Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, December 20, 2019) Movie • Page 327

let kylo fuck

 

JJ confirmed Finn wanted to tell Rey he was force sensitive too. He’s a bad writer.

 

Right before he’s about to die? Weird flex.

 

“With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg!”

 

Just another symptom of his mystery box disease. It doesn’t matter what Finn was going to say. The audience was gonna wonder what he was gonna say and that’s all JJ wanted. There’s nothing in the box and frankly audiences should feel insulted.

 

I don’t feel insulted. That’s what I always thought he wanted to tell her.

 

That was one of the least insulting parts of the movie imo, but the whole thing felt extremely insulting

 

I mean the movie in general. It’s a part of JJs lame mystery boxing schtick. Nothing matters as long as you’re surprised. Palpatine is back with no dramatization of how or why or tether to the existing narrative! Hux is a spy? Is there any hint of a reason in the last 5 hours of runtime to suggest why he might be? Doesn’t matter! Whoa, look at this fleet of ships! Everyone is saved! What inspired them to help? Who knows! Ben turns to the light side and wants to defeat Palpatine. What does this mean to him? What actually inspired it and how are his actions defined by that? Doesn’t matter, Rey hands him a saber through force time and we see Ben Solo with a blue lightsaber, isn’t that cool? (Yes, I’ll admit it was cool, but it would have been cooler if it meant anything). Rey killed Chewie?!?!? Just kidding. But you sure were shocked when you thought she did!

Audiences deserve better, smarter storytelling. Not the assumption that we’ll be be titillated by shock value. I know some of this relitigates stuff that’s already been said and I know some people like the movie, I’m not trying to invalidate that. But Abrams has been maybe the most frustrating director in the world to me for a long time.

 

It really is such an unsatisfying storytelling technique. It would be funny how terrible of a storytelling technique it is if he hadn't ridden it hard all the way to the top of the filmmaking world.

The final chapter in a trilogy that is also attempting to wrap up a nine film saga should probably introduce zero new mystery boxes.

 

I haven’t seen enough of Abrams’ work to agree but this is absolutely the most patronizing movie I’ve ever seen

 

I find it all the more frustrating because I honestly think he is a very talented director. His filmmaking in scene is incredible. I would love it if he directed movies but had absolutely no hand in their story or producing in any creative capacity really. Just direct scripts written by other talented writers.

 

Damn I really hated the ending battle too. Just a bunch of identical ships against a plain dark empty background. It’s like it took place in a video game tutorial level.

 

They should have split this into two films

 

Honestly an insane act of hubris by JJ Abrams to take back the trilogy, undo most of TLJ, and then prove that he had absolutely no good ideas on how to land any of the plot points he set up in TFA

 

His most thoroughly competent directorial work to date may be his episode of the Office. But I didn’t watch Lost, Felicity, or Alias so I can’t speak to those. He does craft a lot of visual energy, his first Star Trek, MI:3, and Force Awakens have a lot of exhilarating stuff to experience. But even here I found most of what was happening mundane and boring. The force-time saber fight and Rey’s handoff to Ben are the only visual sequences I felt drawn in to.

 

I wonder how much Terrio wrote of this. It’s hard for me to imagine JJ was responsible for something relatively grounded in TFA and then something this bombastic and ridiculous.

 

He is a filmmaker that I am so torn on, because to me story is really the most important thing, and I would say that is his absolute giant glaring weak spot. But I think he is a phenomenal technical director. Divorced from any critique about story choices and writing, I think Force Awakens, Star Trek '09 and Star Trek Into Darkness are all phenomenally directed. The thing is though, he is someone who has a tremendous amount of creative control over his projects, and as such, the story choices and writing are usually his responsibility and are actually an important part of filmmaking.

 

He, Inarritu, and Zack Snyder chill in the “technically proficient and skilled but their story/thematic choices drive me crazy” club

 

I honestly don't think Terrio had much say whatsoever in the major overall story beats. I think he was brought in to try to make the story ideas they had work a little better and finish the damn thing in time for shooting. I could be 100% dead wrong here.

 

I’ll need to see this again before I say this definitively, but in terms of story, plotting, and character... basically every element of writing except dialogue, I think this is about on par with the prequels. Heck, the prequels may have a more coherent plot than this

 

I am wracking my brain trying to come up with other examples in modern big budget filmmaking where the director actively tried to get out of directing the film or film(s) but ultimately had to bite the bullet and go ahead and do it for one reason or another. The only other two examples I can think of aside from the prequels are Chris Weitz with The Golden Compass and Peter Jackson with the Hobbit trilogy. All three examples I can think of are basically unmitigated fucking train wrecks.

 

wait what lol

seemed super obvious he was gonna say he loved her

 

A big part of me really wanted to see Rey go to the dark side. It could have been very compelling and a perfect bridge to the next series. I knew it wouldn’t happen. I just wanted to see something bold.

But I guess they want to just do a full restart that ends up with all the old stuff again lol

 

would not be surprised if that’s what Boyega thought too