Poll: Worst Star Wars movie?

[giblets]

And it was still infinitely more watchable than Jake Lloyd asking Natalie Portman if she was an alien angel.

That was a tiny part of the movie.

edit: also, while Anakin was generally unlikeable in the prequels he definitely wasn't a "wuss". Could Darth Vader have been an arrogant, whiny ******* before turning to the dark side? I don't see why not. It makes sense that Darth Vader would have been a ****ty person from the beginning even if that wasn't really what George Lucas intended.

[giblets]

It's like Gordon's pompous monologue at the end of The Dark Knight: we didn't get the movie we wanted, we got the movie we needed. What we needed was a reminder of the days when Star Wars was still cool. We got that, in spades, and absolutely nothing else. When I saw it, the whole theater erupted into spontaneous applause whenever any character from the original trilogy reappeared, regardless of what they were doing. It didn't even matter that the movie's plot depended on all of the old gang ****ing everything up royally. They still cheered.

Look, it's Han and Chewie! WOO!
Look, it's Princess Leia! WOO!
Look, it's C-3PO, shoving his face into the frame like a numbnuts and saying something inane! WOO!
Look, it's R2-D2! He's not even doing anything! Just sitting there in some kind of robot coma! WOO!
Look, it's Luke! He's been sitting on his ass for years while the galaxy went to hell! Millions died! Now he's standing still and saying nothing while Rey offers him his old lightsaber, which she just used to clean up some of the mess he made! And he's staring at her with this horrified, senile look on his face, like he was expecting the nurse to come by and change his Depends, and now it's all awkward!

. . .

. . .

. . .

WOOOOOOO!

Just watch the original trilogy then.

[Elok]

Anakin turns to the dark side because he has irrational mommy issues. He whines and sulks for the bulk of the prequel trilogy. He differs from Kylo only in being (somewhat) more competent.

I'm not saying TFA is a good movie; far from it. But if we're comparing it to the prequels, well, it had a recycled plot with big holes in it, plus a contemptible villain. The acting, visuals, action scenes and everything else were fine. The prequels had original, but deeply stupid and pointless plots, plus dreadful acting, silly dialogue, ugly and needless CGI, infuriating juvenile humor, and frequently lackluster action scenes. George Lucas has no business criticizing Ep 7.

[giblets]

It's a children's movie and you're complaining about juvenile humor?

[rah]

Really, it's just a movie. I watched it with my daughter and we had fun. As far as I'm concerned, that's what we paid our money for.
I didn't have fun watching the 3 prequels. Nothing else really matters. Thanks JJ. I'll pay to see the next one regardless of the predictability that I'm anticipating.

[Aeson]

That was a tiny part of the movie.

edit: also, while Anakin was generally unlikeable in the prequels he definitely wasn't a "wuss". Could Darth Vader have been an arrogant, whiny ******* before turning to the dark side? I don't see why not. It makes sense that Darth Vader would have been a ****ty person from the beginning even if that wasn't really what George Lucas intended.

It would have been cool though if as a little boy Anakin was a confident, take no prisoners, bad-ass with voiceover by James Earl Jones.

Anakin: It doesn't work around you. My mind is always a muddle... I can only think of you.
Padme: Anakin, don't..
Anakin: No, I am your lover.
Padme: No... that's not true! That's impossible!
Anakinr: Search your feelings. You know it to be true.
Padme: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOO!

....

Padme: "Something wonderful has happened. I'm...Ani, I'm pregnant."

[Aeson]

Anakin: Sand does not concern me, Padme! I want that ass, not excuses!

[DinoDoc]

EDIT: to be clear, I agree with you entirely (except that he also ripped off ROTJ a little bit), and I would consider that a fair and valid criticism if it came from absolutely anyone but George Lucas. But it did.

