Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

[Mister Gaga 21,891]

I've just seen it. It's not that bad, by no means it's worse than the prequels. The problem is that the trilogy as a whole doesn't have a concrete vision, something that should have been established since the beginning. So, the epic finale doesn't feel so epic. Not even for the trilogy, less for the whole 9 movie skywalker saga. It kinda throws away all the climax and cliffhanger finale on The Last Jedi and starts from cero, which i didn't like since (unpopular opinion) i liked Last Jedi. The script on the first half is atrocious, McGuffin after McGuffin, it feels written by a 6 year old kid. The second half gets better.

So, here's my ranking (haven't seen Solo):

1. A New Hope (Ep. IV)

2. Empire Strikes Back (Ep. V)

3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

4. Return of Jedi (Ep. VI)

5. The Last Jedi (Ep. VIII)

6. The Force Awakens (Ep. VII)

7. Revenge of the Sith (Ep. III)

8. The Rise of Skywalker (Ep. IX)

9. Attack of the Clones (Ep. II)

10. Phantom Menace (Ep. I)

[Guest Blue Madonna]

I'll divide my review into what I liked and what I disliked; heavy spoilers below

Flaws:

Spoiler

- Wasted Character Potential

I think there was definitely a lot of wasted potential in terms of characters. I didn't really grow to like most of the characters until this film; Finn had always seemed somewhat pathetic and corny and a stock hero character to me, Rey too self-absorbed and always needing to go off by herself, and Poe was always good but didn't get nearly enough screen time until this film. In TROS, the gang of Rey, Finn, Poe, and Chewie had great chemistry and I really wish they'd built that up previously; I've grown to love Poe and Finn and Rey were much more interesting after having built up this cool relationship. Also Poe brings out a much less bland side of Finn.

For me, the second watching of TROS was lowkey more enjoyable because by the end of the first watch, I'd actually grown to like the characters and was thus more invested in their story the second time around. If they'd established these likeable characters in TFA and TLJ I would have likely enjoyed the trilogy much more.

As a result of not really being invested in the characters (as opposed to my love of Luke, Leia, and Han in the originals) meant I was less invested in their story. Also, TFA set up heaps of anticipation re Rey's parentage which was totally killed in TLJ, and while they payed it off in this film, I was totally indifferent to the 'twist' since I'd lost all intrigue about her ancestry.

- Death Means Nothing

This was my biggest issue with the film. The Force-ghosts... urgh. And even the memory bs with Han.

What was the point in killing off Luke in TLJ if he's going to return as a ghost and mentor Rey for a solid few minutes? And why bring back Palpatine, cheapening Vader's redemption sacrifice? It felt like death meant nothing when Luke, Leia, Han, and Palpatine all had big moments after having died. This really irritated me honestly, and to me felt like lazy writing in using the ambiguity of The Force to incorporate the intergenerational connection between the characters. I'm sure there are better ways to have Kylo turn his back on the dark than have his father return from the dead and accomplish the exact task he died for.

- Why the FÚCK did Rey and Kylo kiss??? To me I saw their relationship as one of a brother and sister, not romantic   This felt like some weird reference to Luke and Leia kissing  

- Still a little bit miffed that Rey became so powerful in such a short time, I know she did training with Leia but considering we've only ever seen one other person (Darth Sidious himself) use force lightning... I think they could have definitely fleshed out the training sequence so her power didn't seem so sudden. To me it slightly undermines the way the Force was treated in the originals, and how the Jedi had to learn to use it over many years. 

also this wasn't a flaw as much as something funny; they totally backed down after the Rose backlash  they completely sidelined her and didn't even make an effort to disguise the fact that horse-riding Hawkeye chick was a replacement for what they tried to do with Rose. her relationship with Finn was the exact same as his relationship with Rose and there's really no reasonable explanation as to why they'd do that other than that people didn't like Rose  

they could have definitely just included her again and just written her character so she was more likeable and less boring.

Successes:

Spoiler

- The religious aspect of the Sith.

There was a noticeable absence of religion in TFA and TLJ, and this totally makes sense, but something that I loved about the originals was the religious side of the Jedi Order and the Sith, so I absolutely loved everything about Palpatine's Sith lair on Exegel (I think that's how you spell it) and the audience in the arena and the throne. 

