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The Rise Of Skywalker — Official Review and Opinions Thread — Page 8

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Saw it yesterday in Germany. Overall i liked it, but definitely i have to see it a second time though.

First thoughts…

The Positives:

REY - Finally the character had the likeable TFA heartbeat again. She was kind of dull in TLJ.

KYLO - The scene with his father was great. His ending was very good.

FORCE POWERS - It was nice to see Force Healing and the Force Teleportation/Beaming of objects. One of the few good things that TLJ invented. I liked how that force power was expanded.

RICHARD E. GRANT - That guy was born to be an imperial officer. More menacing than General Hux.

C3PO - He had a lot to do and a lot to say. Unexpected, and i liked that.

LUKE CATCHES THE LIGHT SABER - Nice jab at TLJ. Deservedly so.

The Negatives:

PALPATINE - His reason to be alive would have been more acceptable as a Force Ghost. But again, JJ needed a big baddy because TLJ dumped Snoke for no reason. So, Palpatine being here is TLJ’ fault, not TROS’.

KNIGHTS OF REN - Suffered from Darth Maul syndrome. They looked cool in TFA during the Reys force vision. In broad daylight on Pasana they looked goofy with all their butcher kind of weapons. But again, TLJ missed to introduce them properly, so there is no time in TROS to deal with them more in detail. So, Knights of Ren are a lackluster is TLJ’ fault, not TROS’.

LUKES WIG - Must have been the same dudes work who did Ewans wig in AOTC.

THE BEGINNING OF THE MOVIE - Way too rushed and too fast. No build up or tension.

Rogue One is redundant. Just play the first mission of DARK FORCES.
The hallmark of a corrupt leader: Being surrounded by yes men.
‘The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.’ - V.E.S.
‘Star Wars is a buffet, enjoy the stuff you want, and leave the rest.’ - SilverWook

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I just don’t get it? Like, even if you didn’t like TLJ, it’d be better to at least try to follow up on that. What we got was transparently bad improv. Surely there was a better way to address the criticisms of the prior movie, while also doing something else that could feel like a continuation of it. Anything else!

As someone who loves TLJ, it’s honestly baffling. I mean, I had fun, but for all the wrong reasons. TROS was just ridiculous to me. I think I honestly would have hated it, if it wasn’t so cavalier in its capitalistic cynicism, honestly to the point of unintentional humor.

From Palpatine’s reappearance in the crawl, to when Rey was about to say “Rey Skywalker” I was laughing at how soulless and corrupt it dared to be. It was so shameless about everything it did. It reveled in it. I had fun watching the film eat itself alive. You could just see the puppeteers of every faux-emotional moment straining themselves, as well as you could their strings tied hastily to Carrie’s rotting corpse as a marionette. They couldn’t justify the existence of these movies at all.

Everything truly interesting and meaningful about the sequel trilogy was discarded in favor of what? Nothing here was genuine or good*. I’m only holding onto the idea that they made it as comically hollow as they did out of spite.

*well, save for babu frik. and genuinely threepio’s best movie imo

Andor: The Rogue One Arc

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God, Nev, I read your review drunk and I was having vertigo afterward. It was dizzying but super on point (Also I can tell you might be a D&D fan, which I appreciate). I’m also surprised how your theories regarding Snoke lined up as well as it did with what we ended up seeing.

I agree with NFB. A better director would have taken where both TFA and TLJ left off and progressed those stories through synthesis. I don’t think Abrams did that whatsoever. It is like he kept what he liked from TLJ, and blatantly retconned what he didn’t like.

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Haarspalter said:

LUKES WIG - Must have been the same dudes work who did Ewans wig in AOTC.

That wig was insulting.

Peace is a lie
There is only passion…

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OutboundFlight said:

Anyone else get some serious Star Trek TOS vibes with Rey and the serpent? We’re stuck in a cave and we gotta heal the misunderstood monster!

