Star Wars - Where’s the magic gone?

[Khallid]

Hey. I’m second gen Star Wars. Episodes 1-3 were my time for Star Wars leading into both Clone Wars series. Once thing I feel Star Wars has lost is the magic feel.

I felt it in Episode 4-6, certainly 1-3, all the clone wars and def incl games like Star Wars the Old Republic (KoTOR & SWTOR) who really did a great job capturing it all. But I must say. I haven’t felt that magic feel in any of the new ones. Not 7, Rogue 1 or 8 altho I really enjoyed Rogue 1 & 8 something feels missing.

One thing I certainly missed was futuristic looking civilisations and worlds and high octane force user action. New films have great story but feel bland and like they are afraid to move on. Did we need 7-9 to be fighting as rebel underdogs again? Had enough of that for SW Rebels and 4-6 did it well enough. It’s also a bit depressing to see nothing changed in the galaxy after Emperors defeat it’s like they just replaced everything like for like and told the same story which while better was like WHY?

Wonder if we have any 3rd gen Star Wars folk where Episode 7,8 and Rogue 1 are your first experiences of Star Wars and you’ve since gone back and watched everything.

None of Star Wars makes any sense if you think about it with realistic skepticism. Ultra Sith powers aren't strong enough to beat a hundred soldiers rushing at you, much less with weapons. If you look at any of the movies, the "armies" are tiny. Real wars are waged by hundreds of thousands of people. You would imagine a Galactic Empire would have armies in the trillions of soldiers, maybe millions of ships. Some rebels managed to destroy a ship? Who cares? Seriously, the scale is so ridiculous everything collapses and makes no sense. The Death Star can destroy planets? Seems like a dumb waste of energy if you ask me, why would you not rather conquer the planet and mine it for resources?

I like a lot of things in Star Wars, and KOTOR were awesome games that I enjoyed a lot, but they're just another sci-fi franchise. I don't feel any magic because there never was any magic. I don't understand why people are so obssessed about Star Wars. The original movies were pretty good at the time, but I find they were just kinda above-average; somewhat normal in terms of story-telling with good acting and likable characters. If a movie falls flat, it's because the director sucked or the script sucked or the actors sucked; that's the answer for every movie. The fact that the story happens in the Star Wars tiny galaxy has no relationship with a movie being good or not. The Star Wars universe is just the setting, nothing more.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

There was never any magic they were just good movies other then mabye a new hope.

[sarahtasher]

Okay, so just to be sure, you are REALLY persuaded that the idea that the Imperials are incompetent space Nazis is a modern Star Wars thing. Gotcha.

That's why EU Imperials were so competent.

[Babadoo]

No more Lucas that's why. This man IS Star Wars.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Big part of it in my opinion is it's mostly for kids. See I went though what a lot of people are going though now with the prequels. Hated them. No magic. Blah blah because i was angry 20 to 25 year old type that is what you do. Looking back they aren't so bad. They won't ever be my childhood Star Wars because they weren't the ones i watched in the 80s when i was a kid. Now that I see these movies as aimed at kids with me as a side audience I get over it a lot easier.

I think over exposure is going on too. We get a movie every year now so you are caught in an ever running hype machine. It raises expectations to high. Then fan media has never been so easy to produce and is a pretty big business. These people get things into people's minds about how it might go, what makes sense, what doesn't. Then to top it off after the movie it becomes a very popular click bait to love or hate the movie with way over the top reviews.

Then finally with the new format I think the movies need to find their stride and it hasn't happened yet. Marvel was the same way at first as they figured out the stride of what works and what doesn't. Then they got good.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Most of the "magic" comes from being a child when you were first exposed to star wars. Even if the new movies were absolutely perfect... nothing will ever live up to that feeling you got as a kid watching Star Wars for the first time.

