Star Wars: Episode 7, 8... and BEYOND!

Ite

Ite

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Ite
HEY YOU! IF YOU’RE ON PAGE 87 and you haven’t seen Episode 9 yet, what are you doing here? You wanna get SPOILED!?!?

The themes of duality and balance soar in this movie. Like how it only half-sucks. It really had me, then it lost me, Palpie got me back, but it didn’t stick the landing. It’s not that the ideas were bad, I actually liked the story (although I agree with @Roger’s take on Finn). I laughed at the jokes. I’m glad there was a time jump enough for me to ignore all the parts of TLJ I didn’t like (the only plot points that are mentioned/relevant: Luke taught Rey the ways of the Force, there is a dark power within her, and he died before her training was complete. Meanwhile, Kylo and Rey have a telepathic link, neither knows why. Kylo toppled Snoke and offered Rey a place at his side but she refused.) Much like all the movies after the Original Trilogy though, I feel like I’d rather listen to the soundtrack and think about the story rather than actually watch it again. It’s a better story on paper, is maybe what I mean. Palpatine the lich is up to his old tricks, and despite the Television’s Goosebumps cinematography, McDiarmid’s still the king of camp. Fisher’s B-Roll footage was composited rather tastefully, but then they CG’d her — why?? Just leave the helmet on! You’re gonna make the actor’s last frame in cinema be of an already-dated-looking CG chimera? Animals.

Rey gets a Zidane arc in this movie: Secretly built to serve the planet-killing evil grandpa, but defies him concurrently with another of his pawns — her enemy and closest relative! Like all three movies, I loved everything about Rey and Kylo... except for the kiss and subsequent dramatic death. I was emotionally drained by the time that scene happened because in addition to all the Leia deaths and fake Chewy deaths and slow reveals of Lando I was just about sentimental’d out. (This movie has no restraint when it comes to feels. Definitely needed to rein it in.) Would have much preferred if he died as she woke up, and she found his dead body, or at the very least cut the kiss, with her barely managing a “Ben...” as he dies. But that’s just my taste, and if you do it my way, then you have a grand finale film with no kiss (I guess Disney vetoed Poe/Finn? I have words for them).

...Why two fake-out deaths? It’s like they wimped out in both cases too, wasting my time with tear-jerking sentiment and then “omg he’s alive” or “R2 backed him up after all” like wtf bruh why you toying with me? I’m not so precious with Threepio that I couldn’t stand for him to be wiped again. That’s actually a great narrative twist lol. And then the REAL Leia death happens in the middle of all this? EXHAUSTING.

Fortunately for the movie, the actual adventure portions were fun. JJ Abrams is still the best choice among high list directors to make a Star Wars. As far as cinematography, I could have used more wide shots, establishing shots, and scenery porn, but the dungeon crawling and city intrigue and ship infiltrating was all good fun. It was very a star war!
 
Dark and Divine

Dark and Divine

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D&D
Just got home from watching the film. It was both a boring movie and an awesome one.

The pacing of the movie up until Leia's death was terrible. Everything felt rushed, badly written and outright boring. The only good scene of that part of the movie was when Rey and Kylo were force talking and then dueling while she was on his Star Destroyer and he was in that small town.

They also kinda retconned on the best plot points of The Last Jedi - The fact that Rey was a nobody, without any kind of connection to any of the Force "lineages". Making her the granddaughter of Palpatine was a bit cheap and cheesy, in my opinion. They could maintain her as a nobody and all could play exactly in the same way.

Leia's death was really sad. When R2 mourning her death right after she passed away brought tears into my eyes. And Chewie's rage after learning of Leia's death did the same.

But after that, the movie improved a lot. It felt a lot like classical Star Wars to me. As it should, giving the number of nostalgic/fanservice moments from there on.

One of the best elements in this movie, as it was in the prequels, was Palpatine. Ian Mcdiarmid is such a charismatic actor and the way he delivers his line is so iconic. Loved every second of Palpatine's presence on screen.

I found it funny that there were also some homages to the EU (Now Legends). Those Star Destroyers with planet-shatering cannons reminded me immediatly of Palpatine's Eclipse (Basically, an Executor with a planet-busting cannon). And the way Palpatine destroyed the resistance fleet was reminescent of his Force Storms.

And they finally gave Chewie a medal. Yay.

So, how does it compare with the other two films in the trilogy. Well, imo, The Last Jedi was a much more involving experience and ouright better movie. And The Force Awakens was better paced, but it didn't have so many exciting parts as The Rise of Skywalker has. Overall, i would give TFA and TROS a 7/10 and TLJ a 8.5/10.

This movie, in my opinion, paralels itself with The Return of Jedi in various ways. Both had lacklustre beginnings but became very good from middle to end and both felt more light-hearted than their imediate predecessors. But both, in the end, became worthy end-chapters for their respective trilogies.

That's it, for now.
 
