Sean’s movie thoughts

“I like Star Wars” is a different sentence than “I am a Star Wars fan.” The second sentence, from some people, means the franchise means a lot to them. In some cases it means too much. Star Wars can be something you enjoy but it is not part of your identity. At least it should not be. I have looked at some videos and some blog postings and web pages. It looks to me some people have taken Star Wars and made it too important to them. Sad music is for funerals and doomed romance movies, not a video about why you are not going to a movie. Losing interest in a franchise might be disappointing but using sad music is a step too fair. Also what is the big deal about seeing a movie opening day? Some guy said he quit a job because he could not get a day off to go to a Star Wars movie opening day. That seems dumb. See the movie when you can and if it is a few days after opening day, that should be okay. It is one thing to be passionate about a film series but at the end of the day, it is no...

Star Wars the Last Jedi was a surprisingly polarizing film. It was popular at the box office but there has been an online backlash against it. There still is but the movie sold pretty well on home video, so maybe the backlash is coming from a small but vocal group of fans. I like the movie overall. It is a little long. The subplot on the casino planet feels unnecessary or at least too long. I wonder if a version of the movie without that subplot would be significantly better.  You have to review the movie that is, not the movie you want the movie to be. There is probably a better way to say that. There are some other problems with the film but overall I still enjoyed the movie enough to re-watch it and I am still interested in seeing the next movie. I have not given up on the franchise and I don’t expect to (this could of course change). The major problem with the the film, according to its critics, is that Luke is not enough of a badass. Did they not see the Force Awakens? ...

Maybe releasing a new Star Wars movie every year is not a great idea. Maybe there is something to releasing a Star Wars movie every other year or once every three years. Also maybe it is good for the franchise to take a few years off. This is just my opinion and it is strongly influenced by my feelings about the Solo movie. (Short note, I didn’t find the movie compelling or at least there were stretches of the film that were dull.)If I liked that movie more maybe I would not be having these thoughts. We will see what happens after the failure of Solo. Maybe Lucasfilms will start to slow down. Maybe they won’t. Solo is a failure largely because of the budget which expanded because of the reshooting. I don’t have budget figures but reports are that 70 percent of the movie was reshot or shot after Ron Howard came on as director. Hopefully no other movie in the franchise will require such lengthy reshooting. I am not comparing Star Wars movies to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I thin...