STAR WARS: John Boyega Ranks The Sequels And Admits He Believes THE LAST JEDI Was The "Worst" One

STAR WARS: John Boyega Ranks The Sequels And Admits He Believes THE LAST JEDI Was The "Worst" One STAR WARS: John Boyega Ranks The Sequels And Admits He Believes THE LAST JEDI Was The "Worst" One

Finn actor John Boyega has ranked the Star Wars sequels, admitting that Rian Johnson's still-divisive The Last Jedi was probably the "worst" of the three. You can find his comments in full after the jump!

By JoshWilding - Jul 21, 2023 11:07 AM EST
Filed Under: Star Wars
Source: SFFGazette.com

The Star Wars sequel trilogy was nothing if not divisive, with The Force Awakens declared A New Hope rip-off and The Rise of Skywalker derided for being a rushed, unsatisfying conclusion.

As for The Last Jedi, despite being an undeniably well-shot movie, filmmaker Rian Johnson's middle entry looks set to forever divide opinions. That's primarily down to the way Luke Skywalker's story arc was handled, with the Jedi Knight a washed-up hermit who had turned his back on the Galaxy during the First Order's rise. 

That upset the majority of fans (and Mark Hamill himself, for that matter), particularly as the Expanded Universe featured a post-Return of the Jedi Luke who never gave up fighting the good fight. 

John Boyega's Finn was also sorely underutilized in the movie with a bizarre side mission that largely saw him go through the same arc he did in the previous instalment. Now, the actor has ranked the Star Wars movies he appeared in (via SFFGazette.com), beginning by calling The Force Awakens "most definitely the best."

In second place is The Rise of Skywalker, and in third...well, it's obviously The Last Jedi.

"And then the worst, in the most respectful sense, is Episode VIII," Boyega says, quickly adding with a smile: "But they're all lovely." With that, he shoots some serious side-eye for the benefit of the camera, suggesting he too wasn't overly enamoured with Finn's visit to Canto Bight. 

The actor has expressed an interest in returning to Star Wars after previously dismissing the notion and the expectation now is that we'll see him return as Finn in the Daisy Ridley-led "New Jedi Order" movie from filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

Take a look at Boyega's comments in the Tweet below. 

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TyrantBossMedia
TyrantBossMedia - 7/21/2023, 11:32 AM
He must have watched a different Rise of Palpatine then.
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 7/21/2023, 11:35 AM
@TyrantBossMedia -

Rise of Skywalker was commercial poop. No question.
But Last Jedi was pretentious poop and that to me is worse.
TyrantBossMedia
TyrantBossMedia - 7/21/2023, 11:36 AM
@HulkisHoly - They both were tripe, but at least The Last Jedi had some semblance of a story structure
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 7/21/2023, 11:41 AM
@TyrantBossMedia -

Not really. I mean both were just fetch quests as most fantasy stories are. But Last Jedi did more to ruin Star Wars lore than the lazily written Rise of Skywalker did. IMO
TyrantBossMedia
TyrantBossMedia - 7/21/2023, 11:47 AM
@HulkisHoly - That's a different debate, lore destroying vs quality.

But then Rise of Palpatine screwed up the force so badly, invalidated Anakin's sacrifice and Luke's purpose by bringing back Palpatine, and don't get me started on the Sith dagger that happens to line up with the wreckage of the Death Star even though it was disintegrated in ROTJ.

I could go on and on.
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 7/21/2023, 1:41 PM
@TyrantBossMedia - Rise of Skywalker was shit (i watched it once; won't watch it ever again), but TLJ took a giant shit on Luke Skywalker. That is unforgiveable. To be fair, TLJ was a well-made film in the technical sense (good cinematography, good pacing, decent acting). The script was just absolute manure. Besides defecating on Luke, half way in the movie Johnson decides that Snoke should be sliced in half? What was the whole point of Snoke, then, with Ben Solo too insecure and too junior to be running the show at the Fourth Order (or whatever the "Empire" became). Either way, I will never watch the last two films again. The Force Awakens is watchable.
Fogs
Fogs - 7/21/2023, 1:47 PM
@HulkisHoly - agreed TLJ manages to be worse than ROS cause it was the entry where everything went wrong.

And TFA is a very nice movie when compared to those.
TyrantBossMedia
TyrantBossMedia - 7/21/2023, 2:37 PM
@GeneralZod - All solid points
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 7/21/2023, 3:33 PM
@Fogs -

JJ played it too safe by just regurgitating the same plots from the original trilogy but Johnson tried too hard deconstruct everything to where it didn’t resemble Star Wars at all.

Neither one had the right approach.

