Saw it a couple days ago, and was sorry to say that I was bored throughout most of the movie, which is a first for any Star Wars movie for me. There were moments that would jar me out of that bored stupor, but they never really lasted. Also felt like the movie was put together well. Didn't feel like it had structure if that makes sense. Also seemed like they kept throwing new things in without making sure that they were implemented properly.

 

I had to pee like 40 minutes in and didn't feel bad about missing out on anything.

I went in with as few expectations as I could. Overall I came out satisfied, glad that they closed up the trilogy and wrapped up as much as they could albeit not very neatly. Glad that they're going to have to look for another way to milk the franchise.

Don't really feel the need to watch it again but I'm down to listen to the score and the end credits over and over because John Williams is a goddamn gift to us all.

Spoiler

The detour to macguffin planet was much better than in Last Jedi.

Carrie Fisher's sendoff was tastefully done, all things considered. Her audio in the opening scenes was a bit off, like they hit the equalizer too hard and didn't adjust volume to compensate.

Plot twists were predictable to the extreme, even 8 year old me could have seen those coming. Rey's sparkly fingers got a good chuckle out of me. The other showcases of force powers were pretty goofy bullshit but I rolled with it. The transcending spacetime force dyad mind meld was pure bullshit but man were those fights fun to watch. Force healing was meh.

In that respect, I felt like the writers leaned heavily into the Extended Universe without ever acknowledging it or paying proper dues.

Ian McDiarmid killed it in his scenes. Billy Dee Williams felt wasted and unnecessary.

Dialogue was overall dull, but didn't have as many cringeworthy moments as TLJ.

Visually it was a great spectacle, but I've come to expect that from Star Wars. Writing felt lazy. At no point was I leaning on the edge of my seat. The moment that hurt most was when Chewbacca got back to base and found out Leia was gone; his acting was the most moving scene of the film.

But you know what? CHEWIE FINALLY GOT HIS FUCKING MEDAL. FORTY YEARS LATER.

Re: Reylo kiss: It taints the "Rey Skywalker" finale for me and I'm honestly so disappointed that got in the final cut. Not even mad, just disappointed. All you had to do was not give in to the most tired goddamn cliche ever and it'd be a clever subversion of expectations and it would also send the message that not every movie has to have a romantic subplot between the male and female leads a la Pacific Rim, but by god Jar Jar Abrams, you colored inside the lines again.

I'm fine. I'm not mad, I swear.

The circle has come to a close and the story's done as far as I can tell, and I'm okay with that. Fitting way for me to close out the decade and the dumpster fire of a year tbh.

I'm not super emotionally invested in the characters and franchise, or left craving more of the story, and I don't think I'll go out of my way to search for fan written alternate endings. Writers/directors didn't take any risks, and they aren't breaking any new ground or opening spaces to explore.

At the same time I'm not really feeling all the outrage about it, and haven't really had reason to be mad about the sequel trilogy. Not a lot of hate to flow through me. I've been rereading the Dresden Files recently because Jim's done a bunch of summaries in the Peace Talks release date thread, what has stuck with me was Uriel's opinion on Star Wars in Ghost Story and Skin Game: It's a straightforward, black and white story about good triumphing over evil.

And I like the music.

 

A decent argument can be made for this.

Obviously all the movies in the OT are better by most people's standard.

In regards to going against the PT; one thing the PT did right is World Building. OT was great but you never really got a feel for how big the galaxy was. The OT did that, showing different planets, different cultures, different civilizations. The ST didn't add anything in terms of World Building.

Most people say RoTS is the best of the PT (I disagree but whatever) because the whole movie is a Shakespearean tragedy. Anakin trying to save his wife by going to the dark side when that's the very thing that kills her. Him being treated as lesser by the Jedi Council all the while knowing that they'd treat him worse if they found out about his wife. He's less of a creep towards Padme, with the relationship actually being him loving her than it being some kind of obsession. The Mustafar duel is one of the few times that we see actual trained Force users go against one another and it really shows it.

AoTC is the one where the majority of the World Building happened. It also introduces Ewan McGregor and the camaraderie between Obi-Wan and Anakin is shown and it's one of the best parts about the movie because you can tell that they really are good friends/brothers. The Jedi battle on Geonosis was also pretty awesome to see. Unlike the OT and the ST where the Jedi have pretty much died out, the whole Order is still going strong here. Seeing dozens of Jedi battle together is something that hadn't been done before. Hopefully in the future they have one where it's actual trained Jedi vs Sith, swapping out the Droids for the Sith. Let's also not forget that this movie gave us the Clone Wars TV show and Rebels which for all their child friendly actions are pretty good as well.

