In a totally friendly way I got called out by a friend of mine on Gabbing Geek who didn’t likeThe Last Jedi and/or the Solo movie and  went on to explain how he is not Okay with Star Wars movies being just Okay.

Instead of jumping on him  let me, instead, explain why this *I* am totally fine with it. And it all starts with the prequels.

I’ve written a past post about the summer ’99 (go here)and the fever pitch involved the Phantom Menace. It’s old and stuff but it I think captures the feeling of what the anticipation was for that movie.

I only had dial up living in the middle of no where in ’99 and downloading that TPM trailer was about the worst. I had o do over night.  Because if anyone picked up the phone…. you lost your connection. But there was so much of that trailer I latched on to and guessed about… incorrectly. I thought the Emperor saying “Wipe them out. All of them!” and Obi-wan yelling “NO!” was for sure the end of the Jedi. In my head the Jedi were getting wiped out and in the next 2 movies Obi-Wan was going to have to teach little Anakin himself without the help of the council. And then how dark the next 2 movies would have to be with Obi-Wan’s teaching going completely wrong and Anakin headed into darkness. Which had to happen.  Cause we knew…. Darth Vader.  My head was filled with these amazing stories that lay ahead.

But…..

That is not what we got. We instead go a story of little boy with a heart of gold forced to leave his mother at age 10 who would go on to help destroy an entire droid army. While a princess fell too deeply in love with a boy 5 years younger than her. In grade school that’s a life time!  This same kid would go on to be creepy teenager leering (not lovingly staring at) Padme and still somehow coaxes her into loving him.

So, anyway, all this to say, the prequels were not what I expected or what anyone expected. But I still love them they’re… just different. And, in the same way, I think that The Last Jedi was different. We were all hoping to see Luke be amazing and hopeful and crush everything with the force. But from a story stand point that’s n a hard story to tell. Luke is super powerful and kills Kylo? No…. how about Luke is super powerful and while Kylo isn’t on Crait Luke goes to  smash all the AT MT’s the force? That is cool and total fan service but is also not as interesting a story.

No, the most powerful story to tell is that Luke has lost hope because he hasn’t  heeded Yoda’s advice.  “Pass on what you have learned. ” But Luke is so lost her screws up double so.  He didn’t  And to keep himself present in the here and not to keep looking off to the horizon (or the more important thing in this case is to not see your failure as a hindrance to future generations.) Rey is right when she says his mistake was thinking that Ben’s future was fixed.  THEN Luke finally comes around (thanks, Yoda) and does something so powerful it’s never been seen before and, in a moment of utter sacrifice, Lukeinstills Hope thought lost in the Rebellion while showing Rey she was right!

I could go on and on about TLJ but let’s touch on Rogue One real quick  This is the movie that, to me, is just okay.  Once this movie hits Scarif I love it to the very end. Not even the battle even Cassio and Jyn sneaking in.  But the first 1/2 of this movie bores me. I like the characters but I wish we could have spent more time with Chrirrut and his version of the force. But on my third time seeing it (yes, THIRD its still Star WARS)  I actually fell asleep when Jyn and the gang go to rescue her dad.

Which brings me to another point which is I’ve found most people who loved Rogue One didn’t love Last Jedi. And even vice versa.

I think this is where all the points come together (finally.) Why people dislsiked the prequels, why people disliked Last jedi and why people, I think, disliked SOLO. I think the simple is answer is that Rogue One sits right on the heels of ep 4. There’s all the ships from the Original Series we know and love, we see Leia at the end getting the plans that Captain Antilles gets choked out for in A New HOPE!   TFA, many feel, has similar beats to ANH. A no one from a sand planet finds out they have Force powers while being stalked by a man in black where it all comes together as a giant super weapon is blown out of smithereens.  Its the same but different.  I don’t even find this a criticism. It’s a safe and great way to re-introduce the series.  I stil watch TFA.

BUT!  TFA suffers from JJ’s box of tricks.  He asks too many questions.  And rather than answering those millions of questions Rian Johnson sat down and thoughtfully asked, What’s the Story?  He started at the beginning by asking why is Luke on that Island and what does Rey find when he gets there?  What would keep Luke out of the battle against the First Order?  That’s a hard question to answer if Luke still wants to  be involved in Galactic Affairs.

For fun I made a easy list of 15 questions that JJ opens up in TFA.  That wasn’t even thinking too hard.  Why not tell a personal story as opposed to that answers all those questions.

All of this, finally, leads to SOLO (talk about burying the lead) which I has SOOO much with. I think Alden is great. His chemistry with Chewbacca is astounding. And Chewbacca was amazing.  He’s never been this physical in any of the movie. But back to Alden I think he FEELS like Han.  All Charisma, all the mistakes.   Han is going to make the mistake  (light Spoiler alert) of saying there are 30 men aboard a ship and then that ship flies off before anyone can call that bluff. That’s Han’s Bravado getting in the way. It’s like Han sneaking up on the Bike trooper in Return of the Jedi  and snapping the twig. Or in  TFA where Han is trying to talk his way out of getting killed by Kanji-Club and Guavian Death Gang.

(more light spoilers to follow)
I had a damn smile on my face this entire movie from the “you made that clicking sound” all the way to “we’re heading to Tatooine.” My wife and I both exhaled as the Falcon finally makes it out of the Kessel run because we were so tense watching it. But what expectations did I have going into this movie?  None.

BECAUSE the prequels taught me one thing…. don’t get excited about a movie.  I don’t want to get hyped over what I think it NEEDS to be. I don’t want hope Jabba shows up in SOLO only to get my hopes dashed. I don’t want to have it so set in my head that Q’Ira is Enfys Nest that when the actual reveal happens I hate it because is not what I wanted.  I just want to go in let the movie wash over me like a cool wave. And love the movie for what it is or what I expected.

I enjoyed this movie because I had no feelings one way or another. I just wanted it to be fun and damn was it. And the sequel this thing sets up (assuming it’s box office numbers don’t crash too much harder) with Jabba and Fett and [redacted spoiler] who have all been leading Galactic Gangs during the Clone Wars era and is going to be the Underworld they only glossed on ANH and Return of the Jedi.

So Finally, I’m fine with Star Wars being just okay… because that’s what the Prequels taught me. It doesn’t change my enjoyment of those movies I really love. Nor does it make me hate the prequels. I love the story it told and while we are stuck filling in the blanks a lot of times (I mean, nobody figured out that Padme was pregnant? Who the Father was? Did she say that she’d have to quite being a Senator if she was pregnant? Why?)

SOLO: A Star Wars Movie is a prequel. And while I’m happy to give it 5 out 5 star there’s a minority who don’t think so. I have found a few people who find this movie useless and trivial.   I disagree I think the shows us more about Han and his motivations. , I think as much as he would love to be a scoundrel, he’s, instead,  a man with integrity. “The Good Guy,” Q’Ira calls him.  He can’t leave Enfys in the dust just like he can’t leave Luke to take out the Death Star by himself.

“Expectation  is the root of all Heartbreak” or so Shakespeare put it.  Ryan Reynolds, too, was quoting as saying “when you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment”  Or as the best of all the memes I saw said: Expectations really fucks us up.

Well said.