logo Sign In

The Rise Of Skywalker — Official Review and Opinions Thread

Author
Time
 (Edited)

This thread contains spoilers

 
This is the official spoilerific Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker review thread.

Please post all reviews and opinions containing spoilers in this thread. There’s no need to preface your post with spoiler warnings.
 

As a courtesy to fellow members, when linking to youtube videos or articles etc, please give both the title and source to which you are linking to - thank you.
 

WARNING: Any behavior that requires a mod to intervene in this topic and potentially ruin the movie for them before they’ve had a chance to see it will result in an instant and permanent ban for all offending parties.

Keep it civil and be on your best behavior. If you disagree with someone’s opinion, do so politely. We’re not kidding about banning people.

This thread is NOT the place for members to rehash previous circular and oft-repeated debates that have taken place in the TFA/TLJ or more relevant character threads etc - this thread is for discussing Episode IX.

SPOILERS BEGIN BELOW

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

It’s at 54% now on RT, and 53 on metacritic. The reviews on youtube are very similar in tone to the critic reviews. It’s looking to be a disaster. For reference TPM is at 53% on RT.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

DrDre said:

It’s at 54% now on RT, and 53 on metacritic. The reviews on youtube are very similar in tone to the critic reviews. It’s looking to be a disaster. For reference TPM is at 53% on RT.

It was a ‘disaster’ back in February too:-

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsCantina/comments/aus0q8/episode_ix_is_already_getting_bombarded_with/

https://screenrant.com/star-wars-9-review-bombed-rotten-tomatoes/

IMDB also temporarily pulled the ratings for The Rise Of Skywalker earlier in the week when many people started posting reviews/ratings of the film - thousands of people, apparently… as they were all at the US Premiere.

I have no doubt there’ll be some people bashing it who simply haven’t yet seen TROS - or won’t be seeing it. Yet bash on it they will - with some considerable time and effort put into doing so - both repeatedly and vocally… (just in case anyone forgets they don’t like it 😉)
 

As for MetaCritic - at the time of writing this, MetaCritic says… 11 reviews are positive, 20 are mixed, 2 are negative: link

 

20th December Edit: RT’s ‘audience scores’ for TROS are at 86% (on 6,200+ odd ratings) - link
 

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

Author
Time

I’ll be seeing this in 5 hours (yay Europe!). I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

Author
Time

Mavimao said:

I’ll be seeing this in 5 hours (yay Europe!). I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

The premiere here is less than 90 minutes, lol, and still plenty of seats available at all my local cinemas. All I want to know before I buy a ticket is this. Is it the same JJ shaky-cam style cinematography as in The Force Awakens, if it is I’m not going. Let me know! This will determine whether or not I see it tomorrow.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

Author
Time

RU.08 said:

Mavimao said:

I’ll be seeing this in 5 hours (yay Europe!). I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

The premiere here is less than 90 minutes, lol, and still plenty of seats available at all my local cinemas. All I want to know before I buy a ticket is this. Is it the same JJ shaky-cam style cinematography as in The Force Awakens, if it is I’m not going. Let me know! This will determine whether or not I see it tomorrow.

I’m on it!

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

Author
Time

RU.08 said:

Mavimao said:

I’ll be seeing this in 5 hours (yay Europe!). I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

The premiere here is less than 90 minutes, lol, and still plenty of seats available at all my local cinemas. All I want to know before I buy a ticket is this. Is it the same JJ shaky-cam style cinematography as in The Force Awakens, if it is I’m not going. Let me know! This will determine whether or not I see it tomorrow.

This clip says yes. https://youtu.be/693qGarrgbw?t=15

To be fair this is an action sequence and may not be representative of the whole movie. On the other hand the movie is pretty action oriented and JJ and DoF Dan Mindel are back from TFA, so…

Personally I’ve never had a problem with shaky-cam, except in Cloverfield and First Man, both of which gave me motion sickness.

Author
Time

Sir Ridley said:

This clip says yes. https://youtu.be/693qGarrgbw?t=15

Wow thanks! That looks so awful, action sequence or not. You don’t need to that kind of thing in action scenes. One of my all time favourite action scenes is this one in Terminator 2. There is shaky-cam but the balance feels better. There are more tracking-shots (plus of course this scene starts earlier it’s only as it escalates that it gets to this part being the shakiest). In the clip you linked there is only one shot for a couple of seconds that’s a tracking shot, everything else is shaky-cam.

Thanks for posting that clip!

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Ok, so… just watched it.
First things first: the leaks were all true.

And I’m really sorry to say that I was sooooo disappointed by this movie.
Being very respectful of other people’s opinions, here are my own.

