J.J. Abrams' Star Wars movies feel like what he thinks Star Wars means to us more than what Star Wars means to him. He bent over backwards to deliver what he thought were crowd-pleasing moments.
George Lucas did not always deliver a Star Wars film of consistent quality. But he did have consistent vision. He had something to say.
This realization has made me retroactively like The Last Jedi more. For all the flaws of that film, I have to give credit to Rian Johnson for creating a movie that was not purely fan service.
He tried to make a Star Wars movie that was meaningful to him, one that challenged us and tried to give us something new within a familiar framework. I may not have liked the final result, but I can appreciate the effort. And I respect his vision a hell of a lot more than Abrams' soulless appeal to nostalgia.
I've spoken before about my issues with how the trilogy has developed the new characters. After three films, I still feel like I barely know these characters.
I think they took too many shortcuts. We needed more interplay between characters, less running around and reacting to chaos. We needed a better balance of "quiet" moments and "loud" moments.
There's a joke I've seen floating around regarding Abrams' storytelling technique. "When you don't know how to end a scene, have someone barge into the room with weapons." (Or perhaps a random tentacle monster on a smuggling ship will do.)
I'm very intrigued about this trope of "interrupting" a quiet or expository scene with action. I don't recall either the original trilogy or the prequels using interruptions excessively as a transition from one type of scene into another. (For a million examples of this trope, see [or don't see] Aquaman.)
Earlier I gave the film a B-/C+. And my assessment was true--from a certain point of view. But if I'm paying attention to the minutiae, the technique, the characters, and the vision--if those things matter to me (which they often do)--then I give the film a lower grade.
The film was more or less what I expected it to be. The two prior films had tempered my expectations, and that's why I gave it a higher grade at the time. But it's not the kind of film that sits well with me. It gives me intellectual indigestion the longer I sit with it. In other words, it gets the higher grade as long as I'm not actually thinking too much about it.
Oh well. Some days the Force is with you, other days you're with the Force.
To end this on a more positive note, I would like to share what I consider to be my Star Wars "headcanon":
Original Trilogy
Revenge of the Sith
Original Thrawn Trilogy
X-Wing/Rogue Squadron novels and comics
Clone Wars
Rebels
Mandalorian
I'm open to adding more. Anything by Timothy Zahn is worth reading. I'm just way behind on the literature.
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