Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker (Spoilers)

[Celgress]

Apparently I have a different understanding of "explain the tech" than you. I am pretty sure, for instance, no movie explained how the Death Star gets the energy to destroy a planet, let alone move faster than light.

Rogue One explained the power source as did a New Hope (to a lesser degree).

All the movies touched on hyperdrive and explain how it works in general terms (as much as such a thing can be).

[Username taken]

Yeah the Republic army was pretty much built in secret, along with it's cruisers and Walkers, on Kamino.

Although it's kind of lost in the movie's plot, the Republic was getting ready for war regardless with a military creation act as it had no real army of it's own except the Jedi. That's why Padme flew to Coruscant, to oppose it. Then a fully trained army and navy pops up out of the blue.

Exegol did seem to have a fairly big population of cultists although it's unclear if they built the destroyers or served as it's crew. We see troopers and officers in new redder uniforms at the end of the movie but it's possible they're just transferred from the first order like Pryde.


I think part of the reason they're older Star Destroyers is that someone at Disney/Lucasfilm really has a fondness for the original Star Wars: A New Hope version of the destroyer with the different tower. It's in their first major production (Rebels) the spin-off films, the latest Lego set is it etc. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them showed up in Mandalorian at this point. Heck, they even brought the exact same Tantive IV back.

I thought it was Sifo Dias that commissioned the Clone army and Palpatine and Dooku co-opted it. Because the Republic had no proper army of its own.

My memory is a bit sketchy though so I could be misremembering.

[Immortal Weapon]

But look where it has led? total destruction. I rather improve than ignore.

Johnson could have done the same thing but he chose to ignore. They both have their hands dirty in this regard. Kennedy should have ran a tighter ship.

[Celgress]

I thought it was Sifo Dias that commissioned the Clone army and Palpatine and Dooku co-opted it. Because the Republic had no proper army of its own.

My memory is a bit sketchy though so I could be misremembering.

You are correct, although in the old EU (Legends) Darth Plagueis it is revealed manipulated Dias into commissioning the army plus he bankrolled the clones (like Palpatine, his alter ego Hego Damask was very wealthy).

[90'sCartoonMan]

This was...busy, messy, and somewhat unsatisfying. It's like Abrams made a sequel to Force Awakens and The Last Jedi was a movie you only needed to know the gist of. I didn't like Rey as a Palpatine after the whole "her parents were nobodies" thing in the last movie (and apparently half the cast knew she was a Palpatine?), but I did think she had a decent arc throughout the movies. Kylo Ren, not so much. It's not that I wasn't expecting him to be redeemed or to return to the Light Side, but I thought Kylo Ren's death and Ben Solo's rebirth wasn't the moment it should've been. Maybe he needed to realize that was the true strength of his grandfather or something.

I did like having a core group of Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, BB-8, and C-3PO, though. Felt like I was waiting too long for that, especially the screentime for C-3PO. It's too bad with every new locale and every Maguffin that was chased after, Rey would just run off and do her own thing.

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.

Also the mother of Cailey Flemming in Star Wars. She is a little asskicker on Walking Dead.

Palpatine boinking some girl with a wrinkled up face next to her ear just breathing heavily must have been a pretty sick sight to behold....

So when did Palpatine have his offspring? Was it sometime before Revenge of the Sith when he was still normal looking? And if it was public knowledge he had a kid, where was that kid during the events of the Original Trilogy and was Obi-Wan or anyone else concerned about them?

Also, it is now painfully obvious that there was never an outline drawn up for these three movies. If they had made a set outline of who the characters are, where the started from and where they were going to end up, and if they had created the bare bones of a cohesive narrative, this trilogy could have been so much better. As it is, it feels like JJ created a story full of his f'ing mystery boxes, and either didn't tell Rian his thoughts on what should come next, or he did and Rian just ignored him, and then JJ tried to bring it back to the story he wanted to tell. In either case, while some blame has to go to both directors, I'm putting the bulk of the blame on Kathleen Kennedy and Disney. They royally screwed the pooch, and the only person to come out looking good in this whole mess is George Lucas, because suddenly the Prequels are looking a whole lot better.

