TC wrote:-- yes, it takes place in the star wars universe. it is literally minutes before ANH. i don't see how they could be stand-alone-ish.
I believe the point is that the film is relying on us getting a nostalgic hardon for things we love from the another film instead of trying to focus on a interesting story or developing the new characters. We don't give two shits about any of these people, but hey, there's the X-wing toy I had as a kid so let me wank a bit.
-if this film explained everything as he seems to want, he'd have a 7 minute video bitching about how this movie wasted time explaining things we already know.
Doubtful. His analysis videos of the prequels are legendary and always on point.
"it's a generic science fiction film" - no, it's a generic SW film, according to him. the fact that SW aligns with scifi is a testament to how ingrained they are in our culture.
Completely missing the point. What he's saying is, without the context of Star Wars, few would enjoy this film. It would be completely forgotten and ignored due to it's lack of characterization, interesting plot, or major conflict resolution. It's Star Wars porn. People don't like it for the deep plot, they like it for the moneyshot of Darth Vader coming...into the room.
but i still maintain that these first two new films - one kicking off the new trilogy, and another trying something new in a "side story" - had to show audiences that it is possible to make good films that connect to the original SW universe, essentially apologizing for the prequel trilogy. now that the apologies are out of the way, i am giving them the benefit of the doubt that they will make good science fiction films that just happen to take place in the SW universe. i feel like, since they are obviously SW fans and have given us two fan-service-y films, we owe them that.
I'll give Force Awakens a bit of a pass since it was sort of the necessary "reboot" film. And hey, even I am not immune to memberberry nostalgia for characters there were such a big part of my childhood. But only one film like that was needed. This was a chance to tell a completely new story, show us some new characters, and let the new films stand on their own. You can only milk the same well so many times. Rogue One fails even where Force Awakens succeeded. I'm invested in Rey as a character. I couldn't even give a two sentence non-physical description of Jyn if you put a gun to my head.