I managed to see the (considerable) excerpt of this piece on SWPAS before I went to my friends list; I guess it's easy to be occasional about checking it these days... (My "reading list" on Dreamwidth is hardly better, though.)
Maybe I was bracing myself by the time the rapid-fire witty banter of The Force Awakens piled up into its later scenes because I had the scratching sense it might somehow overwhelm my hard-gained and perhaps even hard-maintained "prequel positivity," but when the movie was over I let out a metaphorical breath and told myself it hadn't seemed quite as "prequel-hostile" as the one-note hype somehow might have wanted to hint... the only problem was that by just a few hours later I was getting the sense there seemed something kind of off about how the movie connected to the other side of the saga. There do seem to be people who are taking it in good faith and fitting the new characters into a "family" interpretation, but I suppose my problem is the promotion of the movie on Blu-Ray went straight back to "isn't it wonderful these creatures were right there on the set?" (despite a certain impression of mine the creatures the actors were interacting the most with were computer-animated...) That made me less than willing to buy a copy. Right now I'm just hoping recollections of a news item or two are accurate and the movie will get on Netflix in Canada before the end of the year, or maybe that discount copies will appear on the sales racks nearby...
With all of that aside, I agree with your following points, which I'm sure are more worth agreeing with anyway. I perpetually think back to the late 1990s, when the previous extension of the saga seemed to be fuelling a chilly interpretation of the movies that just might dwell most of all on proclaiming Return of the Jedi a letdown, and these days I honestly can't see what's left about the old movies anyway to make them so worth clinging to when the new ones are rejected. "Snappy banter" and "a particular look" just leave me asking "So?"
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2016-07-01 11:34 pm (UTC)Maybe I was bracing myself by the time the rapid-fire witty banter of The Force Awakens piled up into its later scenes because I had the scratching sense it might somehow overwhelm my hard-gained and perhaps even hard-maintained "prequel positivity," but when the movie was over I let out a metaphorical breath and told myself it hadn't seemed quite as "prequel-hostile" as the one-note hype somehow might have wanted to hint... the only problem was that by just a few hours later I was getting the sense there seemed something kind of off about how the movie connected to the other side of the saga. There do seem to be people who are taking it in good faith and fitting the new characters into a "family" interpretation, but I suppose my problem is the promotion of the movie on Blu-Ray went straight back to "isn't it wonderful these creatures were right there on the set?" (despite a certain impression of mine the creatures the actors were interacting the most with were computer-animated...) That made me less than willing to buy a copy. Right now I'm just hoping recollections of a news item or two are accurate and the movie will get on Netflix in Canada before the end of the year, or maybe that discount copies will appear on the sales racks nearby...
With all of that aside, I agree with your following points, which I'm sure are more worth agreeing with anyway. I perpetually think back to the late 1990s, when the previous extension of the saga seemed to be fuelling a chilly interpretation of the movies that just might dwell most of all on proclaiming Return of the Jedi a letdown, and these days I honestly can't see what's left about the old movies anyway to make them so worth clinging to when the new ones are rejected. "Snappy banter" and "a particular look" just leave me asking "So?"