TPM is where RoTS might take the crown. It was a mistake to start of with Nine-Year old Anakin, especially if you're just going to age him up ten years in the next one. If you had to do child Anakin, it should have been a more sociopathic/Artemis Fowl kind of character. The movie was also so political that it felt like a was watching a session of Parliament. Honestly not sure what good thing I can say about TPM other than maybe the Darth Maul battle but beyond that, nothing else really.

 

Every time I sit down and go through a list of points I get irrationality angry and ragequit.

Why is there a fully functional ship with functual droids aboard lying literally out in the open on the outskirts of a settlement for a decade minimum? Why has nobody just said, "Dibbs."

Why?

 

Just saw it

There's no way anybody with a functional brain unironically likes that steaming pile of fucking garbage dogshit

holy FUCK i'm triggered. My expectations were rock bottom and I STILL got pissed off

 

Eaten by that huge snake thing maybe?

Also that "They fly now!?" bit was the cringest part of the entire trilogy.

 

Kylo and Rey's force bond hate fuck was probably the best part of the sequel trilogy. If there was more of that stuff in Star Wars I might actually enjoy it.

 

I keep thinking that as much as 75% of the fandom is wrong about The Last Jedi, at the very least we can unite and say The Rise of Skywalker is utter garbage.

But then I see this movie has 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and I'm just...how? Why? What?

 

Obviously I didn't think the movie was garbage, but I do think thumbs up/down is a garbage system for trying to assess public opinion.

 

Well clearly, which is why RT also has a convenient "average rating score." RoS got an audience score average rating of 4.32 which is for instance much better than trash like moonlight (3.94) or toy story (3.75). So yeh, people really loved this piece of shit.

 

Well yeah, that's a much more useful number. I do find it surprising, but I'm much more baffled about Toy Story having a 3.75...

 

They froze it early on at 86%, that's why it's so high

 

The only things worth defending in the Disney Trilogy are the result of Disney money. Pour a billion dollars into a trilogy and at the very least you'll have good visuals and you can afford to hire good actors.

Everything that actually took creativity and thinking has been garbage. If this is supposed to be the space opera of our times, I'll replay Mass Effect again, thank you very much.

 

One slight theory I have is that rabid TLJ-haters may be mass-upvoting it because of the way it pissed on any continuity with that. But I don't put much stock in that, as it sounds too much like assuming the world feels like you.

On the other hand, I just genuinely don't understand how so many people could like it. Not that anyone would like it - just that so many people would.

 

I saw it on Sunday so ive had some time to stew on the whole thing, the more i think about it the more it pisses me off. Its like they had no overarching plan. .... But did they retcon episode seven? Maybe I am remembering it wrong. But first movie said that after the Battle of Jakku, a peace was signed with the new republic was recognized as controlling the outer rim with the remains of the Empire descending into a Civil War, if the New Republic controls the Outer Rim then by logic the Remnants of the Empire are fighting over the core worlds, as there is no mention of Corusant at all in the new Trilogy. And that after Decades of Fighting the First Order Emerged from the Embers of the Old Empire and has began to expand into the "Neutral Zone" between them and the New Republic.

But the new Art Books now seem to say that the Empire fucked off into the "Unexplored Zone of the Galaxy" while a Few Moffs and Commanders played Warlords in Core systems. Then the First Order swept in and somehow took things over you know without a massive clone army for troops (since the first order kidnaps children)... but oh wait by the way there is this "Final Order" on a dead world that has been shitting out ships and "Sith" Troopers for thirty years(and somehow feeding everyone)

Each of the movies has had good parts, but there is a lot of questionable story moments or plot points that disappears up Disney's Sphincter. Like anyone remember Luke in TLJ saying that Kylo destroyed the new Jedi Academy and then took off with his followers? Did My brain make that up, in an attempt to make the story flow better? It was just a single throw away line. I always thought the Knights of Ren would have been Kylos the "followers" mentioned but nope they are just dark force users. Not that they mattered at all in RoS

 

So. I'm here to leave some anecdotal evidence. Of all of my co-workers, of all of my friends, everyone who has seen it liked it. And I also liked it. I'm mostly just sad that JJayBrams couldn't have been in control of all 3 films. I have yet to meet someone in real life (where the conversation came up) who disliked it. Even my D&D crew liked it. And I'm bringing it up in a lot of conversations. It's an incredible disconnect between the internet and real life for me.

That flick was supremely worth my money. I had a tremendous time. On both viewings.

 

I've spoken to two people I know who have seen it - the only two, I'll add. One went with her kids and thought it was great, the other dragged his wife along and thought it was entertaining enough, if stupid and nonsensical, and he is now "done" with Star Wars.