What did Rian Johnson know about Snoke, anyway? Did they decide on the Palpatine thing back then? Because I remember him being all "Your Snoke Theory Sucks" despite the fact that there were many theories connecting Snoke to Palpatine.

The one alien with the big eyes annoys me, I don't know why. And any idea what she gave Chewbacca and why I should care?

At the end of A New Hope, Leia gives medals to all the main characters except Chewbacca. So now, apparently, Chewbacca finally gets appreciated with a medal? It felt weird and fan fictiony, like most of what happened in Solo.

Was Snoke a clone of The Emperor? Cause hes in a Vat of fluid at the Emperors cult club house and they mentioned dark sith science of cloning or some crap in the movie.

Can everyone sense the force or are they suggesting that Fin is force sensative?

The Emperors orginal plan, so if Rey killed him.... He was gonna posses her body and take over? Why didnt he just do that anyway. Ugh chalk it up to more things regarding the force I dont understand. Apparently you can posses someone against they're will.

Seems like Finn was force sensitive all along. I kind of like that payoff because they had been hinting at it since The Force Awakens (heck, he's wielding a light saber in the poster).

As for Palpatine, I think he just wanted to corrupt Rey and live as part of the Dark Side within her. Sith are weird in that they train their apprentices to grow powerful enough to kill them.

[AnakinFlair]

I saw it today, and I did very much enjoy it. Much better than the last movie.

I want someone to redo the Rey ocean scene with the theme from Moana though.
The one alien with the big eyes annoys me, I don't know why. And any idea what she gave Chewbacca and why I should care?

That was Maz Kanata from TFA. She had a crush on Chewie. And what she gave him is what Leia was holding when she died- a medal just like the ones she gave Luke and Han at the end of A New Hope. It's been a longstanding gripe with the fans that Chewie, who was just as important, never got a medal for destroying the Death Star.

[AnakinFlair]

A moment that I really liked- when Rey translocated her saber to Ben at the end, and Ben pulls it out for the Knights of Ren to see and they all take a step back, he takes a moment to give a slight bow, as if to say 'Ta-da!' I really liked that moment of mirth from an actor who has had to play everything so serious for 3 movies.

the first shot of rey, we see her floating in the air. makes me wonder why Yoda never did that in attack of the clones, He used to use a floating sit.

Rey Mary sue, can do what Yoda cant.

There is a difference between Rey floating while meditating (which Luke also did in the last movie), and Yoda sitting in a floating chair as he moved with his fellow Jedi through the temple. And while he walked with a cane, when Yoda fought against Dooku he was suddenly jumping around like a Chihuahua on speed. Mace took a flying leap off of the balcony on Geonosis to the arena floor below. Luke took a flying leap UP out of the carbonite chamber. Hell, Anakin and Obi Wan were flying around all over the place on Mustafar. It's been done.

They only established Anakin with good mechanical skills and they he was able to participate in Pod Racing. He did it several times...but never finished a race. At least this kid had some sort of practice. Rey just took control of the Falcon for the first time and was able to out-maneuver TIE Pilots

Anakin wasn't mind controlling people, using telekinesis, and definitely not beating up Darth Maul. The only other Force Ability Anakin ever had (but it only made it to the book) was that he visions of the future. In his dreams he saw himself as a dark figure wielding some sort of fire sword.

"When I met Anakin, he was already a great pilot..." -Obi Wan, A New Hope.

As for his abilities, we also saw him calming the beast in the Geonosis arena. And the abilities he used in the movies are the only ones we saw. Who knows what else he could do. As for when he was Vader- his connection to the Force was diminished since he was so damaged and mechanical by then, so all he could do is telekinesis.

