Destiny 2 looks like Destiny 1 to me, in that it looks generic and boring. But I don't listen to the GOTY podcasts to hear people agree with me, so I'm not mad. Pyre will hopefully get its due in Best Styyyyle.
I actually think that Abby's argument about a technically good-looking game becoming dated five years from now has some merit. For example, a lot of 3D games from the 90's that were getting praise at the time don't hold up anymore, while many sprite-based 2D games from that era can still look great. I just don't think that the argument applies to Horizon Zero Dawn, which has some really unique designs. I haven't even played the game, yet, but I was interested in it from day one just due to the robot designs.
I definitely thought The Force Awakens was better than The Last Jedi. TFA wasn't a groundbreaking movie, but it had heart and it felt like a spiritual successor to the original trilogy. I'm not even a Star Wars fan, but I enjoyed TFA for what it was.
TLJ felt more like a successor to the prequels. Not in terms of necessarily having bad writing or weird decisions, but in terms of turning into a cookie-cutter action-adventure movie. The Last Jedi is pretty much interchangeable with any other generic superhero/sci-fi action movie made this decade. It's "well made" in terms of having decent action, good effects and competent direction, but none of it is in service of an interesting movie.
There's a couple of twists that are subversive on paper, but their execution is so rushed and poor that they just fall flat, and feel like a waste of good setup. There's also an important plot point that is really bad, a way to hamfist a "justified" motive for a villain that makes little sense and pretty much kills what might have actually been interesting and complex characterization.
It's a shame, because TFA seemed to have a great set-up for this movie, but none of it pays off in a satisfying way. And there's nothing set up in TLJ that makes me interested in the third movie.
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