Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker - Reviews & Discussion

[Phyrebrat]

I wonder who here has watched The Clone Wars and Rebels animated shows. They offer a much deeper insight to the meaning of the prophecy - especially the Altmortis episodes.

pH

 

[Brian G Turner]

Just watched it - for the most part I think they made a very big effort at rescuing the new trilogy and we enjoyed it. The character arcs for Rey and Kylo Ren I think were well done, and the fast pace kept me sucked in and didn't allow time to think too hard - which is probably a good thing due to the macguffins galore (a magic crystal, a magic knife, a secret planet no one could get to let alone build and supply the biggest star fleet in the galaxy?).

Altogether, though, the new trilogy is something of a Frankenstein - good bits of the original trilogy cobbled together around new parts that don't work so well - making it more like a reboot of the original trilogy, rather than a sequel trilogy. It's been enjoyable enough, but hopefully Disney will start creating something new and unique with the franchise that has as little as possible to do with anything that came before.

 

[StilLearning]

It's perhaps worth pointing out that George Lucas also said that the Jedi had misinterpreted the prophecy, so there may be some wiggle room. But I've only caught a few episodes of Clone Wars, so wasn't aware they went into more depth on the prophecy!

 

[Parson]

Watched today (our church arranged an 8 am showing) and overall I am pleased. It certainly did put an end to the series which, I feel was in some ways better than I imagined. The last words of the movie will stay with me. It put a wonderful thought about family being much better and much more significant than genetics. Genetics were not in the end decisive in how the story was told in spite of all the speculation to the opposite.

In my opinion this was better than any of the others save, the very first. I know that there will be a lot of people who will find this next statement heresy, but I have never been a big fan of The Empire Strikes Back. Probably because I can never really like a story where the forces of evil prevail.

 

[Al Jackson]

Have not seen the newest yet. But I am amused over the Sturm und Drang that surrounds these films. I have been entertained by them all.... well not that entertained by Episodes 1-3.... even the sidebars like Rouge 1 and Solo were ok …. I am not as invested in these adventures as many. I was more entertained by 2001: A Space Odyssey and Bladerunner .... Star Trek even ... than these sort of hyped up Flash Gordon shows with trappings borrowed from writers like Asimov and Heinlein.... The Expanse is my go to now for visual drama.

 

[Judderman]

I haven’t watched it yet, but it shouldn’t be a surprise that the story is an inferior rehash of the original trilogy ending. That was apparent in episode 7.
At least it provides some entertainment for a new generation of sci-fi fans, but of course disappointing that it doesn’t fulfill unlikely dreams of being a classic.

As for destroying the sith to restore balance -I don’t think that makes sense. Only if the Jedis disappear too (to be fair most did). But both sides having their influence decreased should work. Then when one side gets more powerful the other has to temporarily too to bring them back down.

I hope there was some bizarre looking aliens on show.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Parson, you're right.

That is heresy.

 

[Culhwch]

I went into this with pretty low expectations, after not liking The Force Awakens and being pretty luke-warm (no pun intended) on The Last Jedi. But I actually came out really enjoying it. Has it got flaws? Yep. But damn if it didn't move along quickly enough, and give me enough good moments, to keep me from lingering over any one problem. There were certainly some narrative choices I wouldn't have made, and in the end I do think this was probably two or three movies' worth of story squished into one. The trilogy as a whole suffered from having no single unifying vision; having directors hand off the storyline like a baton really hurt more than I think Disney could have imagined at the start, and I bet they'd do it differently if they had their time again.

Strangely enough some of the things I dinged TFA for -- namely the over-reliance on nostalgia and recreating the originals -- I actually enjoyed here. Damned if I didn't absolutely love seeing Lando again. (And Wedge! If only he'd been in an X-wing...) But I think while this movie does somewhat pay homage to Return of the Jedi, it's by no means the out-and-out remake that TFA was, and that's such an improvement in my books.

JJ Abrams still doesn't understand how hyperspace works, though, and seems to think it's more like teleporting, but I managed to get past that pretty quick...

 

[Vince W]

JJ Abrams still doesn't understand how hyperspace works,

That's the least of what he doesn't understand.

 

[svalbard]

The only Star Wars movie worth watching since the original trilogy is Rogue One. Unfortunately all the others are pants. This one just joins a long list of disappointments in my life.

 

[Judderman]

Revenge of the Sith was pretty good?

 

[BAYLOR]

Revenge of the Sith was pretty good?

I rewatched it last night on tv. No it wasn't.

 

[reiver33]

I saw the film on Friday and it was a slightly emotional conclusion to the narrative arc, having been with the saga since it started all those years ago. So, OK, it ended as it always had to end, given the good-versus-evil plot, but most of the character development worked. The down-side being plot holes (in spades), Stormtroopers who can't hit a major character at point-blank range (one minor wound notwithstanding), and most bad guys are just plain inept. I did feel it pulled its punches at times, but these seems to be a rule about not losing more than one original character per film.

Overall I did enjoy it, and would watch again, but for me Star Wars will always be...

...the original opening (now Episode IV), when that Imperial Star Destroyer fills the screen.

End of an era.

 

[Dave]

I saw it this morning at 9am on the largest screen at my local cinema. There were only two other people there! Hundreds of empty seats! Has this franchise run its course?

