In the last few years, TV shows and movies have sucked. There are many reasons for this, such as poor character development, uninteresting and confusing plots, general poor writing, and poor movie-making. There is no better example of this than the entertainment titan itself, Disney.
What Brought About this Lack of Quality?
There are many reasons for this downturn in the quality of movies in recent years. One is the Covid-19 epidemic back in 2020 and 2021. Due to the long time that it takes to make a movie, many movies were pushed back or delayed because of the restrictions of working at home. The movies that decided to push through these difficulties often paid the price, with the quality of their movie severely lacking. This, of course, is no fault of their own, and generally expected due to the circumstances. More recently, in 2023, many members of the Writers’ Guild and Screen Actors’ Guild went on strike due to arguments over wages and other benefits. After all, it is difficult to make interesting stories and entertainment when the creative minds behind them are not working. These, of course, are recent reasons for the struggle that has been the movie industry, but this, of course, goes back further.
What About the Movies/TV Shows is Bad?
There are many examples of this failure to generate interesting movies and TV shows. The most obvious examples are Star Wars and Marvel. On top of this, their attempts at recreations of Disney princesses, often controversial, have been under performing at the box office and in their reviews.
Star Wars
The Force Awakens
On October 30, 2012, the world was shocked when the creator and director of the beloved Star Wars, George Lucas, sold the rights to the franchise to Disney. Shortly after, Disney announced its own continuation of Star Wars on November 6, 2014, with The Force Awakens, set to release on December 18, 2015. Directed by J.J. Abrams, the movie excited young and old Star Wars fans, filled with nostalgia for the prequels and original trilogy. The Force Awakens itself is not a bad movie- it opens the doors to new and interesting characters. One of these was Finn, a rogue storm trooper, a character type which we had never seen before in the universe.
What this movie lacks is an overarching, unique story. It takes us back to the same story that fans had already seen 2 or, arguably, 3 times. The main character, from a planet full of sand, discovers they have special powers and then goes to destroy the tyrannical overlords by blowing up their new, super-powerful weapon. It is not a bad story, just a story that has been told many times before, demonstrating a fear to take risks and develop a new story. Secondly, a reoccurring issue in this new trilogy and in many more recent movies is turning heroes like Han Solo, into beaten down, old, grumpy characters. This is seen again in the trilogy with Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. Along with this fantastic failure was the Obi-Wan series, which suffered from the same issue. It is also more recently seen with Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, another Lucasfilm franchise owned by Disney. People often go to the movies to escape the troubles of the real world. When our favorite character is seen to be beaten down by the struggles of life, it makes it harder to escape into that other world as it subconsciously reminds of our own real struggles.
The Last Jedi
To piggyback off of the idea of the monstrosity that is Luke Skywalker in the sequels, the trilogy continued as Disney released the Last Jedi on December 15, 2017, with a new director, Rian Johnson. The main problem with Luke, and with the film in general, is continuity. This film obliterates any continuity that the trilogy was trying to create. Luke Skywalker was created as the embodiment of hope. He was a character that could see the slightest amount of good even in the darkest characters. He was willing to die to redeem his father who murdered kids and his best friends, and who murdered millions through war and the Death Star. Then, in The Last Jedi, the whole point of him in this story is that a dream he saw about a child the future signified that the child MIGHT do terrible things, so Luke decided to try to kill him. This does not make sense. It starkly contrasts everything Luke stood for and seems like something this character would never do. The problem with this is that this movie and trilogy operate in an already developed universe, with its own characters and rules. The Last Jedi goes against this, seemingly ignoring what came before. Luke’s character arc in this film alone is actually quite interesting. He portrays a man who has failed but, in the end, redeems himself. Although everyone can fail, the nature of his failure does not fit his character.
Another continuity issue is the character of Snoke. Although not as universe-shaking as the Luke Skywalker issues, his death, part-way through the middle movie, sets up the rest of the film and the next movie for failure. In The Force Awakens, Snoke was created as a new and mysterious Dark Side leader similar to Emperor Palpatine. In the Last Jedi, he is killed in the middle of the movie in way that shocks the audience. This shock did not come from a positive source. It instead left the audience shocked as the assumed big bad of the trilogy was just simply killed off without much effect to the rest of the characters and the trilogy. One does not simply cast Andy Serkis just to disregard his character.