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Ite

Ite

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I respectfully disagree
I think the opening was done really well and it devolved into over-saccharine blubbering when Leia died and didn't relent. Our tastes are probably different. I do agree the pacing was way too rushed. the scenes really needed to breathe. They could have easily cut that whole epilogue on Tattooine if they were short on time, but eh.

Now that "The Skywalker Saga" is done, my list of SW Episodes best to worst:
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Return of the Jedi
4. The Rise of Skywalker
5. The Force Awakens
6. Revenge of the Sith
7. Attack of the Clones
8. The Phantom Menace
9. The Last Jedi

Edit:
Re: Rey's parentage. I could take or leave that she was Palpatine's granddaughter. Like, it didn't matter to me, and I felt it had little to no bearing on the narrative. The important thing is that her and Ben are a dyad in the Force, which is a twist that I found really satisfying... until the vestigially incestuous kiss there at the end.
 
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Lulcielid

Lulcielid

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Lulcy
Dark and Divine said:
Just got home from watching the film. It was both a boring movie and an awesome one.

They also kinda retconned on the best plot points of The Last Jedi - The fact that Rey was a nobody, without any kind of connection to any of the Force "lineages". Making her the granddaughter of Palpatine was a bit cheap and cheesy, in my opinion. They could maintain her as a nobody and all could play exactly in the same way.
Click to expand...

Even with that retcon the theme of TLJ still works because Rey is not the only character that carried that theme in TLJ:

image


The broom boy at the end of TLJ is argubly a stronger represenation of the force not being tied to jedi/sith lineage or someone special, the broom boy is a literal no one (i.e: he's not a main character/protagonist within the story, he's a literal extra in the movie with less than 3 minutes of screentime, has the less lasting impact in the in-universe events and yet, he has acess to the force of all people).

If this scene was not in TLJ then I'd agree but since the scene is in the movie, the theme still holds true even with Rey coming from Palpatine lineage.
 
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Ite

Ite

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I think that’s super weird to lift up broom boy (or TLJ in general) as this fundamental breakdown of the Star Wars hegemony. Force sensitivity has never been exclusive, particularly among humans — most main characters end up being Force sensitive or fan-theorized secretly Force sensitive anyway.
 
Charles Xavier

Charles Xavier

Pro Adventurer
Pros:
A fine and dramatic closure to the sequel trilogy and (arguably) the best film out of the three.
Action is mostly top-notch (see cons below).
Ian nails it once again as Darth Sidious.
Really impressed how they still managed to incorporate Carrie Fisher into the movie even after death. But dear God, it must have cost a damn fortune.
I teared up when Chewbecca broke down from hearing about Leia's death. Poor guy's lost so many good friends...

Cons:
Though I do praise the action, the climax battle lacked. Would have loved to have seen more conflict, even more Lando kicking ass in the Falcon.
The voice cameos with all the dead SW characters was just a tad jarring for me. I was really hoping for physical cameos there.
Small nitpick here, but being the (supposedly) last SW film, I would have loved to have seen one more lightsaber duel between Rey and Darth Sidious.

Neutral:
I wasn't too bothered by the fact Rey turned out to be Palpatine's granddaughter. But after 4 years, we can finally put all these Rey-is-Han's-kid or Rey-is-Luke's-kid theories to rest. Although the latter would have still been neat... but oh, well. :P
And yeah, it's now pretty much confirmed that Star Wars Rebels (and Clone Wars?) are canon. Surprised me.

If anything more, I'll add later. But...

Verdict: 4/5.
 
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Interslicery

Interslicery

.....

I have no real feelings on anything the movie showed me. It's just a bunch of stuff that happened.

Aside from
Palpatine, Ian plays him too well for me to not care. But they didn't really give him much to do

Whatever, it's a movie that happened. I'll forget it by tomorrow, honestly.


Right, my entire theatre groaned when
Ren and Rey kissed
 
The Twilight Mexican

The Twilight Mexican

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TresDias
I'm still processing everything, but I know I liked it. I also can -- and will after I've gotten some sleep -- name a laundry list of flaws. Overall, though, I liked it quite a bit and I think it's a good movie. As the finale to "The Skywalker Saga," it's successful in at least half the places it needed to be, and mostly thematically satisfactory.

Charles Xavier said:
And yeah, it's now pretty much confirmed that Star Wars Rebels (and Clone Wars?) are canon. Surprised me.
Click to expand...
They always were, though.
 
Theozilla

Theozilla

Kaiju Member
I typed up my thoughts of the film on Twitter (if I feel like it later, I’ll transpose and format it to the forum post itself)
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1208098187556208640

Anyways this is what my tier list for favorite Star Wars movies (that I have seen) looks like now.

1st: VI and V (RotJ is my favorite, though I’ll admit ESB is better crafted)
2nd: VIII and III
3rd: IV and VII
4th: IX and Rogue One
5th: I and II (AotC is my least favorite)
 
Lord Noctis

Lord Noctis

Harbinger of Darkness
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Caius Ballad
So I guess to express my thoughts I'll just copy and paste a review I wrote for my friends.

