I'll definitely watch TROS a second and third time, and likely more. Again, I liked the movie as a standalone thing.
BUT!
Scates is right. The entire saga is so lacking in anything memorable that I can remember the name of just one planet (Jakku), and only one character stands out from start to end (Rey), but even that character was not built into any sort of legacy. She's just kind of hanging out there, dangling by her fingertips from the bridge to movie lore. In other words, she will be remembered, but it's sad that the lack of R2 is a bigger deal than the presence of Rey. I mean, think about that. A
robot—who got almost no screen-time—is a bigger figure than an actual human being. That is sad.
Seriously, the only moment in this entire 8-hour prequel that stands out as hitting the correct note was the very last scene, with Rey staring out at the setting of the twin suns on Tatooine. Even then, the story provided no reason for her to be there.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: These idiots planned absolutely nothing! They had no purpose, no direction, no insight, and no story. Nothing.
And, because the sequels had no leader, the story also has no leader; the production team was a chaotic mess, and so the trilogy is a chaotic mess; the directors had no idea what they were doing (story-wise), and so neither do the actors. This also creates a major difference between the prequels and the sequels: Lucas had a plan, so he created a strong overall connection between each of the prequel movies, but his inner fantasies created three middling films, none of which stands out as being "good". The sequels had no plan, and they created three films (two good, IMO, and one crapper) that are so disjointed and haphazard that one could hardly believe they are all part of the same storyline. This thing is an absolute mess, and I have to say this (I
hate to say it, but I
have to): The prequels—as a story—are many orders better than the sequels. 7-9 have actually improved my opinion of 1-3 by the mere fact that it makes me recognize how much work it was for Lucas to string three films together in some sort of meaningful manner. Even if those three films are crap,
at least they're crap together!
