May the 4th be with you!

Hello there!

General Pixelous (not a real name) here and May the 4th be with you!

Today is an important day for any geek and nerd out there and I count myself among them.

If we're being honest, the last Star Wars film I've watched was The Last Jedi and the last one I actually enjoyed was Rogue One.

I've watched a couple seasons of the Mandalorian, but never cared much for that show. Rebels was the show I enjoyed watching the most.

I should remark here that I, personally, usually prefer animated movies and series to live-action ones, so most Star Wars stuff is at a disadvantage from the start for me.

It saddens me a little that I stopped caring about this franchise, because I actually sed to be a fan. I've watched the original trilogy on my parent's crappy old TV and then watched the prequel trilogy in the theater when they came out.

They were everything a kid could dream of from a movie about magical space-wizards, laser sword duels, fantastical aliens and massive space stations. I was never much into sci-fi, so it helped that Star Wars was much more "space fantasy" than "space science".

When the new trilogy was announced, I actually got pretty hyped for it. And when Force Unleashed came out I... mostly forgot it as soon as the credits rolled.

Don't get me wrong, the movie was pretty (really dark at times, though), the effects were nice, the swords made the WOOSH noise. Chewie, we're home, indeed.

But then you realise that you're supposed to care about the new characters and their hopes and dreams and they're just boring and forgetful.

Daisy Ridley's acting was fine, but her character was such a strange mess of emotions that I just didn't understand and, as a result, couldn't sympathize with.

Same goes for John Boyega, only in his case, the character was also actively unlikeable. I've found him looking best in scenes where he was actually a support for another character to work off of. Honestly, I don't even remember his character's name.

The one I do remember, however is Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, who, I thought, was an actual good character, with motivation, charm, good acting and criminally few scenes.

Adam Driver's character... I dunno. He's kinda cool, kinda not. Mostly he's just weird, with very strange obsessions and not much emotional control. The cross-guard is hands-down ridiculous, though.

I also enjoyed the general guy, though I don't remember his name and looking it up seems like cheating. He was played by Domhnall Gleeson, I think.

Funny thing, he is actually the main character of one of two things I remembered from that, otherwise forgetful, film the most. His speech was and still is a cool moment (if you're able, look it up in German, it's even more hillarious).

But the number one thing I remembered the most from that film is the police stun-baton wielding stormtrooper going toe-to-toe with a wannabe Jedi TRAITOR.

Now, if you want an actually GOOD Star Wars movie, then you should watch, in my opinion of course, Rogue One. The following rant will contain SPOILERS for that movie, so if you didn't watch it and don't want to be spoiled, then stop reading here and go see it. That's your May 4th quest.

That movie brought to Star Wars something it was severily lacking. A degree of realism and groundedness.

I'm not saying that the movies before it were complitely unrealistic, or that they SHOULD've been.

The original trilogy was mostly a fairy tale with space-wizards, laser sword duels, fantastical aliens and MASSIVE space stations (I mean, come on, if you're able to build a Death Star in the span of a few months, why not build a freakin' Daison Sphere and forget about the need for more energy ever again).

And it was a great fairy tale, with clear morals, heroes and villains.

But by the time Force Unleashed came out I wasn't a kid anymore and I didn't want a fairy tale. I wanted a story where there were no heroes. Where simple people fought and died. Where there wasn't a happy ending with medals and celebrations for all.

And Rogue One gave me all of that. I've watched that movie in the theater with my mom and we both were amazed by it. We ended up watching it again and later bought it and rewatched it at home many times.

It was funny, actually, because the first time watching it, we didn't know if the any of the characters would die or not. She actually told me, that it came as a shock to her that all of them died.

Now, you should know that I'm usually pretty good at predicting movie plots and endings, I can tell whodunit long before they state it in the film itself. It's just pattern recognition but to my mom it's almost a psychic gift.

So, I told her that I knew they would all die from the moment the droid character died. Because Star Wars loooooves its droids. They're so easy to market. So, if the droid is the first character to die, then all bets are off. Anyone can (and probably will) die.

And that was such refreshing thing to see. Because what usually happens, is the characters get into a situation with no way out and then the cavalry would arrive and save them, or they would find some clever way to escape, or something like that.

Not here. Here, the characters knowingly go on a suicide mission and they ACTUALLY DIE. No plot armor save. Imagine if at the end of the first season of Mandalorian, Mando actually died, because he's injured and trapped in the middle of a platoon of stormtroopers? Nope, we get a deus ex machina.

Also, Rogue One gave us the best five minutes of one of the best villains of all time being a total badass for once.

Anyway, I think I've ranted enough.

TL:DR New Star Wars suck, go watch Rogue One

Take care!