What it should have been was one single writer & director across all three films in order to have one cohesive vision. Rather, Disney was too scared so they went to Star Trek man to start but then did a 180 with rían Johnson to then 180 back to JJ.
The trilogy gives me whiplash and nausea.
Fogs
Fogs - 7/21/2023, 5:10 PM
@HulkisHoly - Agreed.

But given context I can understand ep7. It felt like Star Wars to me, after the prequels.

I wanted to know what was coming next and above all I cared a lil bit about the characters, specially Kylo.
santoanderson
santoanderson - 7/21/2023, 11:32 AM
I think the guy had a better relationship with JJ than Rian. He had more fun on the set with JJ. And he’s letting that taint his rankings.

The Rise of Skywalker is terrible. Just unapologetically bad.
TyrantBossMedia
TyrantBossMedia - 7/21/2023, 11:38 AM
@santoanderson - I have never thrown my hands up in disgust when watching a movie, even the dreadful Highlander 2, but Rise of Palpatine was an unmitigated disaster and I threw my hands up so many times I'm surprised I didn't hurt my rotator cuff.
Killuminatic
Killuminatic - 7/21/2023, 1:56 PM
@santoanderson - I agree
dagenspear
dagenspear - 7/21/2023, 2:22 PM
@santoanderson - Or he thinks one had better story and character concepts than the other.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 7/21/2023, 11:32 AM


Anyway , my ranking of the SW sequel trilogy is from best to worst…

1. The Last Jedi
2. The Force Awakens
3. The Rise of Skywalker
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 7/21/2023, 12:50 PM
@TheVisionary25 - Short answer, I agree with this. Long answer, FA and TLJ were such different projects by such different directors, I would probably put them as tied for first, FA as the most faithful followup, and TLJ for trying to take the franchise to new places.
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 7/21/2023, 11:34 AM
The rise of Skywalker was way worse. They brought back palpatine 😳....




That is just creatively bankrupt garbage
RichardGrayson
RichardGrayson - 7/21/2023, 11:53 AM
@AmazingFILMporg - that’s a dumb take. TROS is way better because I’d rather have a movie with generic fan service and a lack of original ideas (if it ain’t broke) than a movie that has new ideas but they’re all 100% completely [frick]ing shit creative decisions that ruin the franchise (TLJ)
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 7/21/2023, 12:06 PM
@RichardGrayson -


You calling me dumb?


YOU'RE DUMB!!!!😡


That was one of the many problems!


They literally looked at reddit for story ideas😂



They made the meme of Rey and Kylo kissing into reality 😂


dagenspear
dagenspear - 7/21/2023, 2:21 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - But Palpatine is a stronger villain than Kylo and I care more about the characters in TROS, than I do TLJ.
Th3Batman
Th3Batman - 7/21/2023, 11:35 AM
Wouldn't it have been easier to just spread this trilogy out further and allow JJ to direct all 3 of them ? It would've helped avoid most, if not all the shit they're dealing with now.
Mugens
Mugens - 7/21/2023, 12:03 PM
@Th3Batman - I'm one who wish JJ hadn't touched any of the movies at all, and admittedly I might be alone in that. He ruined Star Trek as far as I'm concerned, with the exception of some good casting choices, and did worse with Star Wars.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 7/21/2023, 2:20 PM
@Th3Batman - I mean, with the mess this trilogy is now, call me weak, but I almost long for JJ's dumber simpler OT ripoff narrative:

Where The Last Jedi is really just, Luke being on that island is just "yeah, i failed and am being hunted by the first order, but i'll train you Rey", he trains her, she has visions of her friends being hurt by Kylo and she's lured into a trap where Kylo cuts her hand off and reveals, "Rey, I'm your brother" and Rey yells "no!!!", while Finn is silicon frozen and taken away by Phasma.

Then The Rise Of Skywalker is just Snoke trying to turn Rey to the dark side by getting her to kill Kylo and Kylo dies killing Snoke by throwing him into the reactor core of Starkiller Base 2, as a tribe of child wookies defeats the first order using gorilla warfare tactics and the movie ends with Rey, Poe and Finn all celebrating their win, as Kylo and Luke and Han watch on as force ghosts fondly.
NoAssemblyReqd
NoAssemblyReqd - 7/21/2023, 11:36 AM
I hate TROS, but I run hot and cold on TLJ. On the one hand, it was a neat deconstruction of the Star Wars mythology, but on the other hand it had to burn down actual beloved aspects of the franchise. It was like if Alan Moore got to do his original idea for WATCHMEN and destroyed established heroes.

I think Rian Johnson should have made a Star Wars homage instead of an actual Star Wars movie.