  1. This is the saga whose main character, or at least the character around whom the plot rotates, is Anakin. He sacrificed himself to kill Palpatine and bring balance. Six whole movies to make this story. When they announed Palpy’s return, I was kinda happy because I was sure that Anakin would have returned aswell, at least as Force Ghost. But nothing, niente, nada. Just a voice. A voice! So the whole of Episode VI is nothing. Anakin died as a fool he didn’t bring balance to anything, and he didn’t do anything to re-kill Palpatine. The Chosen One prophecy is bs.
  2. At the very least I was sure that they would have explained how Palpatine survived. When we enter DSII we see dead Stormtroopers. How did Palpatine manage to survive? Who brought him away? Nothing is explained. Nothing. He is just attached to the life machine… he moves, he speaks, so he IS alive. HOW in the hell did he do that?
  3. Force Dyad… not explained. At least, I didn’t understand it. Two Force-sensitive beings together become stronger? That’s it?
  4. The final kiss… like a pink comedy. Rogue One had a WONDERFUL ending, with Jyn and Cassian clearly being infatuated. But they just hugged each other and waited for death. Perfection.
  5. The title… the most boring and obvious meaning. Rey who takes the name Skywalker. That’s all. Nothing from Luke, Leia or Anakin.
  6. Palpatine’s death is just ridiculous. First, in Episode III he didn’t die because of Force lightning being re-directed at him. Why does he die now? Plus, the whole “I’m all the Sith!!!” VS “I’m all the Jedi!!!” is… is… you choose the words.
  7. New characters are not-existing. At the very least the so-much-hated Rose had some background in TLJ (her sister). In this one… Charlie from Lost is a plant. Jannah is totally useless, the new droid is forgettable.
  8. They all said for months that this would have been the ending for the whole saga. But there is NOTHING from the prequels… and I didn’t even hear anything in the soundtrack (not Duel of the Fates, nor Battle of Heroes, nothing).
  9. The Skywalker family has become a joke. Anakin didn’t do anything. Luke didn’t do anything. Leia didn’t do anything. It was a Palpatine who brought balance.
  10. So… Palpatine had a son. When? With whom? And why? It sounds like the whole Cursed Child storyline. Both Voldemort and Palpatine are characters who are not supposed to have any offspring, because they both tried to achieve immortality.

The Last Jedi was coherent, wether people liked it or not. This one was two hours and half of them saying “TLJ didn’t happen. here, look at palpy and be happy”.
There are of course things I liked. Lando is so cool. Babu Frik is funny. Williams score has a couple of very good moments. And the whole fleet arrival is just great.
But except for these aspects, I was disappointed.

Last thing: I’m not classified as a prequel hater, sequel hater or original worshipper. I just judge the single movies. My favourite in the saga is Episode V, followed by Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope at second place. Then there’s The Last Jedi.

EDIT: the writer is the same guy who wrote Batman V Superman. I mean… he also wrote Argo, but I found this movie more similar to the first one than to the second.
EDIT2: I will edit this movie as soon as possible. The title will be “The rise of Palpatine”. It fits way better IMO. Before watching you are supposed to be afraid, because it means Palpatine is returning. After watching it, you are happier, because the Palpatine who rises is Rey. Even though she takes the Skywalker name, she is a Palpatine.

Italian faneditor.

EDITS LIST:
Episode IV - THE HEIR OF SKYWALKER. Episode VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI RENEWED. DYAD IN THE FORCE (3-into-1 sequels).
PM me for links if interested.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I think the granddaughter thing is a lie, to manipulate Rey. Manipulation is what Palpatine does best…

Han: Hey Lando! You kept your promise, right? Not a scratch?
Lando: Well, what’s left of her isn’t scratched. All the scratched parts got knocked off along the way.
Han (exasperated): Knocked off?!

Author
Time

Z6PO said:

I think the granddaughter thing is a lie, to manipulate Rey. Manipulation is what Palpatine does best…

Eeeeeh.

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

Author
Time

Nope. That’s true. We see flashback of Palpatine’s son and his wife on Jakku.

Italian faneditor.

EDITS LIST:
Episode IV - THE HEIR OF SKYWALKER. Episode VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI RENEWED. DYAD IN THE FORCE (3-into-1 sequels).
PM me for links if interested.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Plus… I don’t get Palpatine’s plan.
First he says he wants Kylo to kill Rey, then he wants Rey to kill him so that he can inhabit her body(?), then he drains Rey and Ben’s life force to rejuvenate. I mean, WTF!?
And so… considering that he killed Plagueis… he IS Plagueis?

The most irritating thing is that I believe everything will be explained in novels and comics. And that’s awful.

Anyway… I just watched it some hours ago. These are my warm thoughts. I’ll have to re-think about it, and rewatch it. My thoughts are probably going to change in time.

