One of the biggest causes of disappointed in modern cinema seems to be purely fan expectation, take any multi-movie franchise and see what happened when a film isn’t as good as expected. The world goes insane calling the director, actors, writers, or just anyone involved the ‘Ruiners’ of their favourite films. None more so than a franchise that happily sits in the ‘Nerd’ fandom, just look at what happened to DC’s Batman Vs Superman and Justice League. Fans started posting about how it was finally time Marvel was going to be shown how Superhero films ‘should’ be done, and now those films sit on shelves of people who try to argue that the mother’s having the same name was a good idea.
One of the reasons these two films didn’t work as intended was because the fans were expecting perfection. But everyone’s idea of perfection is different. And Star Wars has it worse than anyone, and of the Skywalker Saga there was such a build up towards the release of Episode 9, Rise of Skywalker. Not only were a huge section of the fans looking at this film as the franchises saviour, the one that would tie the decades old franchise up in a neat little bow. While others saw it as the final nail in the coffin of the dying juggernaut after the last couple outings. Both mentalities manifesting before we even got a small glimpse of a trailer.
I finally sat down to watch Rise of Skywalker on May 4th, the undisputed Star Wars day that was decided because of a Dad joke. I avoided watching it after it was released in cinemas as I heard countless reviews of how bad it was, worse than the prequels, nothing of what George Lucas would have wanted for the franchise and a spit in the face of the franchise… It’s not half bad, though. It’s not without its faults of course, there’s issues with pacing, the start of the film needs to rush through several points to unravel Last Jedi’s shortcomings, and a lot of retcons throughout. There’s also been a lot of talk surrounding the interference by the people in offices at Lucasfilm.
However, keeping all of that in mind, the film as a film isn’t terrible and I would even go as far to see it boarded on good. Comparing to the rest of the Star Wars franchise as well, being considered ‘good’ is almost rare with a large number having reviews that land it a little more south of that. For this film though, I was entertained, I enjoyed the characters as well as how they interacted between one another, the plots moves along so that there are never too many lulls in a two and half hour film. That in itself is an achievement, especially when remembering that this film had so much damn pressure behind it, and hats off to JJ Abrams for even attempting to do his best with it.
So, like I said at the start of this post, fans can cause the biggest death of a film from before its release and that was definitely the case. Those fans who were adamant of it being bad saw any flaw they didn’t like a ran with it to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and probably some comment sections of Pornhub too. Then there are those who thought it would be the nectar of the gods for their eyes, and when it didn’t meet the perfection they’d imagine they joined those online to complain about it as much as the rest. Yet, the film closes the franchise in a way that makes sense, at least for the most part. It also introduced some great things to the main lore of Star Wars as well, mainly thinking of the Ex-Stormtroopers exiled in the Endor system, even if it is sadly sped through without real development.
To end this post, I know there are going to be fans who don’t agree with this point of view, and fair enough we all have different tastes and especially in film. For example, I don’t like Pulp Fiction but I know people who look to it as gospel. But if fans keep making the films before the studios have actually been able to finish making them then it will always ruin them. Building up these films in our heads, or tearing them down before we’ve even seen a trailer does not help the filmmakers doing everyone justice. Instead it just confirms the idea that we can’t please everyone, especially when it involves us nerds.
The Nerdy Bartender 