I thought of this exact thing! ALOL

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The more I think about RISE OF SKYWALKER, the more it irks me. With FORCE AWAKENS and LAST JEDI, it was the opposite. I let those two settle for a few days, saw them again, and started to really like them.

I find it hilarious that all the promotional materials cited this as “THE END OF THE SAGA,” yet in the final moments where all the planets are celebrating, we only see planets from the original trilogy… as well as Jakku.

Not Naboo, Geonosis, Kamino, etc.

This film tries to wrap up the saga, but also tries its best to ignore the prequels (and LAST JEDI). You can’t have your cake and eat it too, though J.J. thinks otherwise.

“That said, there is nothing wrong with mocking prequel lovers and belittling their bad taste.” - Alderaan, 2017

MGGA (Make GOUT Great Again):
http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Return-of-the-GOUT-Preservation-and-Restoration/id/55707

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Honestly…i juz looked upon many reviews and comments…it sounds like that they butchered the legacy of the original star wars movies by this last 2 ep…seems that all the skywalkers sacrifices are put to waste

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I’ll just ignore what “everyone” is saying, by stating that I liked it. I really did. I liked TFA and TLJ as well. And yes, I liked Solo, too. I have spoken.

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I think JJ (not necessarily just the man but the collective of all the “filmmakers” and suits involved) felt inadequate and so self-sabotaged the story.

Sometimes you don’t have it in you to do something good, so you opt to do something intentionally dumb, hoping charm will pull it off.

I offer the following Christmas cookie as evidence:

My stance on revising fan edits.

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TomGun said:

I’ll just ignore what “everyone” is saying, by stating that I liked it. I really did. I liked TFA and TLJ as well. And yes, I liked Solo, too. I have spoken.

Lots wrong in the movie but there is stuff like that in every one of them to some extent. I agree with you here…I liked all three of them loved parts of TROS…To each their own.

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The one take away I have so far from looking at multiple sources of reviews is that there is no consensus.

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Hal 9000 said:

I think JJ (not necessarily just the man but the collective of all the “filmmakers” and suits involved) felt inadequate and so self-sabotaged the story.

Sometimes you don’t have it in you to do something good, so you opt to do something intentionally dumb, hoping charm will pull it off.

I offer the following Christmas cookie as evidence:

atleastyoutried.gif

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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I thought it was awful. Kind of enjoyed it in the moment though, in that it was total cheese. But in the long run I won’t see these films as being part of my head canon.

Which is unfortunate as there are certain elements I thought they did get really right, Adam driver as kylo ren had potential to exceed Vader (mainly because we could see his face and really see his conflict).

I thought the rapport between the new main cast was excellent and fun. It was the one of the few times I felt something when they reunited at the end of this film.

That’s pretty much where my praise for these films ends though. The return of palpatine in particular is too much for me to take in stride. There were decisions made in The Last Jedi I didn’t really like, but I could live with because at least with the decisions surrounding Luke, they are somewhat rectified by the end of Last Jedi. He goes on a new journey to overcome his failure and realises he can be the spark of hope to reignite the rebellion or whatever.

Unfortunately, there’s no coming back from the fact that Vader, didn’t actually kill the emperor at the end of RotJ.

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DominicCobb said:

I’m sorry to say you just plain don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s not a matter of noticing it or not. Show me a shot and I can tell you if it’s on sticks, a dolly, a crane, or handheld. Shaky cam is handheld photography, plain and simple. That’s just what it is. And I’ve seen TFA enough to know that there’s literally only two shots in the movie with handheld photography, when they’re in the basement of Maz’s castle during the FO attack. There’s also a scene on the Falcon with simulated handheld, but you can tell it’s still on sticks. There’s nothing else in the film that’s “shaky” (besides arguably a couple effects shots). That’s it.

This… All of this.

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No offense. So glad I watched this movie and enjoyed it before I came on here.

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MisterBenja1977 said:

No offense. So glad I watched this movie and enjoyed it before I came on here.

ROFL…

This is the land of the nitpick and uber-analysis…tis true. That being said I do enjoy it, especially after a new release…ftr I really like the movie as well.

