Let's talk 'The Rise of Skywalker' (all spoilers hidden) · 8:31am Dec 20th, 2019
So, 'The Rise of Skywalker,' the final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and the final story in the Skywalker saga just came out. I think it's... okay. In my opinion, Disney finally managed to find a balance between honoring and remembering the past, while also moving forward. There's plenty to like here, from having Rey, Finn, and Poe spending most of the movie together instead of being split up and not doing anything as a team. All the callbacks to previous films, from characters (Lando!), locations, and items were great, and the climax offers up some serious eye candy, especially the sheer number of ships appearing on screen, the Sith temple, and Palpatine being able to zap every single friendly ship by himself. Holy crap was that awesome!
Beyond that, though, I feel the movie's biggest flaw is that it tries to cram too much into one movie. There's a ton of exposition, info-dumps, new characters, backstories, and unrevealed histories, and with the film's break-neck pace, it all jumbles together into a mess. An entertaining mess, to be sure, but it feels too rushed for its own good. And then there's a few things that don't quite work:
1. Palpatine had kids?! When on earth did that happen?!
2. How exactly did Palpatine come back from the dead? It's shown that he has the ability to create clones, but it's never really explained how this guy survived death. But, technically, Palpatine is now a zombie. Awesome!
Speaking of clones, it's revealed that Snoke was grown in his sith laboratories for... reasons? Considering how we still know next-to-nothing about the guy, it really is comical how much of a joke Snoke is as a character at this point.
3. I was so, so hoping that Anakin would come back as a force ghost to help defeat Palpatine once and for all. Hell, just have all the prequel Jedi come back as force ghosts to stop Palpatine for good. Sadly, that doesn't happen. We do get to hear them all speaking to Rey (in a jumbled mess where it's almost impossible to make anyone out besides Yoda, Anakin, and Obi-Wan), but it's just not the same.
4. The last movie of this series is not the time to introduce new characters who do next to nothing plotwise, like Finn's apparent girlfriend who... hooks up with Lando at the end?!
5. The ending is not really an ending at all. Ben's dead, Leia's dead, Palpatine and his fleet are dead, and everyone's celebrating, but the First Order itself still exists, and the door's left wide open for future movies to be made until the heat death of the universe. It feels like nothing's really been resolved.
6. This is perhaps the saddest of them all: Disney had one final chance to have our classic heroes all together on screen for the last time, and they blew it. I'm so grateful that we at least got Luke and Leia together, and that they talked Harrison Ford into coming back for a cameo, but would it really be that hard to have all three appear together at the end? Or have 3PO, R2D2, Lando, and Chewie stand next to said force ghosts?
All in all, I think 'The Rise of Skywalker' is an entertaining mess. What did you all think?
haven't seen it yet but think it will be hot gabage like the other new movies compared to the originals
5172295
I think it's the best of the three, in that I came out mostly satisfied instead of bored (The Force Awakens) or frustrated (The Last Jedi). But with hindsight, I think this whole trilogy was a mistake, and probably shouldn't have been made. The series was wrapped up beautifully at the end of 'Jedi', and in my opinion, didn't need any stories set after that.
Was there actually Skywalkers?
5172475
If you're referring to people walking on air, no, there aren't. If you're talking about members of the Skywalker family, then yes. But all the biological ones are dead by the end.
The Last Jedi is my probably favorite Star Wars film and Knives Out is probably the best film of the year so watching Rian Johnson accept his Best Director and Original Screenplay Oscars will put a smile on my face.
The scared money pandering of this film made my eyes roll but I fucks wit the idea of a Secret Sith Planet. Sith Area 51 is just plain cool. The Death Star ruins were neat but I expected the duel to be better. That fight in the Kurosawa throne room really was the best in this trilogy
btw Return of the Jedi only works when you're a little kid willing to accept that a bunch of teddy bears can beat an army of automatic laser rifles. He should've kept it as Wookies and leaned into the Vietnam references since that was what inspired the "Rebel Alliance" in the first place
For number 4, that is probably due to re-shoots. From the many leaks around the web, earlier versions had a subplot where Lando's kid was kidnapped by the First Order a long time ago, initially being revealed to be Finn, and later the new character. Lando "adopting" her at the end is likely a left-over from that.
Overall, "entertaining mess" is likely fair. I had a good time, so long as I made sure to not think about the implications of any of the scenes, or how they connect together. Best part of the movie was when some insane guy started screaming for someone else to turn off their phone, and was kicked out by security.