Originally Posted by
zitothebrave
First things first. Art isn't subjectively good or bad. It's art. Films at their core are art. You may not like it, that's fine, but riding it is toxic.
Here's the reality, most people weren't gonna like the new Star Wars trilogy. Most people have matured and formed their Star Wars bond and any changes are bad. It happened 20 years ago with the Prequels, and now the prequel kids are joining the OT people in hating the sequels. That's why it seems strong that the hate is there.
What's toxic is that Disney and Lucasfilm reacted to a minority of fans freaking out. Not trusting the direction of the forward movement and instead moved backwards. If they wanted a fanservice trilogy, they should have written it.
I'm indifferent on Kennedy. She's been behind some great moves and some bad moves. But I do believe that Disney deserves a healthy amount of that blame as it seems like their goal was to recoup their purchase of Lucasfilm ASAP.
I find it ironic that so many people like the Mandalorian but don't like the sequels because lots of elements mirror each other. I remember people being pissed off to no end that Rey could use force powers with no training, but The Child can force Telekinesis, heal and choke. People railed on Rian Johnson for subplots that went "nowhere" but many episodes of the mandalorian have subplots that don't serve much.
Why the Mandalorian is good is it's quality writing and direction. Every person involved is quality. And it's why the Last Jedi is good. Rian Johnson has so much quality packed into a short bit that you miss most of it. Like Favreau, he drew references from Lucas's references, including Kurosawa, and old hollywood, and westerns. Johnson also sneaks in all kinds of references like to the Four Sages of Dwartii, Mustafar, Return of the Jedi, Rogue One, prequels, ideas Lucas had but never put into films (laser sword being mentioned for the first time since Episode I even though it was the original name for Light Saber, the only non-prequel to say Darth Sidious, etc.) a beautiful little "Han Says Hi" on the bomb in the opening sequence, there's so many fine details in it.
And honestly, if all they didn't do was bring Palpatine back in Episode 9, I would have been happier. I could deal with her being a child of Palpatine, but the finale where she has to defeat the Sith and Palpatine ****s all over the Prophecy of the Chosen One that we were told over 3 films and 100+ episodes of the Clone Wars.