ST The Rise of Skywalker - Reviews/Reactions Thread (See Warning On Page 98)

so is the force, which is the backbone of all the fantasy/magical elements in these movies.

 

I wasn`t actually. I don`t know why you cite RJ`s career trajectory as the end all, be all. Chris Terrio is an award winning writer. Does that mean every script he ever did and will do are sacrosanct? I guess that is good news for the reception of BvS.

 

RJ trajectory is way up bc he wrote and directed and original IP knives out that critics and fans liked, and made a very good profit. Im sure he was allowed to do that bc of star wars.

 

Don't know who needs to hear this, but yes, there are a lot of flaws in this movie. Daisy Ridley's acting is not one of them.

I was not a fan of Kylo's redemption and "Reylo" as a thing at all going into the movie and agree with all those that thought this was a heavy, heavy lift -- but the movie pulled this off for me MUCH better than zombie Palpatine*. Should've had more faith in Adam Driver because his all-to-brief performance as Ben is great, and honestly it's just what the film needs.

*I guess it should be said, this is no knock on Ian McDiarmid, who I LOVE and was great, as usual. I just think it's a bit of a stretch as a story conceit, but it's Star Wars, so I grade it on a curve...

 

I thought Driver's portrayal in this film was better than TFA and TLJ....perhaps because his character was given better things to do.

 

I really enjoyed Ben’s redemption coinciding with Leia calling to him while passing away. Ben and Rey feeling it. Rey stabbing Kylo realizing she is becoming a monster and Kylo realizing there’s still love in his heart. The fight was interesting because it felt like they both was giving in. Kylo couldn’t overpower her and Rey couldn’t overpower him. This sequence is what the movie lacked throughout. This is what’s really the most frustrating aspect of this film for me. TROS literally ends where ROTJ ends. The resistance won = the rebellion won (they both needed to blow up a tower to cripple the Sith fleets navigation and Death Star shields. Both had space battle/throne room confrontations) Rey = Luke /Kylo is redeemed before final conflict he’s Vader. The Zombie Emperor = The Emperor. TROS literally has Rey who defeated the Emperor she is th last Jedi who is going to rebuild the order. ROTJ Luke was the last Jedi who is going to rebuild the order. TROS the resistance defeats the final order and peace is restored. ROTJ same thing. TROS force ghost look on at Rey. ROTJ the same with Luke. You telling me they couldn’t just tweak the ending at least? They imply Finn is force sensitive they could have shown Rey starting his training or something. I feel like that is delivering on Luke’s legacy. An actual payoff and a satisfactory conclusion for poor forgotten Finn. What if they let Kylo live and Rey and Kylo took their child or children to the Homestead? I mean there are many options they could have taken just to change the ending. Sorry to say this but I would have been more happy with Plagues appearing as the Emperor then saying sike I lied! I just wanted your force energy then he admits he created Rey knowing the chosen ones family would one day produce a Skywalker that had a equal in the dark side that would bind them together (force dyad). There was nothing shocking or creative about Palpatine’s return. Ian McDiarmid made the most of it because he is awesome but the writing was lazy! So for me the more I dwell on TROS the more I dislike how Finn was wasted, how unimaginative the conclusion was because it just ends where ROTJ ends. TFA at least ended with a different ending than ANH. Yes Starkiller was Death Star 3 but the objective of the movie was find Luke. It ends on a cliffhanger while ANH end with the Death Star destroyed and the rebellion celebrating victory. I repeat TROS had a space battle with a tower that needs to be taken out, throne room lightsaber duel with force lighting, a montage of celebrations, force ghost looking on at the last Jedi. ROTJ!

 

It's funny -- ROTJ is not my favorite of the saga, but it always makes it on to my "desert island" list of Star Wars films because of the ending -- the confrontation between Luke & Vader and Anakin's redemption.

I think I'll eventually come to see TROS in a similar way -- a fun film with a lot of disposable plot but still valuable and important for the saga because of the character moments and the dynamic between Rey and Kylo/Ben.

