Support NeoGAF

[Cockles & Whelks]

So with all of the social media and Era reviews this film kind of got ruined for me with all of the identity politic BS. I just rewatched it at home and you know what removed from the lefty take on it I freaking loved it. It’s not perfect but the pacing felt better at home and I appreciate a happy ending in these dark times #Reyloforlyfe

"Feels" the most of the new trilogy like a proper Star Wars film, it moves briskly. However, that's for a reason...because as soon you start to think...it all crumbles apart. The whole sequel trilogy should be textbook for how not to run a franchise.

Let's imagine all those years ago when Lucas sold up. You're the lowly janitor at Disney...suddenly mid-conference at the trilogy planning meeting an asteroid hits and kills all the creatives. Bob Iger turns to you and says "Hey kid...your a Star Wars nut right?" and bingo you have Kathleen Kennedy's job. Now can you imagine any circumstance, with a trilogy planned, that you would hire three different director/writers and basically just let them run amok with no overall theme/storyline planned? Unbelievable! Palpatine *could* have worked, look at the comics. Even in TROS, Rey's identity screams out for the reveal - she should have been a CLONE of Palpatine, one of many he's tried to make and transfer his essence to over the years. She's the only one that "works" and on the eve of the ceremony one of the Sith acolytes grows a conscience and steals her away and hides her on Jakku. Granddaughter. I LOL'ed.

 

[BlackOlivesMatter]

I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would. Better than Last Jedi (the worst movie ever made) and Attack of the Clones, but that's about it.

My favorite SW scene btw

 

[ntropy]

weaponizing light-speed warps

 

[teezzy]

Its a fun rollercoaster flick which could use more character development and breathing room amidst the high octane pacing.

Rise of Skywalker very much felt like a result of nerds whining too much over Last Jedi. I adored Last Jedi personally, so I'm particularly miffed by this.

I'd place Rise of Skywalker above Rogue One and Attack of the Clones.

 

[Ulysses 31]

What the actual fuck were they thinking with this scene.

To humiliate Luke Skywalker.

 

[LordKasual]

I stopped caring about Star Wars the moment they completely nerfed Lightsabers.

And it's not so much about the lightsabers themselves, it's the message it sends.

They're more concerned about mass appeal than they are about good writing. And of course, this shows in the writing itself and everyone hates it as a result.


A dude got hit in the back with a lightsaber and another dude in the face in the same movie and they both lived.

They're afraid of graphic violence now. Which is very stupid because Lightsabers are about as PG-13 graphic as you can get (wounds are instantly cauterized even with dismemberment/bisection), and also because the series is about war.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

To humiliate Luke Skywalker.

yes for all the whining Rian does about "manbabies", he is the person who decided to have Luke Skywalker drink milk delivered directly from the engorged naked breasts of a hideous beast, while the real lead character looks on in disgust. he decided to use millions of dollars to deliver the image of a grown man drinking breast milk while a horrified young woman looks on. it is literally an infantilizing image.

there is no other reading here than "look at this gross old man". they have a Rey reaction shot to show you that you are supposed to find it weird and offputting. when you read about how expensive that stupid space cow was to transport, how costly the whole thing was, it further drives home much of a fuck you that scene is.

 

[Fbh]

Nah, I actually watched it for the first time some weeks ago and it's shit. Not just as a Star Wars movie but as a movie in general.

It goes on the barely entertaining tire besides stuff like Transformers or Batman V Superman.

 

[triplestation]

bitch you crazy as hell

 

[Alter_Fridge]

Wat? It's 4 months old

 

[Tesseract]

weaponizing light-speed warps

what is this, star trek?!

 

[Alter_Fridge]

weaponizing light-speed warps

I mean, why not?

 

[Deleted member 1159]

I mean, why not?

It breaks pretty much every space battle scene that came before it?

 

[Saber]

Between no difference and nothing, I think both of them serves these films.

Its a very bland trilogy, thats being carried by "Star Wars" name and old cast. Feels like one of those SW crappie series and cartoons just to remind people how popular they are, but no heart at all.

Take from someone who actually tried to watch a few times before giving up completely.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

my favorite description is that it's "beige filler" as described by RLM. the new characters and all that are just there to promote the brand. the story wasn't even an afterthought, it was never part of the plan.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

It breaks pretty much every space battle scene that came before it?

It was only just conceived?

Duh

 

[Deleted member 1159]

It was only just conceived?

Duh

So these wars have been raging for thousands of years with hyperspace travel and someone just now figured out how kinetic energy works?

