Re: CGI is killing sci-fi
I dunno, I can enjoy a film that's just for kids if it's done well.[...]
Me too.
I remember as a kid reading Roald Dahl autobiography and he made the point that he used to just write for kids like they were adults with less experience. All the best 'kids' stuff is written in this way IMHO.
My son was bored at Last Jedi.
For me, this is where they went wrong with The Last Jedi, as far as I'm concerned Star Wars films are for kids, and they should be. Any film in the main 'canon' should first and foremost be a film for kids. I don't mean it shouldn't be enjoyable by adults, but that the underlying thrust of the film should be a fight between good and evil.
Use the supporting films to tell the more adult side of the story, or to explore the moral grey areas that occur. Rogue One isn't a kids film, yet as a kid who grew up with Star Wars it's probably the best SW film since Empire. (And I say that who doesn't blanket hate the first 3).
The latest SW flick felt like it was trying to explore the shades of grey aspect whilst still maintaining the good/evil thing too; which for me didn't work. You had a random bad guy who just seemed to exist to be killed by the angst ridden new bad guy. (I mean seriously... if the galaxy didn't learn from the Emperor and let wassisface rise to power, maybe it doesn't deserve to be 'saved'*; but then that would imply he had a tangable back story).
This is why the force awakens made me feel a bit sorry for Lucas too, he may have ham fistedly tried to tell his origin story, but at least he told a story. After Ep VII I left the cinema thinking 'Wow, that was great' but by the time I'd got to the car and thought about it a bit more, realised I'd been conned with some shiny rose tinted FX and a 'feeling'.
* I mean seriously, I get building a big space laser because it got blown up... but to do it 3 times.... Fool me once... and all that....