Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

[IthacaMatt]

I go to a movie for entertainment. I don't want politics/narratives in a movie. That is why. The movie is better than TLJ I won't say anymore.

There was one line in the whole movie that someone might take as political, and it was no more political than the idea of Dumbledore's Army in the Harry Potter series. Hardly hitting the audience over the head.

 

[IthacaMatt]

It was an epic end of an era. Epic feel, emotional and yes very satisfying conclusion. Not saying it was a great movie standing by itself but when taken in the context of the whole series, any old time Star Wars fan couldnt ask for much more.

Spoiler time: Since I don't know how to use the spoiler feature read no more!

No doubt it was disjointed at times creating a bit of a cluttered hurried and forced feel on occasion as they put in so much in general and from the past everything short of Yoda, and then with what I thought was them saying "sorry" to all us "we almost ruined the entire series with that last episode" (that horror carried over to this to a degree), but when Luke said to Rey he was wrong I took that as an apology to all for #8. It was a time mid movie that it had to be swallowed clunkingly to move on through to be able to enjoy the rest of the movie.

Anyway certainly there were some holes and a lack of flow at times as a result but once I got by the unnerving Carrie Fisher cgi reanimation I loved the way her story arced and appropriately ended (with an eye to real life emotion), this with her intervention with Kylo Ren/Ben. Some plot lines were tough to swallow but I look at it this way it's kind of like trying to figure all the time travel sequences of movies like Back to the Future. Just don't do it and go with it and suspend disbelief for a while so I did.

I Loved the way his (Kylos transition to the light) time came to an end with his mom and loved the way the Good, once again (ahem current times), triumphed over Evil with the Sith being permanently dispatched. Loved that the humor was good, sparse and just a part of the movie not trying to make it a comedy drama like #8 where it caused a loss of the dramatic feel of what Star Wars is all about.

The war and fight scenes were well done and Palpatine was sinister once again, unearthing Lukes Star X-wing fighter for Rey was classic with the uncredited cameo of Han so cool, awesome so much Millenium Falcon and LOVED the fact there were no overt political overtones nor dopey new love stories with other characters (less rose). LOVED LOVED the homage to all past episodes whether seeing the destroyed death star or the end back at Luke and his Uncle and Aunts home base on Tootine for the last scene.

No this movie wasn't perfect by any stretch but it was the perfect Star Wars send off being true to the heart and soul of the whole thing after nearly 45 years of wowing and entertaining us. Thank You JJ Abrams for, once again, pulling off the difficult feat of maintaining the heart and character of everything we saw as original and awesome way back when, and infusing some life into it with some new, new characters, new stories, and melding it all together (nearly) seamlessly.

All one needs to know is I plan to see it once maybe twice more with others in my sphere which couldn't be said for 8. Go see it, go with it, suspend your undue critical eye and enjoy the ride. Epic end to an epic saga and the end of a HUGE part of my own life.

Edit: on second viewing figured out the significance and meaning of Chewie getting the metal, he was snubbed in New Hope not getting one while Luke and Han did! All is now right in the Star Wars universe with this slight being addressed. LOL

I don't think the Carrie Fisher stuff was as much CGI as you do. To me, it looked like one particular scene - sending off Rey on her quest - could have easily been filmed for Episode 7 when she went to look for Luke.
ver

 

[DoubleDee]

I don't think the Carrie Fisher stuff was as much CGI as you do. To me, it looked like one particular scene - sending off Rey on her quest - could have easily been filmed for Episode 7 when she went to look for Luke.
ver

Spoiler: CGI

the flashback scene I thought was pretty well done where they show younger Luke and leia training.

 

[NKR1978]

IV-VI told a story.
I-III told a story.
VII told a story, VIII didn’t tell a story, IX had to cleanup VIII to connect the story from VII.

If TLJ was a stand alone film like Solo or Rogue One then it’s fine.
TFA and TRoS need a 3rd film to tell a complete story.

1-3 the acting and writing is comically bad. When even great actors come out looking awful that means the movies are trash.

 

[Alsacs]

1-3 the acting and writing is comically bad. When even great actors come out looking awful that means the movies are trash.