 

[Bolivar687]

I recently thought about how Rey saving Kylo from death and Kylo bringing Rey back from death is kinda wierd when that was what sent Anakin toward becoming Darth Vader. Bringing Palpatine back, they even had the line about the dark side being a path to abilities some would find unnatural. Maybe they intentionally played off of that but if so they failed pretty miserably.

The whole point was you don't mess with the natural order and cycle of life and that the inability to accept suffering is what compels people to do really evil shit. Here it's just a good thing. It really shows the infantilization of the series and things just happening because you need to have a movie in theaters to sell $30 tickets.

 

[Cutty Flam]

It’s decent at best. I wouldn’t waste my time on a second watch. The only scenes I appreciated was Rey’s courage and bravery when she healed that wounded reptile in the underground tunnel system of sorts

Literally the only thing I enjoyed about the film, was Rey’s compassion for life of all walks. I like when she helped D-O too

The rest is forgettable tbh, being a fan of some degree, I expect better directing and vision. For such a beloved saga, the creators at Disney did their fans a disservice by putting out such a mediocre film imo. I feel bad for the hardcore fans out there who have no hope of another timeless Star Wars film

 

[Faenrir]

It hasn't aged it just came out and it sucks.
Sorry to burst your bubble

 

[Super Mario]

Amazing how "aged" is about 3 months. That's about how long our attention span can last anymore. A real aged test is the prequels, in which you see more people admitting they appreciate them a little more.

These days, it's cool and woke to show you eye for talent by hating movies. Extra points for big name movies and agreeing with the hive mind.

Does the movie have flaws? Absolutely. The trilogy suffered by a few things including: having too many different people in charge of it, inserting pointless agendas, and rushed timelines. With that said, I feel Abrams did the best he could to tie up the trilogy with a plot that made some sort of sense. Before that we were left with the main villains, Snoke and Phasma dying without any story at all. We had the iconic Luke Skywalker drinking from the tit of a beast. We had a purple haired woman kamikaze a ship because hers ran out gas. After some of that nonsense I was glad to see some of the fan service in Episode 9. As cheesy as it was.

 

[GV82]

Editors Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey were guests on the Mission: Impossible-centric Light the Fuse podcast where they offered thoughts on Johnson's The Last Jedi. "It was a different take on the Star Wars saga," Brandon said. "To Rian's credit, he stuck to what he wanted to do, and he wanted to deconstruct the film and go a different direction, and I know it's controversial, but isn't that good?" Markey added, "It's very strange to have the second film so consciously undo the storytelling of the first film. I'm sorry, that's what it felt like. I don't even feel like that's true about the third film. It took where the second film ended and tried to tell a story, I didn't feel like it was consciously trying to... it didn't feel that way."

After TLJ mess I find it hard to watch, I’m halfway through watching tros about a month ago online & haven’t finished it.

 

[llien]

Identity politics was quite present in the first/second.

Third, not so much, if at all.

But it felt like soap opera episode, with expensive CG, much more so even compared to the previous two.
It felt like last episodes of the last season of "How I Met Your Mother", when everyone was hoping nonsense would end soon and be quickly forgotten.

They have effectively ruined the franchise, no wonder no more trilogies are planned. (and most episodes of Mandalorian, for me where between "meh" and "oh boy, why am I even watching this crap". I'll still give "Obi VAn" a try, because McGregor).

I liked "Rogue One", Solo was ok.

PS
And if you wonder, where "The Future is Female" comes from, read this. (scroll straight to points I,II,III)

 

[Armorian]

This looks like (beggining of) some hardcore porn casting.

 

[Mihos]

During the movie, my family was trying to keep up with all the powers they made up and Rey could suddenly do.

By the end we were saying stuff like "She could beat Mortal Kombat on hard with one life!", "Her turkey never comes out dry!", and "she has the highest credit score in the galaxy!"

It was infinitely better than TLJ since it was a 0, but the mary sue stuff was put on steroids. I give it 1 wookie medal out of 10

 

[NeoGiffer]

 

[obin_gam]

I think its the only SW movie I've watched only once and have zero interest in revisiting :/

Never should have read the Duel of the fates script either... just made me wish timetravel was possible

 

[pramod]

I did a LTTP not that long ago on this and I still stand by my impressions. The themes and stuff are pretty interesting but the execution is pretty poor. There are so many scenes that just feel like weirdly manic garbage that I dont think I can sit through it again frankly. No scenes are ever left to just breathe, its all fast pacing and characters just being loud and boisterous.