I personally still have no interest in seeing it, but am enjoying the comment sections on articles.

 

I wanted to wait until my second viewing to talk about TRoS.

In short, I really enjoyed it. I left the theater grinning, and I think of all the sequels, it is the best film. All 8 of the people, who went with me, ranging from ages 10 to 65, also really enjoyed it (admittedly, none of them are quite as obsessive about Star Wars as I am).

Also in short, I fucking hated it. The film oscillates between quintessential Star Warsy moments and piping hot cringey shit that I want to scrub from my brain so frequently that it makes my head spin.

So let's do a blow by blow to explain this odd dichotomy.

-- The crawl. Fuck that noise. "THE DEAD SPEAK" my ass. This NEEDED to be a scene. Preferably at the end of the last movie instead of Nobody McBroomboy with his force sweeping powers. Ugh. Go fuck yourself Rian. But as this was out of JJs control, Palpy's voice crackling across a galaxy wide communique should have been the opener. I can't believe they just dropped us into it after all that buildup. Fuck.

-- Kylo killing fools to get the wayfinder was really pretty and satisfying. It's clear they improved the standard fight choreography quite a bit as the sequel trilogy went on. That's how I want my lightsaber fights. Just brutal and savage, like what we see in most of the Blizzard Old Republic CG cutscenes.

--Snoke as a deformed Palpy test tube baby. I mean... super underwhelming, but on the whole I suppose it is a satisfying explanation, albeit a handwaved one. #MakePlagueisCloneCanonPlz

--Handwaved "Clones. Sith magic" explanation for Palps' revival. This was underwhelming as fuck and I hated it, especially after experiencing all the phenomenal fan theories. At the very least they should have had a whole room full of floating test tube Palpys in all different stages of development. That visual would have been amazing.

--Lightspeed skipping... umm... what? No. Absolutely not. I get that it looks cool, and the ensuing argument between Rey and Poe had me grinning, but don't break your own in-universe physics just for shits and giggles.

--Writing Rose out of any and all important scenes. This was probably the smart choice, though it felt a little... cheap? Critics like to talk about how TRoS did an injustice to the first female Asian char in Star Wars, but you know what? Rian did an injustice to the first female Asian char in Star Wars by writing her as an afterthought love interest with cookie-cutter motivations. I really have no idea how Rose could have been salvaged.

--Daisy has really improved as an actress over the course of the series. Loathe as I am to admit it, and as much as I roll my eyes at Reylo, Rey's interactions with Ben were the best part of the movie. Every force connection scene was just superbly done.

--Pasana and the kickoff of the Mcguffin search. I... didn't mind the format to be honest. It at least made for logical film progression when there were plot holes galore in every other scene.

-- conveniently landing in convenient quicksand after the chase scene that conveniently led them to the remains of their quarry. Oh my. How very convenient. -__-

--Finn needing to tell Rey something super important but getting cut off. MAYBE IT WAS A LOVE CONFESSION OR MAYBE IT WASN'T OHOHOHOH WINK WINK. This is like middleschool level of shitty writing and I wanted to throw my delicious Cheeto's popcorn at the screen.

--Rey's new force powers. At this point, just going all in on her Sueness was really the only way forward. The "I have a dark side herp derp" angle could have been done much better, but I did really like snake healing and the accidental force lightning scene.

--Babu Frik and Zorri were pretty cool. C3P0 was fucking great by the way, and I loved every dumb joke he was involved in. The "last look at my friends" thing actually had me emoting (even though none of his actual old friends were there with him).

--Infiltrating the star destroyer. Thought these scenes were really well done, even the silly bits with Hux. They gave Finn and Poe a chance to really shine. As a pair, they were a delight every time they were onscreen doing their Space Bro routine.

--Force connection fighting / passage of material objects is really fucking awesome. I suspect it is going to be limited to "force dyads", which given Palpatine's exposition dump at the end is pretty rare, so it probably won't influence lore too much.

--You're Palpy's granddaughter bit was a bit cringe. A) because she could have been a clone and it would have made even more sense with the setup from last jedi, B) because that was some awkward mic drop shit that didn't land at all.

--endor system planet. Rando female Finn stormtrooper whose name I can't remember. I actually like this setup, even if the two had terrible dialogue when appearing together. It made the whole Finn broke his mental conditioning because guilt thing a little more palatable.

-The death star wreckage scene, retrieval of the mcguffin, and ensuing fight was really tight. And Leia's death after reaching across the galaxy to Ben with the force, if anything, at least gives Luke's force effort death some more canon reinforcement, which it desperately needed. Rey healing Ben was telegraphed way in advance, but overall pretty well done.