Italian faneditor.

EDITS LIST:
Episode IV - THE HEIR OF SKYWALKER. Episode VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI RENEWED. DYAD IN THE FORCE (3-into-1 sequels).
PM me for links if interested.

Author
Time

IlFanEditore said:

  1. The title… the most boring and obvious meaning. Rey who takes the name Skywalker. That’s all. Nothing from Luke, Leia or Anakin.
  2. Palpatine’s death is just ridiculous. First, in Episode III he didn’t die because of Force lightning being re-directed at him. Why does he die now? Plus, the whole “I’m all the Sith!!!” VS “I’m all the Jedi!!!” is… is… you choose the words.

LMAO, yeah I was thinking much the same thing. Also someone has posted a clip of that scene here. My problem with it is that Palps never cares about another Sith. He kills his master. He sends Darth Maul to his death, falsely promising “they will be no match for you”, do you think he cares? Of course not! He’s testing his apprentice to see if he’s strong enough for him. In the prequels, Palpatine has a really great but subtle character arc. His relationship with Anakin is very different to the one he had with Darth Maul, with Anakin they start out as friends and he uses him to betray the other Jedi. Palpatine single-handedly destroyed the Sith, and then he went about destroying the Jedi as well. So his line, never-mind Rey’s line, just makes no sense he would never say “I’m all the Sith” because he’s claiming to be all of something that he destroyed! He didn’t want to share his power, he didn’t train Darth Vader he just recognised how strong with the Force he was and brought him over to his side. In the original trilogy, Darth Vader is never referred to as a Sith, he’s a Jedi that has been converted to the dark side (for example I’ve always understood “Your sad devotion to that ancient religion …” to be referring to him as a Jedi not Sith).

And as for Rey taking the name Skywalker - makes no sense. It’s Leia Organa (or is it Leia Solo?) who trains her. The only Skywalker she meets is Luke.

  1. They all said for months that this would have been the ending for the whole saga. But there is NOTHING from the prequels… and I didn’t even hear anything in the soundtrack (not Duel of the Fates, nor Battle of Heroes, nothing).
  2. The Skywalker family has become a joke. Anakin didn’t do anything. Luke didn’t do anything. Leia didn’t do anything. It was a Palpatine who brought balance.
  3. So… Palpatine had a son. When? With whom? And why? It sounds like the whole Cursed Child storyline. Both Voldemort and Palpatine are characters who are not supposed to have any offspring, because they both tried to achieve immortality.

Yep I was pretty much thinking the same things. What are they “concluding”? They’re just undoing the ending from one film (Return of the Jedi) and shifting it to this one. One massive retcon to rule them all. Palpy had a deadbeat son, really?

The Last Jedi was coherent, wether people liked it or not. This one was two hours and half of them saying “TLJ didn’t happen. here, look at palpy and be happy”.

Yep it was coherent. I just felt unfinished - there was no lightsaber battle for example.

There are of course things I liked. Lando is so cool. Babu Frik is funny. Williams score has a couple of very good moments. And the whole fleet arrival is just great.
But except for these aspects, I was disappointed.

Last thing: I’m not classified as a prequel hater, sequel hater or original worshipper. I just judge the single movies. My favourite in the saga is Episode V, followed by Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope at second place. Then there’s The Last Jedi.

See that’s interesting. Lots of people think Revenge of the Sith is the best prequel, I’ve changed my mind over that a few times, and I’m back to thinking it’s the worst because of how it betrays all our beloved characters. If Revenge of the Sith had really preceded the Original Trilogy, then fans would have been just as angry about finding Yoda living as a cynical old hermit refusing to train Jedi as when they found Luke living as one in TLJ. There’s literally no reason why Obi-Wan shouldn’t have spent the time between Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars (A New Hope) training new Jedi, and for that matter Yoda as well. These are the last two Jedi in the galaxy, and they just give up and let the Sith Emperor rule?

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Also interesting is that none of my local cinemas, and there are 5 different chains showing the movie, not a single one of them has 3D sessions. This website confirms it:

How is it that Disney allows this? For the record I like 3D, and I’d much rather see a 3D movie in 3D.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]

Author
Time
 (Edited)

So with this review from Jeremy Jahns and two of Disney’s biggest shills calling it a bad movie, one even saying it was “heartbreaking” (possibly because they defended TLJ so hard which TROS reportedly is a massive slap in it and Rian’s face with the apparent fact that you could completely skip watching TLJ in Disney’s trilogy without any impact to the story between TFA and TROS) it definitely sounds like the disaster every confirmed leak made it sound like it was going to be and I’m so glad I’m not bothering to catch it on the big screen (only the second time that I can say that about a Star Wars movie, the first was Solo)…

https://youtu.be/Hobn57uzQlk

I’ve watched a number of other reviews, read some as well and seen many people’s comments and it’s generally not a greatly received movie at this point. The common thread is mixed feelings and disappointment with the obvious shilling going on at one extreme and some outright unfounded hate at the other.