If you could use one word to describe Disney's trilogy 'stupid' would certainly be it. In TFA Disney failed at basic world building, even at the end we have no idea how the Republic functioned or where the First Order got their resources from. TLJ made it worse, the lightspeed ramming attack basically broke how space travel works in Star Wars, never mind all that idiocy over a fuel source which has never been significant before.

I love how Dominic Monaghan's character suggested they do a whole bunch of Holdo Maneuvers to the Sith fleet, and Poe shot it down saying that move was a 1 in a Million shot.

They had a rough road map. what they should have done is get all 3 original directors of each movie. JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow to sit down and discuss their plans together.

I'm not sure that would have mattered. They have a story team, but it's beholden to the directors of the movies, not the other way around. And each director seemed to be getting carte blanche to do what they wanted. And from what I'm hearing now, one of the main reasons Trevorrow left was because he had big plans for Luke- and Rian killed him.

If you think any force user in the EU was a God then you clearly haven't been paying attention. The point is that force users are people, in a modern mythology writ large. It's personal strength and conversely tragic moral weakness that elevate both the Sith and Jedi to greatness. The lightsabers are perhaps incidental, it's often the journey each character took that decides their fate, long before they meet together in battle.

Which is why the Disney trilogy fails as a mythology, Disney doesn't understand the Force. Nothing Rey does feels earned, through coincidence and happenstance she acquired the trappings of the OT heroes, even the family name isn't safe. All the while she displays a host of asinine new force powers that seem more like video game cheat codes then anything legitimately learned through study and persiverance.

I kind of disagree with this, but at the same time I see your point. I can see that she has been studying (for how long I'm not entirely clear on), but at the same time how exactly did she know how to send her lightsaber to Ben? Seeing something happen a few times does not mean you should be able to do that thing on the fly.

There was a rumor this past month that part of the reason Lando was semi-retired is that his daughter was kidnapped by the first order and trained to be a Stormtrooper....and Jannah used to be one....hmmm....

Either it was just something mixed in with the more factual 'leaks' or maybe Abrams cut it, especially because the movie already had a family twist. Kind of partially explains why they have a brief scene together at the end of the movie.

The first time I saw it, I thought it was just Lando being Lando. But the second time- I did start to wonder if maybe that was his daughter (or granddaughter to continue the theme).

- Chewie's "death" and C3PO's memory wipe were complete wastes of time because they undid them soon after. What was even the point of faking Chewie's death so that now we had to waste another half hour rescuing him?
- Did they have to hold Harrison Ford's family hostage to get him to come back?
- Rose being shoved into the background seemed like a blatant move by Disney to appeal to the worst people. Not that I was too enamored with her character or what she was used for in TLJ, but I feel bad for the actress if this was the case. Though if she requested a smaller part after the bullshit she had to put up with, I can't say I'd blame her.
- The f/f kiss. A nice touch by itself, but the cynical part of me just thinks they did the bare minimum of what they could do for representation overall. A quick scene like that for background characters that Disney could easily edit out of releases for other countries. They should have had the balls to go for a Poe/Finn romance because they are the two actors with the most chemistry in the new films. Or even Rey/Finn or Rey/Poe or practically anything besides Rey/Ben.

I'll give them Chewie's death, but I really felt that Threepio should have died in this movie. It would have been a noble sacrifice for a character that means so much to fans of the series. I could have even gone with the memory wipe being permanent. But to have R2 just download a copy of his memories- it got a chuckle out of me, but I didn't feel good about it.

It did feel like Harrison flew in for a day, didn't land of a golf course this time, and they just threw him into wardrobe before putting him on set. It was the hair- it looked longer and shaggier than it did in TFA, and it took me out of the moment a bit.

Rose got shafted, but I do wonder if the actress didn't want to deal with the backlash anymore and instead requested a reduced role.

Go with your cynical side. They made a big deal out of their being the first LGBTQ characters in Star Wars, and... it was nothing. Something that the average moviegoer may even miss if they weren't looking for it.

