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Oh... my Star Wars feelings.
It was really emotional for me to see Princess Leia for the last time.
She was a fierce, loyal, beautiful person. May you rest in peace Carrie Fisher. Thanks for the memories.
I always going to love Luke/Mark, such a fun person. Love him!!
Poe was so fun and adorable at the same time, his partnership with Finn was amazing!!
Rey!!! You did it, girl!! What a battle... Great job my friend.
Why would you made us believe that Chewbacca was dead? OMG! That was so mean!!
The poor thing broke my heart when he finds out the Princess was gone...
C3PO was hilarious, but that moment when he said goodbye to his friends make my eyes water.
I really enjoyed the movie, mostly the ride with all the stories.
May the force always be with you, my friends.
Thanks for the AMAZING memories.
Just watched this in theatre nearby. Gosh, this movie is truly amazing. The best star wars movie to close the Skywalker's saga. You guys should really watch this in theatre.
I watched episode 7 of the Mandalorian today, so "The Rise of Skywalker" isn't even the best Star Wars I've watched in the last 24 hours.
What a disappointment. I hope everyone who has been bitching about Last Jedi is happy and will shut up about it now that all their prayers have been answered and now the story is back to being the same as before. Yay.
Of the new films (excluding rogue one) that I feel was the best of the new ones, I feel this sits on the same force level of the rest and I didn't have any big expectations it would live up to the old ones excluding attack of the clones my least favorite but I can say it had a good go and i can't really give good marks to the story plot because I feel it was very poor and all over the place and rushed and a little cheesy at times and defo didn't compare to It's action that i was impressed with and do love a fast paced action film so action alone entertained me and being a star wars fan It was good to see a lot of easter eggs from the old classics..
Here's the thing about Star Wars movies: They are never going to be perfect. They are never going to live up to the rose-tinted memories of our time with the original. And they are never going to match the expectations we set for them.
So, think on that before seeing this film. Before you complain about the cheesiness, the story turns you don't like, and the bits that don't make much sense, remember that you probably had the same complaints about the others in the series. You might have hated the Ewoks. Jar Jar Binks could have grated on your nerves. That romance between Amidala and Annakin could have pushed you over the edge. And Luke's character arc in The Last Jedi might have raised your ire.
For every film in this series, there have been haters, and yet as each film is released, they forget the annoyances they had, and complain that the newest Star Wars film is the worst! I am guilty of this a little (Jar Jar Binks really got on my nerves), but I, like we all do, need to gain a perspective on what we are watching. In the end, they are just movies, even if they did shape our childhoods.
So, don't set your expectations too high, especially if you're a fan boy like myself. Don't go in expecting life changing experiences. Have an open mind, and remember that, like the other films in the series, this isn't going to be everything YOU want it to be. Just enjoy it, and don't be too quick with your call for it to be thrown into the Sarlaac Pit. It is what it is, for better and for worse, and while it won't change your life, it might just give you an entertaining couple of hours.
I don't want to be one of "those people", but after one watchthrough, I really don't like it. Possibly worse, after only a few minutes of discussion with some friends, we thought of a number of small changes that would have made a world of change, without hurting all the fan-service-hungry people.
I didn't like it overall. It felt rushed and the scenario did a lot of shortcuts just for moving the plot forward. For example one asks: "How do you know something?" And the answer is "I have a feeling". There are so many plot holes and so little suspension of disbelieve. They tried to insert some false drama, for which no one cared so much. For example when in the end of "The Last jedi" Skywalker became one with the force while mirroring the scene of "A new hope" when Luke's journey started with the beautiful musical force theme playing, it was very touching. As Episode 4-6 are the movies of my childhood, the scene of the old dying Luke was very sad, because, I guess, the star wars story is a part of my life. I perceived my self as Luke probably and I thought that Luke will always be the young jedi who I've seen in the first movies. So when Luke died, it was kind of a reminder for my own ageing and mortality. In this movie I didn't have such notion. I was indifferent.
I liked the visuals a lot and the music was really great. Some of the music was variations of Knights of the old republic game soundtrack, which is marvelous. Unfortunately the presentation alone is not enough for making a great movie. Anyway, now it's over and hopefully we'll get something new and in a new direction as Rogue 1, which I liked very much.
My rating may change on this over time. I'm not sure if seeing this as part of a triple-bill helped or hinder my enjoyment of the film. I think my main issue is all the 'Palpatine is behind everything' stuff actually does more to invalidate the original trilogy than anything The Last Jedi did. I know I'm part of a minority that loved The Last Jedi and I wouldn't say Rise necessarily deviates from what that set up plot-wise, Rise certainly is one solution. Personally, I would have preferred a more intimate (emotionally, not romantically) fight between Rey and Kylo as the main driving force of the film (with Resistance v First Order in the background)..
That all said, what they manage with Leia is fantastic, considering, and pretty much everyone gets something to do and worthy attention. Apart from Finn, of course, but that's par for the course. Finn literally tries to tell Rey something at one point and then never does get around to doing so by the end.
I can see this being a divisive conclusion, though, as JJ and Disney attempt to please all sets of fans and that may not work for some.
It's funny to see bad reviews for this movie, and a lot of criticism towards JJ, but it's clear that all the choices made in this movie was to correct the choices made in The Last Jedi, the movie that was hated by all the fans till yesterday, but now people are praising.
The Rise of Skywalker is a great movie, specially for fans, it's a great way to end this saga, filled with fan service. I don't think I can say more than that without spoiling the experience for everyone.
All the critcs you see here, or on twitter, are coming from people who thinks star wars, a space opera, should be a deep and complex movie with fanfics about romances.
Star Wars: The Rise of Fanservice
I enjoyed the tragic, heartbreaking fairytale of Ben Solo.
I would have preferred to see the film follow the more interesting thread The Last Jedi was sewing, rather than throwing in all this crash bang flashy flashy Emperor stuff. But I did have fun with all this crash bang flashy flashy Emperor stuff.
EDIT: After much more thought, I'm incredibly disappointed by many aspects of this film, and it's easy to see a million missed opportunities for the conclusion of the trilogy and the saga. But I see some people love this movie, and that inspires me to view it in a charitable light. There should be more kindness and desire for understanding in film discussion.
While looking for the dragonballs Kylo Vegeta Ren finds the emperor and he reveals a clown car with 10 trillion death stars in it. Instead of conquering the galaxy the emperor chooses to just give it to Kylo as long as he kills Rey, because she is a sayan prince or something.
Meanwhile Rey is also looking for the dragonballs and to find a dragonball she needs a wooden stick that some guy made 10 days ago.
Luke and Lanpedo have been looking for this stick for 10 years, but Rey finds it after falling in a hole and helping a snake. She blows up 10.000 people with a kamehameha, but is sad because she lost her dog. Their robot needs to talk with an alien monkey on another planet because it can give him red eyes. Rey goes on Kylos ship to find her stick, kills a few hundred more people with a gun and finds her dog. Rey notices the stick looks like a death star so they go to the death star and find the dragonball. Vegeta comes and is killed by Rey because his mom calls his name. Rey brings him back to life because she wants to smooch and kills his mother. Kylo finds his sayan spirit and becomes a good guy (he only killed a few million people no big deal). Rey rams her ship into another planet for fun and finds another stick that points to the emperors clown car. The emporer wants to get whipped, by his granddaugther, because he is into that. Rey charges a spirit bomb with the power of her 10 trillion fans, but the emporer snaps his fingers and kills all her fans in 1 hit. Kylo comes to help Rey whip her granddad, but he slips and falls down a staircase. Rey grants her grandad's his dying wish, but because the she used the wrong whip they are both dead now. Kylo revives Rey, they smooch and he turns into a ghost. Also his mom now is a ghost. Rey uses the dragonballs to destroy 10 trillion death stars and become a dirt farmer with a different last name, because some ghosts nod their head. Somehow her 10 trillion fans are back alive, her dog gets a medal and Lanpedo starts an inappropriate relationship.
10/10
My expectations were low, but still I somehow managed to be disappointed. Funny how that works!
Waste of time A bad story. Lots of plot holes nothing is explained. There is No emotion for any of the characters. Rey is so over powered its laughable This Feels like three movies rolled into one. With Lots of wtf moments. This is a pathetic and insulting End to this 40 year epic franchise started by george lucas. avoid this movie at all cost don't waste your time like i did. AVOID.
It’s hard to write a review for this film without any major spoilers, so this might seem a little vague here and there. There will be very minor spoilers, primarily what’s revealed in the opening text crawl or the trailers, so not much, but if you want to go into this film completely virgin, stop here.
The film starts off with things already underway. A transmission has been sent out that contains the voice of Emperor Palpatine. Kylo Ren, now Supreme Leader of the First Order, goes to seek out Palpatine as a potential threat to his power. In the meantime, the Resistance is still in shambles after the events of “The Last Jedi,” and they are busy doing scouting missions and regrouping.
All of this is revealed in the opening crawl of the movie, which is where the problems begin. It violates a cardinal rule of storytelling: Show, don’t tell. It wouldn’t have taken much to have this done on screen in more dramatic and effective fashion. Instead, this has the effect of making it feel like we either missed something important or that we’re watching an entirely different movie with a different story. This makes things confusing. It doesn’t help that I was already thinking that J.J. Abrams probably needs to go back to Screenwriting 101 during the opening crawl. Not a good way to start.
Other things happen during the course of the movie that make no sense. Why does Kylo Ren reforge his helmet? We never really find that out. He just does. The Knights of Ren do appear in this film finally. Who are they? If you’re expecting an answer of any kind, you’ll be disappointed. Why is there this strange connection between Rey and Kylo Ren? One of the mysteries of the Force, I suppose. Characters who we don’t know appear from nowhere having been significant to the goings on even though we’ve never seen them before. Other characters take bizarre and up to now not even hints at character arcs. It becomes a horrendously confusing mess.
I liked some of the more controversial aspects of “The Last Jedi.” Rey being a nobody with no significant parentage? Great idea! The galaxy is a big place. Why does everyone have to be related? Well, this is adjusted slightly. I won’t go into details, but it was disappointing what they did, in my opinion. Leia’s story arc in this film is...weird. I’m going to allow that it’s due to the loss of Carrie Fisher and having to use archival footage (one scene that shows a young Luke and Leia using computer effects is freaky at best). But it’s off-putting and feels tacked on for convenience. It was nice to see Lando return, although even that felt more like throwing a bone to the fans. He could have potentially been replaced by any character with flying skills. Speaking of such, Wedge does make finally make an appearance, but it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.