- The entire final act

The final act was amazing! Classic Star Wars fighting in the air, and everything happening down with Rey, Kylo, and Palpatine was epic too. I also loved how people responded to the call and joined the fight, reminded me a lot of the portal scene in Endgame (but not in a reductive way)

- Poe Dameron

Love him, they gave him a lot more character and screentime in this one, and the woman on Jumanji () who I can't remember the name of was really cool.

- The setting

Great diverse planets. Highlights were Exegel and the planet which had the Festival of Ancestors on it, both very beautiful. 

- Kylo had a great character arc!

- Much more original than TFA but didn't poorly subvert expectations like TLJ. For the record, I actually like TLJ as its own film, but imo it really messed up the trilogy and made it much harder to make an epic finale.

I'd give it a 7/10 overall. 

[HoneyB 26,866]

To the people who watched it, would you watch it again?

I haven’t watched it yet but I’ll be honest based from the trailers I don’t like the fact they’re bringing the emperor back my prediction is it’s going to have lotttssss of fan service and it’ll be clunky. Haven’t seen it yet but I know I’ll enjoy it. But it’ll suck that THIS is what concludes the trilogy. It really deserved a proper send off but it’s hard to cram everything in 2 hours in a trilogy but yeah TLJ was a MESS I can’t acknowledge it as a movie hopefully this is better I’m excited to watch! 

[Fantina 2,955]

26 minutes ago, Talenti said:

To the people who watched it, would you watch it again?

I haven’t watched it yet but I’ll be honest based from the trailers I don’t like the fact they’re bringing the emperor back my prediction is it’s going to have lotttssss of fan service and it’ll be clunky. Haven’t seen it yet but I know I’ll enjoy it. But it’ll suck that THIS is what concludes the trilogy. It really deserved a proper send off but it’s hard to cram everything in 2 hours in a trilogy but yeah TLJ was a MESS I can’t acknowledge it as a movie hopefully this is better I’m excited to watch! 

I would watch it again definitely. It really was a rollercoaster of emotions

[HausOfMark 4,104]

How did people see it early? How did you get to grace the movie before ther world!? I need to knowwwww

 

[Fantina 2,955]

12 minutes ago, HausOfMark said:

How did people see it early? How did you get to grace the movie before ther world!? I need to knowwwww

 

The premiere in Serbia was yesterday (before all the world )

[calmar 21,357]

7 hours ago, HausOfMark said:

How did people see it early? How did you get to grace the movie before ther world!? I need to knowwwww

 

7 hours ago, Fantina said:

The premiere in Serbia was yesterday (before all the world )

 

Yeah, America pretty much gets it dead last.

 

9 hours ago, Blue Madonna said:

I'll divide my review into what I liked and what I disliked; heavy spoilers below

[snip]

 

Spoiler

1. I definitely agree that the characters were just not fleshed out right, not just in TROS but in this trilogy. There was chemistry that was shoved aside (Finn x Poe), forced chemistry that was too random and painful (Finn x Rose), etc. and I think the lack of a cohesive 3-film vision abetted this.  It wouldn't have been difficult for Disney/Lucasfilm to keep more of George's ideas or canonize Legends material, but nope, they had to fly by the seat of their pants with different directors each time to try to extend what was essentially an already finished story. I think this is just one symptom of that development issue. (However, some things fans hated, like Luke being a hermit, the protagonist being female, etc. were Lucas's ideas.)

2. "Death means nothing" at least had a small amount of precedent in the originals when Obi-Wan, Yoda, and then Anakin could come back as Force ghosts. It's just some sort of power in the Light side of the force. What is weird is that if Luke honestly regretted hurting Kylo and breaking his trust, why not appear to him and apologize instead of goading him on Crait and then only trying to help Rey instead? It might be an echo of Vader/Obi-Wan/Yoda thinking Anakin is gone and there's no use getting him back. Then there's Palpatine - if I remember correctly the explanation for how he survived the Death Star II was written or cut out of the final version of the film; he supposedly made a wormhole to escape during his fall down the main reactor shaft, and this is the "ability some consider to be unnatural." But it's Palpatine's survival that makes the entire Anakin/Vader arc over 6 films completely pointless. He didn't bring balance to the force anymore, Rey supposedly did, so now we are left to wonder why we got 30 years and hours and hours of film footage about Anakin.  Plus Anakin only appears as a voice in TROS mixed in with a lot of other voices. IMO they should have made much more of Anakin than they did in the sequel trilogy - have him help Kylo out of the dark side when he learns Vader died in the Light, have him help Rey during the big bad fight even if it were Palpatine, etc. Something. #HaydenWasRobbed

3.  Yeah I have no effin idea why Rey and Kylo kissed either. What the hell. They hated each other, they are on opposite sides. It does feel kind of fan-servicey to me that JJ chose to do this. With the precedent coming from TLJ: yes, but Rey turns Kylo down in Snoke's throne room, and spends a lot of the time disliking their mental connection. 

