I was super into the expanded universe books/games/everything back in the day so there was really no way I was going to like these movies that much... but man. Super hard to separate the real world stuff from the narrative when the narrative doesnt make any sense
Thrawn Trilogy will always be the trilogy that should have been! Also, they should totally turn the X-Wing books into a mini-series
7 is 4 with a 30 year reunion in it. No creativity.
8 and 9 were a let down. not as much of a let down than 1, 2, and 3. They did try to push some agendas in 8 and 9. The whole Leia sucking herself back into the spaceship killed number 8 for me. Them trying to cover their ass by saying she went through jedi training in 9 and that is how she did it was comical. The full circle bad guy, turning good to defeat the emperor again laziness made 9 fairly meh.
rogue one was good. Easily the best one not in the first 3, although it wasn’t hard to do. Although CGI Leia’s eyes still creep me out.
I think the problem is that with so many years of Expanded Universe that kinda got "wiped out" but much of it has still been borrowed/recycled, it was fighting a losing battle. Ultimately, everyone who is a Star Wars fan had different expectations, some wanted the "pandering" or throwback moments of nostalgia, others wanted something completely new. Force Awakens was very much a rehash of the original Star Wars (New Hope), Last Jedi was completely different from everything prior, and Rise of Skywalker was a mixture of both extremes in a way. I tried to go in with no expectations, and for the most part enjoyed the new movies. There are moments in each one that just kind of put me off, and moments that were like "wooooooow!"
Force Awakens relied heavily on the the nostalgia moments and the plot was a complete rehash of the original but now you destroy star systems instead of a single planet, plus Ben was a bit of an angsty teen (flashbacks to Anakin in the prequels), but it was well-done and well paced, Poe was a great addition, and Rey kind of discovering her powers was pretty cool.
Last Jedi was a mixed bag, Holdo unnecessarily withheld information to drive the plot, and Poe went off the rails rogue. Leia's Mary Poppins moment was very out of character for what we knew about her, Snoke was a whole lot of nothing-burger, but the Ben/Rey fight was pretty cool and the kamikaze hyper-jump was one of those "wow" kinda moments for me. Rose derailing Finn was a buzzkill for his character story arc, Luke's force-projection was pretty slick, but almost the entire Resistance gets wiped out and escape on the Falcon?
RoS seemed like it tried to undo Last Jedi, but also tried to add a lot of its own, it almost tried to do too much while also trying to appease EVERYONE (the "give me something new" and "pander to my expectations" crowds). I kind of wonder if they'd planned all along for Palpatine to return? That's the focus of the movie, but lots of details kind of get glossed over. The Force-sensitive powers are off the charts compared to anything previously seen (though honestly they were all stolen from EU stuff). Hux being the mole just to make Ben fail seemed SOOOO forced, the motive just didn't fit the scope (realistically if Ben fails, the First Order fails, Hux gets nothing). Rey is a Palpatine, by magic? He also wants Ben to kill her, but then wants her alive so she can kill him to become super-Sith? The "last second" appearance of the allies just as everyone is almost dead was super-cliche, but I will say it was pretty epic (kind of like the world's armies appearance in Endgame)
Solo didn't really reveal a ton of new information, mostly just fleshed out the details we already knew about Han and Lando, but Maul was an interesting cameo. Nothing special, but still enjoyed it.
Rogue One had one of the best battle scenes ever (just shove that falling Destroyer into the damn shield!!), Vader's ending scene was epic, and it's a really good prequel to New Hope. I think if anything, it's one glaring weakness was that there was never enough background or character development. Everyone died (which I really didn't expect until I thought about it more), but many felt empty because they really weren't explored.
Anyway, sorry for the ramblings, I'm a Star Wars nerd and ya'll were talking about it so I had to throw in my thoughts (plus, things are a bit slow today on the working-from-home front)