Here’s how I would sum it up spoiler-free: As I said, I liked “The Last Jedi” a lot, including parts that many didn’t like or found weird as I stated above, but at the same time it was not a problem-free movie for me. “The Rise of Skywalker” is the exact opposite. It definitely has some really cool moments, but feels so sloppy and makes so many storytelling mistakes that, on the whole, I have to say that it’s a bad movie. I’ve said this about just about everything I’ve seen come from J.J. Abrams, that he’s great at coming up with interesting imagery. He gets these pictures in his head of something that would be really interesting to see on film, like flashes one might remember from a dream. For example, there’s a great scene near the end that finally corrects what many consider a great injustice done in an earlier movie. But couching these images in a cohesive story is not his strong suit. In fact, he’s downright terrible at it. This problem seemed to be going in full force in “The Rise of Skywalker.”
Were some of my complaints addressed in some expanded material? I don’t know, but even if they were it would still make it bad storytelling. Star Wars has always been fairly good about keeping things self-contained. Expanded material adds extra background to enhance the enjoyment of the main material, like adding seasoning, but shouldn’t be necessary to appreciate the meal.
Overall, you need to see this movie to close out the Skywalker Saga, but that’s really the only reason. Don’t go into this expecting a good or even decent film, or for every question to be answered. Ultimately, it’s a disappointing end to Star Wars, and I say this as a Star Wars fan.
You know when your friend keeps talking and talking and talking, jumping subjects without warning and nothing makes sense? Yep. This movie was it. Everyone in the viewing just got up in silence and went home. The atmosphere before and after people watched this movie in the theater was such a contrast it was sad. Just. Sad.
Unfortunately I had the misfortune of having to slog my way through The Rise of Skywalker twice this week. It is hard to imagine a more disappointing conclusion to the saga. As someone who loved the bombastic (though familiar) take JJ brought to The Force Awakens, and the visionary imagination Rian brought to creating perhaps the most morally pure and thematically consistent Star Wars episode ever in The Last Jedi, I knew it was going to be a hard task for any director to finish this off satisfactorily.
JJ specifically is fantastic at creating new mysteries and setting up new characters, but disastrous at ending stories - whether his own or those of others. This movie is a perfect example of that. I was worried JJ would use TRoS to undo everything I loved about TLJ, but that doesn't even turn out to be the issue. Not only does he disregard TLJ, he disregards and seems to detest his own work in TFA, and has zero interest in crafting a finale to this epic nine movie saga. He doesn't just squander the potential of the prior two entries, but of the entire franchise.
There is not a single plot thread in TRoS that hasn't been lifted from a prior Star Wars movie. Character motivations change scene to scene. There are some truly spectacular emotional moments... that only contain any emotional pay-off whatsoever because of Daisy Ridley's stunning performance and John Williams's sublime score.
Given JJ's task here I tempered my expectations to the most conventional conclusion possible, and somehow this movie was still more boring than that. So many questions are answered - each and every one in the least interesting, most obvious, most predictable, most boring way possible. If you have played a video game with a quest log and fetch quests - congratulations, you will feel intimately familiar with the structure of this movie.
This movie is what we feared Disney would inflict on this beloved franchise, even though we were somehow spared it in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. It's a case study in why pandering to every fan's checklist of expectations results in a creatively bankrupt endeavour that ultimately surprises no-one, delights no-one, and satisfies no-one who has had even a passing interest in the story arc - and philosophical viewpoints - of the prior eight movies.
Given I've seen the movie twice now, as of now I'm fairly confident in saying: it's probably the worst Star Wars movie ever made, including the spin-offs and the prequels. It certainly is the one I have scored the lowest.
The only good news? I re-watched the prior movies this week and they still hold up spectacularly. JJ may have fucked up the ending, but we can still re-visit the brilliant entertainment Lucas, Kasdan, Johnson, and even Abrams himself have previously given us.
I love this franchise and I was rooting for this movie, even under the near impossible expectations placed upon it. I did not imagine that anyone could screw up the ending so massively.
Nothing makes me sadder than to write this post.
[6.5/10] The Rise of Skywalker never stops. From the first minute, it is relentless, reintroducing major characters, blowing through plot point after plot point, tossing in a new face every half hour or so just because it can. Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy speculated that had co-writer/director J.J. Abrams known that he would do Episode IX back when he originally signed onto Star Wars, he would have saddled up and directed the whole damn Sequel Trilogy. The Rise of Skywalker bears that out, if for no other reason than it feels like Abrams tried to cram two movies into one.
Episode IX throws everything and the kitchen sink at the audience. There are major retcons to The Last Jedi. There are check-ins with every character of note. There are major expansions of the lore. There are new planets and alien species. There’s returns from the last remaining Original Trilogy figures who’ve stayed on the sidelines until now. There’s a caper. There’s a lightsaber fight. There’s a throne room scene. There’s a massive dogfight. There’s a speeder chase/podracing homage. There’s a star destroyer escapade. There’s an endless series of chases. There are multiple “not actually dead” fakeouts. There are force ghosts galore.
However much the producers and writers and cast swear up and down that this is it, it’s dubious that The Rise of Skywalker will actually be the last Skywalker Saga film. There’s too many Republic credits to be had when Disney’s coffers are feeling a little light for that to bear out. But Abrams treats it like the last chance to do anything Star Wars. It’s not enough to have another epic Sith vs. Jedi confrontation. A revivified Palpatine has to be imbued by the power of all Sith and Rey has to represent the collective strength of all Jedi to make things as epic as possible. Every Star Wars ship that’s ever flown has to crowd the skies above a villainous fleet, 10,000 times the size of the First Order’s, where every star destroyer is equipped with a Death Star cannon. For better or worse, Episode IX is the quadruple-loaded nachos of Star Wars movies.
Despite, or maybe because of all that, there’s really only room for two (or arguably even one) arc in the film. Like Luke and Anakin before them, Rey and Kylo Ren must each decide whether to embrace the Dark Side of the Force, or hold onto the light. There’s poetry in that parallel. Abrams conjures Return of the Jedi where the angry Jedi and the “it’s too late for me” Sith try to turn one another. And he even summons a heartening echo of Revenge of the Sith, where Ben Solo succeeds at what spurred his grandfather’s downfall -- saving someone he loves from death, albeit at the cost of his own life. For all its other faults, The Rise of Skywalker puts its focus in the right place, with the emotional trajectory and shifting alignments of its biggest hero and original villain taking the spotlight.
But that squeezes out meaningful character development for pretty much anyone else in the film. Finn and Poe get plenty of screen time, but end the film with half-finished or undeveloped arcs (at best). The film seems to set up some big character moments with Finn, whether it’s in the form of the thing he “never told” Rey, or the sense that he’s constantly trying to get her to return, or his realization that there are other moral, mutinous former stormtroopers out there. But Episode IX never really ties any of these story threads up, just letting them dangle in the jet stream until time runs out. Poe has a half-baked challenge to succeed Leia as a Resistance leader, but it’s over and done in the span of just a few short scenes.
It’s nice that Abrams and co. want to pay homage to everything significant in the franchise. But between reviving each member of the Original Trilogy, introducing a handful of new characters this late in the game (who each require quick backstories and basic motivations), making sure that Maz, Rose, Snap, BB-8, and plenty more get their moment in the sun, there’s just not room for much substance outside of the Rey/Kylo drama.
It’s not that these briefly sketched scenes are bad. C-3P0 gets the most affecting moment in the film; Chewey’s mournful roar sells Leia’s death better than anything else, and a nearly nonsensical return for Han Solo still contains the movie’s best echoing exchange. There’s just not time in a two-and-a-half hour movie to service all the characters and ideas Abrams wants to include, which leaves most of them feeling like they get the short shrift.
That’s before all of the retcons and expansions to the lore that Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio cram in. In The Force Awakens, some of the puzzling and unaccounted for developments or details could be written off as Abrams’s usual mystery box setup. But in the Sequel Trilogy’s final installment, Abrams offers just as many new questions as he does answers, building major new pieces of the mythos and overarching plot on the fly in ways that leave even the devoted Star Wars fanatic scratching their head.
Palpatine is back and tethered to some bizarre mechanical apparatus, with the only explanation being a borrowed line about abilities others find “unnatural.” He’s apparently been puttering around for the past thirty years, on a never-before-mentioned secret Sith planet, with a cadre of random Sith druids, a gazillion star destroyers he just raises from the dirt, and a tank full of Snoke clones. With a single line of dialogue, he takes credit for pulling the strings for everything that’s happened in the Sequel Trilogy so far.
If that weren’t enough, Leia apparently almost became a Jedi and was one lesson away from completing her training, replete with an extra legacy saber no one’s ever seen or talked about before. But she’s still knowledgeable enough in the Force to be Rey’s new master. Oh, and she and Luke both already knew Rey’s true parentage. And Rey and Kylo have some mystical Force bond that is super rare. And all Sith souls or energy or life force or something gets subsumed by the next living Sith. And that life force can be transferred or stolen. And you can’t kill a Sith while leaning toward the Dark Side or the Sith will possess you, but if you use lightsabers and good vibes to reflect their force lightning back at them, it doesn't count as slaying them and you’re safe from Sith possession so long as you’ve gotten your cootie shots.
Look, it’s Star Wars. Not everything is going to make perfect sense, and not everything requires an in-depth explanation, particularly in a movie that’s sprinting to encompass all it wants and needs to. But Abrams and Terrio just stack unprecedented Force rules and new bits of major backstory and significant retcons on top of one another in such quick succession that it’s like the Sith lightning round. The cumulative effect of all these quick-twitch revisions is stupefying, with the results seeming like shortcuts to a desired endpoint rather than an earned part of the journey.
This comes part and parcel with the biggest retcon of all -- that Rey is Palpatine’s grandfather. Nevermind the fact that this requires the audience to consider the wrinkly green wretch fathering a child. It reinforces Star Wars’s consistent small universe problem, where almost everyone of note has to be related to someone else of note. It’s a questionable change that undercuts the laudable “the Force belongs to everyone” message from The Last Jedi and makes noble bloodlines more important than the idea that the hero can be anyone and come from anywhere.
But Episode IX at least uses the retcon to similarly noble thematic ends. The broader moral of the film is that parentage isn’t destiny, but instead, we choose who we want to be and who our loved ones are. Rey has always wanted to find out where she came from, to find new family, so as to help define herself. When she’s having dark visions and learns that she’s related to the Emperor, the itch she wanted to scratch so badly is suddenly drawing blood. She fears that her turn to the Dark Side is inevitable.
Instead, she chooses her found family, the people who’ve supported her, trained her, and in Ben Solo’s case, given his life for her, because they know she’d do the same for them. The final line in the film, where Rey calls herself a Skywalker, is a little too corny and imitative, but the impulse is a creditable one, to declare that the choices we make and the people we hold dear mean more than any genetic predestination could. It dovetails nicely with the theme around the Resistance -- that bad guys like the Emperor and the First Order try to make you lose hope by thinking your alone, but that there’s “more of us than there are of them” -- a commendable people power message in line with the Original Trilogy.
