No surprise here.

which is hopefully going to convince the Boomers and their Gen A grandkids to return to theaters when The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives in theaters

This author thinks Gen A kids are the grandchildren of Boomers? All the recent grandparents I know are Gen X and older Millenials. My Boomer parents have been great-grandparents for years now

I know it's been beaten to death but I just finished re-watching all 9 + rogue one, and can confirm there's no reason for anyone to go back to the sequel trilogy. TFA gets some credit as a solid popcorn flick but doesn't change the fact it's retreading ANH, just to have every original story beat crushed by TLJ. By the time I got to Rise of Skywalker I was totally checked out, it's just noise and explosions with a plot that is borderline incomprehensible.

Sequels trilogy is not canon! (・へ・)

This author thinks Gen A kids are the grandchildren of Boomers? All the recent grandparents I know are Gen X and older Millenials. My Boomer parents have been great-grandparents for years now

I don't know what fecund land of 20 year old parents you live in, but I know fewer boomer grandparents than I do boomers who aren't grandparents.

Eh, my mum is an older boomer, and my daughter is mid-Z... I could easily see a younger boomer having an alpha grandkid.

Edit: from Wikipedia Most millennials are the children of baby boomers and older members of Generation X, and are often the parents of members of Generation Alpha.

TLJ is what I think gave the sequel trilogy... hope.

TFA is very much a nostalgia grab re-tread of ANH. Which is the point. Evil has come back and something something it rhymes.

TLJ is all about breaking the cycle. The hero? She isn't a chosen one. She is a random unhoused garbage goblin. The reluctant hero? He isn't coming back for selfish reasons (wanting to bang Leia) and is instead realizing that he is part of something bigger than him. The confident scoundrel? He got told quite definitively that he is a childish moron who gets people killed and to do better.

And Luke? if he was really The Chosen One... why did everything repeat? The stories of our parents aren't gonna solve things so let's try something new. Let's democratize force powers. Let's ACTUALLY fight against tyranny.

And then China allegedly got pissed and Disney had JJ come back to undo everything in the first 30 minutes of ROS. And only really succeeded in making a movie that EVERYBODY hates.

That said? Rogue One and Andor were somehow snuck in there and those are very much a Star Wars made for people who grew up watching the prequels. And it is amazing for it.

Luke was never the Chosen One, I think you've misinterpreted. It was Anakin who defeated the Sith. Luke just scored an assist.

Same, I started rise of Skywalker, and only after the ridiculous opening sequence I was already done with the whole thing. And I love Star Wars.

Luke was possibly a second try for the Force (which assumes some type of agency, but any of these theories do). Anakin met all the Chosen One criteria, except he turned (thanks to the Jedi Council and Palpatine's manipulations of them all). Luke was both a redemption for Anakin, a removal of the breaker of the prophecy (Palpatine), and a hope for the future. A second Chosen One, one who might be as or more powerful than Anakin in his prime, since he has the blood and gift but not Anakin's personal trauma that haunts and detracts him.

I think the biggest flaw of the sequels was the vagueness of why Luke couldn't renew or reimagine the Jedi again in a better form. It's glossed over to give a minimal backstory for Kylo, Snope is even more unclear and ended up being nothing, and why it drove Luke into isolation still isn't really told.

I liked TFA. I didn't like the start of TLJ. I expected a better thing that Luke just "meh" with the saber and the apathy towards everything. I wanted something deep and dramatic, tragic even. I was okay with Rey being no one special, that actually was the best part of TLJ (the end with the kid and broom). That seemed very interesting to follow.

Then it lost me fully.

I still can't believe some writer penned "some how, palpatine returned" into the script and didn't light the whole draft on fire right there. I guess between the hamfisted bloodline reveal and the magical sith dagger guiding the way to the star destroyer parking lot - who cares at that point. Fuck it, send it.

Yeah I watched them once each and was so disappointed I think my mind erased the very memory of these films. I can't remember shit about them.

The only worthwhile thing is the soundtrack, and you can listen to the albums without watching the movies.

The Force Awakens was fine, for a near shot-for-shot remake of A New Hope.

The Last Jedi is underrated, and I would argue the worst aspects are the attempt to redo the battle of Hoth. Overall a valiant attempt to make Star Wars something other than “the Skywalker Files.”

I made it ~15 minutes into The Rise of Skywalker before I turned it off. When did Leia become a Jedi Master again? Sometime after TLJ and the start of TRoS?

The best of these movies was okay. Of course no one is watching them.

The Last Jedi is my favorite Star Wars movie. But you wouldn't be able to tell from my Disney account because I haven't even gotten around to watching Maul yet.

Some people think I'm not a real Star Wars fan; as though that were insulting somehow.

Sure hut fans where demanding it. I thought they where going anyone can have the force. They shown it with little kid and broom. But all fans where like she has to be somebody there is no way she can't be a nobody. Has to be blah blah blah. And the SIMPs Disney are now they are like let's give it to them.

