The Rise Of Skywalker — Official Review and Opinions Thread — Page 10

I liked it but rolled my eyes a lot. Luke catching the lightsaber and raising his X-wing from the water were the worst. Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter were the worst. The overexplaining of everything was the worst. Chewie finally getting his medal was the worst.

I liked seeing Rey bury the two lightsabers at the Lars homestead in front of the setting suns. Anthony Daniels killed it as C-3PO. I liked the planet hopping with the gang together.

I think the ST as a whole did a great job of bringing in likable characters that you want to watch in an adventure. It does a good job at recapturing the humor of the OT. It does a good job visually making the worlds looked lived in.

They treat the force like it’s just magical superpowers with ghosts and kind of ignore its spiritual nature and they lean too much on the OT for ideas and characters, which makes all of the character and relationship building of the new heroes feel really rushed. I think JJ and Kathleen are to be blamed. From the track record of firing directors on three of the five Star Wars Disney movies, canceling plans for more spin-offs after the Solo failure, and obviously not having a plan for the narrative arc of the trilogy.

MalàStrana said:

ChainsawAsh said:

Even Lucas’s AOTC screenplay is less dumb. It’s saying A LOT…

I don’t know, I find the whole assassination plot in AOTC to be some of the dumbest writing in SW period. Nothing in the ST comes close to that one for me.

I need to see this again to determine how I ultimately feel. Right now I really like it, but new SW movies (prequels to now) don’t always hold up on repeat viewings for me. I enjoyed TLJ in the theater but the more I watch it the more I find myself fast-forwarding through all the Poe, Finn, Rose, Leia, & Holdo stuff. I was very lukewarm on Rogue One at first, but have grown to love it after repeat viewings. And with TFA, my feelings never changed as I liked it from day one. Not sure where TROS will fall yet…

nmr1723 said:

MalàStrana said:

ChainsawAsh said:

Even Lucas’s AOTC screenplay is less dumb. It’s saying A LOT…

I don’t know, I find the whole assassination plot in AOTC to be some of the dumbest writing in SW period. Nothing in the ST comes close to that one for me.

Palpatine’s return seems a pretty good candidate for me. He’s back, because…reasons, just borrow a vague line from ROTS to explain how he escaped blowing up in a big blue fireball, and then having whatever remained be scattered across the Endor system, when the Death Star II exploded. Then there’s the fact, that Palpatine’s return is clearly a response to RJ killing off Snoke, and doesn’t make any sense in the context of the ST. So, I personally don’t see how the assassination plot is in any way worse than many of the narrative short cuts taken in ROTS.

DrDre said:

nmr1723 said:

MalàStrana said:

ChainsawAsh said:

Even Lucas’s AOTC screenplay is less dumb. It’s saying A LOT…

I don’t know, I find the whole assassination plot in AOTC to be some of the dumbest writing in SW period. Nothing in the ST comes close to that one for me.

Palpatine’s return seems a pretty good candidate for me. He’s back, because…reasons, just borrow a vague line from ROTS to explain how he escaped blowing up in a big blue fireball, and then having whatever remained be scattered across the Endor system, when the Death Star II exploded. Then there’s the fact, that Palpatine’s return is clearly a response to RJ killing off Snoke, and doesn’t make any sense in the context of the ST. So, I personally don’t see how the assassination plot is in any way worse than many of the narrative short cuts taken in ROTS.

I hear you. I just could never get over the…Palpatine gets Sidious to hire Jango to hire shapeshifter lady to use some droids to send bugs to kill the one girl he needs to help turn Anakin to the dark side. I guess old palps was banking on Padme always surviving attacks or Anakin always saving her and that would…bring them closer together? I’m confused even writing it now. But…maybe that’s why I like TROS…I’m simple 😉

NeverarGreat said:

If Anakin can survive having his remaining three appendages cut off and burned up beside a river of lava, I don’t see why Palpatine, the galaxy’s most powerful Force user, couldn’t have survived falling down a shaft. It’s not like Jedi don’t have levitation abilities. He could have just hovered onto a catwalk, skeedaddled to a shuttle have been long gone by the time the station blew up.

Jedi and Sith didn’t have levitation abilities, until TROS. That is the problem with the ST, they just invented new Force powers as they go. Even death and injury are pretty much irrelevant now. It’s become a story with zero stakes. Had JJ directed ROTS, Anakin would likely just have grown those limbs back.

If Palpatine has a secret force lab then it’s fine for him to slowly come back to life in a tube. It’s just the way this material is handled and the lines he says that are so odd.

Mocata said:

If Palpatine has a secret force lab then it’s fine for him to slowly come back to life in a tube. It’s just the way this material is handled and the lines he says that are so odd.

As far as I’m concerned it isn’t fine from a story perspective, since it becomes a story with zero stakes for the heroes, and the villains. The villains can die, and then magically come back. The heroes can be healed, or brought back to life just by being touched by a Force user, or alternatively become a ghost, that can now pretty much do anything a living person can. Armies and ships are pulled from nowhere. What happened to Palpatine slowly corrupting the galaxy to hand power over to him, but having to keep the Senate around, such that he can govern? What happened to rebellions that were slowly built up over decades in secret, until they had enough support to challenge the Imperial power structure? All that doesn’t matter anymore. Need an army to take over the universe? It’s waiting for you in the unknown regions. Need an armada for your rebellion, just have Lando take the Falcon for an afternoon, and he will get it sorted. It’s become a big joke now.

