I guess I'm in the majority in hating The Last Jedi but in the minority in liking Solo. Not that it couldn't have been better and, yeah, the Solo character doesn't remotely seem like a younger version of the Solo in the original triology. But judged as a standalone movie, I think it's pretty entertaining.
Having never really been a big Star Wars guy, I sat down last march and watched all the movies in the order which they were released - I was kind of stunned, they sort of all have major issues, but for me the big win with the first trilogy is how cool it is to look at and how surprisingly good it looks. There's some bad writing and some even worse acting, but the "world" of the films is both compelling
and convincing, which is something practically
none of the other films quite captured.
One of the big problems for me with the sequel trilogy was how forced the characters felt - they rarely got a chance to actually behave like people, and the cadence of the movies seems to push them on you like an over-eager parent; "Oh look, there's Rey! You LOVE Rey!" "Look, Kylo Ren! Ooooh, he's so baaad". . . Well, actually, I haven't really gotten to know them yet. And any chance they get the old characters seem to fall over themselves paying homage to the original characters who came back instead of actually interacting with them. That said, Last Jedi was the
most interesting to me of the sequels simply because it shook up the
very clear formula that all the other movies had been following. But then Rise of Skywalker veered hard to "course correct", which was disappointing. And they all still relied way too much on CGI, even though they did make use of some great, new, practical effects.
But the BIGGEST take away for me, as someone who loves themed entertainment much more than I love Star Wars, was how conceptually EASY it should have been to translate the thrill of the first trilogy and the best parts of the others into a themed environment - to me it was very clear that the absolute hallmark of Star Wars was its stunning Practical Effects, which is EXACTLY what a themed land IS.
Rise of the Resistance generally does a good job making use of this, and I think that's the biggest secret to it's success - it's very frequently a parade of really good practical effects, and isn't bogged down by its use of characters the way the sequels are. It makes pretty efficient use of them and doesn't really take them *too* seriously. But even then, things like the Projected Storm Troopers take you out of it the same way the overuse of CGI takes you out of the prequels. Replacing those with actual AA's, even less-dynamic ones, would have been much more effective and captured the essence of Star Wars.
I think that's really a big part of why everyone was so wowed by the Model of Galaxy's Edge but disappointed in the actual land - the Model highlighted the practical elements of the experience, but when you actually get into the land they skimp on the meat. The whole thing looks great at first glance, but when you discover there's not really any "there" there, the sheen wears off quickly.
Smuggler's Run is a CGI gamefest and it feels like it - you never really feel like you're "in" Star Wars once the ride actually starts. The queue and the Falcon holding area are the best parts - Hondo too, but what a waste having that projected Millennium Falcon landing behind him. You don't believe it for a second, and same with the ride itself.
I find myself spending time in Dok Ondar's any time I'm there - not because I care about the merch, but it's full of interesting properties and the AA is fun to encounter. DJ Rex does the same at the Cantina . . . but then, what else are we excited to run into? This land should be full of Practical "Magic", and instead so much of it feels like an empty movie set. A day on a movie set is generally cooler than a day not on one, but if we're really meant to believe in this place it needs to come to life the way the sets in the movie do - because of the crazy creatures and effects that populate them.
Rise mostly gets it right. The rest of the land? It misses the magic of the OG movies the same way the prequels and sequels do. I could care less if Luke and Leia were there with me, but you've got to make me feel like I'm somewhere they could have gone to, you know? I should be able to walk into any part of it and feel like I can't believe what I'm seeing.
That was the Star Wars "hook" for me. Galaxy's Edge is, for the most part, decidedly and disappointingly believable.
The land and the newer movies suffer the same ills - too rarely am I amazed by what I'm seeing in front of me.