--The Ben Han scene was the third best scene in the movie. I mean... I knew they were going to redeem him, but I didn't think they were going to be able to do it in such a satisfying way. I was very pleasantly surprised.

--the exegol fleet only broadcasting the nav data from one ship at a time. Fuck this. This is garbage writing JJ and you should be ashamed you put it to script. Also space horses. Please delete this from my brain.

--palpatine's 'Kill me Rey, and take my place' exposition dump. As poorly done as it was, I really like the connotation it holds for overall dark side canon. The idea that a piece of the Sith Lord's power, knowledge, and soul passes to the dark side user that kills them in anger (and perhaps passes to them unwittingly) is really pretty intriguing. I really look forward to what they do with this tidbit.

--Ben's fight with the KoR. The KoR were largely a cool afterthought, that is only just now being explored in the comics. Pulling the lightsaber out from behind his back as Rey passes it to him was fucking genius and I won't hear a word otherwise. Second best scene in the movie. It was phenomenal. And half the theater broke into cheering applause when it happened on my first viewing.

-- palpy's sudden motivation 180 when he learned about the force dyad connection. Did not like this at all. Really sloppy. If Snoke was the one who originally bridged their minds, and Snoke was just a puppet of palps... why didn't palps know? That seems like a pretty major plothole. Also, the background Sith cult was mad overkill. I much would have preferred him being alone. It would have been more... menacing?

--Despite the whole internet outcry pre-release, the Ben getting knocked down a hole so Rey and Palpy could fight solo was perfectly fine. Tbh, it isn't star wars unless someone get's tossed down a shaft.

--Ahsoka as a force ghost and thus canonically dead initially upset the shit out of me, but good ol' Dave Filoni has nipped that in the bud in his usual delightful manner, which gives me great hope for a post-Skywalker Disney+ Ezra/Sabine/Ahsoka series:



--Finn's repeated sacrifice arc was unnecessary, but I think it was done better this time around than in TLJ, where it didn't get much buildup and was 'subverted' with all the grace of drunk hippo.

--Killing Palps mace windu style was a nice nod.

-- the revival, kiss, and immediate force effort death. This was... I dunno. I didn't like it per se, but I don't think it could have gone anywhere else with the story they were telling. The kiss itself, well, they could have done without it. But meh. I'm sure it made the Reylo shippers very happy. The gushing 'squeeeeee' from the woman sitting behind me on viewing 2 certainly seems to implicate this.

--best scene in the movie: Chewie finally getting his medal on-screen. And not just any medal. It's totally Han's medal. IT'S HAN'S FUCKING MEDAL YOU FUCKS. I'M NOT CRYING. YOU'RE CRYING. FUCK YOU.

--the return to tatooine. I think it needed to happen, so we could really say goodbye to Luke, but I sorely wish we had gotten a scene after the burial with her meditating and creating her new (DOUBLE BLADED GODDAMNT) saber with the force, which is a right of passage pretty much every Jedi is supposed to go through. Then she could have walked out of the hut and done her twin suns Rei Skywalker bit, and that saber ignition wouldn't have felt quite as forced.

-- On the whole, I give the movie a solid B. It was fun while I was watching it, and it did what it could with the trash heap that was the TLJ. There were parts I loved, and parts I hated, but I walked out of the theater pretty happy both times.

 

I think my biggest issues with this movie, and the whole trilogy in general, is how absolutely it smashes the Original Trilogy to pieces.

No, Anakin didn't redeem himself. He didn't kill the Emperor. He didn't restore balance to the force. All these celebrations were pointless as the Empire wasn't defeated and the galaxy wasn't saved. Luke did not carry out his destiny as the new generation of Jedi.

If this trilogy is to be believed and taken seriously, the original trilogy can be skipped and nothing of significance will have been lost. It absolutely smashes everything the originals accomplished, only to accomplish the same goals itself. Fuck this trilogy.

Mauler released his video on this movie recently, which I admit is one of the reasons why I looked forward to the movie releasing at all. I just knew it would be juicy, and I was successfully disappointed.

 

It only really works if you buy into the force pendulum theory, which is pretty much unspoken canon at this point. Even more solidified now what with Anakin's force ghost line: "Bring back the balance, Rey, as I did."

Anakin basically broke the prophecy to permanently bring balance while on Mortis by refusing to take The Father's place, so now we're stuck in a repeating loop of Chosen Ones.

Basically, the force swings out of whack, a chosen one comes along to balance it... but only for a time. And on and on it goes, and more and more movies are made, and more and more money is generated.