I would safely say the AOTC plot remains undefeated in terms of nonsense. TROS is next though.

NeverarGreat said:

DrDre said:

NeverarGreat said:

If Anakin can survive having his remaining three appendages cut off and burned up beside a river of lava, I don’t see why Palpatine, the galaxy’s most powerful Force user, couldn’t have survived falling down a shaft. It’s not like Jedi don’t have levitation abilities. He could have just hovered onto a catwalk, skeedaddled to a shuttle have been long gone by the time the station blew up.

Jedi and Sith didn’t have levitation abilities, until TROS. That is the problem with the ST, they just invented new Force powers as they go. Even death and injury are pretty much irrelevant now. It’s become a story with zero stakes. Had JJ directed ROTS, Anakin would likely just have grown those limbs back.

Are you talking about self-levitation? Because levitation has been a thing since Empire and even then Luke’s jump out of the Carbonite chamber could be construed as self-levitation. I would also think that if a Jedi can lift something with their mind, they would also be able to push against something to speed up or slow down their own momentum.

I didn’t mind the Force healing since Rey can only do it in this movie at the height of her power, and it also foreshadows Kylo’s bringing her back to life as a surprisingly apt thematic conclusion to the Anakin ‘save people from dying’ theme all the way back in Episode 2.

Yes, I’m talking about self-levitation. I would also say presenting Rey being brought back to life as a good thing, conflicts very obviously with the main theme of Lucas’ PT, where conquering death was clearly presented as unnatural, and an extreme exponent of the dark side.

NeverarGreat said:

DrDre said:

NeverarGreat said:

DrDre said:

NeverarGreat said:

If Anakin can survive having his remaining three appendages cut off and burned up beside a river of lava, I don’t see why Palpatine, the galaxy’s most powerful Force user, couldn’t have survived falling down a shaft. It’s not like Jedi don’t have levitation abilities. He could have just hovered onto a catwalk, skeedaddled to a shuttle have been long gone by the time the station blew up.

Jedi and Sith didn’t have levitation abilities, until TROS. That is the problem with the ST, they just invented new Force powers as they go. Even death and injury are pretty much irrelevant now. It’s become a story with zero stakes. Had JJ directed ROTS, Anakin would likely just have grown those limbs back.

Are you talking about self-levitation? Because levitation has been a thing since Empire and even then Luke’s jump out of the Carbonite chamber could be construed as self-levitation. I would also think that if a Jedi can lift something with their mind, they would also be able to push against something to speed up or slow down their own momentum.

I didn’t mind the Force healing since Rey can only do it in this movie at the height of her power, and it also foreshadows Kylo’s bringing her back to life as a surprisingly apt thematic conclusion to the Anakin ‘save people from dying’ theme all the way back in Episode 2.

Yes, I’m talking about self-levetation. I would also say presenting Rey being brought back to life as a good thing, conflicts very obviously with the main theme of Lucas’ PT, where conquering death was clearly presented as unnatural, and an extreme exponent of the dark side.

Using the Force to cheat your own death is clearly a Sith thing, since the Sith think inwardly, only about themselves. Anakin wants to save those he loves, but clearly not at the cost of his own life. He only wants to save them because of his own fear of loss. However Kylo uses this ability for someone else at the cost of his own life, a fairly selfless act and in keeping with the Jedi way. Besides, there are countless fairy tales where the hero is brought back to life through magical means and it is rarely seen as anything other than good and miraculous.

To me that displays a lack of understanding of the Jedi, and Sith philosophy. Only the Sith are obsessed with preventing death, since it is the end of the line for them. For a Jedi there’s nothing bad about dying, and becoming one with the Force, hence Jedi don’t need to be saved from effectively becoming immortal as a Force ghost. Rey thus didn’t need to be saved, as she had already become one with the Force.

While I get it, I do feel like it was the easy and safe choice. Just Vader 2.0. Imagine if Ben has to actually right his wrongs rather than pay for his crimes with death. I mean, Darth Revan basically committed the same type of crimes but ended up being considered a hero. I like the idea that rehabilitation can be greater than punishment.

OutboundFlight said:

RogueLeader said:

While I get it, I do feel like it was the easy and safe choice. Just Vader 2.0. Imagine if Ben has to actually right his wrongs rather than pay for his crimes with death. I mean, Darth Revan basically committed the same type of crimes but ended up being considered a hero. I like the idea that rehabilitation can be greater than punishment.

Oh I agree. It was definitely a pull at our emotions, I’d like to see a fanedit where Ben survives. I’m just saying in-lore, saving Rey wasn’t a selfish act.

I agree! I do like the selfless vs selfish aspect of his sacrifice at least.

I just saw it for the second time and liked it a lot more. I still think it’s the weakest of the ST, but it’s not nearly the unmitigated disaster I thought it was on Thursday. I won’t be any more bummed out moving from TLJ to this when I marathon the ST than I am going from ESB to ROTJ when I do the OT.

To be honest, despite my criticisms of certain story decisions, I also felt the movie was better on my second viewing. It is still fast but not as jarringly fast as it felt the first time around.