But I agree with Boyega in they f’d up what could have been a great storyline for Finn.
BlackStar25
BlackStar25 - 7/21/2023, 11:41 AM
All I know is....I have seen TFA more than once and everything after that only need 1 viewing...
clintthahamster
clintthahamster - 7/21/2023, 12:52 PM
@BlackStar25 - As a TLJ apologist . . . yeah, TFA is the only one that gets as much heavy rotation as the OT in my house.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 7/21/2023, 11:44 AM
I can see why people feel Finn went to the same arc in TLJ as he did in TFA to an extent but I disagree personally , to me it felt like an escalation.

Finn didn’t want to be involved at all in the war after he defected from the First Order so he kept trying to run in TFA but he makes a connection with Rey and ultimately decides to go save her and he stands up to Kylo to to protect her.

In TLJ , he still doesn’t want to be involved in the war and just wants to keep himself and Rey safe until he goes on the mission with Rose in which both her and DJ act as a Devil and Angel on his shoulder , ultimately though he finally COMMITS to a cause bigger then himself and Rey.

I don’t think the subplot itself is very compelling but I did l like the arc he went on in it personally.

Anyway , that’s just my take 😊.

JFerguson
JFerguson - 7/21/2023, 12:11 PM
@TheVisionary25 - that’s an interesting way of looking at how Rose and DJ serve Finns story. Benicio del toro still completely wasted in the role though.

And more could have been done with Phasma serving Finns story. Like you said, Finn should have been the character with the biggest moral dilemmas especially considering his past as a stormtrooper.

But he wasn’t. He freed a bunch of space horses though.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 7/21/2023, 12:19 PM
@JFerguson - fair enough

I can agree with you about Phasma

She should have been his rival while it was Rey vs Kylo and Poe vs Hux.
JFerguson
JFerguson - 7/21/2023, 12:26 PM
@TheVisionary25 - woah Poe vs Hux is a rivalry I didn’t know I needed. Poe making a fool of him at the start of TLJ is probably one of the more memorable moments from that movie.

While I liked the addition of some new characters, the random insertion of major players like Holdo could have took a backseat to building those rivalries
dagenspear
dagenspear - 7/21/2023, 2:16 PM
@TheVisionary25 - I think the issue, to me, is that it seems like a minor one, if it is at all, when that movie could've been using it's time to meaningfull engage the character and develop his view of things and what he's really fighting for. The whole DJ thing is kinda not that meaningful, because there's never any real danger presented by Finn doing what DJ wants, and his argument is not holding that much water. None of which is helped by the fact that Finn already has ample reason to be against the first order.

I see it as more the movie just taking over 2 hours to get him to commit to what he'd already was doing as a character at the end of TFA. I feel like that's like half a movie of an arc, or a filler arc, for this character, stretched out into a whole movie.

It's feels like it's kinda without a lot of weight, to me, when the movie could've done so much more with him as a character.
TheLobster
TheLobster - 7/21/2023, 11:45 AM
Rise of Skywalker is probably the worst one but The Last Jedi is the most disappointing for sure.

Regardless, they should have made Colin Trevorrow’s film.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 7/21/2023, 11:47 AM
@TheLobster - I agree with that last sentence

It itself needed some work but sounded better on paper then the mediocrity we got in TROS
AmazingFILMporg
AmazingFILMporg - 7/21/2023, 12:08 PM
@TheLobster -


Facts!!!


It was a good script and anyone that blames ROS awfulness on TLJ is a [frick]ing idiot.💁


There was alot of routes to go after TLJ.
TheLobster
TheLobster - 7/21/2023, 12:21 PM
@TheVisionary25 - 100%

I feel like Colin took the story that Rian left him with and made the best out of it. If anything, at the very least it would have been more original than TROS.

Kathleen Kennedy is a total idiot lol
TheLobster
TheLobster - 7/21/2023, 12:26 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - in my opinion:

TROS was Lucasfilms realizing the error or their ways with TLJ and trying to do revisionist history which is a BAD MOVE when it’s your final entry in a sequel lmao

While I don’t love a lot of the decisions Rian made in TLJ (I do personally think they made the wrong film) - they should have just pushed ahead with the story and made the best out of it. This whole thing reminds me of Snyder and WB who scrambled after the critical reaction to BvS and ended up making a generic terrible JL film lol
dagenspear
dagenspear - 7/21/2023, 2:04 PM
@TheLobster - LORD willing, insulting isn't appropriate.

But I do think Trevarrow's draft is a stronger, on a technical level, movie.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 7/21/2023, 2:08 PM
@AmazingFILMporg - I think not so much. A lot of the things Trevarrow's draft does is by use of soft reboot. Poe and Rey's romance springing out of nearly thin air. Rey's having opinions about the jedi code. Kylo randomly going on a hunt for secret power. Kylo having murderered Rey's parents. All randomly introduced in the last movie of the trilogy as a way to try and make the characters have some engagement in what's happening.
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