The Rise of Skywalker Reactions to "Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker"

[Travesty]

You do realise it's only pointless because JJ chose to do absolutely nothing with it, and ignore it?
That's not the fault of the The Last Jedi, that's the fault of JJ Abrams.

And Rian Johnson chose to ignore or tarnish all the setups from TFA that JJ implemented, and completely destroyed them to "subvert your expectations".

JJ wrote and directed two movies in the trilogy. Rian Johnson wrote and directed one. The trilogy is completely messed up due to him. This is more JJ's than Rian, and yet, Rian is the one who purposefully threw monkey wrenches into the story arc, while not moving or progressing the characters. Why would I blame JJ?

And let me just say, JJ's movies aren't perfect either. I'm not saying TFA and TROS are 10/10s, but at least he tried to setup the characters, and in TROS, tried to give us some sort of character progression, cause Rian dropped the ball on that hard.

 

[Bobber]

And Rian Johnson chose to ignore or tarnish all the setups from TFA that JJ implemented, and completely destroyed them to "subvert your expectations".

JJ wrote and directed two movies in the trilogy. Rian Johnson wrote and directed one. The trilogy is completely messed up due to him. Why would I blame JJ?

But Rian Johnson still took them seriously?
Rey's arc in Last Jedi was about her obsession with where she came from, and who she was. The most difficult thing for her to hear in that situation would be that she doesn't come from anywhere special. She needs to find her own way.

Kylo's arc was about his struggle with Snoke, and how to get free of the convolutions of the past. The most interesting thing for him would be to be his own man and not be a puppet in a game.

These are perfectly fascinating and interesting arcs, if you actually take them seriously. But Rise took a dump on TLJ way more than TLJ did on Force Awakens.
If you started up Return of the Jedi and the film tells you that Vader isn't Luke's dad, and he was just lying, suddenly that scene in Empire doesn't really have the same impact does it?

 

[MaceB]

My reaction is mixed, but it leans positive. Judging TROS just by its entertainment value alone, I think it holds up very well. I was entertained. It looked cool enough to me and kept my attention. My only gripe visually is the Emperor... they just never seem to get his physicality right, IMO.

The problem with the movie rests on the larger story decisions. This ending feels no more satisfactory than the ending we got in ROTJ.... which begs the question about the point of this new sequel series. Are we better off? Is the story better off? I don't know.... it feels like a long ways to get back to where we started... and at worse, these new movies kind of neuter the originals. THat's unfortunate... and those were the issues that the creators knew faced them.... right off the bat. And I don't think TROS was able to overcome those obstacles.

There's a lot of lost opportunities that show themselves in this movie. Like... the quasi romance between Ben and Rey... that actually worked! If the story hadn't been so caught up with trying to psyche us out... if the sequel trilogy had had one creative vision, maybe we could have had a forbidden love Star Wars story. But the whole thing feels pieced together, because in fact it was.

I say all that, but I'll also say this: TROS is not the worst Star Wars movie. Not by a long shot IMO. My list now goes:

ESB
R1
ANH
TFA
TRoS
RotJ
Solo
RotS
TPM
AotC

 

[Bobber]

My reaction is mixed, but it leans positive. Judging TROS just by its entertainment value alone, I think it holds up very well. I was entertained. It looked cool enough to me and kept my attention. My only gripe visually is the Emperor... they just never seem to get his physicality right, IMO.

The problem with the movie rests on the larger story decisions. This ending feels no more satisfactory than the ending we got in ROTJ.... which begs the question about the point of this new sequel series. Are we better off? Is the story better off? I don't know.... it feels like a long ways to get back to where we started... and at worse, these new movies kind of neuter the originals. THat's unfortunate... and those were the issues that the creators knew faced them.... right off the bat. And I don't think TROS was able to overcome those obstacles.

There's a lot of lost opportunities that show themselves in this movie. Like... the quasi romance between Ben and Rey... that actually worked! If the story hadn't been so caught up win trying to psyche us out... if the creative team had had one creative vision, maybe we could have had a forbidden love Star Wars story. But the whole thing feels pieced together, because in fact it was.

I say all that, but I'll also say this: TROS is not the worst Star Wars movie. Not by a long shot IMO. My list now goes:

ESB
R1
ANH
TFA
TRoS
RotJ
Solo
RotS
TPM
AotC

Wow, you hate Last Jedi so much that you don't even count it?

 

[MaceB]

Wow, you hate Last Jedi so much that you don't even count it?

Sorry about that. My bad.