4. I'm in a minority that doesn't think Rey is a Mary Sue - or at least any more of one than Luke and arguably Anakin were. She was raised as a scavenger by herself in great shape using a lightsaber-like weapon and we don't know how much time she spent on Ahch-To training under Luke either. And if she is indeed a Palpatine then she definitely would have a huge predilection to force power. Perhaps not Anakin-level, but it does explain how quickly she slipped to the dark in the small nexus on Ahch-To, etc. If Anakin was Midichlorian Jesus designed to balance out Plagueis's experiments in the Force, it makes sense that the force would also birthe another powerful light-side user to balance out Palpatine's survival, and her power would grow when Kylo became dark and Luke passed away. Almost like there's some sort of "Light vs. Dark power level" that is evenly distributed between practitioners on either side to be equivalent.

5. I do feel for Kelly Marie Tran but I think the character of Rose was a terrible part of TLJ and the whole Canto Bight/Codebreaker thing could have been handled far better. I do like how Oscar Isaac  got his time to shine with Carrie Fisher and Laura Dern, though. I'm still just angry that Disney/Lucasfilm got too chicken to develop Poe x Finn given their huge chemistry in TFA, and Oscar himself has said similar recently.

I'm glad that the film is enjoyable in its own right, though, so I know I'll still have fun viewing it tomorrow morning. And it's *Exogol and *Kimiji  

 

[ChromaticaPunk 2,803]

This film tried to forget TLJ ever happened and it's a rushed nonsensical mess. 7 & 8 deserve a better end than this.

[Emakku 494]

5 hours ago, HausOfMark said:

How did people see it early? How did you get to grace the movie before ther world!? I need to knowwwww

 

Almost all films are released in European theaters earlier than in the US. Saw it last night here in Bosnia.

[Emakku 494]

The movie was amazing. My eyes got watery at least 3 times during the movie.

My ranking is:

1. Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

2. Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker

3. Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back

4. Episode 4: A New Hope

5. Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

6. Episode 6: Return of the Jedi

7. Episode 7: The Force Awakens

8. Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

9. Episode 8: The Last Jedi

 

[Mister Gaga 21,891]

5 hours ago, HausOfMark said:

How did people see it early? How did you get to grace the movie before ther world!? I need to knowwwww

 

Movies come out on Thursday on Argentina. So, the premier was yesterday (wednesday) at midnight

[Guest Blue Madonna]

@Talenti I already have seen it again

I saw the midnight premiere when it first came out and then later that day went again with friends. Going again with other friends tomorrow 

[bionic 37,892]

Watching the entire film like  

[Antichrist 9,818]

i didn't watch it yet, but after TLJ i have no hope at all. the problem at this point is that the story cant be good because the 2 movies before it were tragic as well. basically this whole trilogy should be non-existent

[Married the Night 3,923]

On 12/18/2019 at 10:25 AM, Spock said:

Okay so I just got out of the cinema

the bad reviews it’s getting is definitely because of where Star Wars is right now and its perception. This is nowhere near prequel bad

it’s incredibly action packed and fun, some bits were really good, others were not so good. The whole Emperor thing felt really random, as did Rey’s lineage reveal. Also the scenes with Leia screamed stand in and made me scream. The ending was really cute though 

i saw a lot of people saying it’s heavy on the fan service but I would say it’s more emotionally manipulative than anything else. Basically every line and scene with the legacy characters hits you right in the gut, I cried so many times. And that is where I found it tried to make up for fan dissatisfaction and everything Rian did, it feels more like a sequel than TLJ. But all the rest seemed like a normal Star Wars movie to me 

the only thing that really bothered me was that 

  Hide contents

If the force is all about balance, how was Palpatine and an entire army of Siths able to exist and rise within the Dark Side without causing the Jedi and Light Side to rise as well? 

 

*SPOILER*

But they did. Those voices Rey heard? Those were the Jedi before her. She even said she was all Jedi.