 

ROTJ caught some flack because of the second Death Star being unimaginative and Ewoks being childish/ unbelievable but it did satisfyingly conclude the saga and address the I am your father cliffhanger revelation. It did it in a way where there was tension because you didn’t know if Vader will turn and kill his son. You didn’t know if the Emperor would kill them both. You didn’t know if Luke might give into the dark side. You definitely didn’t expect the Emperor to shoot lightning out of his hands and almost kill Luke. Luke throwing away his lightsaber was him showing he learned from Obi Wan and Yoda. In TROS love redeemed Kylo which works fine in my opinion and my favorite aspect of TROS. With Rey the revelation of Palpatine being here grandfather doesn’t devastate her emotionally because there is no love or connection between them. It’s a decision that was a writer’s Hail Mary. When she confronts him none of the lessons Luke taught her or Leia helps save her. She is shown briefly earlier in the film trying to communicate to the past Jedi only because they was going to use that plot device later. How about if she goes to confront the Emperor then instead of Jedi voices they showed up unexpectedly as force ghost and the Emperor could see them joining Rey. That could have been a legendary moment but the movie telegraphs the conclusion in the beginning of the movie. Luke throwing his lightsaber away was so great because it was Luke remembering Yoda’s teachings about size doesn’t not matter, luminous beings we are not this prude matter, The force is my ally and a powerful ally it is, the force is for defense never to attack. Rey basically fought an unknown enemy claiming to be her brother’s cousin uncle's former roommate. There was no build up to this where ESB you know the Emperor is in the background and in control. TLJ theirs no hints that Snoke is a puppet. The Emperor’s reintroduction into TROS was done in a way that was unimaginative. The Emperor could have been the first Sith ghost. He could have been a projection from a different evil entity. He could have been Plagues. He could have been a new form of Sith magic feeding off of the force dyad this whole time. I was ok with the Emperor coming back before the release of the film but that’s because I thought they would tie in the chosen one and do something different with him. The Anakin voice over in a Saga about him and his family doesn’t make sense! At least if you are going to redo the ROTJ ending have Ben, Anakin, Leia, and Luke force ghost together.

 

But I think the idea behind taking the form of a ghost is to manifest in a way the living can identify. Rey would not have recognized the image of Anakin. Voice was sufficient. I do agree that seeing Ben in a Jedi robe as a ghost would have been good, though


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I saw this on Sunday. I'm going for A-, this film has issues, absolutely, but I had such an excellent time at the cinema with this that I think my rating stands for now. There's certainly a LOT to take in, digest and discuss but I think this is the best of the new trilogy without troubling the holy duo of ANH and ESB, and maybe even RO. My gut feeling is this is going to settle around joint fourth place alongside ROTS in my personal rankings.

Things I liked

The visuals. This is clearly the most visually stunning SW movie and one of the most visually amazing films period. They've really upped the ante here. This film almost makes the other two seem rudimentary on this front.

Plenty of locales to drink in, again all looked great and fixed a criticism I had of the previous two movies that I thought were lacking on that front, especially TFA.

A great sense of adventure, loads of action and good pacing that was almost totally absent from large chunks of TLJ.

All the main characters were, in the main working together instead of being separated which I liked, all had something to do and were on good form - ridley and driver give their best performances of the trilogy here. The rest of the gang are on form too and it was nice to see Finn not being relegated to annoying comedy sidekick, and actually have (albeit brief) a continuation of his story here, as well as further hints of force sensitivity too. Even hux gets an unexpected turn, hell even 3P0 has a fairly important part to play.

The use of footage of Carrie Fisher was pretty well done considering it was shot for a different film and she ended up playing a small but pivotal role regarding kylo ren. Chewies devastation at her death is a great scene.

There's a fair bit of fan service here but most of it lands. Force ghost luke lifting the x wing out of the water to the same bit of amazing ESB score and chewie finally getting a medal are two that immediately spring to mind but there's plenty of other examples.

As above, I also liked the use of the original trilogies score too. I heard all sorts of memorable bits of music from numerous previous entries.

Things I didn't like

The plot was a bit like video game, get object from point A to B etc and was a bit predictable at times.


Palpatine is probably my favourite SW character, but I'm still struggling with his inclusion here. I guess TLJ left the writers at a bit of a dead end villain wise but his inclusion, however enjoyable here, just feels a little creatively bankrupt to me. It's made worse by a pretty one dimensional turn with some really cheesy dialogue and a ridiculous OTT finale. I dunno, maybe I was expecting the same dastardly turn from him like in ROTS, he looked really creepy and scary but something just didn't feel quite right. He came across like a pretty generic moustache twirling villain, which ultimately, I guess he is, but I missed all the sneaky manipulation **** he normally pulls, it was all just ranting in the main, especially towards the end. Maybe this will improve on subsequent rewatches. I was still entertained though, despite my criticisms it was still a buzz seeing him again.

