THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

[SWSF Hale]

I am going to see the movie this weekend, but I wanted to leave this thread here for popcorn talk.

[Medivh]

SPOILERS ALERT!!

I just had to check in after seeing Episode IX last night.

Quick run down:
Likes: 
1) Rey's story, her struggle with her past, her family, her fears, and her conflicted view of Ben/Kylo, and even that she, predictably, took on the name of Skywalker at the end.  Also including her ability to heal - including her healing of Ben.
2) Presence of Emperor Palpatine - I liked that they brought him back
3) Ben's redemption
4) Rey's line that she represents all of the jedi, in response to Palpatine being all the sith
5) the flashback scene to young Luke training young Leia, and finding that Leia had a lightsaber too

Dislikes:
1) Trying to tie too many loose ends into one movie
2) Adding in new characters while disregarding other characters
3) The whole chase for the map to the sith planet, the dagger, including visiting a host of planets that otherwise have no meaning
4) the impromptu arrival of thousands of ships - it was too contrived, too corny, and reminded me too much of the scene from Avatar: "aiwa has heard you".  Since it was predictable that they would get the help, it would have been more powerful if they saw the recruitment effort as they were planning the attack, giving Poe the affirmation he needed.
5) The way that using the force too much kills a character - Luke, Leia, Rey, and then Ben.  All apparently died or almost died just from using their power.
6) lack of explanation for (1) how Palpatine came back, (2) any detail about when Palpatine had had a kid or a paramour
7) That Finn never actually told Rey that he was force sensitive.  Apparently, he wanted to since the beginning of the movie
8) That Kylo Ren kept having the same battle with Rey over and over again, whether or not they were in the same place.

Thoughts?

[SWSF Eidolon]

WARNING FOR SPOILERS, Stop Reading As Soon As Its Apparent.


2 viewings so far.

Agree with all likes of course.


Dislike Thoughts..

1) they only had one movie left to do it in!

2) Zorii felt like that for sure, I appreciated Claude the big slug alien guy tho and the "Win the war!"/severed head guy.  Allegiant General Pride was fine by me.  The whole defected storm trooper company on the other Endor moon was a sweet concept.  The background of the galactic community as a whole felt like it took on a much more representative role here.  Booboo(?) was sweet.

3) Again same reason as above, the chase to a host of planets I enjoyed in that it was an rotating snapshot of various corners of the galaxy getting their play.  That squid face alien festival on the sand planet was very cool, Kajimi was interesting.

4) I didn't mind that at all.  I felt like this was an example of many set ups in the New Trilogy that all 3 of the films built on.  You had a lack of any support and faith at Battle of Crait when no one responded to the Resistances Call for Help.  So while yeah, you know that its going to work when they send Lando in the Falcon to the Core to rally help and he's not back yet by the time Poe is losing his shit at Exegol(sp?), there's so much that is predictable and corny, I mean isn't that the partial established order of an SW film?  It requires a leap of faith or degree of buying in to the corniness to begin with. Stormtroopers are fearsome hardened warriors that cant hit shit unless its a jawa trawler?

5) I saw it as a transfering of Life Force.  Much like Palp was able to involuntarily suck the life force from Rey and Kylo.  Rey was able to heal the big worm on the festival world in the tunnels, then was able to do so with Kylo/Ben, then Ben was able to do it once with his last energy to bring Rey back.  Lukes transmission of his life presence to another world is almost a slight borrow on how Kylo/Rey were able to Telepathically connect/see one another and more so in this final movie how they were able to touch/take (the necklace, the melted vader helmet, the light saber, all taken physically by kylo/ben during telepathic/projection connections)

6) I could have used a little bit more of that but the implication with the "twisted science" look of the clone vats on Exegol when Kylo first goes there to see Palp for 1st time with more Snokes in them and the dark acolyte weirdos that were operating them and Palps rotted corpse like incomplete body left a lot implied.  It felt very Dark Empire sourced.  There were a lot of visuals in this movie that felt very Dark Empire source to me, which i freaking LOVED.

7) Agree that the whole whats Finn got to say? hang on is an overlooked completion or perhaps too much expectation of the implied continuation.

8) I saw that as part of Kylo pushing her to turn.  To fight, to express hate and anger.  Each time he saw/projected to her, they fought and she experienced negative results from fighting.  Shes pushed further up to very end when shes about to actually kill Palp until she feels Bens presence helping sway her back.  I did quite enjoy his subtle magicians bow when he pulled the saber from her in projection connection that time before killing off the Knights.



Fair critiques, counters all just my interpretation/fanboy explanation of it.  I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter though!!!

JJ did a fantastic job with whatever film roll they had of Organa from previous 2 films to make her appearance in this one very tight and make sense.

[Syren]

Not cool, man. I thought there would at least be one of those spoiler banners on any movie talk at least for the opening weekend. Got tickets for Sunday. 

[SWSF Eidolon]

My deepest apologies dearest Syren.  I assumed a thread named for the movie that just came out and a reply to a pointed critique about it would be a safe place.

[SWSF Eidolon]

SUPPORTING ACTRESS SPOILER


I thought she looked familiar!

I am excited to report that the actress playing Reys mom is Jodie Comer aka Villanelle from Killing Eve. 

[Syren]

Not to worry, Eid. Stopped myself from scrolling when I saw actual details. I was just surprised and salty. Saw it this morning. Loved it. Got choked up a few times. Didn't mind the fan service (fans decried the new directions of TLJ but also decried fan service here - can't have it both ways) and it felt strangely satisfying to see a saga that has meant so much to me conclude. The truth is, this was never going to be the movie it was supposed to be. Carrie Fisher died. This one was supposed to be hers. Given the unexpected and tragic event, I think they did well tasked with such an incredible narrative challenge. 

