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American Comics A History 592 Pages Combo Star Wars Rise SKywalker Drinks

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Log

Star Wars Rise of Skywalker

"Star Wars Rise O' Skywalker meant to be Avengers Endgame but instead turned out to be Batman V Superman"

Writer at Forbes Scott Mendelson says:

I don’t know what did or didn't happen behind the scenes, but this is the first time, by far, where a Star Wars film’s behind-the-scenes turmoil is glaringly apparent onscreen."

Forbes article then proceeds to comparing the box office (today Boxofficemojo is saying worldwide earnings are at $815,682,706) of Rise of Skywalker to past Star Wars movies and other big budget movies like the Avengers, Harry Potter(s) and the last of the Hobbit movies.


Batman-modern-shirt-logo

Batman Shirt Modern Logo – Amazon


Nostalgia-baiting of Star Wars

Mendelson accuses Rise O' Skywalker with "nostalgia-baiting" but, really, that's been built-in to the franchise from the beginning as the series is based on a minor formula of emulating Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, etc., (something recognizable for part of the audience in 1977 when the first Star Wars hit the screens), combining it with a post-1960s sense of philosophy and religion, all showed to the audience using advanced (for 1977) cinema story telling skills. More in line with Mendelson's statement, though, Lucas' series progressed into mining itself for nostalgia as it rolled along when the Phantom Menace appeared. But that's not all that Lucas tried to do, which brings up the main problem in trying to create a huge, coherant and effective epic tale across decades and decades of Hollywood production.

And production is where Star Wars Rise of Skywalker has it's main trouble, with the rambling, broken up and sometimes ridiculous storytelling gaffes in the early 45 minutes of the movie where re-editing looks the most obvious and damaging. That J.J. Abrams got it together to make better sense later in the movie is indicative of something, either that there was a real master plan in preproduction that made sense, or the original plan for the movie was nuts and Abrams patched together something that made more sense after the fact. (More about this in the review here at comicbookbrain.)

If anything is learned from Star War and its many permutations, from the movies, to the TV shows, animated tales, comic books, novelizations, and of course the toys, is that it is impossible to keep an Odyssey-sized story coherent (and interesting) when written and edited by many hands. The thing DC Comics and Marvel are able to do is to compartmentalize their heroes and their stories, this fragmenting allowing for clever invention and boring disaster to coexist without blowing up the fan base quickly. Maybe Star Wars loyalists can outlast letdowns at the box office, but the corrosion of appeal for a general audience which chiefly wants entertainment versus "nostalgia-baiting" is evident in the declining fortunes of these three Star Wars movies.

Instead of comparing Rise of Skywalker to Batman V Superman, a better comparison is with the three Hobbit movies. The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and Rise of Skywalker seems to follow the same deterioration of audience that Peter Jackson's Tolkienesque trilogy had (which was a completely different path compared to the earlier Lord of the Rings trilogy, which built audience with each film release). Another good comparison might also be the three Matrix movies. Simply put, the idea that you can place a pop culture hero into anything and make it sell after breaking through to a wide audience is still true, but it is only true on an angle of declining fortunes unless the audience is refreshed with something recreating the appeal. And that's only partially true with these three Disney Star Wars movies.

Our review of The Rise of Skywalker


Love the Food that Loves You Back Book

Love The Food that Loves You Back – Amazon

Love the Food that Loves You Back: 100 Recipes That Serve Up Big Portions and Super Nutritious Food (Cookbook for Nutrition, Weight Management)


Batman and Robin Omnibus Adventures 904 Pages

Batman and Robin Omnibus Adventures 904 Pages - Amazon


Light Side/Dark Side ice cream

CLose out Star Wars Ice Cream Rise of SKywalker

Breyers Star Wars Limited Edition


Marvel Comics

The Crisis in Confidence at Marvel

Disney approaches the crossroads – Summer of 2023

Disney vs its vassal companies – 2023

The Disney and Marvel future 2020 and beyond

Marvel summary of productions, November 2020

Marvel's plans mean expansion 2020

The Superhero Movie War 2019

Kicking Marvel in the kneecaps 2019

Alan Dean Foster vs. Disney

Disney Buys Marvel Comics for $4 billion - 2009 The House of Mouse buys the House of Ideas

Disney spends $71.3 billion to get 21st Century Fox - March 2019

Kirby Estate vs Marvel/Disney

Disney on the racks

Jack Kirby's Shorts 2010

Star Wars: The Rise O'Skywalker Log

Captain Marvel Review

Captain Marvel II - the Superman problem: the hero is an overpowered, unrelatable hero

Disney and Slave Labor

Marvel currently rules the cinematic world - May 2019

My Marvel Wish List - March 2019


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Dauber American Comic Books

American Comics: A History – W. W. Norton & Company, November 16, 2021, 592 pages



Original Page January 2020