That message bears out with the human element that suffers the film’s best stretches. While The Rise of Skywalker often loses itself in convoluted lore and rapid-fire plot points, the sheer joy of seeing all our heroes working together and going on adventures keeps the first act of the film afloat and adds heart to the last moments. The tension between Rey and Kylo Ren remains potent throughout, and just as Daisy Ridley is able to play Rey’s fatalistic intensity with aplomb as the young Jedi teeters toward the Dark Side, Adam Driver does a superb job at not only conveying Kylo Ren’s renewed internal conflict, but also his more casual, dare I say Solo-esque bent when he pivots toward the light.
The film harnesses these performances in a series of solid action sequences, extending the locale-traversing force connection to fights and more corporeal confrontations. The saber stand-offs have character, and while the final act ends up as overstuffed and busy as the rest of the film, Episode IX can boast any number of stellar sequences. Likewise, despite occasional muddy visuals, the film’s production design, costuming, and design teams realize a score of new people, places, and things in beautiful detail.
That aesthetic excellence, mixed with John Williams’s always stirring score, create emotional high points that the film has trouble ginning up through other means. While not fully seamless, the effects team works around Carrie Fisher’s absence in creditable fashion, even when the script gets a little clunky in trying to write around those limitations. A swelling score helps cover for the script’s middling attempts replicating the semi-profound pronouncements the franchise is known for. And raw images -- of a Force battle between Rey and Kylo, of Chewey pawing at the ground in anguish, of our heroes enjoying a warm, victorious embrace -- muster more feeling than the whirlwind plot and fan fiction-y lore expansions ever could. The craftsmanship on display in so many areas deserves recognition, even as the film rumbles through so much while practically bursting at the seams.
The advantage of The Rise of Skywalker’s grand, film-length rush through everything is that it robs the audience of the chance to stop and process what they’re seeing. Taken as a cluster of individual moments, of vague feelings and isolated sequences smushed together, the movie has a certain propulsive allure. The charm, warmth, nostalgia, and kinetic energy hold the thing together -- sometimes just barely, via the same duct tape and bubble gum holding the Millennium Falcon together after all these years -- but it’s enough to keep you along for the ride.
But when the ride stops, and the viewer finally has a chance to actually stop and process what they just watched, the movie all but falls apart. The more you stop and think about The Rise of Skywalker, the more the ungainliness of the thing stands out, the more its narrative leaps seem questionable if not downright baffling, the more its efforts to channel the affection for characters and stories past feel less and less earned.
Cinema is always a magic trick, and savvy audiences, willing to dig deep enough and think hard enough, will inevitably uncover the sleight of hand. The brilliance of Star Wars, past and present, is that the trick is mesmerizing enough, the magicians so endearing, that it’s easy and even fun to handwave away all of the ruddy details. But Episode IX crumples its own weight, but also accumulated weight of ten other movies, scores of spinoffs, and forty-two years of this franchise swirling around in the pop cultural ether that it strains to pay off and pay tribute to in a single, off-balance heave.
It attempts to be and do everything, with resurrections, redemptions, and reunions that all happen so fast and furiously that almost none have time to really land before it’s on to the next thing. That pace protects Episode IX, keeping both its stronger and weaker moments weightless enough that the film keep rolling no matter what. But eventually, like all things, it has to end. It’s then that the accumulation of story beats and character moments and callbacks feels less than the sum of its parts, less than the proper culmination of nine films’ worth of storytelling, less than the capstone to Star Wars that it aims to be.
The Rise of Skywalker isn’t a bad film. But it is, well, a lot. Abrams and company attempt to bite off more than they, and maybe anyone, could chew. The ultimate result of all this tumult, revision, and rebellion, is a well-intentioned but ill-fated finale -- one that does too much and yet, somehow, not quite enough.
And I thought the last one was bad!
Full of plot holes, inconsistent character development, forcetime (jedi FaceTime) can now transfer items, resurrection of dead dead characters, its even easier and cheaper to destroy a hole planet now and the next step will be to destroy a planet with the force.
Thank god it’s over.
The Rise of Skywalker is like sex with your spouse of many years. Sure, it's sex so it's cool, but you know their routine, there are no surprises and the climax is better than nothing, but not much more. I mean at least episodes 7 and 8 were visually gorgeous, but this one doesn't even bother to put on anything sexy, it just lies there and you wait for it to be over.
This is the Star Wars you've been coming home to for years, so familiar that you can predict its jokes and even finish its sentences. Oh well, at least you're still in love, right? Right?
a snoozefest, nonsensical, full of cop-outs, only two characters from the ''''main cast''''' were actually relevant, and overall a waste of time.
Heartbreakingly miserable. Disjointed. Empty. Filled with plot holes, inconsistent leaps of logic, multiple deus ex machina-s, and criminally lazy writing. (More Death Star lasers? Really?) Disney's unrivaled, groundbreaking success with the Marvel Cinematic Universe makes their utter failure to construct a single decent film in their Star Wars sequel trilogy all the more glaring. Not only have they reduced a genre-defining epic into a series of forgettable, run-of-the-mill tentpole films, but they've turned this rabid Star Wars fanatic into someone who can hardly be bothered to follow any of their Star Wars properties anymore. Such a shame.
“Do it!”
I’m surprised they added that in there despite all the memes.
Anyway…
A long time ago...four years to be distinct; the space opera ‘Star Wars’ returned to cinemas with ‘The Force Awakens', that brought back the bittersweet experience that fans have been craving for over 30 years. Well lets just say Christmas was magical that year. While I wasn’t quite as wowed as everyone else, but I still enjoyed it otherwise and I was interested where the story will go after J.J. Abrams left his “mystery box” of questions for another director to answer. How exciting and epic the next years will be.
And then the sequel and two spin-offs happened. Well lets just say my interest for these new movies has completely evaporated. Sad times indeed. And no I don’t feel like I’m being overly negative in the heat this movie is receiving, because right now, at this very moment, my thoughts and overall feeling on this movie are genuine, and re-watching it isn’t going to safe it. I’m not disappointed or angry, because at this point I stopped caring.
‘Rise of Skywalker’ is a factory made movie with no heart, no soul, and no magic. Words and phrases like: bold, epic, and satisfying - are not the type of words that I would describe this final chapter in the Skywalker saga. I can’t call something bold if it played things incredibly safe. Each movie exists just to shred up and apologize for what came before it.
J.J. Abrams can be hit or miss sometimes, but I must admit he had a difficult task to follow up on ‘Last Jedi’ and Rian Johnson undoing his mystery box questions. If that wasn’t bad enough, the death of Carrie Fisher also had a massive effect on the story, and including her into the movie, while respecting her legacy and giving her as much screen time with the limited deleted footage they have. Abrams sadly treads on familiar ground and doesn't really handle the originals (or even the prequels) with respect. This is literally a remake of ‘Return of The Jedi’.
The story in this movie is almost nonexistent. It’s so rushed that you can’t catch a breather amidst the chaos. Nothing flows naturally. Characters running around and jumping from location to location. I think the quick pace easily hides the poor writing and plot holes. I also thought the title crawl is a bit off and felt it was written by a Reddit user. From the moment the movie starts until it ends nothing makes a lick of sense.
I think the biggest waste of opportunity is the character of Finn, because the potential of greatness was set up in ‘The Force Awakens’, and they didn’t do a single thing with it. I mean, a Stormtrooper who revolt against the corrupt and sinister empire, which is something we haven’t seen before. Heck, a long time ago he held a lightsaber. Unfortunately in this movie he’s a comedic buffoon that sweats and shouts a lot. What a waste of John Boyega’s talent. They did him dirty.
I like Daisy Ridley, not so much on Rey. I don’t want to jump on any bandwagon here, but I don’t understand how someone can be so over powered and skillful at the force with barely any training. Whenever there is training it’s over before you know it. There was a point where I said to myself, “Who taught her to do that?”, or “how the hell did she do that?”. I really struggled to emotionally connect with Rey, because there’s nothing more dull than a character with no flaws or growth.
The strongest element throughout these three movies was Kylo Ren by the magnificent Adam Driver. This guy literally carried this series on his back. At least his character as an arc, and not just wasted potential. I actually connected with his inner conflict between the dark side and the light side.
The cinematography looks beautiful and absolutely striking. The visuals and music will always be great with these movies regardless on the actual movie.
Emperor Palpatine is back...for some reason. The vague explanation of why he’s back made it clear to me that Disney had no plan from the start for these new movies. Still, Ian McDiarmid is fantastic as always. He oozes with evil and soaks up every wicked moment of it.
The awkward and ill-placed comedy from ‘Last Jedi’ is still present and it got worse and worse as it went along. With this being the finale, new characters still get introduce and get some development. Like, why are you introducing new characters now? Billy Dee Williams returns as the slick and classy Lando, but sadly doesn't really do much for the story. Richard E. Grant is great as the ruthless new commander of the First Oder with the small screen time he has. Dominic Monaghan, on the other hand, feels like an extra. Rose Tico has a smaller role this time around and her entire love triangle with Finn from ‘Last Jedi’ gets brush under the carpet. Kelly Marie Tran sure can’t catch a break.
The action sequences with the lightsaber fights and space battles were mostly forgettable. Even the scenes that stick to mind wasn’t that special. The camera fails to capture focal points with the grand scale lacking.
I like how there’s a lesbian couple towards the end that’s on screen for about two seconds. So when the studio want to market the movie for China, they could easily edit out it to make it more “marketable”. How progressive Disney.
Overall rating: An unsatisfying conclusion. At least ‘The Mandalorian’ is good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOOwGhaFpVk
....To paraphrase Axel Foley, ... Fans,...Fans, "What's wrong man?? What's all this hostility????, You've changed man!!"
Remember a long time ago, when you first ventured to "a Galaxy far far away"? Before there were legions of keyboard kommando critics to tell you what you should and shouldn't like? When people would actually GO and WATCH a movie, BEFORE they decided if it was awful or not? Before one could wait for the home video, or DVD or Blu Ray, or streaming service release, you simply ponied up your $$ and took your chances. And when Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope graced the world with it's debut, lines went around the theater block for weeks, as customers ponied up again and again for multiple viewings, to escape their mundane lives, and for a couple of hours, be transported to a place bristling with action adventure and fun.
The Rise of Skywalker is a callback to those times. It does not attempt to remake the past, but fondly remember and celebrate it. Where The Last Jedi, by attempting to be "edgier and grittier", possibly misstepped, and disappointed many fans, here, we have a two and a half hour "hat tip" to the original trilogy, hitting all the fan favorite beats and tropes, characters and locations, yes, sometimes a bit too closely, but, never in a cloying or repetitive way. Half the fun was watching the story line unfold, while in the back of your mind you were recalling where you were when you saw the original "beat" they were giving a call-back to, then, being pleasantly surprised as to
how they melded it into this continuing narrative.