The first two thirds or so of The Force Awakens is fine. Everything that follows is utter dogshit.

Star Wars died when it was sold out to a fascist company.

I hadn't heard that China might have pressured Disney about the democratization of heroism, but... I could see it. I agree TLJ felt like a bit of a downer -- especially coming from the abandoned Expanded Universe novels where Luke hadn't done the best job but at least had set a direction for Jedi to come back into the galaxy. I still don't love Rey's encounter with the dark side.

But the disruption of every story beat, the possibility of being a hero because YOU choose to step forward, that was a great twist. The broom scene should have set the direction of the terribly named Episode 9...

Maybe I'll slip Rogue One in and drop Episode 9. Still 9 movies, and only really regret the first one.

Luke was the son of the evil warlord who single handedly changed the fate of not just The Rebellion but also The Galaxy (and yes, I know the EU expanded on that to make it less the case). Was he the one in the prophecy? No. But from a narrative/trope perspective, he was 100% The Chosen One.

I haven't seen any of the sequels, but why do they keep letting JJ Abrams write/direct movies? He ruined Star Trek too.

I saw all three in theaters when they came out.

Force Awakens was okay. It had a few problems, but I was willing to over look some of them because it was a new company trying to write something they had never written before. I was more forgiving towards Force Awakens.

Last Jedi ruined the entire trilogy. And honestly, if Rian Johnson actually still gets his trilogy, I will tell everyone I know to NOT see them. That guy deserves no money from Star Wars. Nothing in Last Jedi moved the plot forward, it closed off every possible loose end from 7 and left absolutely nothing for 9 to wrap up. Last Jedi is the reason Rise of Skywalker is so bad. Rian acted like his movie was the end of the series and forgot he was writing the middle movie of a trilogy. Basically half of the movie could be deleted with zero consequence. I almost walked out of the theatre mid-movie like 3 times, but I stayed just to see how bad it really got.

Rise of Skywalker is bad, but I honeslty feel really bad for JJ Abrams. What was he supposed to do in this situation? All the story strings he set up in 7 were cut in 8. At the same time, the writing was so bad that I couldn't even believe it was real.

If I had to rate them, all three are at the bottom of the barrel. Belong in the bargain bin direct to home video DVDs you find in those thrift shops that have the super thin DVD case. But in order of best to worst: 7, 9, 8.

I am never watching them again. I have not desire or need to.

Yeah, given everything that's come out, I don't even know what star wars fan would mean nowadays, but I'd be pretty insulted if someone did call me one.

I may have my movies backwards, but I'm pretty sure space Jesus Leia is from TLJ and was one of the criticisms of that movie.

Oscar Isaac did an interview recently where he revealed that line was added in reshoots. So that line was written in an attempt to fix whatever catastrophic wreck the script was in before then.

I'm imagining some writer going "wait a minute, did we ever explain why Palpatine was back?" And then writing that and leaning back with a smug "whew. Nailed it."

Boomers. As in, people born in the babyboom after the second World War.

You're saying you know more eighty year olds that aren't grandparents, than those that are?

I guess that could be true. But it just goes to show that n=1 is a terrible sample size.

So on topic of the original article:

Nobody is watching the Star Wars sequel trilogy — and that's a problem

Can anybody else who read the article explain to me what "the problem" is? Because I don't see it.

To me it seems more like a light at the end of the tunnel - that maybe we'll get out of the nostalgia fad (and probably straight into the next fad).

I completely agree with your post..

If I want to watch a single Star Wars movie, it will mostly be A New Hope, but every now and again I will pop on TFA for a popcorn flick.

If I have a spare day where I want to watch Star Wars, it will be R1, 4, 5 & 6

There is some mercenary type woman in body armor and face shield that Poe Dameron meets for some reason in the last movie.

You could put a gun to my head or offer me millions of dollars, and I still wouldn't be able to name that character.

TLJ is where she pulls herself back into a ship after being thrown into space, but TRoS is where Rey refers to her “master” and the reveal is that it’s Leia. I’m…fine with the scene in TLJ, she’s Luke’s twin and in RotJ he says she’s strong in the force so instinctively rescuing herself is not a huge problem. But if she was a Jedi master in TRoS she should have at least had some indication of significant training in the two preceding films.

It is a major problem for Disney. Disney's main business strategy is to make/buy things to be nostalgic for and then sell that nostalgia at a premium.

Star Wars should have been a slam dunk for Disney. They had experience with the brand and the resources to develop it in ways George Lucas couldn't. Yet, Disney can't get the same cultural resonance for Star Wars that Lucas was able to give it and it shows. Hell, people shat on the prequel trilogy for its issues, but the movies were still able to resonate with society enough to get memed and talked about.

Technically Anakin brought balance to the force. There used to be a bunch of Jedi and a few Sith. Because of Anakin, now there are a few Jedi and a few Sith.