I'd have preferred something slightly more original. Instead we got this:

[Elok]

Really, it's just a movie. I watched it with my daughter and we had fun. As far as I'm concerned, that's what we paid our money for.
I didn't have fun watching the 3 prequels. Nothing else really matters. Thanks JJ. I'll pay to see the next one regardless of the predictability that I'm anticipating.

I think JJ isn't directing the next one. Can't recall who is, though.

[DaShi]

That was a tiny part of the movie.

edit: also, while Anakin was generally unlikeable in the prequels he definitely wasn't a "wuss". Could Darth Vader have been an arrogant, whiny ******* before turning to the dark side? I don't see why not. It makes sense that Darth Vader would have been a ****ty person from the beginning even if that wasn't really what George Lucas intended.

The age difference added a bit of creep factor to it.

I really enjoyed Kylo as a truly, humanly flawed villain. The problem with Anakin was that he was supposed to be playing angsty teen and the only direction Christensen was given was to glower into the camera. Driver was basically given a similar role but had the acting chops and was given the direction to pull it off. Actually, I give Abrams credit for putting a character like Kylo into the movie. Holding up a mirror in front of your audience is a sure way to get some negative reactions. But man, if Kylo was just some op, bad-ass, one-liner spouting cliche (which Abrams brilliantly introduced him as), I would not have enjoyed the movie as much.

[giblets]

Episode VIII: The First Order discovers the Resistance base on an ice planet, the Resistance has to escape and regroup. Rey is trained by Luke, but leaves before finishing her training to face Kylo Ren because Chewbacca, Leia and the black guy are in trouble. Kylo Ren wins their lightsaber duel and reveals that they are related, but Rey escapes. Chewbacca gets turned into a statue.

[giblets]

Episode IX: The First Order is building a new, even larger and more powerful Starkiller. Rey frees Chewbacca, demonstrating her newfound prowess as a jedi in the process. She goes back to Luke, who tells her to go kill Kylo Ren and then Luke has a stroke and drops dead. The Resistance plans an assault on the new Starkiller base, using misleading information that Snoke deliberately leaked to them. Rey goes to Kylo Ren because she's convinced he can be converted back to the good side, and Kylo Ren brings her to Snoke. Snoke tries to seduce her but fails, then she duels Kylo Ren and wins, but tosses her lightsaber away and Snoke starts to murder her with lightning, but Kylo Ren picks up Snoke and throws over the railing, and Klyo Ren is fatally wounded in the process. Rey leaves the Starkiller right before it blows up and then burns Kylo Ren's dead body. The Resistance celebrates the defeat of the First Order.

[DinoDoc]

Episode VIII: The First Order discovers the Resistance base on an ice planet, the Resistance has to escape and regroup. Rey is trained by Luke, but leaves before finishing her training to face Kylo Ren because Chewbacca, Leia and the black guy are in trouble. Kylo Ren wins their lightsaber duel and reveals that they are related, but Rey escapes. Chewbacca gets turned into a statue.

I'm saddened by how likely that is.

[Elok]

I really don't think it is. Like I said, I'm pretty sure Abrams won't be directing the next one, and he did much the same thing with this that he did with Star Trek. He inherited a revered sci-fi franchise and didn't have a real strong idea where to go with it, so he threw a barrage of references, in-jokes and homages at the screen ("Hey, Sulu is fencing! I called it Starkiller Base! Now you nerds have to respect me since I'm one of your own, that's how it works!"), and filled in the gaps with generic twaddle without regard for sense. The resulting product has nice visuals and amusing gags, but no real artistic value. People forgave him more readily with ST because he used more twaddle and less recycling there, and because there have been a billion Trek movies and pretty much all of them sucked. Also I believe Trek has less mainstream appeal, and possibly a smaller fan base in general. Not sure. Really, I think this Abrams turd is substantially less offensive than his Trek; he at least gets the SW atmosphere right, and it fits better with his style in general.

[DinoDoc]

I really don't think it is.

Based on how it started, I wouldn't be shocked if it continues down that path.