ESB
R1
ANH
TFA
TRoS
RotJ
Solo
RotS
TPM
TLJ
AotC

 

[Travesty]

But Rian Johnson still took them seriously?
Rey's arc in Last Jedi was about her obsession with where she came from, and who she was. The most difficult thing for her to hear in that situation would be that she doesn't come from anywhere special. She needs to find her own way.

Kylo's arc was about his struggle with Snoke, and how to get free of the convolutions of the past. The most interesting thing for him would be to be his own man and not be a puppet in a game.

These are perfectly fascinating and interesting arcs, if you actually take them seriously. But Rise took a dump on TLJ way more than TLJ did on Force Awakens.
If you started up Return of the Jedi and the film tells you that Vader isn't Luke's dad, and he was just lying, suddenly that scene in Empire doesn't really have the same impact does it?

I've said this in other threads, but what you claim are massive arcs, I just look at as filler. If this was BrBa, TLJ would be Fly(which is ironically directed by Rian Johnson). Just a filler episode that has no real story progression or arc. Sure, you can claim it's "progression" that Walter is lacking sleep and has an obsession with the fly, or how Jessie is sad about his girl dying, but really, that's not enough to move anything in a substantial way. It's an interesting episode, but at the end of the day, it's filler that you can skip and not miss a beat. And that's all TLJ is: filler.

The thing is, you shouldn't be making filler for trilogies. JJ setup the question that she's someone special, and her parents are important...to then turn around and go, "oh, they're nobody, and let's all waste an ENTIRE movie on that plot point that JJ setup for us". It doesn't really feel like there's much progression to find out that you're nobody....but whatever. If it worked for you, it worked for you. It's all just useless filler for me. I'm glad JJ did something with it, cause my god, what a terrible "arc" for a 2nd act in a trilogy. And in turn, just wasted more time in TROS: "you're someone special, wait no, you're a nobody, syke again, you are someone special". I mean, if this was the 5th season in an 18 episode tv show, and they wanted to do these little soap opera filler arcs, sure, I guess you could explore it. But with movies, you have to be more succinct. Instead, Rian Johnson is wanting to waste time and meander around in this senseless minutia of a plot point. Who is Rey? She's nobody. Who is Snoke? Who cares, he's dead! Why is Kylo so evil? Who cares, when he can Force-skype Rey so they can flirt with each other. lol, we're watching a trilogy, not a soap opera. Get to the point, man. Stop wasting everyone's time with these useless arcs.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Absolutely

After seeing TROS, I honestly have no idea how you can't have that picture over what JJ did with this movie. It's blatantly obvious that he was fixing a lot of the screw ups with that movie. It's so apparent, that I don't even understand the point of TLJ from the perspective of the story arc within this trilogy.

I hated TLJ before. After seeing this, I hate TLJ even more(which I didn't think was possible)...and then I'm sitting here thinking what the point of TLJ even was. It's one of the most pointless movies I can think of. It's such a nothing movie.

I just need more clarification: is this a criticism or observation or defense of TROS? Is your point Abrams had no choice? I hope I'm not muddling your point with the following. I just want to make sure since you highlighted a portion of it:

I get Abrams having to address Johnson's choices. That he did. And I agree TLJ stifles progress and doesn't really go anywhere. But I think where we differ is that this movie, while dealing with it, is still entirely separate from TLJ and that Abrams made horrible choices himself that had nothing to do with TLJ.

Obviously, I can't argue about hating TLJ or try to change your mind, but I have to make the argument that you cannot defend this film by blaming another. Especially when Abrams not only undercuts Johnson, he makes incredibly stupid and horrible choices to service those ideas that have nothing to do with TLJ.

 

[Spider-Fan]

It is not Rian Johnson's fault that JJ Abrams crafted a movie The takes absolutely no time to let characters breathe, let you sink in major moments, or has plot holes set up with in the film itself that you could drive a truck through. The previous movie stuck them with a dead Luke, the Kylo Ren being in charge, Snoke dead, Etc. The previous movie had nothing to do with the fetch questing and the terrible puzzles and such. Nothing in the previous movie said JJ Abrams had to do any of that. He made plenty of bad choices all on his own.

 

[The Chris]

It is not Rian Johnson's fault that JJ Abrams crafted a movie The takes absolutely no time to let characters breathe, let you sink in major moments, or has plot holes set up with in the film itself that you could drive a truck through. The previous movie stuck them with a dead Luke, the Kylo Ren being in charge, Snoke dead, Etc. The previous movie had nothing to do with the fetch questing and the terrible puzzles and such. Nothing in the previous movie said JJ Abrams had to do any of that. He made plenty of bad choices all on his own.