I think they've taken force powers too bloody far now. I yearn for the days of the Force being something a little more mysterious that was limited to more basic stuff like simple telekinesis, enhanced reflexes, mind tricks and the like, not teleporting objects across vast distances and curing death (where have I read THAT criticism before I wonder, say hello Star Trek into Darkness) it's got to the point where they're becoming immortal gods and it's kinda taking the drama and peril out of it. It's frankly all just getting a bit over the top for my tastes. I get they want to expand the lore but it's becoming too much of a get out clause in this film.

One of the film's strengths in giving all the characters something to do also almost threatens to derail it too, this film feels like a three hour plus film squeezed into it's runtime at times with loads of side characters. I think it JUST manages to service it all though.

The hand waving away of the 'holdo manoeuvre' saying it was a once in a million thing made no sense. She aimed her ship at snokes and went to light speed. End of. There was nothing lucky about it.

The opening crawl was... almost laughable.

They still can't get a young CGI version of Carrie Fisher right.

Putting thousands of ships on the screen does not constitute a good space battle. This was more like the chaos of ROTS than the brilliance of RO or ROTJ. It was good, but was again just completely OTT.

Overall I still really enjoyed TROS, but weirdly, I actually felt glad that the main saga was over, there's a bit of a sense of things just getting a bit repetitive - how many times have we seen hidden children/parents, the struggle that never seems to end even when the good guys seemingly win convincingly (ROTJ), combined with the seeming increasing invincibility of the heroes and over the top action I just had the feeling walking out of the theater that this franchise needed to end here as it did. It feels like it has absolutely nothing more to give now, and I think the reduced box office is starting to reflect this.

I feel like moving forward it's best served with side stories set in the same universe like RO (I haven't watched the mandalorian yet maybe that could build into another movie series) where the force/jedi/sith are not really touched upon. It's a stunning, diverse setting where any kind of tale can be told - they're already starting to give us Western-type stuff which suits this setting really well, but TROS has burned me out on the Force side of things for now.

But this film does end on a real high and it's still an absolute BLAST to watch and has a lot of heart, which is something I can't say of it's predecessor and ultimately that means more to me over fan nitpicks when I'm watching a SW film. I want a couple of hours of escapist entertainment and this certainly delivers in spades on that front. I'm looking forward to watching it again.

Now the sequel trilogy is complete, overall I've got very mixed to negative feelings about it. They've been well made but not groundbreaking from a technical aspect, which disappoints me considering both other trilogies were amazing on that front. I like the characters they've introduced and I think the actors have all been very good, but I fear the material has held it all back,with TFA being too derivative (but still entertaining) , and TLJ being subversive just for the sake of it, and was a boring film that had a load of other issues to boot. It's all been disjointed and seemingly ill thought out, with TROS seemingly deliberately constructed with a view to 'undoing' stuff from the previous instalment, which is never a good sign. I've enjoyed them all to varying degrees but I don't think they've justified their existence enough. To be fair, this is a much more difficult trilogy to do than the prequels, which had it's story and characters already drawn out to a degree, this one had to create new, memorable characters so I can take that caveat into account. I think TROS is easily the best of the three though.

 

It felt like not having Anakin and Ben’s force ghost not there was an odd choice.

 

Kyle's redemption also feels like it happens way too quick. Also I love Ian McDiarmid, and he turns in another solid performance. BUT they really didn't give him many new memorable lines, a lot of his dialogue is recycled from the other films.

 

I think the Fanboys and casual fans like it a lot more then the critics.

 

I don't like too much nostalgia, which is why TFA is not one of my favorite Star Wars movie. There is a difference between doing nostalgia and changing the main pillars of a great movie saga for no other reason than trying to do something different or trying to do something unpredictable.

Do something different or something unpredictable without changing Luke Skywalker's character, which is a set in stone from the classic trilogy, and do it without changing Rey's parentage hints from TFA and do it without changing the hyperspace usage, etc. He changed this kind of things, and now the other Star Wars movies look entirely different than TLJ.

 

I really enjoyed TROS. I enjoyed all the Jedi cameo moments, I loved the return of some real Jedi action, I enjoyed Rey's part in this-it actually quite reminded me of Luke in ROTJ-on a mission, taking her role as the "last hope for the Jedi" seriously instead of shying away from it. It was JAM packed, and at times feels a bit rushed, but there are so many memorable moments-and I love the whole Sith vs. Jedi premise of the film. The more I think about it, the more I am fine with Rey being a Palpatine, kissing Ben, Ben turning good and dying (which I predicted, among others I'm sure), etc. I actually liked how it all played out!

