What's Wrong with the new Star Wars?

[Karma168]

Whenever i hear the new trilogy (ep 1-3) mentioned the term 'horrible sludgefest of awfullness' or its like spouted. why? what makes these films garner such hatred? i can think of half a dozen films much much worse (most of which i am unfortunate enough to own)

the story is in no way worse than the originals and in some areas is better. some elements admittedly fell flat - anakin's emo-ish attitude drove me nuts in 3 and his fall seemed kinda pointless, he was good then for no reason went on a infanticidal rampage.

the characters were much more engaging than in the originals (bar above points), yes some of them had flaws but the important characters who carry through to the 2nd arc seemed well within the boundaries set up in those movies.

the action: ever since 4 came out people have dreamt of fighting as a jedi with a lightsaber but did they really want to fight like kenobi and vader did? no of course not thats the most boring sword fight i have ever seen, people have always pictured the kind of OTT aerobatic fighting hinted at by Luke in 5&6, these films delivered that in spades. people wanted to see what made the jedi so great a threat that they were hunted to near extinction by Vader and these films went a long way to showing what the order meant as this was skipped over in the originals.

while the films were missing a lot of the filler needed to explain the rise of the sith this was probably because they made the films for the diehards (does star wars have a version of trekies?) who know most of the background from the books and other material. A mistake i will admit but what was missing was never really needed anyway.

Ep. 1 always seems to take the most flak, which is something i never understand as to me that is probably one of the better SW films. it has a decent story - fast paced but with enough detail to explain things to a newcomer to the SW universe, brings in all the major characters for the story arc in a reasonable way and sets up the rest of the arc brilliantly.

TL;DR why the hate for the new trilogy, especially epidode 1.

 

[likalaruku]

I think it's about how the director of the original made so many retcons to his original with the sequels. There's a review about it here. Scroll down to 27-19: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/dw/dwr

 

[Space Spoons]

I'm just gonna link you to this [http://www.redlettermedia.com/phantom_menace.html] and call it a day.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

MY TAKE!!!
Episode one- Essential, but my least favorite, I like the all around cannon views it gives, but their is just not enough action in it for me
Episode two- YAY WAR!!! It is average in all other aspects, but I think the story is rather ingaging.
Episode III- A holy grail to me, one of the best movies I hath ever seen. But everytime i watch it i realize more. (I saw it in the 3rd grade when I saw it opening day!!!) It is a bit choppy, but always fun to watch.

 

[Dr_Horrible]

thanks for posting a link to plinkett, I was just about to

 

[CCountZero]

While I wouldn't say that I "hate" them, they're definetely nothing more than rainy day entertainment for me.

This is mainly because, in an attempt to explore the backstory of Star Wars, and the unanswered questions from four, five & six, they succeded in creating even bigger unanswered questions, some of them direct repetitions of the questions they sought to answer (read Anakin's dad versus Luke's dad)

Furthermore, they boiled the Jedi Massacre down to an Animated Movie directed at Kids age 7-12.

THEY TOOK AWAY MY MASSACRE!!!

Oh, and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in his adolescense... it just doesn't work. I'll admit that I haven't watched him in any other movies, so I won't make any comments on his acting skills, but something is WAAAAY off with that role.

A part of the flameing might also have to do with the style of the movies. There's a vast difference between the "feel" of the two camps, and lets face it, the original fans aren't gonna like that.

 

[YuheJi]

I think a lot of people feel that the newer star wars films place too much emphasis on grand special effects and awesome lightsaber battles, rather than the character development that occurred in the original trilogy.

 

[Paulie92]

They felt like pandering and set limits on things better left to the imagination i.e. Yoda/Palpatine lightsaber duel, these are beings of unimaginable power reduced to almost comic levels by the films, episode 2 particularily had crappy acting and 3 felt like it was an action movie that only just remembered to tie up the story at the end.

 

[Easton Dark]

1 - Great ("They've gone into the ventilation shaft!")

2 - Forgettable

3 - Emo, but action packed, and Obi-wan was cool as hell on that lizard thing.

too much emphasis on grand special effects and awesome lightsaber battles

Can't have too many lightsaber battles.

 

[Paulie92]

My main concern about the new Star Wars is that there's a thread about it every few days.

Some people like it, some don't.

The sooner you realise not everyone likes what you like the happier you'll be in life.

why did you even bother to comment?

 

[Soveru]

Jar Jar Binks was a huge contributing factor to the hate around episode 1

 

[sinsfire]

it was poorly acted, poorly written, relied too much on special effects, was horribly racist, and there were absolutely no surprises, oh and midiclorians.

 

[Dr_Horrible]

it was poorly acted, poorly written, relied too much on special effects, was horribly racist, and there were absolutely no surprises, oh and midiclorians.

in short, this

 

[Paulie92]

My main concern about the new Star Wars is that there's a thread about it every few days.

Some people like it, some don't.

The sooner you realise not everyone likes what you like the happier you'll be in life.

why did you even bother to comment?

I had the very valid point of *not everybody likes what you like* to spread among the crowd, I felt it my duty as somebody who understands what personal opinion is to post it.

Plus I've stated my stance on the new Star Wars films so many times I'm afraid if I post it again it will be burned into my screen permanently, it's an LCD you know?

Oh sorry, I missed the "new" part of your comment.. that's my bad

I thought you were saying that you were sick of people discussing Star Wars in general and it's irritates me when people just comment on a thread expressing how little they care about whatever the threads about. Again that's my bad.

 

[Zorpheus]

Basically, the acting sucked, the dialogue sucked (and those two might be related), there are more plotholes than you can shake a stick at, they made vader an emo kid instead of a great man who was tempted by evil, scenes that went on for far too long, a totally unconvincing romance, a bunch of big "special" effects and no storytelling to back them up....

I could go on. I'm sorry, they just plain weren't that great. Yeah, I could name some worse films, but I'm not saying they are the worst movies ever. They just weren't all that great. And considering how much I liked the original trilogy, "not all that great" is rather disappointing. Anyone who says the new movies were better than the old ones should admit they're just special effects fanatics and just leave the debate floor.

 

[Paulie92]

Oh sorry, I missed the "new" part of your comment.. that's my bad

I thought you were saying that you were sick of people discussing Star Wars in general and it's irritates me when people just comment on a thread expressing how little they care about whatever the threads about. Again that's my bad.

No worries, I figured there was a communication issue somewhere here, I just assumed it was my error, as it so often is.

Peace.

damn, pressed post before typing anything *Facepalmage*

This probably gives you a good idea of how boring my day has been, 3 hours til clock off damnit! The internet has burnt a rage first, check facts later system into my brain

 

[DragonChi]

Whats wrong with the new star wars? do u even need to ask?

Those movies are a complete train wreck in every way possible..and even discovered some new ones. Instead of going on a rant here, go watch Plinketts review as other people have suggested. That guy says it best.