So, no, it's NOT a trap, it's a tribute, and, I really enjoyed the entire movie. In fact, in spite of the long run time, I wish it could have been a little longer if it meant fleshing out some of the (newer) characters a little more. So, don't believe the (negative) hype, just buy your ticket, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the ride, one more time....
This movie was an uninspired ending to this new trilogy. It tried to do many things but couldn't finish them.
If Rey accidentally killed Chewie, it would have been an incredibly powerful scene; but no, it was just to get a reaction from the audience.
If Rey and Ben got together, we could have explored something like grey jedi; but no, he dies right after
Also, in the previous movies (and in the start of this one) we are shown how Rey is better at fighting with her staff rather than the lightsaber. Why, why not give her a dual lightsaber (Darth Maul inspired) instead of the classic (even if iconic) one?
The first thing I really disliked was the opening crawl text. I really felt like I had missed a movie. Too many facts are just narrated in a few lines of text at the start without showing them happening.
The plot felt all over the place for me. It wasn't that coherent, it's like they had a series of checkboxes to tick. Also way too many deus ex machina. There's a point in which saying "the force" isn't enough.
The visuals though, were amazing. Probably the best one of the new trilogy. Great scenery and really well done visual effects. Top notch.
Same thing for the actors. While the script wasn't amazing IMO (but it's Star Wars, dialogue was never its strong suit), the cast acted really well. I really liked Adam Driver in particular.
In the end, I wish it could have been done better. It opened with many interesting plots, but wasn't able to tie them together properly. Maybe a trilogy as big as this one should have been planned better?
6/10
What a mess...
No arc, no logic, cheap twists. The only arc that is present in the new trilogy is that - TFA was mediocre, TLJ was disappointing, and the last one is just painful to watch.
The only Star Wars movie from the Disney that I may recommend is Rogue One. At least it was original, had some logic and sense in it, interesting characters.
I thought I'd jot down some random thoughts I had watching Rise of Skywalker:
-Why does Kylo Ren wear his helmet only when it's NOT needed?
-Does Rey have a change of clothes? Can't she at least bring a carry on?
-Chewbacca's hair doesn't do well in dry desert conditions
-Lando's got connections. He must keep his LinkedIn account current
-Poe gets promoted to General and then hits his personal Peter principle
-I'd like to fix shit with Babu Frik in his workshop
-Rey isn't totally annoying in this movie
-Finn actually seems to matter. He's keeping Poe, Chewy, and Rey in line
-C3PO isn't totally annoying in this movie
-Do you need gravity to run around the deck of a Star Destroyer in space?
-Do you need air to run around the deck of a Star Destroyer in space?
-Why are data transfers done with RJ45 and IDE connectors? Where's the WiFi?
-Why did they name that new droid after an '80s Metal band?
-So that's what those blue slots on R2D2's front plate were for
-Why can't Zorii Bliss take off her helmet like everyone else?
-Advice to the Empire...Going forward, just give the Stormtroopers shotguns
-Ghost Luke walking out of the flaming Tie Fighter is the funniest thing I've seen in a movie all year
terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible terrible
was it perfect? of course not. you can't cram everything into a 2 hour movie, but as someone who grew up on the original trilogy, as in saw them all when they originally came out in the theaters, i thought it wasn't too bad. i tend to be more into the sith/jedi stuff than all the other "filler" in these movies though, so as always i think there's never enough of that in these movies, and in this case i think there should been a lot more emperor scenes. this is the coolest he's ever looked and acted, and yet they didn't use him enough. even if they had to extend the movie say, another half hour to add a half hour more of the emperor I'd have loved it. would've also loved an emp/kylo fight.
Started as murky as the previous one ended, and then the plot just got worse, and worse, and worse.
I really liked this movie and I cannot understand the extreme low scores some people give. The visuals were amazing, the action was great and it had all the Star Wars elements it should. Sure the story had some issues, but it brought all the storylines together from the former films. That's an accomplishment in its own. Seems that there are different standards for SW movies and people are hoping to get that feeling from their youth back. Grow up and just enjoy this fun adventure!
I really do not understand the hate this movie gets. It almost feels like a hive mind effect where viral videos are influencing people's opinions, rather than just forming their own. I absolutely love this movie. For me, it is nearly perfect. The only minor complaint I have is that the Leia scenes feel awkward, but obviously, they were limited in what they could do with that, and considering they avoided doing a deepfake/cgi version, the results are not bad considering the situation.
Otherwise, I think Palpatine is a fantastic villain, and his inclusion was a stroke of brilliance. The Last Jedi sort of wrote the series into a corner. Where The Force Awakens set up all these threads for the trilogy to follow, The Last Jedi basically ended them all, and basically gave the middle finger to anybody who was curious about the mysteries the previous movie set up. So yeah, JJ felt like he needed to do some course correction to get out of the corner the previous movie sort of forced them into, but I think he did it in a way that's still respectful of what The Last Jedi did, while still being a satisfying conclusion to what TFA set up. Using Palpatine is smart because it finds a way to tie all of those loose threads together, but also simultaneously brings all three trilogies together, and even delivers on the promise Palpatine made to Anakin in episode 3. Plus the idea of Palpatine returning is something that has existed in the old EU for a long time and it's something I was always interested in seeing on screen.
As for the rest of it, Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver are brilliant as always, but the rest of the cast is actually used really well. I especially enjoyed C3PO in this one. The story is a fast paced adventure, with a lot of exciting locations and action, but all of this is grounded by good story and character development work. It all feels really satisfying.
They cant be serious. Palpatin is back again why didnt they bring another death star. Ohh wait they did but now its a Ring around a Planet and not a whole Metall ball. Never seen a more boring and uncreative franchise than this. The older ep 4 5 and 6 were at least enjoyable but still uncreative. This isnt even that.
Ive seen so many doomsday weapons in Action Media and all they can come up with is a big Ball for 3 times with the same villain.
The only decent new star wars movie is rouge one
Absolutely amazing a few flaws yes but still amazing
Don't watch this one.
Compared with episodes 7 and 8, this is passable. Of course, at this point, you probably already learned to overlook the poor writing, but everything considered, this is fine
Original trilogy, episodes IV–VI
A New Hope (1977) https://trakt.tv/movies/star-wars-1977
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) https://trakt.tv/movies/the-empire-strikes-back-1980
Return of the Jedi (1983) https://trakt.tv/movies/return-of-the-jedi-1983
Prequel trilogy, episodes I–III
The Phantom Menace (1999) https://trakt.tv/movies/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-1999
Attack of the Clones (2002) https://trakt.tv/movies/star-wars-episode-ii-attack-of-the-clones-2002
Revenge of the Sith (2005) https://trakt.tv/movies/star-wars-episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sith-2005
Sequel trilogy, episodes VII–IX
The Force Awakens (2015) https://trakt.tv/movies/star-wars-the-force-awakens-2015
The Last Jedi (2017) https://trakt.tv/movies/star-wars-the-last-jedi-2017
The Rise of Skywalker (2019) https://trakt.tv/movies/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-2019
Anthology films
Rogue One (2016) https://trakt.tv/movies/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-2016
Solo (2018) https://trakt.tv/movies/solo-a-star-wars-story-2018
Rogue Squadron (2023) https://trakt.tv/movies/rogue-squadron-2023
How does the evil empire have all the resources they have in this movie, when they have already been defeated in an earlier Star Wats movie?
There is a new official and good government in charge now, but they are never mentioned. It would be their job to defeat the empire and the sith, not the job of "the resistance."
The resistance isn't even needed anymore because the good guys have already won. The new movies keep forgetting that and the people who watch the movies seem to forget it too.
The best part of this movie is the possible love affair between Kylo Ren and Ray, and their possible force having love child! It's too bad the movie wasn't written that way. It would have been a better story.
I thought I'd jot down some random thoughts I had watching Rise of Skywalker:
-Why does Kylo Ren wear his helmet only when it's NOT needed?
-Does Rey have a change of clothes? Can't she at least bring a carry on?
-Chewbacca's hair doesn't do well in dry desert conditions
-Lando's got connections. He must keep his LinkedIn account current
-Poe gets promoted to General and then hits his personal Peter principle
-I'd like to fix shit with Babu Frik in his workshop
-Rey isn't totally annoying in this movie
-Finn actually seems to matter. He's keeping Poe, Chewy, and Rey in line
-C3PO isn't totally annoying in this movie
-Do you need gravity to run around the deck of a Star Destroyer in space?
-Do you need air to run around the deck of a Star Destroyer in space?
-Why are data transfers done with RJ45 and IDE connectors? Where's the WiFi?
-Why did they name that new droid after an '80s Metal band?
-So that's what those blue slots on R2D2's front plate were for
-Why can't Zorii Bliss take off her helmet like everyone else?
-Advice to the Empire...Going forward, just give the Stormtroopers shotguns
-Ghost Luke walking out of the flaming Tie Fighter is the funniest thing I've seen in a movie all year
Soulless product with hollow and dumb plot (snake under the sand with the dagger, wtf). This is what you got when you create movies based on fanservice and merchandise demands.
The characters are shouting to each other non-stop, no arc, no development, no weight of their actions (Oh, Chewie died... no he did not. OK.)
JJ wanted to undo everything what Rian Johnson in TLJ did. It's silly when you see the clash of the directors in a trilogy. They could have just do a friendly box match and leave us out of it.
Basically we got a third trilogy of SW that ends the same: Palpatine zaps himself with his lightnings. Very "creative".
It was really bad, I was embarrassed watching this.
"May the Force be with you."
Poor script, poor characters... Nothing new in StarWars.
I rewatched The Rise of Skywalker the other day in honor of May the Fourth. I've been steadily rewatching the franchise (as I basically always am) and as I made my way back through it I was hit in the face with a bag of bricks with a realization: all these movies are good to varying degrees, but if you want to look at each trilogy as its own entity it becomes absolutely fascinating. The original trilogy is a fan favorite. It has two of the strongest entries of the whole deal and it gets bonus points for kicking off this absolute unit. But it also feels extraordinarily limited at times, not by technology but in an understanding for how a universe can exist. This is through no fault of the films or the talent behind them, who could have really known what Star Wars would become? I think my most nuclear take at this point, though, is that the prequel trilogy is actually lowkey the best trilogy. It's the most consistent, it builds world the best, introduced the best memes, and feels like an incredibly cohesive three film arc, particularly if you start considering Obi-Wan as protagonist and think of it as some tragic arc. Everyone sort of recognizes Revenge of the Sith as a good film, but the way all three of those films move is dynamic in a way that makes me absolutely mourn how blockbusters used to function.