I think someone on this board said it best- they were so worried about offending anybody, they did their damndest not to do anything controversial. Up to and including introducing new female characters for both Poe and Finn to interact with so there could be no doubt that the were NOT into each other in any way, shape, or form. And they threw in a lesbian kiss to try to appease the LGBTQ community.

One thing about Leia- I didn't think it was ghoulish, and I thought it was fairly well-integrated into the movie. But I did notice when everyone was surrounding her death bed, the one person that I didn't see was Billie Lourd. I think that scene may have hit too close to home for her

[AnakinFlair]

Actually, the answer to your points here is in the film, but as subtext rather than explicitly stated. The Force healing power has a cost. Rey outright states as much the first time she uses it on the sand worm. She's giving some of her life energy to the creature to heal it. The implication is that this has cost her something down the road. The ultimate in selflessness.

Which means that healing a mortal wound should be a major problem. Yet we see it happen twice in the film, so what gives? Healing isn't a path to immortality. You can't cheat death. Only share it. Look at the timing. When Rey heals Ben on the Death Star wreckage, Leia has connected with Ben. And then she dies. Leia has given herself so that Rey can heal her son. Rey kills Kylo Ren, Leia sacrifices herself to revive Ben Solo, and then Han shows up to inspire Ben to go and do what he must. I think this is also why Leia doesn't fade into the Force until after Ben dies. In a way she's with her son, metaphysically holding his hand through his rebirth.

The final scene is the same idea. Ben heals Rey. He uses himself to do it. He loves her, and so he gives his life to restore hers. It's a mirror of Return of the Jedi. There, a Skywalker chose love and destroyed a Palpatine. This time a Skywalker chose love to save one instead. The reason Rey doesn't heal Ben again is because at that point only one of them can live. She accepts the gift he's given her in his final selfless action.

I hadn't thought of it like that, and I like that explanation as to why Leia's body didn't disappear as soon as she died.

The actor deliver it, but the character was built up by the script.

Like Shakespeare's play built up the character, the actor's performance decide how well it was being delivered.

Let me set the stage for you. George Lucas writes some of the worst dialogue in cinema. Truly terrible stuff. And you can see how bad it is when Hayden Christiansen and Natalie Portman are spewing these lines in Attack of the Clones. And the dialogue he writes for Count Dooku is no better, not by a long shot. But you have Christopher Lee, who was a tremendous actor with a presence that captivates you and an incomparable voice, and he still manages to command the screen and bring life to what is, on paper, a rather rote, cliched character that was shown in the script.

You put anyone else in that role, you got nothing. But Lee brought that character to life, like he brought every character he ever played to life. Hell, Christopher Lee was the best part of The Man with the Golden Gun, one of the weaker James Bond movies. Which also had a lackluster script.

Yes it happens sometimes, but overall the script make the character and the actor present it. I didn't give all the credit to the script.

The movie actors wasn't given the chance to do so because the script as well, not like they couldn't do well. PT Mon Mothma's performance was wonderful compare to TCW VA.

I did like the Mon Mothma scenes from RotS that were cut out, and her bit in Rogue One. But again, she got a chance to actually say something and bring the character to life. The other actresses only got to walk across the screen and occasionally swing a saber. They never spoke. So if they did speak, NO ONE WOULD RECOGNIZE THEM. At least with the voice actors, if you watched the cartoons, you might recognize their voice.

Also apparently Sheev just could build a GIGANTIC fleet of warships, completely with Death Star weaponry, on some barren backwater planet with no infrastructure, factories, natural resources, etc. It was so contrived.

Also ANOTHER big super-weapon threat, enough of that already.

The fleet of planet killing star destroyers are probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in a Star Wars movie.

Like, how did the Emperor put together an army of that magnitude in secret, it doesn't make any sense at all.

I think (most of) these (Palp's fleet) were preexisting Star Destroyers that went "missing" (this is touched upon in the comics and the novel "Empire's End") and later retrofitted with Death Star tech. Mind you, this should have been explained more clearly during the movie. JJ is notoriously bad at explaining things in his movies/series.

