In preparation of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker coming out this week, I rewatched all the films. I took a few notes and observations, collected here for my amusement:

Disney+, Movies Anywhere and my phone

• Disney+ adds a warning for depictions of tobacco (as well a a seizure warning).
• There seems to be a lot of small changes in the Disney+ streaming versions. The Star Wars movies that aren’t yet available on the service have trailers and the date they’ll be available for streaming.
• God, Disney+ has a lot of bugs. It takes forever to sync with Chromecast, there’s a ton of time wasted buffering, lots of starts and stops. The content is great, but the app itself still needs some work.
• Movies Anywhere is really well put together. I had a digital code for a bunch of the movies, so I finally redeemed them, and was able to easily connect my Google Play Movies account for easy streaming.
• Every time R2 squealed, I thought I was getting an e-mail (as it’s my notification noise), but that’s my fault.

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

• This is so bad.
• Like really bad.
• Jake Lloyd is really a bad actor.
• I will say though, the editing in this movie is horrible, and it made Jake Lloyd look even worse than he was.
• John Williams is a saving grace. This score is epic.
• Anakin is so whiney.
• There was a weird, and I think the only instance in the series, of first person view, with C3P0 at one point, and it was so jarring and out of place.
• The city of Theed is really gorgeous.

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

• I forgot how amazing of an actor Alan Lee was. I feel like he was underused, although maybe having some space from the awful dialogue in this one helped his character. Either way, he’s missed.
• Another great score from Williams.
• The editing is much better compared to Phantom Menace, it’s a lot tighter and that helps.
• There is however, a lot of bad CGI. All the prequel trilogy suffered from an over-reliance on CGI and green screen technology and it really shows in the effects here (as well as all the acting throughout).
• Boba Fett is so whiney

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

• In the opening crawl, they use the line, “There are heroes on both sides.” That has not aged well after Chartlotesville.
• I kind of like General Grievous, except for his smokers cough. Respiratory afflictions seem to be a thing in this universe.
• The Senate battle is still a huge highlight and it stands up.
• Overall, the prequels are weird. Too much CGI, bad writing and acting and really, an overly complicated plot based around trade negotiations. I’ve always said Lucas can tell whatever stories he wants, but aside from Theed, Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan and Williams’ score, there’s not much from the prequels worth going back to see again.
• The prequels do mirror and follow the original trilogy in some really neat ways. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not, but it at least made for some good writing about the subject elsewhere on the Internet.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

• L3-37 is the best character in this movie.
• Holy crap, I forgot how awesome this cast is.
• It got panned, but it’s a fun heist movie. Enjoy it for what it is.
• That being said, the story takes a bit of an unnecessarily complicated turn to fit in some fan service and connect it to the animated shows (which I haven’t watched)
• That also being said, it was also clearly set up for a sequel.
• That also also being said, this movie is just a ton of fan service and in jokes.
• As mentioned, I haven’t watched any of the animated shows, but at least from the “legends” (which is worth another deep dive) Dathmoir is not where I would have expected Darth Maul to go.
• Wait, Ron Howard directed this?
• Both this and Rogue One had so many reshoots, edits and revisions (and so much stuff from the trailers not used), I’m really concerned about Disney meddling too much.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

• K2-S0 was the best. Why is it always the droids who make the best characters?
• Tarkin’s voice was just a little bit off, and it was distracting. He and Leia also had that weird “Polar Express” CGI look to them, although at least Tarkin’s scenes were dark enough to hide most of it.
• Really, no Jedi? Not even Chirrut?
• Also, can we talk about the relationship Chirrut and Baze have. It’s something deep, but heaven forbid Disney touch anything queer with any nuance or depth.
• Visually, this is a beautiful movie. Really, really beautiful.
• I’m curious about edits. This even more so than Solo. There were so many things left out from the first cut.
• I’d love to see the story of the ‘many Bothans who had to die’ to get the plans for the second Death Star.
• Leia looked way too young at the end, again, weird use of technology, just a bit of an uncanny valley situation.

Episode IV: A New Hope

• Luke is whiney.
• This has such a 70s feel. God lord this is really hokey.
• The nostalgia is so strong with this movie.
• But I got swept up by the Death Star attack, a testament to the storytelling
• There are a lot of weird, little edits on Disney+, I wish everyone would just leave things alone.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

• This is a huge change from IV in terms of tone and feeling.
• This movie still stands up as easily one of the best in the saga, and is probably the one I’ve watched the most.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

• Ewoks are dumb.
• Jabba the Hut is listed as playing himself in the credits.

Episode VII: The Force Awakens

• This movie starts right off the bat with the action, a good choice.
• This movie is also very much a rehash of the originals and an apology tour for the prequels.
• Generally I’m meh about this one because so much of it is a rehash and an apology.
• Kylo is the whiney one.
• Yeah, Nazis. We get it, the First Order is Nazis.
• You know what, it’s probably more important than ever that we remember to always punch Nazis in the face. So good on you, J.J.
• I feel like we needed that deleted scene showing the republic worlds. Otherwise, the First Order destroying that system didn’t seem as consequential.
• There’s a lot of politics in this, like the prequels, and it could have easily been too much.
• They do a long one shot in the battle at Maz Kinata’s which is really in vogue, but it was well done and not terribly long.
• That said, I disliked the last drone/crane shot. It felt like the only one in the series and out of place.
• There are a lot of legit funny moments in this movie.

Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

• I really like VIII, I love how different it is, and how it subverts what you think a Star Wars movie should be/should do.
• And it starts with that subversion tone right off the bat.
• I do wish had shown some of Leia’s training, otherwise, her saving herself is a bit unbelievable (let’s not unpack that sentence too much, shall we).
• There was one porg scene too many.
• I’m still sad they killed off Admiral Akbar, but I get it.
• I want more Maz. Hoping she’s back for IX.
• Love the knocking down of cis het white men who try to bulldoze their way through life.
• Remember how they keep going back to the Force being about balance? Yeah, let’s try to keep that in mind in terms of these movies.
• I liked the bits on class and wealth inequality, a good addition.
• “Tear down your legends.” Yeah, see my comments about subversion and balance. Remember, it’s just some movies. Get into them, love them, discuss them, find meaning and stories in them. But don’t tear down others because things don’t fit your insurmountable expectations.
• I liked the cave scene, it reminded me of the similar scene in V.