[Zarc]

The original trilogy:
+ had the right atmosphere/feel to it,
+ built an engaging lore,
+ was executed well,
- but lacked exciting Force/lightsaber duels

The prequel trilogy:
+ built an engaging lore,
+ had exciting Force/lightsaber duels
- but was executed poorly
- and had the wrong atmosphere/feel to it.

The sequel trilogy so far have
+ had the right atmosphere/feel to it,
+ been executed well,
- but lacked exciting Force/lightsaber duels
- and is not building an engaging lore.

So basically what they have done (in my opinion) is just flip what they did right/wrong compared to the prequels. Though I would say the two they got right this time around are much more important for making a good Star Wars movie. So I do consider the sequel movies so far as being great standing on their own. Unfortunately as part of a franchise they are not as good, since the way the Star Wars lore is going is not to my liking it kind of makes me appreciate the old movies less and make me less excited for Star Wars in the future. Rogue One was pretty much perfect as to what I would expect from a spin-off movie, though.

[Kaleredar]

This last movie had a nice explanation of the nature of the force beyond "midichlorians." It expanded the nature of what the force could do and how it worked, I'd argue, without ruining the "magicness" of it.

I'd say that aspect of retaining the magic was successful.

[Varitok]

Over saturation killed any interest I had really. I felt tired of Star Wars before 7 even came out because of the over marketing, nerd culture everywhere being nothing but Star Wars. Couldn't go 5 minutes without seeing it mentioned.

[Cyanu]

the expectations are ridiculously high and the original trilogy has passed into some kind of 'mythic status',

warning:minor spoilers in the form of opinions below

imo this was already the case in the prequels: while episode 1 was indeed the worst star wars movie and episode 2 had a mix of good and bad moments episode 3 imo was Luka's masterpiece: the most mature,dramatic and emotionally intense star wars movie of all so far, with fantastic soundtrack, by far the best lightsaber action, scenes that would almost make one cry (like order 66 or obi wan/anakin confortation), a deeper story that actually bothers to explain what's happening and why,an actual meaning other than generic stuff about 'hope', quotes like 'and so freedom dies, with a loud aplaudment' almost feel classic, yet the fans nuked it from orbit, why? because to be honest people who identify themselves as 'fans of something' are generally oversensitive children (regardless of age), stuck up in the past and thinking their obsession with something makes them part of some elite

as for the new trilogy: the force awakes was simply way too conservative and gutless: mostly a remake of the original trilogy with minimalist goals, mostly not to annoy people rather than excite them, the last jedi on the other hand was a brave new movie that actually wants to give something new rather than keep everyone happy, it refuses to be yet another remake of the highly praised episode 5, instead it pioneers, what it does lack though is imo action (especially lightsaber action) and explanations, it also dares to have an opinion even if that means some people will be annoyed, well art that doesn't annoy anyone is not art, i actually enjoyed Rose' character and how someone as humble as a janitor can be so bold and even insightful at times, ofc some were annoyed by her (who dares being yet another non-white male character in this 'social justice saga') but being politically idiot is an existence full of 'annoyances' so... who cares really?

as for the 'social justice' comments tbh i find them ridiculous, why cause Rey is a woman and Finn is black? or because Rose's comment on that arm dealers planet and how it got it's wealth? please... if Rey was trans and spent her free time pondering over the plights of the LGBT community in the galaxy despite the fact that she's fighting for her life and running from the First Order than yes i'd be annoyed too, because someone sacrifices a movie to sent a message but to be annoyed by a female protagonist and a black major character? please...

[Devia]

Probably because old Star Wars IP was written to be entertaining and Disney Star Wars IP is written by a social justice committee to be political commentary.

Except that it has always been political ever since episode IV was made...it's just that now people are finally figuring it out.

[Putin-Chan]

Overexposure. I was genuinely sick of seeing star wars bullshit everywhere around halfway through December.

The only post-Disney Star Wars I enjoyed was Rogue One, which I think is the best Star Wars film outside of the OT. It makes me sad to see conservatives who hate it because some idiot on Twitter told them that it was anti-Trump or SJW.