And then we get to the sequel trilogy. It's definitely the most uneven of the whole lot. But in being uneven, you introduce variance. And in the case of the sequel trilogy, that means you get the highest highs (The Last Jedi is unquestionably the best entry in the entire franchise. Yes, I will explain that in another post. And no, your opinion does not supersede mine). But you also get the lowest lows: enter Rise of Skywalker.
The issue with this movie boils down to how everyone treated Episode VIII. It gave everyone cold feet on how to move forward because not only did Solo underperform at the box office, but it was also happening in the wake of the whole DC Universe thing crashing and burning which was happening alongside the Dark Universe failing to even launch. Studios were suddenly aware that their franchises, regardless of how big and produced they felt, might suck--financially and critically. And so, after all this happened and Disney also saw the shifting perspective of Trevorrow we witnessed one of the harshest pivots I've ever seen in a sequel. The Last Jedi works because of how it subverts expectation for how a second entry in a trilogy operates. So many plot threads were seemingly resolved. Luke is dead, Snoke is dead, Rey's parentage was revealed (and yes, her being nobody is much more interesting by a country mile). It set up the then theoretical Episode IX to be something entirely new because it seemed like it would be much more difficult to just be some retread of anything we'd seen before. And instead, Disney and Abrams and Kennedy seemed to get cold feet.
The Rise of Skywalker feels like two movies smashed into one. And so my biggest question becomes: if they were going to pivot this hard, why not just make two movies? You don't need to retcon anything. Just have the Skywalker Saga end not with a trilogy, but a quadrilogy. I mean, hell, even call it Rise of Skywalker Part 1 and Part 2 to keep it technically as a trilogy, a la Tarantino on Kill Bill. I doubt anyone would have really been upset they needed to go see another Star Wars movie in theaters. And it would have easily fixed the biggest issue in the finished product: the pacing.
I'm an editor. Pacing is something I'm always tracking and clocking. It's chief amongst any editor's concerns when piecing together the movie after everything is shot. And Rise of Skywalker's pacing isn't whack just because of how quickly it moves, but because of how many elements it introduces and then immediately moves on from. When Disney announced this was the end of the Skywalker Saga, I immediately assumed we'd see a long movie. I'm never really upset to have a theatrical experience like that either. And Disney themselves proved fans will turn out in droves to see long movies with Endgame, so when the runtime for Episode IX came in ten minutes shorter than Episode VIII, you could say I was confused. adding a half hour to this movie would remedy so many issues with it (although you should also excise everything Palpatine here too).
And it's weird because everyone's biggest echo was that the sequel trilogy felt so unsure of itself. And Disney had an opportunity to use everything set up in VII and VIII to prove that as absolutely false. There was a great thread running through the sequel trilogy that the old blood and old ways have a tendency to repeat the past mistakes and that rebellion and greatness can come from anyone. And they reneged on it. They had a great throughline of pushing the story out of realms we'd seen before: new lightsabers, new planet types, a side of the galaxy that had been to that point unexplored (Rose and the Codebreaker are such good characters because they are actual laypersons, two sides of just trying to see the next day). But instead we got a package where Rey's power only comes from her parentage, Kylo Ren gets a redemption because so did Vader, rogues who seem uninterested show up because they've got good hearts. And Rey just...chooses to claim Skywalker, despite being associated with both Vader and Kylo Ren?
Listen. If you look at The Rise of Skywalker in a more isolationist perspective, it's really not that bad. It's still a hell of a lot of fun and has some really great worldbuilding to it. I liked the idea of settlements. I liked seeing the aftermath of the Death Star crashing onto a planet. I liked the idea of a Sith homeworld (even though Palpatine shouldn't be there). It had a focus on adventuring that hasn't really been seen in the movies which are usually much more conflict based than exploratory. So there's things peppered throughout that seem to be less concerned with wrapping up the Skywalker Saga, and more with being a love letter to the franchise to show how much more juice it has in it. And I'm cool with all that. I think it does a good job at proving that it exists less as a series and more as a series set within an entire universe. It might put a bow on one massive story, but there's so much more to explore. It has a good mouth feel, if that makes sense.
"This will be the final word in the story of Skywalker."
I am not sure I know what I want in a Star Wars movie anymore. There are days I think they are going in the right direction, and there are others where I think I am not as big of a fan as I used to be. Either way I am glad that the storyline was able to get to an end, and am now excited to see where the tv shows can lead us.
I'm not a Star Wars aficionado but its a damn gorgeous movie. Is it my favorite no? Watch again yes. There were things I did not know existed in the Star Wars universe I'm guessing that's what people have problems with.
I'm not as mad this time round as opposed to after I watched it the first time, maybe that's down to knowing how the story in this film plays out, therefore making it a softer pill to swallow. However, my overall rating of Episode XI hasn't changed dramatically on a second viewing, this still feels ABSOLUTELY HOLLOW! A husk of a Star Wars movie, that ultimately leaves you wanting Disney to sweep this entire trilogy under the rug and begin again, only this time get Lucas back as Head Writer and for the love of God, plan the fucking ending of the trilogy first, that way all three films work story wise as opposed to spit-balling plots and characters archs just like this sorry ass trilogy did.
So much better than the Comedy that was Last Jedi. Still not a fantastic film, being full of fan service, MacGuffins, and things just happen without much reason. It does, however, have some great visuals, and clean up of the threads from the last film. Still some failed plot points, but meh. Would have liked to see Rey delve deeper into the dark side... While not great, it was an entertaining conclusion.
Okay so this one I actually liked, one of the better ones from modern star wars.
This movie was whiplash in the worst way. Let's somehow take all the things people didn't like in the last movie and take them in the exact opposite direction so fans are happy. Amd that's all this movie felt like, a last ditch effort to just throw in things fan will like in order to save the series. I honestly would have preferred some continuity and things making sense over what felt like fan fiction. Rey and Finn, but now Finn and Rose, and now Finn and some random new chick? Then there seems to be chemistry between Rey and Poe and just as that builds let's add a past lover as a completely unrequited ridiculous love interest to halt that in its tracks. And just for good measure let's add a kiss with Ben to please the fans. It was just all over the place and I really wanted to like it because I love Star Wars. I stuck by the first movie despite its problems. I even stuck my the second movie despite its ruining of Luke and yet I just can't seem to do it anymore. I really wish we could just rewrite this and hit redo.
A film that wants to end a trilogy, even a story that spans 9 films and series. And yes, an end is being told. Unfortunately, whether this end is historically or technically good is a completely different question. With a running time of over two hours, it is not short, but it seems very rushed all the time. That would not have been necessary. Instead of writing a meaningful story, J.J. Abrams skid from one plot device to the next and manages - even more than part 8 - to lead a fantastic, but often at least consistent, story to the end of a crash landing, at the end of which the heroes celebrate over the burning wreck. Starting from the feeble-minded search for Sith Wayfinders, that Palpatine of course made if the postman would like to send a forwarding order, via this dagger that was also forged so that it works as a fold-out route map from exactly this random point on the meadow to the ultra-great fleet full of star destroyers (This time they at least deserve the name) which are unfortunately only controlled by this one navigation signal. There are simply too many plotholes & nonsensical plot devices in this story that even unbiased moviegoers can only shake their heads and wonder how one could not criticize this story during the pre-screenings.
The next point that catches your eye in this great story is the scenes in which it becomes clear that J.J. and Rian Johnson will probably never meet friendly again. Yes, part 8 was "different" in feeling and had its own problems. But at least it continued the story. In its best moments, episode 9 pretends that part 8 does not exist and in its worse moments he literally makes fun of scenes from the previous film. Everyone can have their personal aversions, but being so unprofessional that with your anger ruining the finale of the world's largest franchise requires a very special level of arrogance.
On the other hand, the technology and effects are on the good side. Again there are some nice pictures and scenes that inspire the inclined fan, even if the fan service takes up too much space. At the end of the saga, you can still accept some pictures that are bursting with pathos with a smile. Quite simple shots like the picture of the TIE Fighter next to the X-Wing at the entrance of the Sith Temple reflect the struggle of the two groups Rebels vs Imperium, which has now been going on for so many years, so wonderfully quiet.
Many other things could be mentioned, especially the list of completely brain-torn logic holes and Deus Ex Machinas could be continued for almost any length of time, but that has already been done enough elsewhere. For me it is the end of the new trilogy, which I look at quite detached from the original trilogy. It is easy entertainment and unfortunately with this film the first time that I came out of the cinema completely underwhelmed and just didn't feel anything. I still really like the universe and the stories behind it - only the official films of episodes 7-9 are quite unnecessary waste of time apart from a few scenes and storylines. Too bad. 4/10
The fan service is strong with this one. So strong, in fact, that it generates a few cringeworthy moments where the plot and logic are sacrificed for some quick feelz.
Still, I have to give J.J. credit. Rian Johnson left him with a lot of bad lemons in various stages of rot and decay, and J.J. managed to make a pretty good pitcher of lemonade out of some of it. Yes, there were some lemons that were completely tossed aside, but that was the best thing to do with them.
And as much as I continue to hate what he did to the Star Trek franchise, I do believe that J.J. truly grasps what Lucas was always trying to build here. Johnson mistakenly believed that there was room in Star Wars for a lot of navel-gazing and uncertainty and gray, but it's ALWAYS been about good versus bad in a simple Saturday afternoon matinee sort of way. And J.J. understands that really well. So while there were not a lot of profound moments here, that was a good thing since it got things back to their roots and brought it all home in the end.
There will always be room for grayness and ambiguity and uncertainty in my movie diet, but there's also plenty of room for Star Wars as Lucas built it and as J.J. so lovingly continued it. So props to Abrams here. Just, you know, keep him the hell away from Trek.
A film filled with some great moments and a relentless pace, it is also hamstrung by two key decisions that should have been struck down as pure fan fiction. Firstly, the decision to bring back Palpatine as the key villain narratively might have worked if the film had been building up to this moment, yet it is thrown in with barely any explanation or setup at the start and only serves to leave a huge amount of plot and story barely explained as well as weaken the previous films, given that his inclusion is clearly intended to link to previous entries in the saga. Unfortunately, the filmmakers then double down on this error in trying to link Rey to this character, a decision that comes completely out of nowhere and can surely only stem from the backlash to The Last Jedi.
