| Re:Meine Gedanken (sorry, alles auf Englisch) |  |
>Das hier hatte ich für FB geschrieben, daher alles auf Englisch. Hab grad keinen Nerv, das alles noch mal zu übersetzen, aber vielleicht sind ja ein paar gute Diskussionsansätze dabei. :)
>
>----
>
>Here's my spoiler-free review of Star Wars Episode IX:
>
>J.J. Abrams is a total hack.
I think I know you from some other place...
>
>
>Alright, SPOILERS AHEAD - time to flesh this out with more detailed thoughts.
>
>First of all, I thought TFA was a kinda fun but very unoriginal re-introduction of the universe. The many rehashed plot elements were quite annoying - an empire-like military force with a planet-killing super-weapon, an orphan raised on a desert planet who develops superhuman powers and joins a resistance force - but in the end it left enough things open to be OK as an opening statement for a new trilogy. And then TLJ came and subverted quite a few of the ideas: It wasn't about yet another Jedi master's child! The apprentice killed his master without turning to the other side, leaving the future wide open! Luke wasn't just a repeat of old valiant superhero Luke, but actually an interesting character with some new-found depth and a new character arc of his own. I liked all that and it gave me hope that the series could be more than just an overly safe nostalgia fest.
>
>And then J.J. Abrams came back and wrecked all that without the slightest subtlety. Of course Rey is powerful because of her heritage! We were just kidding last time around. This is like Vader telling Luke "well, I am not *technically* your father, but..." in a fictional alternative Return of the Jedi. And of course we'll have a "good and previously bad join forces against the Emperor" twist for the finale - if you can even call that a twist when it's telegraphed so far in advance. The whole plot is just so bad. It starts off with a diabolus ex machina, because apparently they didn't trust Kylo to carry a movie as the main baddie, so they quickly reintroduced a bigger baddie with a huge military force behind him. Then it basically ends with a similarly shameless deus ex machina massive enough to beat even the biggest fleet the empire has ever had. This was such a cringe-worthy moment! And it wasn't the only one in the film. The stupid Han Solo cameo with the even more stupid "I know" quote - again, stupid and so predictable I was going "don't say it..." before he did. It felt so dumb I came quite close to yelling at the screen. The fan service was so painful this time around. What was Lando even good for plot-wise? Doesn't matter, they just had to have him in there. J.J. Abrams made it clear that it didn't matter whether the character (or the actress...) was still alive, dead but around as a force ghost or entirely gone - if you were a popular face, he'd stuff you in the movie. Which brings me to the Leia scenes. Ugh. They really couldn't find a better solution script-wise than one that necessitated her being in several scenes? The fact that her facial expressions from this leftover footage were so clearly not in sync with the rest of the scenes took me out of the film several times. Also, her sudden death felt really lame. And wow, after all he'd gone through, *that* was all it took to turn Kylo good again? The actors did what they could with what they were given, but even their good performances couldn't quite save this script. Rey is now basically female Jesus with a light saber and again, I knew cringe-worthy resurrection scenes were coming up later the moment she healed that snake. Cause in this new Star Wars world, nobody ever really dies. It's awfully convenient when you want to stack your movie with return appearances by familiar characters, but it's poison for the movie's emotional impact. Death doesn't matter anymore.
>
>Let's look at all the stuff that happened inbetween the opening and the finale, which mirrored the lame MacGuffin element of TFA's script: The heroes need to find that Sith planet. So they need to find a wayfinder. So they need to find that place on this conveniently handy map from Luke, which leads them to that dagger with the convenient hints where to look next. So they need to find the tech genius who can help get the translation out of C3PO. So they need to go yet another planet, where Rey just happens to hold up that dagger before the death star from juuuust the right angle the very moment they arrive. My God! All this somehow managed to be needlessy convoluted and insultingly straightforward at the same time. And it was all just a sequence of plot points waiting to be visited rather than something that would organically develop based on the protagonists' character and their decisions. And there's more! The dumb "Hux is the spy" angle. Way to waste one of the somewhat more interesting returning characters. Or the "Chewie is dead - no, he's not! But Rey doesn't know, so... Actually, she also finds out just a couple of scenes later!" bit. Huh. I'm pretty sure that whole subplot was basically a waste of time, which is strange in a film that could really have needed more time to breathe in other places, especially early on. Also, for all the screen time they got over the course of this trilogy, Finn and Poe remained rather uninteresting until the end - the former making you wonder why they ever included him in the first place, the latter never rising above a "replacement Han Solo" type. And after getting quite a lot of screentime in the previous film, Rose was sidelined here. I wasn't a huge fan of her in TLJ, but doing this rather than developing her further in a more appealing way felt like a concession to the most toxic corners of Star Wars fandom. It's one thing if you run out of time to really feature everyone, but on the other hand they did find time to introduce the all-new Jannah, a character who seemed totally superfluous other than maybe for selling more toys to black girls.
>
>Visually it was really nice, but the action scenes never felt particularly captivating - I think Abrams did better with TFA and Rian Johnson had more compelling fighting scenes in TLJ. The Rey/Kylo fight between the waves was clearly trying to seem epic, but it didn't do much for me. And nothing here came close to the stunning effect of the Holdo lightspeed jump scene in TLJ. That was was a moment for the ages, and it made you feel something for a character you probably didn't like all that much before. The Rise of Skywalker, on the other hand, had me struggling to care even for any of the established characters, much less any of the lesser ones. Even the finale left me cold: Rey meets Palpatine and the only bit of dialogue J.J. Abrams could think of was a rehash of the usual "give in to your hate, join the dark side" sermon? And of course then it got super-cheesy with the the jedi ghost messages, the dual light-sabers and the resurrection scene. I would've cringed, but by that point I had already stopped caring.
>
>So yeah, I did not enjoy Episode IX very much. Which is too bad, because I really had some hopes for it after the previous one. But in the end I was sadly right about J.J. Abrams. His twists and reveals were never more clever than expected. Elements of nostalgia were milked to the max. The new characters were never more than means of advancing the plot. And the plot was never particularly good or in any way original.
----------------------
Gesendet mit M! v.2.7.0