Still processing my thoughts right now, and I do believe that I enjoyed it overall, but my god are you right about characters not getting to breathe in this. That actually began to frustrate me, especially in the 1st half of the film.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

I... actually really really liked this movie...

The flaws are there editing and pacing but that to me was mostly the first act once it settled in I was in


The fan service: i honestly think that a lot of whether you like this movie or not will depend on how some key reveals hit you... thank the lord I didn't have this movie ruined for me my mouth was agape at every moment

One particular moment at the end made me openly weep and itc was such a cheap gimmicky fan service moment but idc I cried and loved it. That's a moment only really star wars fans will get too. (It involves Chewie) I cried like a baby lol.

Ending was nice would have added another couple characters in there

The leia thing: it did feel off at times but I was still kind of impressed with what they pulled off with it.

 

[Sithborg]

On the plus side, I can point to this movie when someone says they want an EU book on the big screen.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

This movie can really use another few minutes in certain areas. To let it breathe a bit.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

Prequels still the worst star wars movies trololol

 

[samsnee]

This movie can really use another few minutes in certain areas. To let it breathe a bit.

The first hour was whiplash. I don’t think there was a scene for more than 60 seconds before it cut somewhere else.

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

But Rian Johnson still took them seriously?
Rey's arc in Last Jedi was about her obsession with where she came from, and who she was. The most difficult thing for her to hear in that situation would be that she doesn't come from anywhere special. She needs to find her own way.

Kylo's arc was about his struggle with Snoke, and how to get free of the convolutions of the past. The most interesting thing for him would be to be his own man and not be a puppet in a game.

These are perfectly fascinating and interesting arcs, if you actually take them seriously. But Rise took a dump on TLJ way more than TLJ did on Force Awakens.
If you started up Return of the Jedi and the film tells you that Vader isn't Luke's dad, and he was just lying, suddenly that scene in Empire doesn't really have the same impact does it?

The problem was that Rey was already told to let go of the past as her parents weren't coming back by someone with insight from the Force. She was told to instead find her future, and TFA ends with her doing that. There was absolutely no reason to drag that up again unless you had a very interesting result that you wanted to achieve. Rian chose the already existing answer, which caused Rey to go absolutely nowhere and the film to waste time.

Kylo's real struggle was with the light, but Rian all but ignored that. The struggle with Snoke just made Kylo more generic, and ended up pretty much removing any credibility the First Order had (combined with making Hux a complete loser).

So I disagree that Rian had any interesting and effective arcs for these characters, or that he continued the most important things that JJ set up.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

I'll say this the biggest weakness in Rians star wars for me was his humor felt very out of place compared to JJs style which feels more star wars to me

 

[BatLobster]

we're watching a trilogy, not a soap opera. Get to the point, man. Stop wasting everyone's time with these useless arcs.

I think Uncle George begs to differ.



Swear I'm not just trying to be cute here lol, I do think it's worth pointing out.

 

[tanita_mors]

For all the problems this movie has, and it has them, I loved it. It was completely enjoyable space adventure. I wasn't bored for a minute, no storyline was extraneous, and it made me want go and watch it again. Which I will.

I think the fast pace ultimately works in favor of this movie, thought it is a storytelling problem. While TLJ had some of my favorite SW scenes ever, at least half of the movie was all over the place, had an entire subplot that was boring that I always rewind, the comedy was horrible and still today I'm unable to quantify it as a movie. This film doesn't have that problem for me.

Like I said, from a storytelling perspective the pacing is a mess, the editing in the first hour was so choppy it felt like watching two movies in one. No scene had room to breath and at times the dialog was very basic and repetitive.The comedy was hit or miss, like most Disney products to me, thought not quite as juvenile as Thor's. It's clear that JJ disregard TLJ as it ruined his own or Disney's plans for the future. Honestly, as TLJ ended, that opened up the story for future installments lot more. It could have given us a longer and more developed redemption of Ben Solo, rather then this fast paced mess.It ultimately worked for me, as Kylo/Ben has been my fave from the start, but it could have been so much better in a course a few more movies.

Visually, the film was beautiful and the action fun and entertaining. The actors were fantastic, all around and even character I previously didn't care about like C3PO and Finn, were great in this. The Big3 were amazing, and there is future for them if they decide to make more. Adam Driver was incredible, and elevated the material tenfold. I'll admit I've been a Reylo fan since TFA, so every scene with them just worked beautifully. I loved the kiss, and if this really is the end of the Skywalker saga, then I'll accept his death as an inevitable part of it. But if Rey comes back in SW movies, killing him wasted so much story potencial.

