Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, December 20, 2019) Movie • Page 294

I recall something about a son in an old EU book.

 

The first thought that came to my mind was an ad for ancestry.com or something

She was done dirty, as was Maz

 

I guess we're done spoiler tagging.

The emotional moments are where this movie really showed its stripes. A few Chewie moments, Han showing up, Leia's send-off, and the last 10 minutes or so.

I loved this movie, but I agree with the general consensus of "What?" and "Why?" The first hour moved so fast, and was a flurry of like "Shit, okay."

The second they got to the Death Star wreckage though, I loved every second from there.

I can see why people are like "This is a fanfiction tickbox." That's kind of J.J.'s shtick. I think he's a great filmmaker, but I also keep in mind that he's a nostalgia fanboy.

I loved this. I love all 3 of the sequels, and based on how happy this made me on initial viewing, it ranks above TLJ for me. It gave me the Star Wars feels, and that's all I wanted.

 

About to drive home from screening 2.

2 big things this movie didn’t understand about the saga and TLJ.

1. why the hell does Rey (who we are sort of shown and told has been being trained by Leia) kill Kylo the first chance she gets? How is this the trained up Rey? And why isn’t that act enough for her to go to the Darkside? They don’t really get the lesson Luke learned in ROTJ at all, even after seeing it so clearly displayed in TLJ. Instead, yep just kill everyone, it’s fine. Ignore Luke’s legacy until Palpatine of all people reminds you striking down in anger leads to the Darkside.

2. so Luke’s incredible sacrifice in TLJ that we were shown spread across the galaxy had nothing to do with bringing people together? It was Lando asking more directly? What the fuck

I gotta drive home, it’s almost 4am. The second viewing def made me realize I can’t love this movie. There is stuff I like, but damn is it surrounded by poor choices.


And I’m just gonna assume Ezra wasn’t a voice because he is still alive somehow some where. But Ashoka is dead :(

 

My boi. Hopefully this isn't the last we see of him

 

Ben totally ghosted Rey after that kiss

 

As much as I enjoyed this, and call it awesome, I'm just happy that despite peoples numerous issues with it, that it's still getting ranked above the prequels.

They were complete trash. This had problems for sure, but wasn't.

 

Being a Jedi is a long commitment. Fuck getting tied down to that shit.

 

despite this movie going against everything I personally wanted for these characters and this story, I was trying to put that aside last night in my head and see whether they did a good job with what they went with and they just didn't. nothing makes sense, nothing feels earned. it's almost all stupid.

Kylo was the most fucked over to me, don't feel like him turning makes any sense at this point and all he did after was end up helping give Palpatine more power. Then bring her back Rey back to life? I get that he liked Rey but why does he go from wanting to rule the fucking galaxy to giving his life for her in like a single day? It just feels like a retread of Vader that makes even less sense which is what I was afraid of all along.

Palpatine being in the movie at all is dumb as hell. Him surviving is dumb, him being able to make all that shit in secret is dumb, him creating Snoke and being behind all that shit is dumb, it makes no fucking sense.

Also Rey couldn't kill him or she'd become a sith but then he can revive himself anyway off the Rey/Kylo bond and force lightning the entire fleet but it doesn't actually hurt anybody and then she can kill him with his own lightning because that's allowed.

As other people have mentioned the constant backpedaling on anything of consequence was also super fucking dumb. The first moment I actually loved was Rey accidentally killing Chewie and I immediately got interested in a film that was losing me only to be pissed off when he showed up again minutes later.

Also so many moments that just happened because of pure chance like them falling down a hole on a huge planet directly on top of the thing they're looking for or everyone showing up right at the last second out of nowhere even though no one's come to help all this time just because now it's the actual finale.

Aside from some action set pieces there's not much about this movie I liked. It's kinda trash.

 

I haven't seen the prequels in years so I may change my mind if I ever rewatch them but I'd put this on that level if only because of how disappointed I am. How much potential it wasted. They were mostly bad but at least they didn't rob me of a great ending to two of my favourite movies, ha.

 

Samesies, they laughed at the kiss among other unintentionally funny moments.

 

The prequels are still worse

 

also that Knights of Ren goals line had me dying inside. Can't think of anything more pointless than bringing those dweebs in for the final film to literally do nothing but get namedropped, lol.

Also was that them fighting Kylo at the end? How did they know he was good? Why were they following Palpatine immediately after and on his planet? Does anything in this movie make any sense or was it all just "cool" ideas thrown together without any real thought.

 

Random thoughts...

-man, JJ does not get Palpatine. What happened to the manipulative and smart Palpy? This one is so direct. Supposedly he was behind Snoke and was manipulating Kylo as Vader... but we don’t really ever truly see that. Even just comparing to the OT, he was far more wise in how he was trying to play Luke and Vader against each other. Why even bother with him if you’re going to make him so basic?