It’s a shame because there is much to like in this film - anything with Leia is extremely well done given the situation the filmmakers find themselves in ; most of the cameos from the original trilogy are very well done although Luke it seems is particularly wasted especially given the potential from the previous film. Also, when the film does focus on its key characters, notably the relationship between Rey and Kylo, it works extremely well. There are some great action beats within the film, usually involving these two central characters and both give great performances. The resolution to both their arcs is largely well conceived, but its in marrying this with the bizarre decision to bring back Palpatine that ultimately it doesn’t work as well as it should. Frankly it is a real shame that having been given carte blanche with The Last Jedi to bring the focus onto Rey and Kylo, the film feels the needs to rely on another character that has not even figured in the last two films when one of the great things about these new sequels was the new characters that had been introduced.
As an ending to the sequel trilogy, it is the weakest of the three, but as an ending to the whole Skywalker saga it can’t help but be hugely disappointing.
So long story short. The movie was trash. It is literally the result of Hollywood trying imbed identity politics where it doesn't below. First they added a black guy at the beginning of the series. Okay that was fine. He played the role well enough. And then they added a woman. They turned her into a superwoman but she simply could not do basic things like actually acting. Ben is bad a**. We love vilan Ben. Nope, they turned him into a fruit cake because you know what women empowerment. Ben either loses so she can superwoman or Ben get forced into submission. So he did. At the end there were two women kissing. Okay Hollywood. We saw what you did there. We got it. A confused little girl who just found out she got powers yesterday brought down the dark forces. Why couldn't they leave the story alone? Why? Why? I am so annoyed.
Terrible.. Cheesy.. Predictable & twist failure
To start, I thought Force Awakens was fine, but not amazing. The Last Jedi, despite one subplot I thought was unneeded, I genuinely liked. The Rise of Skywalker... well, it's also fine. I really enjoyed some of the moments Kylo Ren and Rey had throughout the film (and I still think Kylo Ren was the strongest character of this trilogy), but the rest of the characters... eh, I still just had difficulty really developing much of a relationship with them. Some of the setpieces here were amazing and I was ok with Palpatine being the big bad. However, I really hope that Disney expands the universe of this trilogy further as there's so much lore I'd love to dive into that is only touched upon briefly throughout this film. At the end of the day, this was, again, fine (and I love the spectacle of the Star Wars universe), but it didn't do anything particularly groundbreaking or game-changing.
The Rise of Skywalker had been on my "to watch" list even before it came out. Because of all the negative backlash this movie received, I never decided to watch it in the theaters. Recently, this movie was leaked online and as soon as it did, I decided it was time to give it a chance - despite everything that was being said and all the spoilers I accidentally read while browsing Reddit.
After watching the movie I began to think about things they could have made better, but I did enjoy it. Whether or not if it was because it was another Star Wars film has yet to be clear for me.
In the end, I felt that these movies could have been made better than what they were, as it opened up the possibility of introducing more threats than the ones we are far too familiar with in the Star Wars universe. For example - When Palpatine was revealed to be alive he could have introduced us to more Sith for Rey to face. Which makes sense in the end, since Kylo betrayed Palpatine and the Empire.
I just don't understand how Kylo Ren was the only Sith Rey had to face this entire time.
Also, Having Rey denounce her last name that her parents gave her, despite it being from a sinister origin , made me kinda lose some respect for her in the end. If she really wanted to have the Skywalker name she could have made it : Rey Skywalker Palpatine. Or Rey Palpatine Skywalker. Any way would have been fine.
Leia's CGI was terrible right for the get-go. It immediately felt like a recording from the previous movies, which I know was planned, and I believe they could have made it more convincing with the money they had. They pushed out the movies too soon and it leaves a bitter taste, just like GOT S8.
2 / 2 directing & technical aspect
.5 / 1 story
1 / 1 act I
1 / 1 act II
1 / 1 act III
1 / 1 acting
1 / 1 writing
0 / 1 originality
0 / 1 lasting ability to make you think
1 / 1 misc (best installment)
8.5 / 10
I'm not a fan, so I can understand why some people loved it and some people hated it. Fanboys will whine, but Abrams hit the nail on the head with this one. Not only did he improve on the original's humor and writing, he improved on the sequels' direction and cinematorgraphy. Fun movie, good finale, best one.
Where to begin? Where to end? These were not questions that were asked with any sincerity when these films were begun, and it's impossible to review them without getting into meta-commentary about the production, because that's where most of the drama resides.
These three films are simply not a trilogy. They are three films that ended up with two directors-- the first whom was contracted to make a nostalgia-bait remake of A New Hope for the demographic bloc that Disney thought they could siphon the most credits from, retconning everything in the saga up to that point for the safest remake landscape possible as the shareholders saw it --and the second, who set out to sabotage the efforts and plot threads of the preceding film so he could make his own "subversion" of it and its characters, while prematurely ending the saga in the middle. Then the first yes-man had to try to course-correct and recreate and finish a trilogy in a single film, while trying to pander harder and reel back in fans who had been, or had become soured to the whole mishandled endeavor since the release of the first film.
There is no way any of this could have ended well, and, unsurprisingly, it ended up destroying Star Wars more thoroughly than it would have if they had actually had a plan going forward from TFA's reboot of the universe, and the film we got was a frenetic, nonsensical mess, even for a JJ Abrams film. But hey, it does want you to like it! As skull-achingly stupid as all three of the scripts have been, this one is the most like a puppy that just wants you to like it, and it is genuinely cute for about a collective 5 minutes of the run time.
But that puppy is the size of Clifford, has developed rabies, and has just crashed through the roof of your house after you CALLED IT AND WENT TO SEE ALL OF THE MOVIES IN THEATRES, THIS IS YOUR FAULT, OKAY, THIS IS NO LONGER AN ANALOGY.
STOP GIVING MONEY TO MASSIVE CORPORATIONS TO TRASH EVERY LAST BIT OF CULTURE WE HAVE!
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’:
It was definitely fun (how could it not be?), but I was hoping for a little more finality to what‘s supposed to be the end of the Skywalker saga. It would’ve been nice to see Rey training a new generation of Jedi with Finn as one of the teachers.
I reeeaaally missed Yoda in this one, but loved that the Emperor had one final stake in the story. He’s been such a driving force since the beginning.
Rey is such a great character - and I would say her presence was just as epic as Luke’s in the original films. I enjoyed the other newbies, but nobody reached Han/Leia status. And Kylo/Ben was a little lacking from start to finish. Ultimately, the new trilogy wasn’t perfect - but it was a fun ride through a wonderfully-nostalgic and iconic world.
As the concluding episode of what Disney terms a 'saga', The Rise of Skywalker carries with it the weight of ten previous entries as well as having to resolve the tension between pleasing the sort of fans who complain vociferously online if new films don't reach their internal visions and the need to innovate and break out of the well-worn formulas so comforting to the denizens of Reddit. The extremely vocal reaction to perceived insults to the fan community in Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi must have weighed heavily on the decision makers at Disney as, after much-publicised ruction behind the scenes, they decided to re-hire JJ Abrams, whose The Force Awakens was little more than a shiny retread of the original Star Wars. Perhaps the thinking was that he could mollify those who had been upset at the previous entry, bring them back into the fold and simultaneously end the 'saga' on a satisfying, emotionally resonant conclusion. While the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes indicate that the staid, familiar comfort food presented has been just the ticket for those upset, this comes at the cost of not only what made the original trilogy occupy such a hallowed place in 20th century pop culture but anything resembling a coherent film.
Abrams promised repeatedly that he wouldn't seek to row back or retcon any of the plot innovations introduced by Johnson; this seemed unlikely at the time and so it has proved. From the beginning of the opening crawl, Abrams seeks to claw back the vision he obviously initially had when directing The Force Awakens while introducing new and baffling elements seemingly only as fan service. Everything feels rushed: we barely have time to gather in a scene before the characters have moved on to the next stage in their MacGuffin quest, the screen filling with ever-increasing detritus. When you look at the structure of the best film in the series, The Empire Strikes Back, it has a clear three-part structure: Hoth, Luke on Dagobah/hiding on the meteor/Bespin. It's neat, it builds towards the conclusion in a clear way and it paces its action set-pieces well. This, on the other hand, is so jam-packed that it never stops to let the audience breathe.
The producers found themselves in an impossible position after the death of Carrie Fisher; Abrams promised that she would be brought back using outtake footage shot for the previous two instalments. This is, seemingly, only partly true: CGI has clearly been used to manipulate existing footage, giving it an unnatural, uncanny valley-like sheen, and all of Leia's scenes feel awkward. They're clearly built around the dialogue left over and it shows as the characters interact with her digital avatar and each other. She's quickly removed from the action and then dispensed with entirely, and while the nature of her inclusion is obviously a delicate matter, I can't help but wonder if it may have been better to leave the character off-screen entirely. One bright spot was Richard E Grant's Allegiant General Pryde who has exactly the sort of stiff, pompous air that Peter Cushing had as Grand Moff Tarkin. Every scene he's in is brightened, which is nearly—nearly—enough to redeem the endless exposition.
The stakes get higher and higher as we rush towards the over-stuffed conclusion and the particulars of the plot get more and more ridiculous. The idea that each instalment needs to be bigger and flashier than before leads us to a truly mind-boggling last half an hour in which characters overcome obstacles that would have previously been significant as if they were minor inconveniences. Redemption is achieved without much weight or thought and the film swings for an emotional coda that doesn't land or make much sense. It all feels like a wasted opportunity, a Disney-mandated theme park ride designed to sell toys and keep the internet happy. The wonder of the original trilogy is long a memory now, replaced by an apparently never-ending stream of Marvel-style 'event movies'. It's a pity.
I loved TFA, I liked TLJ, this though... I did feel bad rating it so low because I loved the usage of the score and the water/high wave fight scene was badass but it was bad it's like they didn't care at all
Also what did John Boyega do to deserve this? I feel like they must have hated him on some level to treat his character like some whining kdrama 3rd wheel nice guy who didn't get the decency of a sad "I'm all alone feeling sad :(" scene these characters usually get in kdramas, why couldn't he have at least got to be with Rose Tico if not Rey smh could've taken a minute what a lame end to an originally interesting character
Full disclosure - I am not a fanboy. I don't know all of the various secondary story lines and I really didn't care too much if there were minor plot holes. I generally don't like comic book movies and when I do watch them I don't take them too seriously. That said... I didn't mind this movie at all. Or the one before it. I did have a problem with 7 because it essentially felt like "hey, we've got the band back together so lets go re-make a movie that we've already made before". It has to be hard to close up this kind of series as I really don't think you can win. They could have beaten us over the head with cliches about the force (the dialog at the end of ROTJ almost kills the scene). They could have dipped even further into nostalgia. I think the final narrative (each of us has a choice at to who we are) is excellent and the people executing their will against their oppressors is timely. Did it feel like a video game at times? Sure. Overall I was entertained on the level that I was watching it.
One other note. There have been a ton of "rank all of the Star Wars movies" blogs coming out and many of them have this one as the worst of them. I didn't see the middle three (chronological order) for more than 10 minutes each but that was enough to see that they were unwatchable.