I saw the rise of Skywalker tonight. I won't spoil anything outright, but I might allude to or directly reference things that in turn would allow you to deduce certain things. But no direct spoilers.

First criticism is the pacing. The whole first act of this movie is in a dizzying rush to deliver an absolute fuck ton of plot points and exposition. It slows down and evens out a bit around the half hour mark. By slows down I mean it's dropped from a mad desperate dash to a vigorous jog. This movie only rarely pauses for any real length of time.

I'll tell you straight up that if you, like me, really liked the last jedi and really wanted to see episode ix build off of those themes and ideas, I'll warn you now that you won't get that. This movie doesn't play it as safe as the force awakens, buts it's definitely heading back in that direction.

That being said, if you didn't care much for TLJ, or don't mind a safer star wars, this film has plenty to offer. You like action scenes? Well this movie has a shitload of them, and most of them are executed in an entertaining fashion. At least one of the lightsaber duels featured one of the most interesting and creative ideas I've seen for how the force can work

Speaking of which, this movie seriously expands on what the force can do. Its been a while in universe since TLJ, and Rey has not been idle. She's learned a lot, and it's fascinating to see it play out. There were moments where I thought "wow, I didn't know force users could do that." That could be a positive thing or a negative depending on your perspective. Personally as someone who found plenty to enjoy in the pre-disney extended universe, I really enjoyed seeing the force used in ways it might have been used in those stories.

The movie is very heavy on fan service, there's lots of elements in there that you know somebody put into the script specifically because Abrams knew fans wanted it. Most of it is fine, and while it does result in one of my favorite ideas from TLJ being rolled back a bit it does so in such a way that opens a new theme, one that's not as relatable perhaps, but one that is true to the nature of the star wars universe.

Among the fan servicy stuff is, of course, the Emperor, old boy Palps himself. The movie isn't to keen on explaining exactly how he's back. Oh it alludes to certain possibilities, drops a hint or two, but no direct answers here. This is good and bad. Good in that it carries a sense of mystery that would be seriously dampened by almost any actual explanations you might attempt, but bad because without a good explanation you end up with the feeling that this decision was made not because it would enhance the story, but because the writers or the director saw the fan theories and thought that those were representative of what the whole fanbase wanted.

But in the interest of fairness, I will admit to liking Palpatine in this film. Ian Mciarmid is excellent as always, and our good Emperor has not carried this level of menace and creepiness since the 80s. Besides, one of my disappointments from the prequels was how Palpatine would brag about how he'll show you the true power of the dark side, but all he does is stab a few Jedi and zap a guy who was missing a limb, after zapping off his own face mind you. He didn't come off as being stronger than any other Sith Lord is what I'm saying, even though he's supposed to be the ultimate Sith, the sort of guy that even a beast like Darth Maul will shit his pants fast and hard if he learns he's on Palpatine's shit list. In this movie you see the power Palpatine was bragging about. It's honestly close to the same scale as the old Dark Empire comics. It's kinda great.

I also really liked Kylo Ren and Rey's dynamic. Can't really discuss it without spoilers, but suffice to say this aspect was my favorite part of the movie.

John Williams score is good, but lacks a distinct theme for this movie. Every other star wars movie has at least one strong theme that will immediately tell you which film it's from. Duel of the dates, across the stars, The Imperial March, etc. This movie has no such defining piece of music. It's enjoyable, but you'd probably have to listen to it for a bit to tell that it comes from this movie and not one of the other films. The actors all do a great job, and the cinematography and special effects were top notch.

In closing, this film played it safer than I would have liked, had a bit of a rough first act, but was ultimately a fun ride for me, and a satisfying conclusion to the sequel trilogy.
 
Ite

Ite

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Ite
........I was humming Rey’s theme. It’s one of Williams’ best imo.

....I slowed down and made it sound sadder and more dramatic.... the first three notes.....

share a melody with another major character’s leitmotif

explodehead.gif
 
wander

wander

‪‫‬‭ ‮
IX sucked, like VIII and VII before it. Rey was literally the only reason to watch any of the new Star Wars films.

IX coulda been a lot worse, and I approved of Rey's true lineage, but her ancestor, Mr. Palpatine, should not have made an appearance. The series had an antagonist in a newly self-promoted and emboldened Kylo. The setup was perfect and even if Palpatine had whispered to her, he should have been little more than an influence, a whisper in her ear or perhaps a force ghost.

Plenty of complexity to play with in her dark-side inclined, hyperpowered character and Kylo's conflict between loving her and being teh evul sith man ex dee.

but no they just rehash the same old shit and focus on large scale battles that don't matter or make sense, introducing characters we'll see for 20 minutes total screentime etc. Boring.

What they shoulda done is made a KOTOR trilogy, with Daisy Ridley playing
femRevan
.
 
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