One thing I thought was odd, and it's very petty: but we didn't see SPACE very much. You know what I mean? I didn't really get the sense of the scope of the galaxy, and the travel everyone did from place to place-just suddenly now they're on THIS planet! But IIRC, I felt the same way for TFA-then after seeing it a 2nd and 3rd time, I was able to grasp the scope of the film more easily. I'm sure the same will happen with this one. Overall, I felt there were some truly epic moments in this one. And the ending was very fitting. It did feel mostly like an edited version of what they really wanted the ending to be, but still it was great! I almost got teary eyes at the moment when all the Jedi ghosts were speaking to Rey. That was a perfect moment!

I guess there really are only a couple lingering things I really wish would've been elaborated on or handled better:

1. Would it have been so hard to have a couple sentences explaining that what Finn wanted to tell Rey was his Force sensitivity?! I spent the whole film thinking he was in love with her-imagine my confusion at Ben and Rey's kiss then! I love that Finn is FS, but IMO that could've really been elaborated on. The fact that it wasn't is indeed VERY JJ Abrams though.

2. Sooooo...if Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter-then...WHEN the heck did Palpatine have a son!? And what were the circumstances around that!? Given the thought that Rey is in her mid 20's Rey would've been born about five years after ROTJ-ish. And considering how her parents seemingly looked in the flashback-when Rey was like 5 or 6, that means Palpatine's son would've been born sometime either during the Clone Wars (assuming he'd be like in his early 30s) or during the early days of the Empire...? But I wouldn't really peg post AOTC Palpatine as much of a ladies man, if you know what I mean...Am I getting the math on this right?? Either way, I really hope there is some sort of book or something released that elaborates on this. I can't be the only one who's wondering about this...

3. I'd LOVE to know the mechanics of exactly how Palpatine came back? I love the concept-but how did he make it out of Death Star II before it was destroyed, how was he revived in this zombified way he apparently was (which is awesome). Who did it? Was this a premeditated contingency plan? Who found him after he fell? That fall down the shaft with all those energy waves seemed pretty final to me. What were the waves then, if not him dying?...I'm sure there's some sensible explanation, and I'd love to hear it....

 

not sure if this has been posted yet but JJ confirmed in an interview that finn was going to tell rey that he is force sensitive. I wouldnt mind a disney show (yes I know that boyega said no to disney plus) or even a movie of rey and finn starting the jedi order back up.

 

Canonically, Rey is 19 in TFA and 20 in TROS - born 11 years after ROTJ. The actor playing Rey's father when Rey was 6, is 30. Suggesting the character, even if a bit older than the actor, was born during the Imperial era.

 

Palpatine does say he died.

I'm going with

"he hit the bottom of the tower- there's some kind of grille that lets light through but not Palpatine's falling body, and his corpse was retrieved from the tower, on the Ocean Moon, by his cultists."

For the time being, at least. Main reason being the map to the tower, on the dagger, that was owned by the assassin cultist. I figure he retrieved the body, and the cultist summoned Palpatine's spirit back into his body on Exegol.

It's possible that later evidence may refute this. But the whole "the tower survived the explosion" bit, seems important. And maybe not just because the wayfinder was in it, but because they wanted Palpatine's body to survive too.

 

the ending of Rise of Skywalker apes the ending of Return of the Jedi. APES IT. how anyone can say at some point theyll see this film in the same light as that film is beyond me.

 

Thanks. On the second viewing, it became so clear to me that he really wanted to tell her about his Force sensitivity.

TROS makes clear that he is Force Sentitive indeed, so it works.

 

I guess, but my main point is-does that not seem odd, or at least......................creepy.......to anyone else???

 

JJ walked back his comments, which I think is weak. he now says thats how he interprets it lol, but he wanted to leave it open to interpretation. That is lame

 

If it is his interpretation, and he is the DIrector, it is good enough for me, because it was the same interpretation I got from watching as well.

 

The good news is that an new Star Wars film from now on has no excuse whatsoever to copy the OT. Now that the Skywalker Saga is wrapped up we all can move on. With all the money thrown into these films they dropped the ball on the writers. No more writer/ directors hire actual full time writers!