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Personally I thought it was quite enjoyable, slow start, but it ends on a nice high, closes off a lot of plot holes. My brother is very keen on the lightsaber fights.
All in all, cool.
A too much inflated bubble can always burst, but lets throw the malcontents aside. I consider the finale successful. There was action, there were emotions and the final with the Skywalker in the setting sun. What more could we want?
I can see why people didn’t like this but come on calm down. The story is okay a little predictable but still alright. The acting is great and it’s fun to see the characters in their final journey. To be honest I did not like the return of palpitine. There is a lot of nostalgia and a few tear jerkers. It feels long but the whole times it’s entertaining and the new characters are entertaining. Overall it’s a great ending to Star Wars.
(8 out of 10)
The errors of Last Jedi have been corrected. Yes, not as good as the original trilogy. Who could do that? But recaptures the excitement Force Awakens stirred and gives us Star Wars again. Course corrected.
One thing I did was prepare myself to take everything I could expect from the Final Episode in the ultimate saga. There is a mix of everything for all the fans and the director has done an splendid job to entertain and keep your adrenaline up throughout.
May the Force be with you!
If anyone is surprised by anything that happens in this movie, then they have not seen anything Disney has spewed on Earth. It wasted the build up of the last movie and gave us predictable. I have decided that after "empire strikes back" no other Star Wars movies exist. The sith win! :middle_finger:
Much of the best moments in 'The Rise of Skywalker' are the ones filled with Fan-service. In this manner, JJ manages to create a rollercoaster of emotions for this thrilling end of the Skywalker story and brings satisfying answers to HUGE mysteries of the trilogy (and the whole saga). Filled with jaw-dropping twists, unexpected outcomes and a more straight-forward plot, Rise of Skywalker course-corrects many of the bad aspects about the previous episodes in its very first act. Many will be divided about the direction for the whole film, but the finale proves to be what fans and none-fans alike didn't expected to watch in a very positive way.
Well a Star Wars by Disney!
Good picture with a story that tries to fix broken episodes 7 and 8. If you want to be advertise and have some nostalgia go check it.
Personnaly, I found some scenes entertaining, especially one Marvel-like scene toward the end, but the ending itself is really really poor. Disney should watch Joker or rewatch Rogue One to see that dramatic ending is also great.
I feel pleased and in high spirits after having seen the movie. It's not a great movie, for the moment I rate it a little lower than The Force Awakens but it is a solid 7/10. It's not going lower. By comparison, I felt absolutely nothing after Episode 8. During "The Rise of Skywalker" I had tears several points in the movie, especially at the end. Overall I feel satisfied.
I really loved the general idea of the movie. The problem is, it's only half baked. They didn't have time. It's unfortunate they lost time developing the arc with the second movie. This happens when you don't plan a trilogy in advance.
Here is how I rate the sequel trilogy
1- The Force Awakens
2- The Rise of Skywalker
3-
4- The Last Jedi
An awesome end to an incredible saga! The film was like an emotional rollercoaster that made up for all the issues I had with the abysmal The Last Jedi. Surprisingly, I found Rey to be somewhat tolerable in this film, and the synergy and chemistry between all the different characters was great. There are many shocking and unexpected moments and events in the film that I can say I certainly didn't see coming. Oh, and another thing, the way Leia was incorporated into the film without CGI-ifying her was very well done - you'd never guess that Carrie Fisher passed away.
Instead of taking people's reviews as your deciding factor to watch the film, treat yourself for Christmas and buy a ticket. Enjoy the film yourself - it's a journey and an experience that is meant to be an emotion-filled moment with unexpected twists and turns. Many reviewers are clinging onto the past and are disappointed because the film isn't how they wanted it to be made. Don't let this change your mind about whether you see it, go yourself and truly enjoy it. I came across these two reviews on Google that I think help to perfectly explain why "critics" and other people are reviewing it lower than it deserves. https://i.imgur.com/vn36r9h.png https://i.imgur.com/sTI1tFP.png
This is a huge course correction that practically negates TLJ. It has its moments, and given what the director-writer had to work with, it's understandable how it ends with such a feeble whimper. This isn't a good film and shouldn't be mistaken for one. TROS is a very disjointed, clearly rushed, derivative experience, that shows its editorial seams, packed with callbacks to all the good things the original trilogy had to offer in order to make you up for it. The visual effects are quite good in most places (nothing stunning or eye opening), but some in the third act are not really at par with the rest of the movie. The plot could be written up with a crayon in a napkin, and I wouldn't be amazed if that was the case, as this isn't Citizen Kane. The amount of loose ends and plot holes this film has, are way too many to me. This is a $300 million plus film (without accounting for marketing, re-shoots and extra CGI) and yet, it doesn't feel as good on the screen as Infinity War or End Game, (very good films made by the same Disney company). After leaving the theater, I was not full of hope, sad or willing to buy another ticket or even willing to watch this movie ever again. I felt nothing but sorry for George Lucas and couldn't care any less about what happens to Ben, Finn, Poe and Rey. The problem with this film when compared with any of the original trilogy is that those felt timeless (grounded on mythical archetypes, Japanese samurai films, Westerns, Flash Gordon serials and the hero's journey) and this plot will look very dated by next year, I'm sure of it. Luke Skywalker took 5 years to master the arts of the Jedi, having two Jedi masters to introduce him to its philosophy. Rey has some old books and voices in his head to kinda learn in months a lot of fantastic new Jedi powers that made no sense. No matter how much it makes back at the box office, it will lose in long-term repeated viewings (one time is enough for me), Blu-ray and DVD sales, and of course, merchandise. It is a good thing we have The Mandalorian to keep the franchise in life support until the inevitable reboot comes along in 5 years. Edit: Forgot to mention that there were only 9 people on the first IMAX showing of TROS on this movie theater (this is a 3.5 million people city). Back in 2015, all the showings were packed for TFA the first 4 days.
JJ did it again. I was absolutely mind blown by The Rise of Skywalker. I loved the storyline with the Emperor and they also did a great job ending Leia's storyline which was done very gracefully in my opinion. Overall just a perfect movie and a brilliant conclusion to the Skywalker saga.
I hate you with a passion J. J. Abrams, you are the new Michael Bay in my book. Evil...... They should have just left it with 4-6, all the other movies have royally sucked... And Jesus, pick a lane already with Rey and Kylo dude, three movies and cant decide if kylo is good or bad, news flash, that was already done with Vader..... lamest movie ever.... But wait, don't worry, just give it 10 years and Disney will probably reboot the whole 9 movies............ And dude, Palpatine died in Episode 6, I love how he literally gives no explanation once so ever as to how he came back other then, "he used the force." LOL ok? A little elaboration on how? Stupid, so stupid on so many levels. And did Finn even have a real role in this movie or was he just the "token black guy" in this star wars movie? hmmmmmm. And what was the point of Kylo, he didn't and never was going to ever live up to Vader, just don't see why they even tried. He honestly comes across as a whinney little baby. Vaders grand child would never have been so lame.........
To everyone who thinks that this film failed because they didn’t have the trilogy mapped out from the start:
You guys do realize that almost nothing in Hollywood is planned out in advance, right?
And that’s completely fine, especially if you have a smart filmmaker at the helm.
Go and watch some documentaries about Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, he’ll be the first to tell you that they didn’t even think about a trilogy while making Batman Begins.
You think Feige had the entire infinity saga mapped out during phase 1? Of course not, he just looks at what fits together when they’re developing their scripts.
If anything, it’s the fault of the filmmakers that this trilogy doesn’t feel cohesive.
I like a lot of the technical filmmaking here, which still elevates it somewhat, but this is an awful script.
It’s an overstuffed Russian doll macguffin hunt that cannot give proper pay offs to the emotional arcs of the trilogy.
4.5/10
Pros
+Effects looked great
+Action sequences were decent
+Outstanding costume design and visuals in general
+The moment with the surprise lightning was neat
+I like the general idea behind Ben Solo's redemption
+The acting was good enough
+Cone Head droid was BASED
Cons
------------- The main story line was absolutely moronic Even if we suspend the disbelief in that There's this massive sith fleet of planet destroying ships. Why the fuck are they waiting to do anything? They're literally just asking to be destroyed. Even if Sidious wants to wait for Rey to claim the throne he could have facilitated her arrival in so many ways. Waiting for Kylo Ren to provoke her into coming was awful, lazy writing
-There is almost no connection to any of the previous movies' plot line. It felt like they just decided that they should forget all of the build up done in the past two movies and said "Fuck it, we'll just do episode 6 again."
-Dumb revisionist bullshit with 0 actual explanation literally all they had to do to justify the Emperor was say that his force spirit possessed a clone he had. Him surviving his fall is just as idiotic as Darth Maul's resurrection. Sidious is an awesome villain but his inclusion doesn't strengthen this film, it just cheapens the others. The backtracking on the Last Jedi telling us Rey was just a normal person was absolute dog shit too. It was JJ completely caving into moronic fans who want the canon to match their fanfics. And then when push comes to shove.... THEY FUCKING GO BACK ON IT AND CLAIM IT WAS MEANINGLESS. Like bitch! You just unnecessarily brought it up and made the entire movie about this dumb shit, you clearly thought it mattered enough to write 90% of the dialogue about it
-They just copied episode 6 except woah get this!.... There is a whole fleet of OP megaweapons and they're all just waiting for the rebels to blow them up OMG! There's just a massive amount of "OH you've seen this before but now it's even stronger!" and it is just so uninspiring
-That backtracking on Chewy's death objectively made the movie worse considering Chewy did literally nothing in the movie anyway after that bit. It's just another example of this movie being completely sackless
-the spy gag did not hit and served no purpose
-The execution of all the subplots was really rushed, nothing they did had any weight to it until the final confrontation
-The last part is literally just Mass Effect 3's ending but with less weight because of the messy lead up
-The dialogue was kind of typical of Star Wars... which means bad... but it is what it is
-The world building was non-existent after that one festival bit. I want to know why it matters that the Sith fleet was destroyed. Are there not entire systems still loyal to the First Order? They give us nothing to go on. I mean even Episode 6 gave us little glimpses of other systems revolting after the destruction of the death star
It's sad that this is how the series will end, just trying to copy the earlier iterations with no respect for the new additions to the story or the backbone to defend decisions that were made that were good. Star Wars became huge and stayed huge because of the creativity. The fan response to the Last Jedi showed they couldn't try to be creative and tell the story in a unique way so they end up killing off the series with boredom. Rise of Skywalker isn't horrible but it is not worthy of being the big finale and it is easily the weakest in the series.
