Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker (Spoilers)

[Mia]

Just came back from watching. OMG it was just so amazing. I honestly was not expecting it be that heavy or so deep. Contrary to what has been reported Abrams didn’t throw Johnson’s TLJ under the bus. He took concepts from concepts that Johnson used and built on them and fleshed them out. There was fan service in the film and box checking but none of it came across as forced. It’s been a long, long, long time that I have been able to go to a film and not just keep checking my watch wondering when they will get to the point.
I was partly afraid that Disney would give into a bunch of vocal whiners who are mad that their personal fan fiction wasn’t portrayed on screen. But they stayed to the spirit of good storytelling and not only gave us a cracking good film, characters I found interesting but plenty of food for thought.
Nice to see that Abrams listened to the good criticism (ie. TFA being little more than a re-tread). And ignored some of the more ridiculous bashing of TLJ. Like one reviewer said, Abrams didn’t break the box like Johnson. But he did try something new and couched the story in reality. And didn’t make it a facile cartoon.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Jodie Comer (aka Villeneuve from Killing Eve) as Rey’s mother. It’s fitting that one of the most self-possessed badass women on tv plays the mother one of the most self possessed & badass women in films.
I loved the film overall. But I would be a lying fan girl if I can’t say that my heart did not beat with pride at watching Daisy Ridley as Rey. She’s grown so much over the past 3 films. And just cements the fact why I consider her my top 5 favourite heroines.

She’s gone from plucky girl who wanted to take down bad guys. To a mature and confident young woman who has found purpose in service to others. She’s grown into herself and become confident in her own skin. That is a true human being. For some reason I tend to gravitate to characters who end up being hidden royalty.

Anyway I really, loved it. And I will probably see it again tomorrow.

I'm not surprised that the film is bad. The signs was there from Force Awakens. The big problem is that this trilogy is a shameless cash grab, a shiny product with a lack of vision and lack of direction. Force Awakens was A New Hope with some twists and add nothing new on the table. The Last Jedi tried to to something different, but it contradicts the lackluster vision of the first movie. The third one is Force Awaken, plust throwing Last Jedi out of the bus and with a bigger lack of direction.

This movie was bad, like astonishingly so:

The script is weak even by SW standards, it's a mediocre 90's video game plot essentially.

The retconning and shoehorning in of stuff is sloppily done. Also trying to ignore most of TLJ but keep some stuff doesn't work.

The characters are written very poorly and what a waste of a talented cast.

Poor Finn. On paper he has one of the most interesting and emotional backgrounds of any main SW hero, and loads of potential for a compelling character journey, and a likeable charismatic actor playing him. But wow did they botch it at every turn, what a waste of potential.

And they undercut a really sweet and organic dynamic between him and Rey in favor of Rey/Kylo, which was nauseatingly bad in this film. In fact those characters are written very poorly as well. And that kiss, no just no.

That climax was so absurd, and not in a good way, that there were people laughing in my theatre. Rey embodying the entire Jedi Order. Bringing back all of those dead Jedi just to desperately try and convince us of how godlike she is now, complete with bringing Liam freaking Neeson back as Qui Gon just to beat it into our heads, and characters like Ahsoka, Kanan, Kanan, etc from other media being brought into the films finally as well, just wow was it laughably bad.

Sheev's return is shoehorned in and isn't well explained and it completely takes away Luke and Anakin's last shred of victory.

The direction is surprisingly sloppy for JJ.

Etc.

Few positives. Lando was used well, General Pryde was kind of cool, The actors are all really trying to make this work, especially Daisy and Adam, and, that'd about it.

(Watches the epic and satisfying conclusion in ROTJ and sighs), why couldn't they have just left it alone? Or had the balls to actually move things forward?

I still don't really like the PT, but at least Lucas TRIED to do some new stuff, there was ambition there. Not so much with the ST.

This just baffles me it does.
TFA was a shameless money grab in being really nothing but a re-tread of ANH along with fan service in putting in the original cast. But I honestly don’t understand how anyone can call TLJ and ROS a ‘shameless money’ grab or a video game plot (really?) given the depth, nuanced storytelling, the messaging and the character development. And the really don’t understand how anyone can watch the last two films and accuse Finn of not having any development. TFA he was little more than comic relief and the white girls side kick. It was embarrassing to watch. In TLJ and (and I say this as a person of African ancestry who were brought to the new world on Slave ships). IN TLJ and ROS he was his own man and served a greater purpose than just dishing out one liners and being comic relief.