Introduction – I have always been a huge Star Wars fan. I remember watching the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” television series when I was very little and loving it (I still adore the show today) and then watching the original 1977 film with my father. It is the movie that got me into movies, and the franchise has been near and dear to my heart ever since.
Like many others, when I first heard a seventh Star Wars movie was going to be made, I was ecstatic. When I finally got to see Episode 7 in theaters, I initially loved it. However, years later, as I look closer to what Disney has done to Lucasfilm after George Lucas left, I’m disgusted. To provide more context, after the prequels, fans started to hate George Lucas, many saying he ruined their childhood. I won’t argue that the prequels are perfect because they are far from it, but the level of hate was complete overkill. Lucas still made this property that has reached the hearts of so many people around the world in the first place. Just because the prequel trilogy wasn’t as good as the original trilogy, it still was unjustified for people to bully Lucas and others who participated in the making of those movies. I recommend everyone to see the making-of documentary for the Phantom Menace (it’s on YouTube) because it shows that people worked super hard to make that movie and none of them treated Star Wars as a property; they saw Star Wars as an experience. I’m explaining all of this because one of the main reasons why George Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney in 2012 was the constant hate and pressure from the fans (and the $4 billion he was paid, but he was already extremely wealthy).
It is sad to see Disney stomp on the legacy of the franchise and use it as a money-making machine. Disney has 0 respect for the property, and simply bought it to make as much money as possible. I challenge anyone to tell me that the Disney sequel trilogy has any of the heart and soul that George Lucas’ original six movies did. George Lucas even said, “I sold [Star Wars] to white slavers,” referring to Disney. Episodes 7-9 carelessly ruin the entire Star Wars story. I’ll go through how each of them damages the saga in ways no other Star Wars content has ever done.
Episode 7: The Force Awakens – This movie is practically a shot-for-shot remake of A New Hope, and normally I can ignore that in movies, but the problem I have with it is that it makes the story of the original trilogy pointless. The idea that the First Order emerges out of the Empire’s ashes is insulting, because it makes Luke, Han, and Leia’s struggle to take down the Empire in the original trilogy meaningless. It didn’t matter that the Emperor died and Darth Vader became good again; the efforts of our heroes were all for nothing. It would be better it we got to see our heroes turn old and struggle to rebuild a Republic after all of the destruction caused by Emperor Palpatine, or seeing Luke train a new batch of Jedi, or, what would’ve been the best idea, is to let the Skywalker story end at the end of Return of the Jedi.
Episode 8: The Last Jedi – What Rian Johnson did to Luke Skywalker is unforgivable and makes no sense. Originally, Luke was a hopeful and optimistic character who saw the good in people, even in his father, who was the second worst person in the galaxy. Luke represented what a true Jedi should be. However, Rian Johnson decided to make Luke a curmudgeonly old man who tried to kill his nephew because he thought he might turn to the dark side (which is senseless because as previously mentioned, Luke saw good in Darth Vader, who was a mass murderer). Rian Johnson had Luke drink milk from a space walrus and die from exerting too much energy by force-skyping Kylo Ren at the end of the movie. What a way to ruin such a beloved character. Even Mark Hamill, the actor who plays Luke, hates what was done to his character. In many interviews he talked about why he despised the treatment of his character. In an interview for ABC news (a Disney-owned company by the way) he stated, “I told Rian, ‘I fundamentally disagree with everything you decided about my character.'”
Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker – Every choice this movie made destroyed whatever remnants weren’t already demolished by episodes 7 & 8. Bringing back Palpatine ruins not just the originals, but the prequels too. George Lucas himself confirmed Palpatine had died, but of course, the great people at Disney didn’t care. By Palpatine living, the turn of Darth Vader to the light side and his sacrifice to save the galaxy is pointless. The prophecy throughout the first 6 movies that Anakin Skywalker would bring balance to the force is now gone, because he simply did nothing; Palpatine survived. The movie justifies this only with a single line from Episode 3 (an actually good Star Wars movie): “The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” In addition, Rey’s ability to heal people with the force and Kylo Ren’s sudden ability to bring Rey back from the dead is idiotic. If that was an ability for all this time, why didn’t Yoda or Obi-Wan revive Padme from dying after giving birth to Luke & Leia? Why didn’t Luke heal Anakin on the Death Star after being electrocuted? Why didn’t Obi-Wan revive Qui-Gon after his death? I know some might say the ability was never discovered until this point, but that makes even less sense. Rey only trained with the force for a year, and both her and Kylo Ren never had any training or prior knowledge of the ability to revive others until they actually did it. The reason Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side in Episode 3 (the decision that set up the whole Star Wars conflict) was to prevent Padme from dying, and it wasn’t possible by using the light side. But when Kylo revived Rey, he already turned back to the light side, so he must have used the light side of the force instead of the dark side, which contradicts everything.
George Lucas never should have sold Star Wars to Disney. It was a mistake.
However, I will mention good Star Wars content has been made under Disney. The Force Awakens, while a bad Star Wars movie, was still a really good film. “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is, in my opinion, the best Star Wars film since Revenge of the Sith, but it’s disappointing that I say that because it isn’t one of the core 9 movies. I also really like the Mandalorian, but at the time of writing this, the show only has 8 episodes, so it is too early to tell if it will be consistently good.
Please comment or like this post if you would like me to write more of these analyses (I might write about how Rey is a Mary Sue).
Just love reading your articles! Haven’t seen all of the movies but I’m enjoying your critiques
nevertheless😃..