1-3 was poorly done. It still told a story everyone knew was coming

 

[DoubleDee]

1-3 the acting and writing is comically bad. When even great actors come out looking awful that means the movies are trash.

they made Portman, McGregor, and Neeson look ridiculous. Christensen is just horrid.
story is a great one, over the top movie making ruined it.

 

[Guinness]

That was 10+ minutes of crap CGI for zero plot value. How was that a good movie at all?

You basically described every movie since Jedi and even Jedi was pretty much crap. Star Wars peaked with Empire.

 

[Guinness]

they need to do a Vader movie.

starting from Sith, through Rogue One and up to a New Hope.

but it needs to be done like Joker.

totally dark.

 

[Fly Rodder]

Saw it, didn't hate it, but felt that there were some sizable errors that could have been fixed a little. The ret-conning though. Sheesh. Also, JJ Abrams sucks at dialogue. Some of those lines made me cringe.

I felt the overall mood and visuals were in line with the Episodes 4-6, which made the whole enterprise feel more in tune with the originals and it wasn't as visually jarring as the prequels - which were terrible.

 

[HoustonCuse]

I love how people claim that Ep. 9 cleaned up or walked back Ep. 8 simply because not everything was fully answered until Ep. 9. As if we were spoon fed everything in Ep. 4 and Ep. 5.

Dude, 9 completely spat on several things that people hated in 8 and outright reversed several main points.

Spoiler

Reys parentage being completely reversed is the biggest. Luke flat out saying that he was completely wrong in the way he acted in 8. The catching the light saber scene where he actually says “a Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect” reversing one of 8’s “unexpected “ moments. Rebuilding Kylo’s helmet. Reference to the Holdo Maneuver being a one in a million and wouldn’t work again. I’m sure there are more. But just the fact that could now watch the entire saga while skipping 8 and you would miss zero plot elements tells you that movie was a wasted opportunity to tell the story.

 

[Day2]

Dude, 9 completely spat on several things that people hated in 8 and outright reversed several main points.

Spoiler

Reys parentage being completely reversed is the biggest. Luke flat out saying that he was completely wrong in the way he acted in 8. The catching the light saber scene where he actually says “a Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect” reversing one of 8’s “unexpected “ moments. Rebuilding Kylo’s helmet. Reference to the Holdo Maneuver being a one in a million and wouldn’t work again. I’m sure there are more. But just the fact that could now watch the entire saga while skipping 8 and you would miss zero plot elements tells you that movie was a wasted opportunity to tell the story.

I mean, Luke and Leia kissed in both 4 and 5. Obi-Wan told Luke his father was dead. We can do this all day.

 

[KaiserUEO]

Dude, 9 completely spat on several things that people hated in 8 and outright reversed several main points.

Spoiler

Reys parentage being completely reversed is the biggest. Luke flat out saying that he was completely wrong in the way he acted in 8. The catching the light saber scene where he actually says “a Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect” reversing one of 8’s “unexpected “ moments. Rebuilding Kylo’s helmet. Reference to the Holdo Maneuver being a one in a million and wouldn’t work again. I’m sure there are more. But just the fact that could now watch the entire saga while skipping 8 and you would miss zero plot elements tells you that movie was a wasted opportunity to tell the story.

Spoiler

how was Rey's parentage reversed? did you actually believe Ren?? i knew damn well she was the child of someone, just not sure who.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Spoiler

how was Rey's parentage reversed? did you actually believe Ren?? i knew damn well she was the child of someone, just not sure who.

Spoiler

I believe that Abrams always intended for her to be a Palpatine (you can see it in her light saber fighting style in 7) but Johnson reversed that to be “subverting expectations” and then here it got re-reversed. I also have a hard time believing that the original plan was to bring Palpatine back like this but when Snoke was unceremoniously offed, they had to do something to have a bad guy, hence the hacky bomb drop in the crawl of the 9th movie that “everything was BS! Villain you thought was dead 30 years ago is back! That’s Austin Powers level stuff. But 8 forced it.

