By Tim Longoria | LTVN Reporter/Anchor
As a die-hard Star Wars fan, I’m sure you could imagine how I, and many others, would probably go to the ends of the Earth to defend Star Wars content. Personally, I didn’t think it was possible for me to be disappointed, in any aspect, with anything taking place in a galaxy far, far away.
Then, I was fortunately blessed with “the sequels!” I know it might be difficult to decipher sarcasm when reading an article, but just a fair warning: I was being sarcastic.
Don’t get me wrong, there are certain aspects of the Star Wars sequels that I loved. When “The Force Awakens” dropped, I was overwhelmed with joy. In fact, I enjoyed “The Force Awakens” and classified it as an OK movie. There were lots of promising character arcs that could’ve had a huge impact on making the movie so much better. Introducing Rey and a villain like Kylo Ren set up the movie for almost certain success, but I think the writing of the story ultimately dampened the power of each character. I left the movie theater with a smile on my face, solely because I got to witness a Star Wars production on the big screen for the first time.
Two years later, “The Last Jedi” came out. That’s all I will say about that.
When “The Rise of Skywalker” came out in 2019 to conclude the nine-part series, I could confidently say I wasn’t as excited for another movie besides this one (or Avengers: Endgame, but that’s a story for another time). There were so many directions that J.J. Abrams could have gone with the movie. Somehow, the power to close out the greatest movie series of all time was in his hands, and Star Wars fans looked forward to Dec. 20 with high anticipation. Some even asked for the release of the movie as an early Christmas present.
Even though the movie was visually pleasing and highly entertaining as a simple moviegoer, the majority of fans were let down immensely by the turn the movie took. How did Rey become so powerful? Where did Palpatine come from? You can teleport through The Force?
To me, it seemed like Abrams and his team sat around a table, each wrote a different idea, had a short run time in the first cut of the movie then compiled all the ideas to make it a normal runtime. Parts of it were like The Force Awakens, and certain areas of the movie made me feel like a little kid again, while others made me wish I hadn’t seen what I had just seen.
I always talk about how much better the movies as a whole would’ve been if Kylo “Ben Solo” and Rey had switched places, ultimately fulfilling their destinies as a true Skywalker and Palpatine.
I could go on and on, but I would probably run out of space. I know I’m just a college student with very little impact in the film industry, but I gave the people what they wanted to hear. Sue me.