So why even bother with The First Order if the real threat was this super secret fleet that nobody knew about, including the First Order? How the fuck could you keep a massive fleet, crewed by thousands (millions?) of people and have it never leak? You could go on and on.

Also, I dont mind Kylo and Rey so much but the rest of the characters can just fuck right off. Poe is a shitty Han, Finn has had nothing to do for at least a movie and a half, Rose....lets face it, if it wasnt for the "controversy" surrounding this character, nobody would remember her in the series.

The entire trilogy would have greatly benefited from being scaled down just to focus on Kylo and Rey.

The thing is most of the "interesting" Star Wars characters are powerful, important people like Jedis or Sith. A "nobody" like Han becoming a major character was 90% because it was Harrison Ford playing him, one of the most charismatic and greatest actors of all time. So they thought they can recreate another Han just by introducing some regular nobody like Finn and give him a lot of screen time and "cool" stuff to do. Doesn't work that way. And Poe was their attempt to make a "Wedge"-like figure into a major character, they failed miserably too.

 

[Sakura Doritos]

I think the movie they wanted to make was good. We just are missing about 20% of it. The stuff in the book has actual scenes that were filmed that would have added character to it. Honestly I don't know what they were thinking when they shortened the film.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

All the “JJ rejected TLJ” claims are absurd. JJ followed up so many things that film did. It just didn’t do it in the way certain people had fan theories so they took it as an offense. I mean Luke being his old pro-Jedi self again was his character arc in TLJ. Leia as secret Jedi was also hinted at with the Mary Poppins. Kylo’s misguided obsession with killing the past and being unable to and also being wrong were fundamental themes in TLJ, all followed up here. The Holdo reference is there to pay homage to what a heroic thing that was (the small odds make it more heroic). Even the silly Rey Clones in a Mirror scene was followed up, her origin story as vaguely and poorly portrayed by Rian, fits in with the “daughter of clone” origin story.

It is funny seeing so many still rage against it though. They think JJ “ignored” the last film but he didn’t. They think he is putting it down, when the few subversive shots fired are entirely in the spirit of throwing a lightsaber over the shoulder. People forget that JJ was talking up TLJ in the lead up to ROS, talking about how he got into that mindset and all. So the narrative that JJ hated TLJ and ignored it is absurd.

 

[nush]

Honestly I don't know what they were thinking when they shortened the film.

More shows per screen and they knew it was stinker so it did not play on as bigger number of screens as Endgame. They were manipulating ticket reservations from the start.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

More shows per screen and they knew it was stinker so it did not play on as bigger number of screens as Endgame. They were manipulating ticket reservations from the start.

yes the decision to make the film a certain length was a monetary one. they have a "modern tentpole format" that they shoved the franchise into, KK is fond of talking about how they treat them movies like any other blockbuster. so the modern blockbusters need to play for a certain number of minutes, but not too many, so that they can sell X number of showings per day. in order to get the most money from this movie it was decided it had to be a certain length.

so that is one reason it feels so fast and rushed. another reason is they gave them the least amount of time to make the film out of all three movies, another monetary decision made in order to reach a release date they had set long ago. they made a lot of these dumb monetary decisions, which made a bunch for the at the moment, but will probably not really help the long term growth of the franchise.

ofc they had massive fan capital going into this project. they were well aware of that. people desperate for "non prequel style" films. the hype during TFA was nearly unanimous. i guess they figured, since people are all-in on the new SW, why not just be total mercenaries about it?

 

[nush]

people desperate for "non prequel style" films. the hype during TFA was nearly unanimous.

Watching it for the first time was amazing, then all the joy got sucked out by over analysis and infighting.

 

[C4lukin2]

I actually enjoy all three films on their own.

They fucked up by not creating a cohesive trilogy, and just winging it.

It was a sad attempt at ending the Skywalker story. But each film unto itself is good to a little below great.

 

[Ma-Yuan]

I had 0 expectations watching this movie. Since episode 7 I don't watch star wars movies in cinema anymore. But well it's much worse then I expected. God the pacing is so horrible its like they cobbled 3 movies together into one in a hurry which might be true. It's just a disgrace. I am happy we have the mandalorian, so there is hope for good star wars yet.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

people desperate for "non prequel style" films. the hype during TFA was nearly unanimous

I would prefer prequel style. I loved all the colorful and wild planets. I felt like I was seeing Star Wars all over again but fresh and new.

 

[cryptoadam]

The movie sucked.

But can't blame this movie, it was rotten from the start. Finn/Poe/Rey/Kylo all suck and Han/Luke/Leiea were treated dirty and all died.