Anyway, well worth going to see on the big screen. It rescued the story, and there was a lot of story in this one episode! I understand the comment about the retcon making Anakin's struggle and death of Padme both rather pointless, but Rey could not have won without the help and sacrifice of Skywalkers, and that was why she chose the name Skywalker at the end.

 

[Khuratokh]

I haven’t watched it yet, but it shouldn’t be a surprise that the story is an inferior rehash of the original trilogy ending. That was apparent in episode 7.
At least it provides some entertainment for a new generation of sci-fi fans, but of course disappointing that it doesn’t fulfill unlikely dreams of being a classic.

As for destroying the sith to restore balance -I don’t think that makes sense. Only if the Jedis disappear too (to be fair most did). But both sides having their influence decreased should work. Then when one side gets more powerful the other has to temporarily too to bring them back down.

I hope there was some bizarre looking aliens on show.

Word of God, in this case George Lucas himself:
Maintaining the balance means removal of the toxicity of the dark side, a la the removal of toxins from blood. You return things to balance by eliminating whatever is causing them to go out of whack; thus, you keep the Force in balance by making the light side pure and free of the dark side.

In short;
The Dark Side is the imbalance.

 

[Culhwch]

I saw it this morning at 9am on the largest screen at my local cinema. There were only two other people there! Hundreds of empty seats! Has this franchise run its course?

It's interesting. I went in the morning on the first Saturday of release, and the cinema was near empty. Very different to the packed houses I saw for TFA and TLJ. I'm not sure it has run its course, necessarily, but there definitely seems to be a fatigue that has set in. Given a break, and the development of something more original for the next cinematic release, I think interest will rise again.

 

[ctg]

I wonder who here has watched The Clone Wars and Rebels animated shows. They offer a much deeper insight to the meaning of the prophecy - especially the Altmortis episodes.

Yeah, you are right. If you have seen them, you will get a deeper meaning and more symbolism. If you haven't, you'll have to make your own connections. I really liked that Rey's colour matched the Temple Guardians colour at the end. It makes sense that she's now in that role as Ezra guards the other place.

 

[BAYLOR]

I saw the movie today, Yes there were a few plot holes and a cringeworthy moment or two, But , overall I thought it a good film and a good ending for the Skywalker Saga.

 

[IAmTR]

Spoilers

Rise Of Skywalker was fun but ultimately just as bad as the trilogy as a whole. It's incredibly fast paced because JJ is trying to cram what he wanted the second movie to be about into this movie too. The result was Fin being a pretty bland character whose purpose being in the movie was unclear. Palpatine's arrival seeming a little sudden. Rey being even more godly and learning a very high skill level of force healing which always seemed to be and advanced Jedi mastery. I guess one of the books she got at the end of the last film was a How To on force healing (though at least it seemed like there was a little time for her to train between this movie and the last opposed to the gap between EP 7 and 8 being nothing). And a blistering fast plot that was fun but rushed so it was hard to care too much and easy to shoot dumb holes in it (did they really not notice another ship leaving the same vast desert that supposedly had chewie on it?).

So yeah I find myself just asking a lot of questions after like that and also: why didn't Palpatine's death still result in him taking Rey's body? Will he ever learn not to shoot lightning at lightsabers? Who were all those guys (sith?) in the stadium bleachers? Why did the knights of Ren know about Palpatine and how to find him? Why did they choose him over Kylo? We never saw that. Did no one even hear about the thousands of people going to the unknown regions to build this absolutely massive fleet? I won't keep going but last one...why did Fin and (his love interest?/Lando's daughter) have a conversation about being a kid forced to join the empire then it seemed they went and blew up more star destroyers?

Again, I had fun watching it. It was better than The Force Awakens which was pure garbage. I actually liked Kylo's arc in the end despite hating him in TFA. Leia's scenes were a little clunky but good job considering they were just working with old footage.

Ultimately this trilogy was a mess with no direction. Someone needs to pay for that. Not sure if that should be JJ or Kathleen Kennedy but someone should never touch Star Wars again. This was so horribly mismanaged. It was a fun 3 hour disaster of thrills and I'm glad this trilogy is done.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I haven't watched this. Probably won't unless it's on TV at a time when I have nothing else to do.

Enjoying the spoilers, though. The absence of an over-arching story for the trilogy is just plain stupid. The absence of knowledge from the directors/writers of basic space and Star Wars lore (ships have navigation computers. Space is big [cf TFA in which planets in different solar systems are apparently in visual range of one another]) is just stupid.

The Holdo Manoeuvre is my favourite. It destroys the whole basis not only of Episodes IV and VI, but even VII. No wonder they tried retconning that idiocy in this film. But then, Episode IX has some moments that destroy the storyline of Episode III. And the satisfying conclusion of VI.

Magic systems, including the force, have to have internal consistency and coherence otherwise it just becomes arbitrary and deus ex machina all day long. The original trilogy and the prequels did this well (midichlorians notwithstanding, and haven't the prequels aged well?). The sequel trilogy has not. Largely because of a lack of knowledge or failure to engage with the basics of how the force works, and because some daft sods think a strong female character apparently means the character always easily winning.

But to overcome adversity you have to face it. It's not really adversity if you win all the time.

You might think it's unreasonable to comment on a film without having actually seen it. That's entirely legitimate. In my defence, the directors appear to have not bothered watching the preceding six films...