I tried something new a few weeks ago to kick off an update machete order that I thought worked surprisingly well. I started with the start of act 3 of Rogue One. Going into that blind, not knowing the characters or what specifically they were trying to accomplish, seeing some blind monk guy walk and act by faith instead of sight to do something at a console, they sacrifice all to beam some kind of signal, and then this towering menace in all black just shows up and slaughters a bunch of dudes… It perfectly leads into IV and enhances it without the time commitment or pacing issues of watching all of Rogue One. I love Mads but we really just don’t need to even see him for the important bits of the story. Vader becomes even more mysterious and threatening this way, the “plans” in IV are given more weight and don’t just seem like a macguffin to give the empire a reason to give chase, and Luke becomes relatively more of an unlikely hero because he’s just a kid caught in the middle of a star war.
I’m not gonna say that Rogue One is bad, but for watching the entire saga it feels like a slog to watch the whole thing. As somebody who considers IV to be a 10/10 masterpiece, (especially for 1977 before anything like this existed, and before George Lucas changed shit for no reason,) I gotta know which half of IV is the half that sparks joy for you. Maybe my favorite moment in the entire franchise is when Luke storms out and looks at the twin sunset, yearning to leave his small and inconsequential life, John Williams’ score swelling into the frustrated sobbing that only a teenager trapped in a small town with a small life could truly understand. It’s his Disney princess moment.
You might be the only person I’ve heard of who didn’t like IV and V, but liked Rogue One. I’m picturing a thread with people debating whether Terminator 1 or 2 is better, and you’re like “those are mid, Genisys is the one I like.” It’s just a fascinatingly rare take.
Empire Strikes Back is pretty universally acclaimed as being in the top 2 of star wars movie, and most people’s #1. I’m curious what didn’t do it for you. Is it just too old now? Overhyped? Do you think the pacing is bad and you get bored? Genuinely, I would expect that if somebody didn’t like that one, they didn’t like any of them except maybe one of the new shows like Andor and/or The Mandalorian, mostly because they are tonally different and appeal to a different, wider audience.
Not even close. T1 is innovative and good, T2 have even better action scene, then stop, nothing else is worth mentioning in the franchise. Rogue one give a new and fresh “spy story” view of the SW story, it shows more complex side of the conflict and both the story and the characters are interesting. I like Andor for the same reason. I find the first and second season of the Madalorian nice too, for the way they show a new “road-side view” aspect of the SW universe, sadly it becomes quickly too “bigger than life” in the third season.
That makes sense. It did feel a lot more grounded than the main entries. I think a lot of my apprehension to the characters was knowing that they couldn’t possibly matter beyond that movie because it’s a prequel to a trilogy that doesn’t mention them, so I knew they would probably just die soon. That just made it harder for me to get invested. But you’re right, it’s cool to see the seedy side of the galaxy and it sells that the rebels are scrappy regular people who are justified in their rebellion.
V, half of IV and Rogue One spark joy.
The rest, not so much.
I tried something new a few weeks ago to kick off an update machete order that I thought worked surprisingly well. I started with the start of act 3 of Rogue One. Going into that blind, not knowing the characters or what specifically they were trying to accomplish, seeing some blind monk guy walk and act by faith instead of sight to do something at a console, they sacrifice all to beam some kind of signal, and then this towering menace in all black just shows up and slaughters a bunch of dudes… It perfectly leads into IV and enhances it without the time commitment or pacing issues of watching all of Rogue One. I love Mads but we really just don’t need to even see him for the important bits of the story. Vader becomes even more mysterious and threatening this way, the “plans” in IV are given more weight and don’t just seem like a macguffin to give the empire a reason to give chase, and Luke becomes relatively more of an unlikely hero because he’s just a kid caught in the middle of a star war.
I’m not gonna say that Rogue One is bad, but for watching the entire saga it feels like a slog to watch the whole thing. As somebody who considers IV to be a 10/10 masterpiece, (especially for 1977 before anything like this existed, and before George Lucas changed shit for no reason,) I gotta know which half of IV is the half that sparks joy for you. Maybe my favorite moment in the entire franchise is when Luke storms out and looks at the twin sunset, yearning to leave his small and inconsequential life, John Williams’ score swelling into the frustrated sobbing that only a teenager trapped in a small town with a small life could truly understand. It’s his Disney princess moment.
I can agree on the Rogue One. But the rest…😒
You might be the only person I’ve heard of who didn’t like IV and V, but liked Rogue One. I’m picturing a thread with people debating whether Terminator 1 or 2 is better, and you’re like “those are mid, Genisys is the one I like.” It’s just a fascinatingly rare take.
Empire Strikes Back is pretty universally acclaimed as being in the top 2 of star wars movie, and most people’s #1. I’m curious what didn’t do it for you. Is it just too old now? Overhyped? Do you think the pacing is bad and you get bored? Genuinely, I would expect that if somebody didn’t like that one, they didn’t like any of them except maybe one of the new shows like Andor and/or The Mandalorian, mostly because they are tonally different and appeal to a different, wider audience.
Not even close. T1 is innovative and good, T2 have even better action scene, then stop, nothing else is worth mentioning in the franchise. Rogue one give a new and fresh “spy story” view of the SW story, it shows more complex side of the conflict and both the story and the characters are interesting. I like Andor for the same reason. I find the first and second season of the Madalorian nice too, for the way they show a new “road-side view” aspect of the SW universe, sadly it becomes quickly too “bigger than life” in the third season.
That makes sense. It did feel a lot more grounded than the main entries. I think a lot of my apprehension to the characters was knowing that they couldn’t possibly matter beyond that movie because it’s a prequel to a trilogy that doesn’t mention them, so I knew they would probably just die soon. That just made it harder for me to get invested. But you’re right, it’s cool to see the seedy side of the galaxy and it sells that the rebels are scrappy regular people who are justified in their rebellion.