I like the idea that Palpatine was squirling away Star Destoryers just in case. And maybe the crews were legacy crews- children of the original crews of the ships that replaced their parents when they got too old.

But I've always had a problem with huge fleets like these, and an even bigger problem with the super large ships. Where did the materials to build all of those come from? Where were they built? Where do you find the thousands needed to crew them? I had this same problem during the Dominion War in Star Trek, when suddenly there were hundreds of Federations ships, including apparently dozens of Galaxy Class Starships. It made no sense.

Another problem with the Star Destroyer tech is where did they get all the Kyber crystals they would need? Oh, and how did they miniaturize the tech so it could fit on Star Destroyers yet still have the power required to destroy planets? None of this was explained.

I'm trying to think of a single instance of a Star Wars movie explaining any tech

They kind of explained things in Rogue One, at lest as far as the Death Star is concerned.

As for these superlasers- they weren't the same as the Death Star's main weapon. The blast was extended and pulsed every few seconds. It kind of reminds me of the weapons on the alien ships in Independence Day.

I think, ultimately, I would have liked it better if they had two or three Super Star Destroyers with superlasers installed, like the Eclipse from the EU, and the rest of the Star Destroyers were the support fleet. Having a planet killing gun on every ship seems like overkill, if you pardon the pun.

This was...busy, messy, and somewhat unsatisfying. It's like Abrams made a sequel to Force Awakens and The Last Jedi was a movie you only needed to know the gist of.

What did Rian Johnson know about Snoke, anyway? Did they decide on the Palpatine thing back then? Because I remember him being all "Your Snoke Theory Sucks" despite the fact that there were many theories connecting Snoke to Palpatine.

Seems like Finn was force sensitive all along. I kind of like that payoff because they had been hinting at it since The Force Awakens (heck, he's wielding a light saber in the poster).

-This exactly. As much as Rian ignored everything he could about TFA, it really felt like JJ wanted to completely ignore TLJ, and only threw in a few references for some vague continuities sake.

- Snoke was probably one of JJ's mystery boxes, and I don't think he left any notes for Rian to follow.

- I always felt that was a marketing ploy to hide the fact that Rey was the Jedi and not Finn. That being said, I hate thinking that any sanitation worker could pick up a lightsaber and duel a Sith for any period of time, even if the Sith was injured. I like thinking that Finn is Force sensitive, and just needs to be trained.

[The Negative Zone]

Ah, I loved the movie. 9/10 for now. The biggest problems I have are kind of a staple in Star Wars. More planet-killing weapons is crazy, but then I remember the EU always seemed to be having a million of those. Force heal is a pretty op power but you that's been like in every star wars game lol

Also I hope they don't explain how Palpatine came back. I sure loved all of that mystic force stuff, it's more fun if you don't explain it. Like the Mortis arc.

[Vegeta]

It's in no way a "good film" but I didn't hate it. I'm glad the last few remaining classic characters survived, particularly the two droids, as they were always meant to be the framing device for these films. (Artoo was always meant to be retelling these adventures to an advanced group of aliens known as the Whills, so maybe one day we can see this idea fleshed out on the screen.)

I'm also glad "grey jedi" continue to be non-canon. What a rubbish idea.

Not sure why Palpatine has been so obsessed about the Skywalker blood line all these years when apparently his own family is sooo much more potent. Get a Midichlorian count and start banging out more kids!

There were a lot of interesting ideas and characters introduced but nothing substantial was really done with them. Richard Grant's First Order Officer being revealed as former Imperial and siding with Palpatine was cool, but then he did so little after that and died that it was almost a rather pointless reveal. Keri Russell's character also had potential but disappeared shortly after her introduction and I would have liked to see more of the Sith homeworld. The Knights of Ren proved to be as pointless as Snoke. I don't suppose we could get a longer cut of the film that uses more of these concepts?

