Over nearly five decades, Star Wars movies have managed to gather unprecedented fame and popularity among proud nerds and geeks across the world. However, massive success runs alongside a diverse range of opinions, and not unlike numerous other Hollywood franchises whose countless remakes, sequels, and spin-offs have failed to live up to the reputation of the original masterpiece, the Star Wars franchise has had its fair share of low points.
After Return of the Jedi marked the end of the evil Galactic Empire with the death of Palpatine and treated the fans to the soul-wrenching exchange of last words between Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and his father, Anakin Skywalker — aka Darth Vader — the viewers were eager to know the franchise’s future plans. They were interested to find out if the subsequent movies could meet the standards set by the jaw-dropping climactic denouement.
To their initial delight, in came the prequels, which comprised three films and highlighted engaging storylines such as the much-talked-about obliteration of the Jedi, the transformation of a Republic into an authoritarian Empire led by Palpatine, and of course, Palpatine’s intense manipulations transforming a naïve Jedi, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), into the vicious Sith lord, Darth Vader.
As satisfying as the movies turned out to be — most possibly due to their connection with the primary themes of the initial films which revolved around the efforts by the rebel forces to destroy the evil Empire — it is the last three films (in the much later sequel trilogy) that completely went off the rails and instantly became the subject of the audience’s disappointment and derision.
Fans of the franchise were disappointed by the weird story arcs that deviated majorly from the former films, forgettable plot points, and cliché comedic beats. Some fans were extremely vocal in their disapproval of the sequels and refused to mince words. So, when one Twitter user, BLURAYANGEL, tweeted a question asking the millions of fans to post their take on the sequels, legions of tweets immediately answered the call to let loose the deluge of vitriol.
Describe the Star Wars sequels in a sentence pic.twitter.com/tttWtuuuzD
— BLURAYANGEL 🦇 (@blurayangel) April 10, 2023
Not as bad as people swear they are. pic.twitter.com/w3b7oeduhI
— Noah (@TheMonsterNoah) April 10, 2023
An authentic take or total sarcasm? One can’t say.
The most unfocused and divisive projects in Star Wars history.
— AspireNobility (@AspireNobility) April 10, 2023
An emphasis on the deviation from the primary storylines.
A mess of a trilogy.
— TheRationalNewYorker (@TRR2468) April 10, 2023
A simple and plain dislike with little room for a filter.
A big toasted sh!t sandwich with all the trimmings….
— Docypoos (@addiemac2020) April 10, 2023
Some got a little too creative with their insults.
Poorly planned. That’s really all I can say about them. The first movie was great and had a great setup for future star wars movies but the problem was that they didn’t plan a trilogy from the beginning and just relied on what the audience wanted.
— King Tripp (@KingTr1pp) April 10, 2023
Many are of the opinion that the weakness of the trilogy emanates from how unplanned it was.
Dude can stop a laser bolt with bare hands✅ can extract Knowledge from someone with the force ✅ loses to a girl who’s never held a light saber ✅
— Paragon (@ParagonTweaks) April 10, 2023
A focus on many plot holes which make absolutely no sense.
They hired a giant team of writers and the best they could come up with was to basically retell the first movie.
— Drain “The Cock” Johnson (@BurgessBoston) April 11, 2023
What could be worse when you’re accused of a terrible imitation of the much-loved, iconic first movie?
With enough disappointment regarding the new trilogy, the franchise bounced back (depending on whom you ask) to amaze Star Wars fans with gripping storylines and interesting themes.