when he shows up near the end of the movie. Since I have played the MMORPG The Old Republic and the Knights of the Old Republic video game, it was pretty clear that I would come across what is called the “Hammerhead” ship which was used during the time of the Old Republic and shown also in the TV series Star Wars Rebels (hence the way the front of the ship looks like) and I also actually liked how the design of some of the new ships that the Rebels temporarily had in their arsenal. The nostalgia feeling was definitely in this movie because of the fact that there were references to the original trilogy as well as the fact that the Scarif space battle was well done.
I have listened to most of the soundtrack via YouTube and I have to admit…the emotional scale as well as the slight inserts of the various themes from the other films was a nice nod to the original trilogy and I found it quite fitting for a standalone tie-in movie to the original trilogy. The visual effects were really well done and the actors I felt did a great job in the roles they were given. I think the best part about Rogue One is how it sets up the events of A New Hope and overall, I think that Galen Erso did get his revenge on the Empire when he explains to his daughter Jyn what he did to the Death Star. Despite the insurmountable odds stacked against the Rebels and the heavy losses in this movie, I still think the fact that they were able to get the plans to the Death Star was in a way a victory for them. 

This movie was so good that I went to watch it again with my family. Definitely worth watching a few more times.

Overall: 9.5/10.