This may be the "quippiest" Star Wars film yet. It felt like there were more quips in the first hour of this film then in the entire Marvel Cinematic all together. Every other line seemed to be someone clapping back at a previous comment.

I definitely prefer it to "The Last Jedi."

[LordMikel]

That was Maz Kanata from TFA. She had a crush on Chewie. And what she gave him is what Leia was holding when she died- a medal just like the ones she gave Luke and Han at the end of A New Hope. It's been a longstanding gripe with the fans that Chewie, who was just as important, never got a medal for destroying the Death Star.

Thanks for explaining that plot point AnakinFlair and 90'sCartoonMan.

[C_Miller]

This movie was super dumb, but I think I liked it over all. I enjoyed the characters and I felt like all of them had their best showing here (except Kylo, as I thought The Last Jedi handled him well). The acting was strong for all of them and it felt like the movie gave them all something unique to do that could only be done by them. I also thought the ending where all of the people from across the galaxy came to help was a decent version of Avengers' "on your left" scene. JJ really seems to get that Star Wars is about people coming together against tyranny. But at the same time he really doesn't get that because at the end, everything comes down to bloodlines.

I think this end of the trilogy just makes me feel empty, especially this one as I don't think I felt the gravity that this is the last mainline Star Wars movie. I don't believe the movies ever really justified their existence. When you watch 1-6, there is a whole complete arc of the Rise and Fall and Rise of Anakin Skywalker and while these movies take place afterwards, the themes are nullified as we find out Anakin isn't really important; the Emperor had his own powerful bloodline the whole time. It's one of those things that probably felt cool when writing it, but when you think about it really invalidates much of the happenings or at least the reason for the happenings in the previous movies.

To me, there's just very little that's not incidental linking this to the Skywalker Saga. Kylo essentially just existed to give Rey assistance twice when there were too many enemies, which would have been fine if she was a nobody who was trained by Luke and Leia. But the fact that she was part of a royal bloodline that wasn't the Skywalkers kind of makes them feel less important in the whole scheme of things. Anakin turning into Darth Vader and then turning good to stop the Emperor feel like just road blocks now. And if the film wanted to deal with the gravity of that situation and actually make it seem like the screenwriters understood what it meant to pull the rug out from under the original trilogy, it would have been fine.

Anyways, these movies feel super disconnected from the Skywalker Saga. They could have done a couple of things. Maybe have Hayden Christensen appear as Anakin to Kylo. If you believe, like I do, that Anakin/Vader was the true main character, then he needs to have more of a presence in these films than just the object of Kylo's obsession. Actually meeting Force Ghost Anakin around the same time that he had the memory of his father, I think would have strengthened Kylo's arc and done a bit more to stitch the three trilogies together. I also personally would have done a little more with Rey channeling past Jedis. If you can get them all to do voices, it probably wouldn't have been too far beyond the pale to get a little CGI going and have them become a Force Ghost army. It may have been a little fan service-y, but a) this movie clearly wasn't scared of that and b) it would have been more satisfying narratively than Rey just reflecting force lightning back at the Emperor. It would have worked narratively too as the whole impetus of these movies are the Jedi trying to defeat the Sith once and for all.

Oh well, like I said, I did like a lot of it. As a stand alone film, it works for me. Trying to stitch Force Awakens, Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker together is hard and it's even harder to stitch them to the Prequels and the OT. That, IMO, is the real failing of these movies. They didn't seem to have a clear roadmap or justification for the existence of these films.

[Punisher007]

As someone who liked RO and Solo mostly, and is enjoying The Mandalorian. I'm just going to pretend that the main saga ended back in 1983 and focus on the spinoffs from now on.

[Username taken]

This movie was super dumb, but I think I liked it over all. I enjoyed the characters and I felt like all of them had their best showing here (except Kylo, as I thought The Last Jedi handled him well). The acting was strong for all of them and it felt like the movie gave them all something unique to do that could only be done by them. I also thought the ending where all of the people from across the galaxy came to help was a decent version of Avengers' "on your left" scene. JJ really seems to get that Star Wars is about people coming together against tyranny. But at the same time he really doesn't get that because at the end, everything comes down to bloodlines.