 

[KaiserUEO]

Spoiler

I believe that Abrams always intended for her to be a Palpatine (you can see it in her light saber fighting style in 7) but Johnson reversed that to be “subverting expectations” and then here it got re-reversed. I also have a hard time believing that the original plan was to bring Palpatine back like this but when Snoke was unceremoniously offed, they had to do something to have a bad guy, hence the hacky bomb drop in the crawl of the 9th movie that “everything was BS! Villain you thought was dead 30 years ago is back! That’s Austin Powers level stuff. But 8 forced it.

Spoiler

Austin Powers is pushing it, but i get where youre coming from. Snoke was not unceremoniously offed, it was done because Kylo was trying to unite the force, he thought he and Rey could rule together under 1 force. the fact that Snoke couldnt see it proved there was something bigger than him pulling the strings, Palpatine.

finn never saying what he wanted to tell Rey is a bigger issue. i think he knew she was a Palpatine or something, its why he said something to Poe like, 'shes dealing with shlit you have no idea about, but Leia and I do'. either that or he was going to tell her he could feel the force too.

 

[Day2]

Spoiler

I believe that Abrams always intended for her to be a Palpatine (you can see it in her light saber fighting style in 7) but Johnson reversed that to be “subverting expectations” and then here it got re-reversed. I also have a hard time believing that the original plan was to bring Palpatine back like this but when Snoke was unceremoniously offed, they had to do something to have a bad guy, hence the hacky bomb drop in the crawl of the 9th movie that “everything was BS! Villain you thought was dead 30 years ago is back! That’s Austin Powers level stuff. But 8 forced it.

Spoiler

Nothing was reversed or re-reversed. You’re just interpreting it that way. Since when are villains to be believed? Kylo was trying to manipulate Rey into joining him.

You’ve seen Solo, right?

 

[Fly Rodder]

Spoiler

finn never saying what he wanted to tell Rey is a bigger issue. i think he knew she was a Palpatine or something, its why he said something to Poe like, 'shes dealing with shlit you have no idea about, but Leia and I do'. either that or he was going to tell her he could feel the force too.

The latter.

Spoiler

Re Rey being a Palpatine, Kenji Lopez-Alt, a food nerd, chef, writer turned restaurateur, called it in 2016 after TFA.

 

[Quazzum69]

You basically described every movie since Jedi and even Jedi was pretty much crap. Star Wars peaked with Empire.

The plot has always been thin and made up as it went along. They've always just been action/soft sci fi for kids. The only reason rey and kylo ren are related to han/leai/luke is to bring back the original actors. They could have easily been unrelated and the story would be unchanged.

People act like lucas (and abrams, for that matter) had some grand plan. He retconned vader into being space jesus in the prequels from just a captain who went in and flucked stuff up for the emperor.

 

[Quazzum69]

Revenge is really only good because Phantom and Clones were not.

the whole prequel needs a reboot.


they need to do a Vader movie.

starting from Sith, through Rogue One and up to a New Hope.

but it needs to be done like Joker.

totally dark.

We need new characters outside of the skywalkers, c3p0, emperor, etc.

the fact that staw wars has largely stuck with things that were established 40 years ago is a sign that it couldnt survive without nostalgia. Disney is worried that if they came out with a completely new idea, it would bomb.

 

[Day2]

The latter.

Agreed. And the fact this is possible was established in TLJ.

 

[Day2]

The plot has always been thin and made up as it went along. They've always just been action/soft sci fi for kids. The only reason rey and kylo ren are related to han/leai/luke is to bring back the original actors. They could have easily been unrelated and the story would be unchanged.

People act like lucas (and abrams, for that matter) had some grand plan. He retconned vader into being space jesus in the prequels from just a captain who went in and flucked stuff up for the emperor.

Exactly. There’s no way Leia kisses Luke if the plan all along was for them to be siblings.

 

[Alsacs]

Exactly. There’s no way Leia kisses Luke if the plan all along was for them to be siblings.

Keep defending 7-9 nobody is right or wrong.
Episode 8 hurt the franchise though.
The revenue expected for 9 was lower than projected. It’s still a success but 8 hurt the franchise.
Johnson killed Snoke off in 8 when JJ and Colin didn’t want that to happen. Johnson also was the one to create the Rose character and the wrote subplot on the casino.


