How to make a good Star Wars movie for once. “Stop making stuff that’s so self referential and start focusing on projects that once again are bringing things from the outside and putting them in a Star Wars container.” Fan service is bad storytelling.
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Here's Bouie's review of Rogue One:
I also had to look up this phrase he said a couple of times that I had no idea about: Glup Shitto, a name used to refer to minor characters known to only the most hardcore Star Wars fans.
I wouldn’t call Rogue One a masterpiece, but I find it one of the most entertaining Star Wars movies and one of the more creative uses of the existing mythology. Turning the Death Star’s absurd vulnerability into an intentional act of sabotage was a clever way to enrich A New Hope, and the final act is terrific. Every Star Wars movie has significant weaknesses, so singling out Rogue One as particularly deserving of criticism feels like it says as much about the lens being applied as it does about the movie itself.
In making The Force Awakens, JJ Abrams remixed the original trilogy...and they never really stopped.
I thought remixing the trilogy was exactly the right move for "The Force Awakens," whose opening act I would rank second only to "A New Hope" among Star Wars films. It reminded existing fans why we loved the thing so much while introducing a new generation to the universe and vocabulary.
Ironic, then, that JJ became the villain when it came to "Rise of Skywalker," which was so driven by fan service as to actively undo most of Rian Johnson's best and boldest storytelling moves. (Great, now I'm mad all over again.)
I highly recommend Going Rogue by Tansy Gardam. The origin of the podcast was digging into how Rogue One got to be the way it is, and she just completed 5 part series on The Rise of Skywalker. Incredibly well researched and narrated, and also wonderfully nerdy.
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