Anyways onto the next triology where they bring back the Palps again. this time he will have 100000 deathstars that can fly all over space to really up the ante.

 

[Hinedorf]

It's the only Star Wars movie I could actively see myself changing the channel to something else. Aside from being a horribly put together movie and complete failure to the end of the saga it also has the pacing of somebody on meth.

They rewrote movie 4 for 7 and then proceeded to make 2 contrasting films that defy each other throughout for 8 and 9

A lot of people owe George Lucas an apology for 1-3, at least THEY MADE FUCKING SENSE.

 

[Ma-Yuan]

One more thing I am fucking distracted that Rey has her fucking mouth non stop open when she is not talking. The acting is so bad... Her face expression is one for every emotion... Every scene

 

[Patrick S.]

It has some logic flaws that left mew scratching my head, like "the Star Destroyers need a guidance system to know where "up" is!, and "if you stand at this exact spot and look at your knife, it will align with the no longer atomized remains of the Death Star!". But the movie still managed to entertain me well enough. Adam Driver is incredible, and Daisy Ridley is super cute, and I loved how they both brought across the vulnerability and internal conflicts of Ren and Rey.

 

[pixelation]

I really liked The Last Jedi... will I like this?

 

[newtypepilot]

Even if without the obnoxious SJW nonsense and pandering, it's still the worst film in the franchise. Story structure is a mess because they spent first arc undoing everything that happened in TLJ, so you are left with 2/3rds of the film to wrap up everything, leading to the story moving at light speed pace and plotholes galore. Flynn is a wasted character that went nowhere. Even if you turn your brain off you are still left wondering "what the fuck just happened?"

 

[Ememee]

I finally watched this yesterday on Disney +. Was the first Star Wars movie (including the re-released OT in the 90s) I didn’t watch in theaters. Didn’t want to hand over cash to it.

It’s bad. It’s..insultingly stupid. I wasn’t a fan of the prequels either, TBH. But man...this fucking film. It really does feel like it was made up of kids playing with their Star Wars toys. Or a video game. It also has this self-deafeating feel as if to say “yeah, yeah, let’s get this over with”. I don’t watch movies with my brain, I go with my gut but man I’ve never laughed unintentionally more at a film since who knows when. I don’t blame one particular person for the ST: Rian, JJ, KK, Iger. One hell of a Mickey Mouse operation in not planning it out and fumbling this whole thing.

 

[DetectiveBananas]

It’s just weird to go from 6 movies that preach the power of patience and great power in the Force comes with years of dedicated training. Fast forward to 7-9 ...Rey “Fuck That Noise!” . Jedi Master Rey “Skywalker” has it handled....

 

[Darkmakaimura]

It's my favorite movie in the new trilogy which isn't saying much.

It felt really weird though watching it in theaters. It didn't feel like a Star Wars film and felt very dour. Maybe it was the audience. I saw the first showing the night before official release and theater was half full amd nobody cheered or laughed or anything. Infinity War and Endgame on the same days were packed with excited audiences.

What an epic fail this new trilogy has been. What a shame.

 

[Dr.Guru of Peru]

I liked it. Also liked Force Awakens. They should have just had JJ direct the entire trilogy.

 

[GeorgioCostanzaX]

Hot take now that Clone Wars is over...that’s Star Wars I forgot it could be that good. I do think the plot holes will eventually get filled in via the Mandalorian and other means though and I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t admit I’m looking forward to that more than a rewatch of this film. Much like Clone Wars there’s potential to retroactively make the overall story better not an excuse but just a thought. I still LIKE the film.

 

[Shizumapower]

'It's a feeling' Moral decisions are now the force.

 

[Shodan09]

It did the best with what it was given by episode 8

 

[Moogle11]

I thought the new trilogy was largely fine. I've been a life long Star Wars fan being born in the late 70s and growing up watching them over and over on VHS etc. That said, they've always just been popcorn flicks to me so I'm pretty forgiving of flaws. Rise of Skywalker has more flaws than all but the prequels for sure as it just tried to do too much in one movie that hadn't been set up by the first two. But it was still enjoyable to me and a reasonably satisfying end for me to the Skywalker/Palpatine ark.

I hope Rian Johnson still gets his trilogy. I liked TLJ the best of the new ones personally, and think he could have a lot more success doing his own thing within the universe and not having to deal with fan expectations about what Luke would do, what should happen etc. I've liked most of his other movies and would like to see what he can do with freedom to create his own characters and stories with no expectations.