Does it have too many Mcguffins? Yes. Does Rey's past connection to Palpatine come out of nowhere and is barely explained? Yes. Is Ben's redemption too fast? Yes. I'm I pissed they killed Ben? YES!!! But, did it work for me??? YES.

IDK, for me, the legacy of the ST has been the creation of new characters for this time that I've grown to love and care about in Rey, Ben, Poe and Finn. I know people adore The Mandalorian, but I think that just isn't a SW show for me. Besides cute Baby Yoda I haven't found a single character to care about on that show, and on top of it being a clear western, which I HATE with a passion. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

My current ranking of all SW movies:
Empire Strikes Back (10/10) - Just flawless and brilliant
Star Wars (9.5/10) - Iconic and timeless
Revenge of the Sith (9/10) - Gave me everything I wanted in the Rise of Darth Vader, the execution was sloppy but the story was 10/10
Rogue One (9/10) - a true Star War, seamless counterpart to the original
Rise of Skywalker (8.5/10) - A fun and satisfying ending to the Sequel Trilogy
The Force Awakens (8/10) - A fun and satisfying start to the Sequel Trilogy
Return of the Jedi (7.5/10) - End of an Era that had problems, but enjoyable non the less
The Last Jedi (6.5/10) - A film brilliant at times and horrible at times
Solo (6/10) - a charming origin to Star Wars's most charming character
Attack of the Clones (4/10) - don't know, liked this better the TPM
The Phantom Menace (3/10) - Duel of the Fates and That epic fight pull this movie from being a solid 1/10

 

[Shift]

Something that struck me as I’ve thought about it more is how the progression of time and character development really seemed ignored or forgotten in the ST films. In the OT each of the characters particularly Luke. He’s at different stages, his demeanor, clothing, hair. Personality and confidence changes throughout the films. By ROTJ he’s a Jedi Knight and you see that and believe it. Even in the PT Anakin and Obi evolve through each film through appearance and character. In these newer films I don’t recall the timeline but you could say it all seems to take place immediately after one another. Rey is the exact same from FA to ROTS. Same outfit, same hair, same everything. The only character whose appearance or character has any development seems to be Leia.

 

[Zorro]

Saw a video in my youtube recommendations titled "Rise of Skywalker, Fall of Star Wars". I understand why some people dislike the film and you can hate it all you want but some people exaggerate to such extremes.

The main saga is over and approve of the ending or not, Star Wars isn't dead as The Mandalorian has been successful, many fans are hyped for Clone Wars S7, There are rumors about a sequel to the Jedi: Fallen Order game with dlc still coming out for Battlefront II, Galaxy's Edge is a major attraction at disney theme parks and as of right now..Spin off films are still planned!

Plus we can all go back to watch our favorites at any time

 

[Daywalker89]

The first hour was whiplash. I don’t think there was a scene for more than 60 seconds before it cut somewhere else.

Easily the worst editing ive seen this year. Ive seen better in student films .

 

[Daywalker89]

Saw a video in my youtube recommendations titled "Rise of Skywalker, Fall of Star Wars". I understand why some people dislike the film and you can hate it all you want but some people exaggerate to such extremes.

The main saga is over and approve of the ending or not, Star Wars isn't dead as The Mandalorian has been successful, many fans are hyped for Clone Wars S7, There are rumors about a sequel to the Jedi: Fallen Order game with dlc still coming out for Battlefront II, Galaxy's Edge is a major attraction at disney theme parks and as of right now..Spin off films are still planned!

Plus we can all go back to watch our favorites at any time

Critical Drinker is quite funny though, he's know where near the levels of some of these other youtubers constantly uploading pessimistic videos for views

 

[MaceB]

The editing was fine. The pacing was fast, and that’s fine too. Some people say that characters didn’t have time to breathe in this movie...: but it had way more heartfelt scenes than TLJ. This movie had more heart than any of the sequels.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Saw it a second time yesterday. Yeah, this film is awesome honestly and the pacing issues seemed to be less of an issue for me the second time.easily my second favorite of the entire trilogy and I already want to see it a 3rd time too.

 

[Tony Stark]

I didnt hate this film, in fact in many places I liked this film. However I agreed with someone who said the tone of this film is more out of Indiana Jones than of Star Wars. My big dissapointment overall with the sequel trilogy is that it is out of place and doesnt fit in with calling this the "Skywalker Saga", in fact the ending which gives this film its title feels rather unearned. Rey's story is at best an appendix rather than an epilogue. The other problem with this movie is that the Force is used as a Deus Ex Machina rather than how it was used in the original trilogy or even in the prequels.