Bear in mind that they're not all 80, though. The youngest boomers are 61, and it's not a stretch that they waited until early 30s to have kids, nor that their kids are waiting (or in fact that they chose not to have kids).

But it just goes to show that n=1 is a terrible sample size.

Agreed.

I will give Rise of Skywalker one thing and one thing only: Babu Frik. I know he was probably designed by committee to be cute and endearing, but man I love that little dude.

I don't want to poop on your well phrased comment, because I do agree.

But all I can think is "Oh nooooo! Poor Disney! Someone should give the multi billion dollar company a hug!"

Flying through space while unconscious, something that's never been shown possible by even trained conscious jedi, is fine, but not mentioning someone has training is a leap too far?

If you read Rian Johnsons reasoning for the space flight scene it depicts someone without a lot of care for the world of star wars and someone who just wants to make a scene.

I only saw them once, so my memory might be foggy. I remember thinking Force Awakens was pretty okay. The Last Jedi was pretty okay. Rise of skywalker was a steaming pile of shit.

There was a build-up towards "it doesn't matter who your parents are - anybody can be important" that got completely reversed in the last film.

I actually watched the second one twice, because I literally forgot I watched it the first time. Like, I saw it on the listing and said to myself "hey, I heard this is lousy, but maybe I can give it a try, I bet its at least fun and entertaining."

I got fully halfway through the movie before I realized that I had actually watched it before. I usually have a pretty good memory for films, but this thing has so little substances and held so little of my interest it just sorta slips through my brain without leaving anything behind at all.

I know for a fact that I have seen it twice because of that memory of realizing it halfway through the second viewing, but you know what? I still don't remember the movie at all. I have zero memory of it. I cannot tell you what its about or what happens. Nothing at all. It is like getting surgery. You are awake and then you are awake again a couple hours later. Nothing in between.

I'm 51, and my oldest grandchild is 17. I could theoretically be a great grandparent right now, if my granddaughter repeated her father's (and my) pattern. My son was born when I was 19, and he got his High School girlfriend pregnant when they were both Freshmen.

The current age range for boomers is 62 to 80.

And yeah, most grandparents I know are very much in that age range.

What a factually incorrect article.

I guess I think like Rian Johnson, because his explanation (it’s like a person instinctively clawing for the surface when drowning) makes sense to me. I’ve been in a handful of situations where I felt like my life was in danger and I managed to do things I could not accomplish if I was trying to do them consciously. There’s a big difference between (say) holding your breath for a number of minutes when waves are pounding you into the sand, and reaching another person how to swim.

I've liked a lot of Abrams' work, but yes, he really shat on Star Wars/Trek. I find he has great ideas, and great starts for those ideas, but he just gets bogged down with all the history and storylines, ending up with an absolute slog, with lots of explosions and lens flares to distract from that. So, given all that, I'm not surprised with his disappointing results with both multi-episode stories told over decades.

The issue isn't about drawing upon some inate power/competency, it's the degree in which it's done.

Holding your breath for longer or lifting a heavier car than you thought possible is enhancing a known capability. Surviving in the vaccum of space and flying aren't known abilities.

I think we see this kind of thing done much better in The Mandalorian where we see Grogu manage to utilize the force in small ways initially (and not always as intended), then building things up over time. That's what we'd expect from someone inexperienced in the force, able to call upon some elements of it when needed, but not pulling off feats someone trained in the force can't do.

Thats why I say Rian had little respect for the franchise. He literally says he wants to subvert expectations, but in many ways he was just breaking existing lore and/or rules of the universe. That's not good writing in my opinion. To subvert expectations you can't just change the rules.

Edit: Spelling/grammer

Yeah, cause collectively they were mid asf.

Force Awakens was reheated "A New Hope" leftovers, but I guess if you had to start with something memorable for a reintroduction to the Star Wars universe, you can't go wrong with a soft remake of the one that started it all.

I actually found The Last Jedi to be an interesting story, if not a decent movie with interesting ideas that could be capitalized on in the sequel.

Unfortunately that was not the case, and Rose of Skywalker, along with Obi-Wan and Mando season 3 torpedoed any interest I had as a relative newcomer to the Star Wars franchise. Side projects like Visions have kept my interest only because the anthology format allows for unique narratives and perspectives. It's why I loved Tartakovsky's Clone Wars.

I keep hearing amazing things about Andor and Maul: Shadow Lord, and I believe the hype wholeheartedly, but damn, after being inundated with Disney Star Wars year after year after year, I'm sick and tired of (modern) Star Wars.

HEY-HEY!

They were fine to see once, but I have no interest in seeing them again, unlike the OG trilogy.

It's treason then.

The best part about the whole modern star wars franchise is the endless parodies mocking them.

Binge Andor before R1.

I'm asking this trying not to sound like a dick, but sincerely - what Abram's work do you like? His entire filmography looks so weak these days, and it's even worse if we just evaluate him as a director.

I liked Super 8, but that's all that stands out to me. Even that maybe felt more "Spielberg at home", but it was entertaining.