I think this end of the trilogy just makes me feel empty, especially this one as I don't think I felt the gravity that this is the last mainline Star Wars movie. I don't believe the movies ever really justified their existence. When you watch 1-6, there is a whole complete arc of the Rise and Fall and Rise of Anakin Skywalker and while these movies take place afterwards, the themes are nullified as we find out Anakin isn't really important; the Emperor had his own powerful bloodline the whole time. It's one of those things that probably felt cool when writing it, but when you think about it really invalidates much of the happenings or at least the reason for the happenings in the previous movies.

To me, there's just very little that's not incidental linking this to the Skywalker Saga. Kylo essentially just existed to give Rey assistance twice when there were too many enemies, which would have been fine if she was a nobody who was trained by Luke and Leia. But the fact that she was part of a royal bloodline that wasn't the Skywalkers kind of makes them feel less important in the whole scheme of things. Anakin turning into Darth Vader and then turning good to stop the Emperor feel like just road blocks now. And if the film wanted to deal with the gravity of that situation and actually make it seem like the screenwriters understood what it meant to pull the rug out from under the original trilogy, it would have been fine.

Anyways, these movies feel super disconnected from the Skywalker Saga. They could have done a couple of things. Maybe have Hayden Christensen appear as Anakin to Kylo. If you believe, like I do, that Anakin/Vader was the true main character, then he needs to have more of a presence in these films than just the object of Kylo's obsession. Actually meeting Force Ghost Anakin around the same time that he had the memory of his father, I think would have strengthened Kylo's arc and done a bit more to stitch the three trilogies together. I also personally would have done a little more with Rey channeling past Jedis. If you can get them all to do voices, it probably wouldn't have been too far beyond the pale to get a little CGI going and have them become a Force Ghost army. It may have been a little fan service-y, but a) this movie clearly wasn't scared of that and b) it would have been more satisfying narratively than Rey just reflecting force lightning back at the Emperor. It would have worked narratively too as the whole impetus of these movies are the Jedi trying to defeat the Sith once and for all.

Oh well, like I said, I did like a lot of it. As a stand alone film, it works for me. Trying to stitch Force Awakens, Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker together is hard and it's even harder to stitch them to the Prequels and the OT. That, IMO, is the real failing of these movies. They didn't seem to have a clear roadmap or justification for the existence of these films.

Well said.

These are basically my own thoughts.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I thought Endgame was a dumb film... this takes the cake!

Not one, not two not three but FOUR death fake out scenes! Five if you count the Emperor. Lowest form of writing there. Kylo had no idea where Rey was on that planet but then suddenly shows up out of nowhere when she gets the Rabbit's Foot... Poe and Fin have nothing in this film they get a few moments here and that is it, I laughed when Rey pushed Fin back it essentially was the film telling us he isn't relevant to be part of the main plot.

Biggest pisstake was the Emperor's returning... happening of screen. I was looking forward to that but oh he is alive and he has broadcast his return like an idiot. Don't get me started out the Rey is a Palpitine twist, shows that you can only be a powerful Jedi because of your Lineage! I loved that TLJ basically showed that any one can become a Jedi.

Leia's scenes were so awkward and uncomfortable should have had her pass off screen because he role in this film was literally pointless.

This all JJ fault, why set TFA up in a mystery box format expecting the next director to be happy to continue it on. Now he is just scrambling over the place obvious he wanted Fin to be force sensitive but given 3rd film not much he can do but tease, your fault in the first place mate. Their explanation for Palpitines return pretty much sums up everything and thinking to requote a past line is sufficient enough explanation.

Another laughable moment was the "kiss" not once did I ever get the impression their relationship was remotely romantic.

Positives, shot well. Looks nice. Acting was good.