you have to have a very high IQ to understand the star wars sequels. The subtext is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of the extended universe most of the references will go over a typical viewer’s head. There’s also Luke’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Kilji Illumine literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of this allegory, to realise that they’re not just worldbuilding- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike the sequels truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rey’s famous line “Somehow palpatine returned” which itself is a cryptic reference to how palpatine’s force spirit possessed the clones of himself he had prepared in advance. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as J. J. Abrams’s genius wit unfolds itself on the cinema screens. What fools… how I pity them

That was the last movie I saw before the pandemic, and I didn’t go to the theater again until October 2022.

I felt like the movie was so bad that it ushered in the end times.

I tryed so hard to enjoy it, you guys!

Much of it, yes, but the real reason Qui-Gon died at the end is because he was exhausted from carrying the entire film on his back.

Liam Neeson had the gravitas and experience to do his own thing, and almost everything good about that movie involves him. McDiarmid too. The younger actors, including Ewan, and the bit players were almost universally meh to dreadful, and frankly Portman was probably the worst; her line readings in or out of the makeup were stilted and straight up amateurish. While he was given garbage to work with and wasn’t some sort of prodigy who could elevate it, Jake Lloyd at least brought energy and authenticity. Lucas should have at least gone the ROTJ route and shadow-directed, but with a no-name “official” director who was good with actors. The story for Ep 6 is very iffy, but the performances themselves are fine, even with Ford sort of mailing it in; Marquand was able to turn that apathy into a certain bemused ennui.