Star Wars episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker

[SpokaneCY]

Meh... It was a space movie and it and most of it's counterparts fail to live up to the original. 16 hours before the imperial fleet blah blah and a few people gallivant all over some galaxy blabhblah characters fight with the same inner demons blah blah continue to put themselves over others until the end blah blah and cartoon characters who all breath the same atmosphere somehow all drink in a pub but this time I don't recall the cheesy music. We see all the old hacks and hear yodas voice. Even had ewoks but I don't recall jar jar thank christ.

The pageantry of Star Wars is long dead.

 

[JohnnyFive]

Just got back from seeing it. Since it's been released for 24+ hours, I assume we're into spoilers? Yeah, lots coming.

These are my unfiltered thoughts, haven't read the thread the last 2 days.

I went in with very low expectations as I didn't care for Ep. 8, and, overall, I liked this one! I was really wondering how they were going to wrap everything up, and they did a pretty serviceable job.

Likes:
- I like that Admiral Pride (sp?) shot Hux. Seems like an Imperial thing to do.
- There was no overarching "romance" theme like I had feared
- Luke's part was limited, but good and effective
- Rose's part was minimal!
- The whole C3P0 memory wipe concept was well done. His humor was the "good" kind of funny, too.
- No pointless side-quests with a "social good"
- Ben's redemption was well done (As well as it possibly could be done. They essentially set it up that he either has to turn back to the light and die, or Rey has to convert to the dark side. After getting pigeon-holed into one of those 2 scenarios, they got out of it as best they could.)
- Essentially implied that Palpatine had been running things behind the scenes the whole time. Good, GOOD!
- Rey's parentage story was done as well as it could have been.
- I was afraid all the force ghosts of the past were going to appear and it would be really corny. Instead, just doing the voices (Qui-Gon, Yoda, Leia, Luke, and some others ... I THINK I heard Mace Windu...) was a good approach.
- All those star ships showing up at the end ... the diverse, motley crew ... that was a cool shot!
- Chewy's sadness/rage when he found out that Leia had died ... that one really got me! All of his original trio of friends are now dead!




Dislikes:
- Star Destroyers have to use a tracking beacon (one the ground or on a command ship) to get out of atmosphere? Really? A space shuttle can do it, but not a Star Destroyer. OK. This seems like the new "thermal exhaust port leading directly to the main reactor."
- Just jumped right into the acceptance that Palpatine is alive, no explanation. At least a LITTLE back story of how he didn't die, came back to life, was cloned, whatever would have been good.
- None of the lightsaber fights were epic. They were "OK"
- The "Knights of Ren" origin was never explained. We were just to accept it.
- On her deathbed, Leia arranged for Chewy to get a medal? OK, right. (over the top fan-service)
- The mushing of time and space was a little over-the-top. As well as the mushing of the real world with the ethereal. I don't mind force ghosts appearing, but just didn't like the whole "Kylo grabs Rey's necklace" thing.


Just plain questions:
- Star Destroyers can't use their shields in the atmosphere?
- Were the Carrie Fisher scenes filmed, or did they do a CGI face for her like they did for Tarkin in R1?
- Admiral Pride said "as I served you in the old wars" or something like that. What is he referring to?
- Han as a force ghost? Or was that just Ben having a vision?
- Who was in the "audience" in Palpatine's underground throne room? I assume the ghosts of past Sith, but that's just a guess.
- Was Hayden Christensen's voice one of the Jedi voices at the end? I couldn't tell.


Again, overall, I liked it 80-85%. It's not a special to me as the original Trilogy (4,5,6), but I liked it better than 8 by a lot, I'd put it on about the same level as 7. Better than the Prequels. Don't all you Negative Nancys out there bring me down!!!

I thought this at first also but in the prequels Palpatine sells Anakin on the dark side with his story of Darth Plaguis and his ability to bring back people from the dead with his sith power. It made sense to me that Palpatine would use this to return.

 

[CloneIce]

“Consensus masterpiece”?

Consensus of whom? Seems like a very large straw man to me

I mean... it’s no DS9 or BSG with multi season arcs, but the original trilogy is about as much as greatness as you could pack into 3 films. Three incredibly successful films. If that’s not considered a masterpiece than nothing is.

 

[Bigman38]

Glad I lowered my expectations quite a bit for the story. Visually it was incredible, definitely worth seeing in the theatre.

Why isn’t Abrams just making summer action movies with a new Shwarzenegger? That’s all I want from him.

 

[Statefan10]

Big Star Wars / overall movie fanatic here. I liked the movie. I did not think it was close to being the best, but also thought it was far away from the worst. The action and visuals were phenomenal and I actually liked the storyline.

