Last year, as I was writing my December post a day, I wrote a lot about Star Wars. The Last Jedi came out and I watched all the other films leading up to the release. I was pretty ambivalent about The Last Jedi at the time, although the more I’ve thought about it, the worse the movie got. I’m not going to get into it here, I’ve already explained it in other places. But now we’re about a year away from Episode IX coming out and I can’t help but wonder if it’s possible for me to not see it.
It seems like a silly question. Of course I can choose to not see a movie. I do it all the time, almost every week. But this is Star Wars. I’ve invested quite a bit in Star Wars over my lifetime. I’m even something of a prequels apologist. But The Force Awakens is simply one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It’s not just bad for a Star Wars movie, it’s really bad period. And The Last Jedi did absolutely nothing to fix any of its mistakes. It’s simply impossible for Episode IX to be in any way a continuation of the “story” (if you want to call it that) and be in any way worth seeing.
Aside from all the personal reasons, the movie is going to be a cultural phenomenon. I’m not the most with it person you’ll ever meet, but I generally like to know what’s going on. That was enough to get me to see Titanic (a waste of four hours). I honestly don’t know if it will be enough to get me to see Episode IX.
So that’s my dilemma. If it were a book, I would finish the book. I can’t imagine reading all of a book except the final chapter and then stopping. I’ve only failed to finish one book in my life. But this isn’t really like a book. The author of the parts I fell in love with isn’t connected to the last three chapters. And Luke’s story ended with Return of the Jedi. I’m not invested in Rey’s story (or Finn’s or Kylo’s or whoever’s story this is supposed to be). I guess I really am leaning towards skipping it. That makes me incredibly sad.
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