[P for Pancetta]

The original trilogy:
- but lacked exciting Force/lightsaber duels

The prequel trilogy:
+ had exciting Force/lightsaber duels

The sequel trilogy so far have
- but lacked exciting Force/lightsaber duels

I disagree strongly, the light-saber battles in the prequels where the among the worse fighting scenes in cinematography imo. Light sabers are immensely powerful and dangerous weapons and while I do not mind them swinging them around crazy fast when dealing with gunfire it's weird they perform their fancy tricks when facing another force user. Both have the force and are capable of fighting at immense speeds, swinging your light-saber around gives the opponent room to strike you down easily. The scenes in the original movies and the new movies are much better in my opinion, they make the light-saber feel much more dangerous. One hit is enough to end your life and therefore no-one should swing their light-saber around haphazardly, no matter how proficient they might be at sword fighting.

[Fooliecoolie]

The biggest problem with Rose is that she is now the Poochie of the new Star Wars trilogy. I probably would accept having Finn and Poe become lovers than the pointless introduction of a character we really don't have any true reason to care for.

[Biggles Worth]

Stars Wars over saturation. Try to go one day without seeing or reading anything about Star Wars. Its impossible.
And now this thread....

I actually haven't seen or heard anything about the new star wars that came out. Only thing I know about it is that it's coming to theaters last December?

[Nefarious Tea]

Probably because old Star Wars IP was written to be entertaining and Disney Star Wars IP is written by a social justice committee to be political commentary.

It's cute that you think Star Wars wasn't ALWAYS about political commentary.

[Wondercrab]

I felt it in Episode 4-6, certainly 1-3, all the clone wars and def incl games like Star Wars the Old Republic (KoTOR & SWTOR) who really did a great job capturing it all. But I must say. I haven’t felt that magic feel in any of the new ones. Not 7, Rogue 1 or 8 altho I really enjoyed Rogue 1 & 8 something feels missing.

Very few people who started with the classic trilogy would feel any sense of magic from episodes 1-3. It's just an age thing. Star Wars in general is a pretty wondrous and captivating setting, and it's pretty hard to mess that up for younger audiences.

Probably because old Star Wars IP was written to be entertaining and Disney Star Wars IP is written by a social justice committee to be political commentary.

...The prequel trilogy is one of the most thinly veiled commentaries on contemporary politics ever. It has lines that directly reference the stuff G.W. Bush was doing and saying during his time in office. A huge chunk of it takes place in a gigantic space senate where characters discuss politics at length. The political commentary in Disney's Star Wars is nonexistent by comparison.

[Shibito]

Nothing is missing. The new movies are good star wars movies. Period.
When I went to the cinema and people were already complaining about the previous movie when I was standing in line for tickets I almost slapped them in the face. Gloryfying the first movies is the same like gloryfying vanilla wow. We all love them, it's ok to love them...but when you look at it without nostalgia glasses you see a cheesy and not very original plot, poor acting etc etc...

Lol

[TheTaurenOrc]

Where to begin... I guess not writing all 3 movies of the trilogy (7/8/9) before you start making them was first mistake.

Despite all the issues that 1/2/3 have they did a few things really well. It expanded on the universe that felt new but also Star Warsy, they work well as a trilogy in their own right (the rise of Darth Vader) and when added to 4/5/6 it reads as one longer cohesive story.

To me 7/8 and probably 9 just don't fit into a larger story for me. You can watch 1-6 and it flows and tells a longer overarching story, my fear is when its all said an done its going to feel like 7/8/9 are just tacked onto the end of 1-6 with no reason. And we'll look back at it as the jump the shark moment for the franchise.

[ramjb]

Rogue One wasn't that bad. It had a great villain and the death troopers looked cool. The protagonists were a bit of a joke and I can't remember the names of any of them, though.