Somewhere in this thread someone mentioned Star Wars being dead but I actually think that's not true. I think Star Wars, like space itself, is never ending. There are always going to be new stories to tell, while having fun with the old stories. As long as they're doing it correctly and not completely botching it, I'm fine with them continuing on with everything. I've been really impressed so far with The Mandalorian and am excited for the other shows that are being worked on.

 

[CycloneErik]

Questions...
What the hell was Lando doing during the time of resistance?

How did Lando convince 1,000 ships to follow him in 10 minutes when Leia couldn’t get anyone? Is she that bad of a leader?

What was the point of the turncoat storm troopers in the planet with Death Star wreckage?

How did the dagger have the location of the Sith finder built into its design?

What’s with the fascination of destroying planets? How does that win people over to your cause?

Why did the New Order rely on conscripts to fill their ranks? Why not go with droids for their infantry? No worry about deserters.

Don't have to win them over if they're dead, and you frighten many more into toeing the line.

 

[weR138]

Somewhere in this thread someone mentioned Star Wars being dead but I actually think that's not true. I think Star Wars, like space itself, is never ending. There are always going to be new stories to tell, while having fun with the old stories.

Lucas and Ralph McQuarrie created something unique in the '70's which was the "used future" sci-fi aesthetic. Also, Lucas (with ANH, at least) tapped into universal mythological characters in a serious way. For these reasons and the fact that the Star Wars universe has already been expanded far beyond Lucas's initial vision (by authors canonically and non-canonically), I think you're exactly right. In fact, I'd suggest that Star Wars is almost it's own genre. It's totally plausible as a "space" Seven Samurai or a "space" The Searchers. I think that's unique. I'm holding off on watching The Mandalorian but I'm expecting that it will hold up as a "space" spaghetti western a la The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. The Star Wars universe is so familiar now that I think it can and will go on and on. That's the good news. The bad news is that doesn't necessarily mean the stories will be good. My fear is that Disney will ignore great stories in favor of blockbuster thrill rides. Hopefully, going forward whoever is making Star Wars films is trying to balance top notch story with top notch sci-fi effects the way Lucas originally did in '77.

 

[CloniesForLife]

Thoughts on this movie: I thought it was a very enjoyable movie. Top 3 Star Wars? No. But it was fun to watch and wrapped things up nicely. My big complaint is that it definitely tried to pack a lot in.

Thoughts on this trilogy: I rewatched 7 and 8 before seeing this one. This trilogy would've benefitted from a better vision/cohesiveness but overall I think all the movies were at least solid. I actually liked 8 more than on first watch. Overall the trilogy is enjoyable.

Thoughts on the 3 trilogies: Nothing will ever beat the original trilogy. It's just an impossible standard. The sequel trilogy far surpasses the prequel. I grew up on the prequels and loved them but now that I'm older they do not hold up (other than maybe #3).

Final thoughts: It's Star Wars. Enjoy it!

 

[CyCloned]

Went to see it on Christmas Eve, it was okay. As stated above, great special effects and sound, acting was okay, but the plot was a mess. The whole scene about making a land attack on the cruiser to knock out the antenna was laughable. Just shoot the thing and move on. Also thought the teasing with relationships at the end was moronic. A) why should we care. B) If you are going to force us to think about caring, then give us some answers. I suppose they are planting the seeds for the next movie, where they will develop some of the paper thin players.

Definitely worth getting on Blue Ray for the action, but don't go into it with great expectations.

 

[UnCytely]

They just can;t get away from Death Stars. Return of the Jedi started this trend of unimagination by bringing back the Death Star as the Great Threat of the movie. I thought that idea lacked imagination which I when I watched that movie as a 13-yo. Force Awakens continued this as the Great Threat of that movie was just an even bigger Death Star. Now with Rise of Skywalker we have thousands and thousands of Mini Death Stars. Actually, I think they could have done away with that idea in this movie. Why did those Star Destroyers have to be planet killers?

This movie lived up to all of my expectations as far as being predictable and unimaginative. Palpatine died in Return of the Jedi, and should have stayed dead.

What amazes me is the difference in production style between the Mandalorian TV series and the Third Trilogy movies. With The Mandalorian, it is evident that all of the writers and directors work closely with each other, and that all of the directors are closely involved with all of the episodes, so that a director that directs, say, episode 3 is still involved with other episodes that are directed by someone else. It is obvious that there wasn't this kind of close-knit planning with movies 7, 8, and 9. If there were, the idea of Palpatine coming back would have been hinted in the other movies and wouldn't have felt like it came out of left field. Likewise the back stories of Rey and Snoke wouldn't have felt cobbled together.

 

[SpokaneCY]

Don't have to win them over if they're dead, and you frighten many more into toeing the line.

My question - if the force can raise space ships and all that, how come they can't use the force to shoot straight? How come they have planet busting lasers but C3PO has red, white and blue wires sticking out his chest? How come they have to plug in a USB to download stuff?

Great movie franchise though... Not all winners but the movie are all entertaining...