Also, #babufrik

[SWSF Hale]

SO just got back from the movie and I liked it, which is saying a lot because the more I watched TLJ the more I hated it. A few thoughts ---

1. I will give them a pass for Carrie Fisher, but tons of other narrative problems were of their own making. It all comes across to me that they really had no big picture scheme planned from the start, and that they made these movies one after the other. If TFA was a bunch of rope that TLJ tied into a Gordian's Knot, then ROS was the narrative equivalent of Alexander the Great chopping said knot in half.

2. Definitely choked up in a couple spots. Luke raising the X-Wing from the water was really special. Leia's death (and Chewie's reaction).

3. I was keeping my fingers crossed for a mass force ghost ensemble, but the voices worked.

[GreyJedi]

So, to answer the question about Palpatine coming back: he touched BRIEFLY on it in Episode 3, if i remember right, about being able to save some one from Death. I feel as if, him returning, was kind of a play off this BUT.....and there is always a BUT I feel as if this was grabbed from STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED 2 when they cloned Galen Mareck. He had all of his abilities but none of his memories except when he started to do thing and would get force visions of it all. Also, i dont know what comic series, or book or whatever, but there it explains that After Death, Palpatine could transfer himself from body to body with his LIFE FORCE. The reason why he was all deteriorated is because a NEW body can not with stand the life force for so long so, essentially, he has to have a new body, well just say, every 15 years. Hence the cloning process. 


Leia being a Jedi: that was another element, other then from books and such, from THE FORCE UNLEASHED as an add on. You actually fight Galen Mareck AKA Star Killer as Leia with a Yellow Lightsaber.  I never really extensively read many SW books except HEIR to the EMPIRE and the Coruscant Nights series. So this is where i remember Leia being a Jedi mostly

[SWSF Hale]

Yeah in the Dark Empire comic book run, Palpatine transfers his soul to numerous clone bodies. I think they could've set this up a little bit better had they reintroduced clone troopers in TFA or TLJ.... or maybe have multiple clones of Captain Phasma who keep showing up and getting killed (perhaps as a joke if Finn keeps killing her).

[gallpizi]

Okay.

It was a fun movie. I found myself emotional at points. It was not bad by any stretch.

But it was not good. It will not win any awards. It did not make me think. It did not give me thought provoking emotions the way TLJ did. It felt like it was fan service to those that hated TLJ and for those that liked it, well oh well. 

I need more. I don't mind that Palpatine is back (maybe too easy a choice for them than something refreshing) but give me some EXPLANATION. I don't mind that he has a fleet of Star Destroyers fully crewed but EXPLAIN it. The movie was moving so fast that we never have a moment to get the explanations that are required. Sure they will probably flesh it out in comic or book but than that means that this movie is incomplete in the current form. 

It is also obvious that they had no plan and because of that Kathleen Kennedy has to go. They let each director do what they want for this trilogy without having a "This is what we are starting with and this is how we want to end" because otherwise the explanation could have been hinted at or tied nicely throughout the trilogy instead of the data dump we got this movie. 

[GreyJedi]

I actually really liked the  current/final trilogy. TLJ could of been a little less with the stupid ass jokes like Luke tossing the Lightsaber over his shoulder and the porgs possibly turning on said lightsaber and having the blade through the eye. But other then that< i really liked it. As far as RoS, i thought it was a nice ending to the 40 fucking years of skywalker lol but of course, youre right about explanations about Palpatine and so on

[SWSF Eidolon]

I too got quite choked up at a few parts.  Chewie breaking down at news of Leia.  Luke raising the XW in fulfillment of Dagobag Challenge.  Driver did a good job portraying Kylo/Ben for me throughout.

Regarding the Voices.  In checking the credits, it is a ton of characters besides the obvious..  Ahsoka, Qui Gon, Luminara, Kanan etc.

It satisfied the Skywalker story for me.  I've already seen it now more times (4) than TFA and TLJ.

The biggest hanger for me was a family for Palpatine.  Woulda been nice if is some obscure footage from the prequels that show possible family characters for less out the blue feeling of it all.

[GreyJedi]

I agree. Unless, which the whole explanation is crucial for this reason, Palpatine had transferred his Life Force into another body AFTER the 2nd Death Star and decided to go on a fuck spree lol

[SWSF Hoppus]

Just saw it. 

I agree with most. I didn't hate it, but I really did feel that each movie was just a brainstorm session and "lets roll with it" on a big budget. There didn't seem any attention to the core hero's journey mythos that powered the original. It was entertaining but it was not satisfying.

The palpatine angle seemed like something tossed up in a brainstorm session that they just made happen even though it doesnt quite feel right at all. It was disappointing and felt pretty lame to me.

I liked Kylo/Ben's return, but felt it came a little too late and could have been more of an element in the movie.

Overall i think it just felt rushed and they ran with the first half decent idea to pickup where TLJ left off. All of the movies felt a little half baked and lazy, living on the power of the world building already done and the strong characters inherited and not doing anything of their own. They just did "ok" without totally ruining the existing star wars characters/world.

Oh and Lando looked like a happy old drunk the entire movie and really out of place. Again, a case of "hey what if LANDO WAS ON THE BURNING MAN PLANET?! THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!

I did like that they took the elements from the Thrawn trilogy and Duology where luke struggled with using too much of the force and abusing it, and Rey was doing that and she teetered towards the dark as a result.

Overall... meh, but like the other two in the series, not something I'd bother watching again with any attention.