-can anyone explain how the dagger thing isn’t absurd? So, they go looking for a way finder (that looks just like the size and shape of a holocron, but we can’t call it that because I guess it’s not a cool reference) and they go to this ship and not only has Rey seen the ship, it was the ship her parents left on, yet it was also the Jedi hunters ship (what? How is it both?), and not only do she find the ship, they find the dagger that not only holds a clue but it’s the dagger that killed her parents. Wow, how convenient that’s all tied together. And the dagger was shaped to line up with the Death Star wreckage? And it still lines up perfectly? Despite it being in an ocean that clearly has massive waves that would absolutely reshape what it looks like? Suuuure.

-I guess the Tie Silencer was mass produced? And the way finder wasn’t damaged either time each Silencer was destroyed? Okay, fine.

-so dark Rey was a vision, and a fight that could have been cool to see was too dark and too tightly shot to really see anything but the last moment. Sorry, no time for Rey to face her self, she needs to see Kylo.

-they really couldn’t get Harrison to shave for this? He looked so weird here.

-speaking of looking weird, Mark looked weird, too. How was Carrie the best looking out of the 3?

-as I said earlier, I really don’t think they understood the lesson that Luke taught us. Rey striked our in anger and essentially killed Kylo and it’s just fine because she healed him? Did she learn nothing from Luke?

-it’s interesting to know Leia basically finished her training, but she gave it up to save Ben who turned to the dark side, killed Han, and died anyway. Ooooooh?

-if Luke and Leia knew Rey was a Palpatine, how did they know?

-on that note, why is she a Palpatine? What difference did it make? You don’t need to be a part of a bloodline to be strong in the force. She could have been a nobody with huge power potential and still be seeked after as a new body for Sheev. He said he would be in her as all the Sith were in him. None of the other Sith were related to him. Why did Rey need to be? Justo have a reveal? Lame.

-man , palpy looked so distracting until the end. The damage to him seems to indicate that was his original body right? If so, why did he look so different?

-oh man, they kissed. Fuck. The Reylo’s will never let this go. Their connection absolutely did not need to be romantic in anyway. On that connection, what the hell is a force diad (sp?)? They are two halves of one spirit within the force? Or something? Even though there is like a 10 year age gap? I don’t know enough to know whether it even matters?

-the storm troopers did say “goals” about knights of Ren..... oof.

-okay, enough bad.... ummmm... I like that Rey is now a Skywalker. My I risk thoughts after TFA was that she was a Skywalker and I was right. I just wasn’t right in the way I thought I would be.

-I like Zorri and Frick

-I sort of like that both Ben and Han scenes rhyme with each other but end in opposite ways.

-I like that Leia was training Rey.

-the past Jedi encouraging Rey moment was dope. Can’t wait to own this and turn on subtitles to catch everything and who said what. Love that Kanan and Ashoka are a part of that. lack of Ezra makes me sad though. Probably for some dumb reason, but I hope it actually means he is alive somewhere.

-seeing Luke and Leia in the force together at the end was nice.



I dunno. I’m leaning towards being negative in this for sure. As I drove to my second screening I realized, minus the past Jedi talking moment, there really wasn’t a set piece I felt like I NEEDED to see again ASAP like there was for the other 2. For TFA it was that whole beginning, The entire 3rd act, the final scene, Kylo talking to the Vader helmet. For TLJ, it was the throne room scene, Luke teaching the first lesson, the battle of Crait, Luke and Leia’s scene, Luke and R2, all the force Skype calls. Here there was that one scene really.

it’s 5am now, I’m really tired and kind of bummed.

 

this was wildly, impressively bad

wow

it’s perfect

 

I guess it’s fun John Williams got a cameo.

 

Also, now seeing the movie, it is pretty obvious the Resistance Reborn book was written as a “hey it was worth keeping up on everything because we will bring it all together here because the movie is going to ignore and disregard a lot of it. Hope this helps ease that annoyance.”

 

the luke ghost scene should disqualify jj from ever securing funding for a film again

 

Whether you thought this was a convoluted dumpster fire, or everything you wanted out of a Star Wars movie, I gotta say (in my current drunken state) that it's pretty cool that a story that started over 40 years ago is wrapping with a film today. Over the years there's been various franchises that have had sequels, reboots, failures, changes, etc, but the fact that Star Wars' meaning and importance to people has allowed it to tell stories (good or bad) within the same universe with the same characters is pretty special. Like my dad got to see Han Solo in a movie when he was 10 years old, and again tonight at age 52.

I need more beer. And to see this again. It was a good time.

 

The hairpiece was bad. Everything else was good.

 

Something else i keep thinking about: Her choosing to be a Skywalker at the end would’ve been so much better and had more impact if she was a “nobody”/wasn’t a Palpatine.

 

For me, the fact she is a descendent if Palpatine yet chooses to become a Skywalker is so powerful. She discovers she’s from the dark but resists it and chooses the light - balance.

It’s not perfect but I loved it. Such a beautiful ending.

 

his lines made me chuckle but there was no room for him in the movie , or Jannah, or zorri.

 

my guess is that after a year of stories about what Luke did on Crait, combined with the news that Emperor Palpatine was back, people were more willing to come this time