Back in 2012, Disney bought Star Wars. The day the sale was announced I wrote a huge article about my mixed feelings. I was scared that Disney would run the series into the ground as they had recently done with their Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but I was optimistic that bringing back the original cast and going into the Original Trilogy era would be amazing for the series. The Avengers had just come out and Disney didn’t screw that up, so I had high hopes that Star Wars would be treated equally as well.
Eight years later, I finally finished watching the final part of the Skywalker Saga, and I’m less of a Star Wars fan because of it.
It started off well enough with The Force Awakens, but then came The Last Jedi that well… I’ve wasted enough time and effort on that terrible film.
I had hopes that with the return of JJ Abrams, that Rise of the Skywalker would be amazing. It would right all the wrongs that The Last Jedi had committed and Disney would commit to telling a good coherent story. Boy was I wrong.
Listing off all that was wrong with Rise of the Skywalker would take some time. There was the rushed pacing, the too large of a script, the changed demeanors of the characters, the idiotic ending, and so forth, but if I can say anything that defines my thoughts about Rise of the Skywalker it was the fact that as I sat watching it, I thought to myself: I should be watching Battlestar Galactica.
I’m not sure why that popped into my head. I loved BSG when it came out but it didn’t end well and it’s not something I’d have a huge urge to rewatch, until now. But while watching Rise of the Skywalker I couldn’t help but think about how disrespectful Disney was to the viewers. They treated us like idiots. They gave us bad science fiction full of plotholes and expensive CGI and then handed it to us and said, “This is Star Wars, give us money” and we’re supposed to be okay with that.
Battlestar Galactica ushered in a more mature science fiction world (for better or worse) that was followed up by The Expanse a few years ago. Coherent storytelling was vital to gaining the respect of the viewers and they cashed in on it big time. With exception of the fanboys running The Mandolorian and the rebel director of Rogue One, Disney had done nothing but shovel outdated and quite frankly, bad stories set in the Star Wars universe and pretended like they were good.
I’ll ask you this, what was the plot of Solo? I know I don’t remember. I watched that entire movie with excitement and the only thing I remember is that quick cameo at the end. The movie sucked.
Rogue One is arguably the best Star Wars film ever made and I gotta give Disney props for that. I’d love to see the director’s cut, but the fact that they didn’t fill every inch of the screen with cutesy droids and animals and didn’t cater the story to sell toys has got to be some sort of miracle. I doubt we will ever see another film like that one from Disney.
Disney got lucky with The Mandalorian and we got a great series that has potential. One of the best things about Mando was all the surprises that now Disney is spoiling left and right. They’ve announced characters, guest stars, and returning stars, thus taking away all the surprises and excitement that was there for the first season. You’d think a company that big and that successful would know when to shut up and cash in on something good.
I know I’m getting older and my tastes are changing, but I believe that the handling of the Skywalker Saga over the past eight years has been horrific and it has definitely affected my fandom. Then again, I’m not the age group who buys toys, so I’m pretty sure Disney could care less. I just hate that they managed to screw up such an epic saga when they had all the power, talent, and money to make it amazing.
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