Since we can rate the whole bunch now here it goes
God Tier:
Last Jedi
Empire Strikes Back
Excellent Tier:
Revenge of the Sith
A New Hope
Good/Entertaining Tier:
Rogue One
Force Awakens
Attack of the Clones
Phantom Menace
Average Tier:
Return of the Jedi
Disappointing Tier:
Rise of Skywalker
Dog Shit Tier:
Solo
A perfect ending to the latest phase of the MCU. Nah, it was pretty good actually, though not inevitable at all. I can say that I did enjoy the movie a lot, especially during the second time. JJ managed to fix the mistakes of the previous one and put a great end to the trilogy, although I'm not sure whether it was the perfect finale for the whole saga.
I actually did it. Despite telling everyone I know, I'll never see this movie, I abandoned my principles. Well, that and I pay for Disney+ anyway. So, what the h***, right ? So, did I like it ? Not particularly. Do I hate it ? Same Answer. Truth be told I didn't expect anything.
First of, I felt I was sitting in front of the TV for at least three hours and was surprised it was way less. Is that a good thing ? I don't know. And I still feel they could loose an hour of the movie if the cut all the crap out. Visually it was great, althought at times overloaded. Which is true for many movies nowadays. But seriously, why? A hundred Star Destroyers are not impressive enough ? Let's make it one thousand ! You know what, it's CGI. Once we have the model they cost only pennies. So here's ten thousand (I didn't count them but I want to make a point). Same goes for the resistance fleet coming to the rescue. And those grand scenes where your character becomes a pin tip that is hard to make out. All this just to make the audience awe and to reflect from the fact that there is little content.
Because the story is all over the place with no real direction. Everything is coppled together. Is this the movie they wanted to make in the first place or is it them trying to plug the holes in the dam that came after TLJ? Everyone insists Johnson's movie didn't change a thing but I have my doubts. From my point it was a bad decision bringing Palpatine back. The way they did it with just the line in the opening text. Maybe do a flashback how he survived the fall, who found him, how he got to where he is. But he did little for me at all, that chapter closed with ROTJ. It was literally beating a dead horse. And with every scene and twist they try to climb one more step on the ladder to make something grand, not realizing they already went overboard two steps below.
How many times do we need to see a fight between Rey and Kylo ? Plus those fights were awful. Look at the Duel of the Fates or the Anakin vs Obi Wan on Mustafar as a template. They were full of intensity and emotion. Here it was one-two-three- STOP. Change position, repeat. I know a dozen vids on youtube with better choreographie.
And please do remind us another half dozen times that we are in this together because I am not sure I got it. Spanning the whole trilogy I didn't connect with any of the main characters at all. Which is another factor why this whole sequel is not for me.
In the end it is Star Wars as imagined by Disney. It's a benchmark at what is visually possible and at the same time an excample of what to avoid.
Now, I wrote a lot about something I didn't care about at first, didn't I ? I care for the franchise, but not for this sequels. I tried to see them as something seperate, removed from the Lucas movies. But even that didn't help. While TFA was not bad (or maybe it was the enjoyment of new SW getting the better of me) Ep.8 and Ep.9 are just not good movies.
Like everything I write it's my personal opinion. I don't attack people who like the movie so please grand me the same courtesy.
May the Force be with us.
@andreas1138
you wanted my opinion but it is not favorable.
Concerning Ren, I never liked him as his story is flawed to begin with. He wanted to continue Vader's work. But Vader came to the realisation that ultimately he was on the wrong side, killed Palpatine, and by that fullfilling the Prophecy and bring balance to the Force. He became Anakin again. Up to this point Vader was the ultimate evil. Kylo a wanna-be. He didn't understand Vader because if he had he would not have idealized him.
OMG What a Dumpsterfire :o .. and I though they couldn't get worse after TLJ.
You cannot make a movie by just cramping in content. You cannot expect people to enjoy a sequel by neglecting all the basic fiction physics that were built in all previous movies. You cannot have impressive scenes by rushing from one to the next. You cannot create a plot by sticking together random events.
And then they have the nerve to talk about fan service. Just making old characters appear in random places does not serve fans. It's just cheap bait to lure people into the cinema.
I'm The Spy
She's Gone
Hey Kid
I absolutely loved this movie. Every moment. I went in knowing nothing, and I'm so glad I did. What a beautiful experience and a fantastic way to end the saga.
I was so disappointed reading comments online afterwards. I wish everybody could have experienced it the way I did.
I liked it but didn't love it it. There were a few great moments and some eye rolling moments. The visuals looked great for the most part except for all the flashing lights that bothered me. Too many new characters introduced too quickly and the plot is silly but it's still a Star Wars movie.
Edit: I liked it a little bit better the second time knowing what was going to happen and just enjoying the ride. The plot and pacing are a mess but there are a lot of great moments. The action is pretty good and the CGI looks great except for flashing lighting is annoying. The weakest of the sequel trilogy but better than the prequels.
Minor spoilers: The Rise of Skywalker has less good reviews than the last film. Despite being more entertaining and faithful than that film was. Critics call being a fan service a bad thing, after they loved the Last Jedi.
There is some unanswered plot holes regarding Finn and Rey. As well as the Jedi kid, the previous film showed in the end.
Finn obviously wants to tell Rey he is force sensitive. He doesn’t get much to do that though. Other than chase her around like a clingy lost puppy, yelling “Rey! Rey! Rey!” Which almost even gets her killed at one point.
J.J Abraham’s can be known as a copy and paste Director. Most of The Rise of Skywalker at least doesn’t feel like a Return of the Jedi remake. Some of it should remind you of that film though. Otherwise Abraham’s didn’t copy and paste as much as usual.
I call trying to please fans a good thing. The Last Jedi may feel like the most original of the trilogy in the end though. Abraham does at least know StarWars more than Rian Johnson, however.
There’s plenty of satisfying moments. That outweigh any disappointing moments. Which you really can’t say about the Last Jedi. The Rise of Skywalker is entertaining and exciting throughout.
Great ending to the sequel trilogy as well as the Skywalker saga that spanned nine movies. Very impressively handled and rounded up the missing pieces from previous films quite nicely.
The very first scene already gripped me and I knew I was going to be in a for a helluva ride. I was not disappointed; it was a fantastic experience. The fourth (I think?) act had me in nearly constant tears, and the payoff at the end was very well done. I definitely enjoyed this movie and was entertained throughout.
Has numerous little nods and tie-ins to previous trilogies and well worth watching!
Its not the best star wars but is good
The franchise became chaotic and messy from all the backpedaling after fan criticism. Because of this, the 3rd trilogy feels incoherent and without a clear vision, which damages the overall story. This last part is still a good and enjoyable film, especially in the blockbuster 'genre', but it can't rise above (no pun intended) it's competition.
J.J. Abrams returns to complete the third Star Wars trilogy with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In the wake of Supreme Leader Snoke’s death former emperor Palpatine announces his return, leading Rey and a group of rebels to go in search of the Sith world Exogol; where Palpatine and his fleet are staging an attack. Abrams and his writing team do a good job at correcting Rian Johnson’s foul-ups in The Last Jedi, and at resolving the story threads begun in The Force Awakens. Additionally, Ian McDiarmid’s return brings a new energy to the series and Carrie Fisher is worked into the film impressive well using previously unused footage. And the special effects and action scenes are incredibly well-done. While it’s not the Star Wars film to ends all Star Wars films, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is an exciting and action-packed space adventure.
As a concluding movie of an epic 9 movie saga - this was a great ending. It was very satisfying to see the whole arc concluded in this manor especially when after Return of the Jedi we thought we'd never get to see the rest of the story. I do have one slight complaint tho - a lot of the action scenes were very reminiscent of the previous movies and therefore just a little boring to watch. But overall, still a great movie.
I love star wars fans and how silly they are. Is flash gordon with better effects, it always has been. Amazing movie.
good movie even with all the plot holes.
The best way to name this movie is Damage Control
Disney knew a backlash was coming. They knew the Solo Flop wouldn't be the end. They needed some strategy to stop this ship sinking. That's why the whole setup smells not like a story, but much more like the result of a board meeting, making decisions on how to save this movie. And with respect I must say, J.J. Abrahams put quite some smart effort into making this happen.
Many strategic strings were pulled, that were probably not planned at the time they started TFA.
- A large number of old characters were cramped into the movie, just to get more attention from fans
- References were added to decline badly received events from TLJ
- 2.5h of fast paced action was filmed, so that viewers don't have the time to realize how broken the story actually is
For people who just casually watch Star Wars and don't care too much about it, this can totally work. For people who have passionately followed the story lines, games, books etc. this movie is a desaster.
One can only hope that Disney learns from this mistake and in future hires directors/script writers, that are actually passionate about Star Wars.
You just don't introduce that many (some stupid) new technical things in the last episode of a Sci-fi saga like this (can't list them all, easily spottable for a fan). Some good things like Lando and the return to Tatooine at the end . Not bad, but easily the worst Star Wars. The Phantom Menace is a great film compared to this.
I can't wait to see how this trilogy ends, and possibly, the saga
After “The Rise of Skywalker," it should be clear to everyone that there was no real master plan for the story in the sequel trilogy. J. J. Abrams really is reversing almost all the decisions that Rian Johnson made in “The Last Jedi." Some people will like that, while others will hate it. Either way, it destroys any sense of a cohesive narrative across multiple films.
Overall, I think you can have fun with the movie, but there really isn't much that sticks with you. At some point, it's simply not enough to just present you with great space battles and action sequences. In a space saga, I expect at least a little depth in the story, and this is completely lacking here. Ultimately, it doesn't feel like the grand finale of a decades-old saga. And that is rather disappointing.
Is this a great Star Wars movie? No. Is this the worst thing to ever happen to Star Wars? Not even close.
And for all the "Anakin's sacrifice and turn was undone" fanboys, this doesn't undo what Anakin intentionally did to save Luke, or his turn back to the light. Anakin sacrificed his life to destroy the Sith master who'd turned him to ensure Luke's survival. We all saw as much when Luke saw the Force ghosts of puppet Yoda, Alec Guinness and Sebastian Shaw (before the sloppy Hayden Christensen insert in 2004). Anakin's sacrifice and turn to the light was not trumped by this movie, and anyone who argues otherwise is just repeating the laziest criticisms they've copy/pasted from the internet over the last four years.
Shout by purgaBlockedParent2019-12-24T11:27:14Z
I'm sorry but I'm pleased with this movie lmao. Don't care what anyone thinks. I was never hardcore SW fan and don't care about most of the drama and reveals in this movie.
Last minute love interests wasn't necessary and felt forced. Action was great, score is as always satisfying.
Also similarities to Avengers: Endgame is so funny. Third act is almost identical to "Avengers Assamble" scene and "I'm Iron Man" scene.
At least i think we are done with skywalkers and family drama in this huge sci-fi franchise.