JJ’s Wonky World Builds: Number 3
After JJ Abrams had decimated the Star Trek universe, he ran afoul of the franchise’s merchandising department and thus turned his depredations elsewhere: Star Wars. I thought he might be able to pull it off. Star Trek has always been intellectual science fiction. JJ totally mishandled that. But the action scenes looked great, so maybe his talents could be monopolised in science fantasy for Star Wars with The Force Awakens (2015). By now, we were all familiar – and in some cases very familiar – with the Original Trilogy and Prequel Trilogy in that galaxy far, far away. This is important to keep in mind. When the Original Trilogy first…
JJ’s Wonky World Builds: Number 5
The dead speak! So the text crawl tells us at the beginning of The Rise of Skywalker. I’d expect that declaration in an Ed Wood movie. The Emperor is back! So a character who we didn’t know existed in this Sequel Trilogy becomes the arch-villain. Usually, you’d establish the villain as being villainous at some point prior to declaring they’re the villain. In A New Hope, we know Darth Vader is a villain because he walks onto the Rebel freighter and chokes out the captain. He tortures Leia. He even chokes one of his own officers. Grand Moff Tarkin blows up Alderaan. The Emperor is referenced as dissolving the senate…