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Flick was a lot of fun. The NEW stuff was cool. Force switcheroos, treasure hunts, Dark Science. I did not think a Kylo redemption story would be satisfying, but I dug it.

TLJ set the bar pretty high for how visually breathtaking it was, and the interesting shots and editing. Rise doesn’t even try to compete.

I think it was weakened by Abrams absolute love of homaging other films (Spock screaming “KHAN!” is forever seared in my memories). I was left with the impression of “I’ve heard this joke before.” TFA had a lot of that but I minded less because that movie also set up lots of new things. This film pays off those new things with more re-runs.

Emotionally and thematically “Rey from nowhere” really resonated with me, and undoing that with version #74 of “No… X is your Y” relative reveal didn’t seem worth it, neither did thematically changing Luke’s exile with the Palpatine-knowledge.

Rey is like 25. Her dad looked 30. Was Palpy on Tindr getting the ladies during the Clone Wars? In his 70s?

That Snoke was a clone explained nothing and created more questions. That is peak Abrams.

And having a beloved character die, get the feels from the audience, and then pull a switcheroo on the audience TWICE seemed a little much.

My least favorite of the sequels.

TAFKA TheBoost

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yotsuya said:

Audience reactions have appeared on Rotten Tomatoes. Instead of the 58% the 309 critics have given it, 9628 audience reactions rate it at 86%. So right now it is critically panned but loved by the audience.

No. It’s a film being rated by people who do that kind of thing. And those ratings have been manipulated six ways from Sunday Up and Down and Sideways for all sorts of movies by angry reddit threads for years now.

TAFKA TheBoost

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Mild take I guess but I thought it was alright up until about halfway through. Yeah I thought the hyperspace jumping was pretty stupid. But at least all the characters had something to do and contribute to the plot in the first half. And they were actually interacting with one another in ways that didn’t piss me off like the last movie.

Yeah they were chasing a Deus Ex Machina but I didn’t really care. I think Star Wars plots have always been rather basic and childish. As long as the characters are likable, interesting, and have good dynamics they could be fighting the 4th Death Sta… Oh wait… Now every ship is the Death Star. This is where the movie started to lose me and it just went downhill from there.

The movie after the first half really just felt like a retcon of TLJ, and for it’s flaws I’ve grown to slightly appreciate it. It has it’s moments. I liked most of the Ray and Luke stuff, and I thought the dynamic between Ray and Kylo had potential. I just didn’t like how every other character was on some side quest that felt like it (to me at least) was only there for filler because they couldn’t find anything for the characters to do of consequence.

I really feel bad for everyone who liked TLJ (and I see why, it has great moments), It just felt like a knee-jerk reaction by Disney based on the reaction of the last movie. Sad boi hours 😦.

Luke astro-projects himself to Salt Lake Planet, gets shot at by gorilla walkers, has a non-lightsaber duel with Darth Millennial, then dies of a broken heart, inspiring broom boys throughout the galaxy to get creative with their sweeping. - DuracellEnergizer

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I wouldn’t loathe this movie so much if it weren’t ostensibly the conclusion of the saga. In that respect, it fails utterly.

I can’t imagine ending a saga viewing with this. Broom boy is where it’ll have to be.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Hal 9000 said:

I wouldn’t loathe this movie so much if it weren’t ostensibly the conclusion of the saga. In that respect, it fails utterly.

I can’t imagine ending a saga viewing with this. Broom boy is where it’ll have to be.

Broom boy

Not Endor celebration

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I feel like TFA and especially TLJ have enough merit to include, and I’ve invested a great deal into each. It ends with the death and figurative rebirth of the main hero, ending on a meta-reflection about people being impacted by the stories.

But, doesn’t it leave the plot unresolved? Not really, since the ST sets up the idea that empires and rebellions will continue to cycle around one another endlessly, anyway. No matter where you end the plot, the themes of TLJ are where they end with meaning.

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Saw it again today. Liked it even more. Definitely my 3rd favorite behind ESB and ANH.