JJ was dealt a bad hand by giving the keys to Johnson. He made a good movie in 9 but he had a lot of work to overcome.

JJ completely redid the perception of Luke after 8.

People don’t have to dislike 8 but it definitely hurt the flow of the story this trilogy.

Palpetine being alive in the manner he was just lazy and it was only done because Johnson killed the supposed big bad in this trilogy in a throwaway way in 8.

 

[Fly Rodder]

People act like lucas (and abrams, for that matter) had some grand plan. He retconned vader into being space jesus in the prequels from just a captain who went in and flucked stuff up for the emperor.

Lucas had a some kind of 9-film plan sketched out, but nothing set in stone. He didn't know if he'd ever get to make Empire or Jedi, so Star Wars was largely a standalone film. After he got the go ahead to make the next two, he started cribbing some of the best ideas from the his other potential installments (one of which was a pair of twins separated at birth to protect them). Based on what I've read, he rewrote his treatments for the other installments a couple of times and, thankfully, Disney didn't use his ideas to focus on midichlorians and whills for this third trilogy because he's too far in own his own head.

 

[Fly Rodder]

People don’t have to dislike 8 but it definitely hurt the flow of the story this trilogy.

That's a Disney problem, not a Rian Johnson problem. The MCU works as well as it does because there's a huge QA/QC system in place starting with Kevin Feige. Disney paid $4b for a the Star Wars franchise and said, eh, do what you want - be creative.

 

[KaiserUEO]

Keep defending 7-9 nobody is right or wrong.
Episode 8 hurt the franchise though.
The revenue expected for 9 was lower than projected. It’s still a success but 8 hurt the franchise.
Johnson killed Snoke off in 8 when JJ and Colin didn’t want that to happen. Johnson also was the one to create the Rose character and the wrote subplot on the casino.


JJ was dealt a bad hand by giving the keys to Johnson. He made a good movie in 9 but he had a lot of work to overcome.

JJ completely redid the perception of Luke after 8.

People don’t have to dislike 8 but it definitely hurt the flow of the story this trilogy.

Palpetine being alive in the manner he was just lazy and it was only done because Johnson killed the supposed big bad in this trilogy in a throwaway way in 8.

cant say i agree with that.

Spoiler

killing Snoke was a big shock. no one saw it coming and the fact that we didnt have to wait till the end of 9 for that to happen, worked.
bringing Palpatine back didnt just skip over 8, it brought us all the way back to 1-3.

he was the big bad in all 3 trilogy's.

and he lost in them all.

lost the 1st one as Anakin basically became a slow moving robot, who used the Force to do anything because he was no longer as agile and athletic as he was.

lost the 2nd one as Luke didnt join him and then he was just thrown down a shaft where he obviously could still use the force to stop his fall and save himself.

and then lost the 3rd one for real.


if we did another trilogy and he shows up, bet against him...hes the Buffalo Bills.

 

[Alsacs]

cant say i agree with that.

Spoiler

killing Snoke was a big shock. no one saw it coming and the fact that we didnt have to wait till the end of 9 for that to happen, worked.
bringing Palpatine back didnt just skip over 8, it brought us all the way back to 1-3.

he was the big bad in all 3 trilogy's.

and he lost in them all.

lost the 1st one as Anakin basically became a slow moving robot, who used the Force to do anything because he was no longer as agile and athletic as he was.

lost the 2nd one as Luke didnt join him and then he was just thrown down a shaft where he obviously could still use the force to stop his fall and save himself.

and then lost the 3rd one for real.


if we did another trilogy and he shows up, bet against him...hes the Buffalo Bills.

Palpetine won the episode 1-3 trilogy.
How is he the Buffalo Bills.
He started off a Senator and ended up as Supreme Dictator in episode 3.
He won that trilogy he wiped out 99% of the Jedi.

He lost in episode 6 and really episode 9 but it was just done poorly IMO.
JJ had a story for episodes 8-9. He though didn’t tell Johnson what to do he let him do what he wanted.
JJ had to clean up his mess in 9.
The story of 9 was 3 plots in 1 because of what happened in 8.