 

[HFCS]

As a lifelong star Wars fanatic and collector, and also a child of adoption, I have to admit the very last end pulled some tears from me that weren't there just prior.

These movies can never recapture the nostalgia for those of us in the 35-60 age range but they did a drastically better job than the prequels. I feel like this is now the fourth best in the nine part saga and probably fifth of all 11 movies.

 

[HFCS]

Questions...
What the hell was Lando doing during the time of resistance?

How did Lando convince 1,000 ships to follow him in 10 minutes when Leia couldn’t get anyone? Is she that bad of a leader?

What was the point of the turncoat storm troopers in the planet with Death Star wreckage?

How did the dagger have the location of the Sith finder built into its design?

What’s with the fascination of destroying planets? How does that win people over to your cause?

Why did the New Order rely on conscripts to fill their ranks? Why not go with droids for their infantry? No worry about deserters.

What I will tell myself for Lando convincing allies: the destruction of that planet had the exact opposite effect they wanted?

 

[Rogue52]

They just can;t get away from Death Stars. Return of the Jedi started this trend of unimagination by bringing back the Death Star as the Great Threat of the movie. I thought that idea lacked imagination which I when I watched that movie as a 13-yo. Force Awakens continued this as the Great Threat of that movie was just an even bigger Death Star. Now with Rise of Skywalker we have thousands and thousands of Mini Death Stars. Actually, I think they could have done away with that idea in this movie. Why did those Star Destroyers have to be planet killers?

This movie lived up to all of my expectations as far as being predictable and unimaginative. Palpatine died in Return of the Jedi, and should have stayed dead.

What amazes me is the difference in production style between the Mandalorian TV series and the Third Trilogy movies. With The Mandalorian, it is evident that all of the writers and directors work closely with each other, and that all of the directors are closely involved with all of the episodes, so that a director that directs, say, episode 3 is still involved with other episodes that are directed by someone else. It is obvious that there wasn't this kind of close-knit planning with movies 7, 8, and 9. If there were, the idea of Palpatine coming back would have been hinted in the other movies and wouldn't have felt like it came out of left field. Likewise the back stories of Rey and Snoke wouldn't have felt cobbled together.

I try not to get too wrapped up in this stuff because it’s just a fantasy movie series, but the storyline that’s been developed around the original Death Star (especially with Rogue One and subsequent books) is great. It was a couple decades in the making. Whole worlds were ravaged for the resources necessary to build it. High ranking imperials fought over the man power to build it and the value in building it. Thrawn tried to personally convince the Emperor that they should instead build another 1000 or whatever equivalent number of Star Destroyers.

However, it continues to get watered down by the fact that developing these super lasers appears to be way easier than the original.

Also, does anyone else think the visual of Alderaan exploding is better than the couple planet explosions that have happened in the sequel trilogy?

 

[Sigmapolis]

I try not to get too wrapped up in this stuff because it’s just a fantasy movie series, but the storyline that’s been developed around the original Death Star (especially with Rogue One and subsequent books) is great. It was a couple decades in the making. Whole worlds were ravaged for the resources necessary to build it. High ranking imperials fought over the man power to build it and the value in building it. Thrawn tried to personally convince the Emperor that they should instead build another 1000 or whatever equivalent number of Star Destroyers.

However, it continues to get watered down by the fact that developing these super lasers appears to be way easier than the original.

Also, does anyone else think the visual of Alderaan exploding is better than the couple planet explosions that have happened in the sequel trilogy?

Allegory for the Manhattan Project.

Fantasy/scifi as a genre is only good if it is grounded in reality OR if there is an element of unreality to it, to the rules that it makes for itself.

"Anything can happen, nothing matters, nobody is ever really dead, just try not to think about it too hard" = never going to rise to that level.

This is why I had problems with Endgame. Time travel is a Pandora's Box as a plot device, so unless you build your whole plot around it and have clear rules (e.g., Back to the Future), it undermines the weight of your universe.

 

[enisthemenace]

Just got back from watching it. I enjoyed it, and so did my kids. All that matters.

 

[CloneIce]

Just got back from watching it. I enjoyed it, and so did my kids. All that matters.

All of my friends and family who have seen it, liked it.

 

[State43]

I thought it was a pretty good movie. They did a good job closing out the PoS Ryan Johnson left behind. I really wish the end was Rey finding Baby Yoda in Mandalorian armor but then again. Time would put baby today at around 80-100 years old so he would probably be more self reliant by then

 

[thatguy]

Thought it was real good. Kids thought it was real good. If you have a problem with the story line in this one, I would like to remind you, Return of the Jedi exists.

 

[Bret44]

Watched it again this afternoon.


I still like it, I probably like it better know.


I didn't realize that they X-Wing Pilot who died and had a few lines was Snap Wexley from the books. That brought me down a little bit.