Mjölnir;34817189 said:
This far the new Star Wars movies are a bit behind their contemporary MCU movies for me.
The Force Awakens had some nice characters to build on, but the story is rehashing a bit too much, the script has some clumsy exposition, and there are things that don't feel very satisfying unless they are explained better in Episode VIII. Kylo Ren is an interesting character, but since he was completely undermined at the end he needs to start over in the next movie. People complain about Ultron was beaten down by the Avengers, but they could probably beat the entire New Order themselves, while Kylo was beaten by a girl who, as far as this movie actually shows, just discovered the force.
Age of Ultron rehashes less, has better characters that are more well developed, a more charismatic villain and a more interesting doom device.
Rogue One is a nice callback to the old era in terms of visuals, but for me it failed in making me care about any of the new characters. There's just no development in any of them that makes me latch on to anything, and when they ultimately meet their end I don't care. The exception was the droid, but it was because he met the standards rather than being a home run. There was also a lot of time building up to things like Saw Gerrera that had no relevant payoff. The movie's strength is showing characters from the old trilogy, and that it had a nice third act. The act is hampered by not caring about the new characters, but it still works. The second Vader scene is by far the best in the movie.
Civil War has far better characters and development, a stronger story over all three acts, an even better large battle, and I think Zemo works better as a low key villain than Krennic. Vader wins best villain moment though.
The Force Awakens is the best made of these two SW movies (not counting love for the nostalgia with old ships and facial hair), but even before any of these were made I've been looking forward the most to Episode VIII. That's where they don't need to focus so much on establishing things, and where a more interesting director takes the reins. I hope The Last Jedi is where the new Star Wars truly gets it's own identity.
Totally agree with the bold above. The Avengers, with Hulk and Thor, Vision and Scarlet Witch would wipe out the New Order based on what we've seen of them.
The rehashing in TFA bugged me a lot, but if Kylo Ren had been a legitimately threatening villain I would have gotten a lot more interested.
I mean, nobody is going to come close to Darth Vader as a villain but surely they could have done better than Kylo Ren - Darth Maul is a much more menacing villain, and he's only in one film for 5 minutes.
Hearing that Star Wars VIII was entitled "The Last Jedi" makes me sad, because we've already ****ing seen a film trilogy about the last jedi. Can't anyone come up with something new for a Star Wars film - I mean, the New Order were just Empire lite: all the uniforms with half the territory.
There is literally a galaxy of possibilities out there, and a ton of books written by creative folk - well more creative than work for ****ing Disney. Even a loose adaptation of one of the better Star Wars novels is better than seeing the same old story.
Marvel do have a degree of similarity, I mean Dr Strange is pretty much Iron Man with magic - but its well told, well performed and great fun. I felt ripped off by TFA, in fact I would have probably reacted better if they had simply remade Star Wars ANH, with different actors. For me TFA is basically thinking well within the box, or at least pressed up against the side looking in.
If Marvel can equal the quality of its 2016 films, there's no contest. 8 Star Wars films vs 14 Marvel films. While 2 of the Star Wars films are among the best movies of all time, and one is really good, the others I can take or leave. The MCU doesn't quite hit the highs of Star Wars ANH or ESB, but even its worst films (Iron Man 2 and 3 for me) are nowhere near as bad as the lows of Attack of the Clones.
Mind you, I think Star Wars may have a better animated universe. I've only seen season 1 of Rebels, but it was amazing (better than any Star Wars films after ROTJ).
) (9/10)