The Rise of Skywalker
By allowing Snoke to be killed off, it forced The Rise of Skywalker to be the ultimate failure that it was. This is arguably what forced J.J. Abrams to reintroduce Palpatine into the series. In this film, Finn is written off as an almost side character. Kylo Ren, after all of his character development, is just cast aside in the final moments and later just dies. These are two main characters that had so much potential, but poor writing destroyed them. This moment could have been Kylo Ren’s redemption, with the completion of his goal to be like his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker. Instead, he is thrown off the screen. On top of this, in this film Rey has seemingly become all-powerful in the Force, despite only having a year to practice. This topic can get controversial, but the problem with this is not that people dislike seeing a woman play a powerful role. The problem is that, with little to no training or development, Rey has enough strength to defeat one of the most powerful characters in Star Wars. That makes no sense. This does not cover other issues with the character Rey, and the directors’ and writers’ lack of a plan with her character.
Another moment that is confusing to the audience is that somehow Palpatine was able to build the most massive fleet the galaxy has ever seen without anyone knowing. This is a problem because in the previous movie, the leading power in the universe, The First Order, has to buy their supplies from war profiteers. This makes no sense. How can the leading power not do it, but Palpatine can? Another problem with the writing is that Lando Calrissian was able to gather half the galaxy to come to the aid of the Resistance. The whole problem in The Last Jedi is that no one is coming to help. How, in the span of less than an a in-universe year, did everyone change their minds? This makes no sense. Beyond the lazy writing and poor continuity, the animating of the final battle was lazy. Many of the ships seen in the final battle are reused and obviously duplicated. Iconic ships like the Ghost are seen multiple times. This should not be the case as there is only one. The failure of The Rise of Skywalker is due to the monstrosity that is The Last Jedi, and it having to correct some of the issues that The Last Jedi created.
Disney +
Disney’s attempt at the streaming service has left many with mixed feelings. In Star Wars’ case, it has caused many longtime fans to leave the franchise. The laziness of the recent times comes to light with this. Disney has been relying upon nostalgia to keep bringing fans back, and they are not happy with it. The show The Book of Boba Fett was not very good, and relied entirely upon fan fondness with the character. The best episodes from the show did not even include Boba Fett, instead they included The Mandalorian and Grogu. Again, with Ahsoka, the show chose a fan favorite character and made a show about them. The plot, in my personal opinion, was not actually that bad. However, the best moments were arguably the cameos of Hayden Christensen and Captain Rex, again demonstrating laziness and relying upon nostalgia. The problem with this show, alongside with its nostalgia base, is its destruction of loved characters. Sabine Wren from Star Wars Rebels is one of the most annoying characters I have ever seen in this show. Grand Admiral Thrawn, also from Rebels, is disgraced as his military genius is not evident. The Acolyte has many issues, some very controversial. The main problem with the show is that it destroys the most important element of the Star Wars universe, the Force. This show discredits the prophecy that drove the 9-movie series about how Anakin was the chosen one. Along with this, the show seems disconnected, and characters do things that just do not make logical sense. Overall, Disney’s attempts at Star Wars have left many upset and angry with Star Wars.
Positives:
Not everything released by Disney’s Star Wars has been terrible. The animated shows Star Wars Rebels, The Clone Wars, and The Bad Batch were all amazing. In my personal opinion, Clone Wars is one of the best TV shows of all time. Up until its third season, The Mandalorian was spectacular and brought hope back to many fans after the failure of the sequels. The series Andor is amazing and adds depth and complexity to the Empire and to the Rebel Alliance. It also perfectly sets up the amazing movie that is Rogue One. As always, the music, especially that which is written by John Williams, is amazing and makes Star Wars what it is. Finally, just about the only positive to The Last Jedi is that it is arguably the most visually pleasing of all the movies. There are positives to Disney’s Star Wars, but they are few and far between, and generally fans are pretty upset with where Disney has taken the franchise.
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