Author
Time

So JJ doesn’t explain anything. That’s infuriating. Same issue as TFA but amplified it sounds like.

His approach seems to be, it’s fantasy and important details dont matter.

How is the DS2 even intact at all, how did he survive. Lame.

I at least figured we’d maybe have a flashback bit showing Palp using the force to create a bubble around a section of the DS or something along those lines.

The sequel trilogy seems to end in the same place Jedi did. So what exactly was the point.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Saw it last night. Probably the single most offensive piece of garbage that’s ever had the Star Wars name slapped on it.

Renders the PT pointless, the OT pointless, and even TFA and TLJ pointless. Who the hell was this movie made for? Because I do not see how this film could please any single subset of Star Wars fans.

I hope everyone who ragged on George Lucas relentlessly for decades is happy, because this is what happens when a committee of execs frothing over boardroom market research concludes one of cinema’s most important stories. What a joke.

The Saga ended with Return of the Jedi, this is an abomination. Disney Wars is not Star Wars and Rey is not a Skywalker.

No wonder George wasn’t at the premiere, he was probably at home drinking himself stupid.

Author
Time

Disney: What do you want on your toast?
TFA: Processed cheese!
TLJ: Marmite!
TFA: Processed cheese!

Evidently it’s all the tonal whiplash I feared it would be. Half the fandom hated TLJ, which had a lot of flaws but did try something new, and now at least half the fandom hates this movie, which works so hard to undo TLJ that it makes nonsense of the entire Sequel Trilogy.

If LFL wanted to destroy Star Wars, this would be a damn good way to go about it.

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”

Author
Time

Ryan-SWI said:

I hope everyone who ragged on George Lucas relentlessly for decades is happy

As there remains no proper restoration and release of the OOT, no, I’m not.

Author
Time

So let’s hear it already! Somebody give me a synopsis of this film?

“It is only through interaction, through decision and choice, through confrontation, physical or mental, that the Force can grow within you.”
-Kreia, Jedi Master and Sith Lord

Author
Time
 (Edited)

As there remains no proper restoration and release of the OOT, no, I’m not.

It’s 2019. There’s a thousand different options to watch the original version now, it’s not a big deal.

theprequelsrule said:

So let’s hear it already! Somebody give me a synopsis of this film?

Return of the Jedi, but bad. There ya go.

In all seriousness:

  • Palpatine is back and it’s not explained how.

  • Kylo goes to find him and it’s not explained why he was looking for him, or how he knows he’s alive.

  • Snoke was a clone made by Palpatine. Not explained how or why, or anything more said on the matter.

  • Palpatine somehow has a whole fleet of Star Destroyers with Death Star guns on them. Not explained how.

  • Rey is a Palpatine, her Dad was Palpatine’s son (not explained how), so Rey is his granddaughter.

  • Rey and Kylo can both save people from death and bring them back to life. Not explained how.

  • Luke retconned from being a sad old suicidal man to “secretly” keeping tabs on Palpatine.

  • Luke and Leia retconned to “know” Rey was a Palpatine the entire time.

  • Leia dies, horrifically forced and poorly handled.

  • Han is in it as a “memory” (???). Makes no sense whatsoever, but then neither does anything in this stupid movie.

  • Palpatine shoots lightning at Rey, who deflects it back to Palpatine (Palpatine apparently decides that simply not shooting lightning anymore makes too much sense), then dies.

  • Ben almost dies. Then he comes back. Then he dies. But wait no not actually. Then he dies (for real this time).

  • Rey steals the Skywalker name.

  • Force ghost Luke and Leia. Both look horrific and Leia is clearly CGI. Because nothing shouts “respect” like CGI’ing the ghost of a dead actress into your film for cheap nostalgia brownie points.

Those are the main points. I could write an essay on everything that happens in this ridiculous movie but it’s not worth my time.

Author
Time

Ryan-SWI said:

I hope everyone who ragged on George Lucas relentlessly for decades is happy, because this is what happens when a committee of execs frothing over boardroom market research concludes one of cinema’s most important stories. What a joke.

All of the prequels had good receptions when they came out though, that’s the thing. Yes a subset of fans were unhappy from the start, but they were well received overall.

The Saga ended with Return of the Jedi, this is an abomination. Disney Wars is not Star Wars and Rey is not a Skywalker.

No wonder George wasn’t at the premiere, he was probably at home drinking himself stupid.

ROFL! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That sounds like a more sensible way to spend the afternoon.

[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]