The Rise of Skywalker The Rise of Skywalker Review and Ratings Thread

[Snow Queen]

Ahh, someone else annoyed with

Spoiler

sweatshirt Kylo

This movie is a weird one for me. There are a lot of issues in it that bugs me. But, I genuinely had a good time and some stuff hit me emotionally.

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For a trilogy with generally nice costume design, they dropped the ball on that sweatshirt. Not big on the tunic he has either in this and Last Jedi, the pattern reminds me of winter coats I used to get when I was younger.

I'm really glad it hit for you. I just wish that could be me, honestly. It just... didn't land and a lot of it felt really off-putting. Left me feeling pretty empty afterwards. I enjoyed the dynamic between Rey, Finn and Poe when it was on display, but the only thing that I felt hit in a more emotional way than having fun with characters I generally enjoy (with some major issues now with one of them) was-

Spoiler

Ach-To with Luke catching the lightsaber, Leia's lightsaber, Battlefront II Leia, and pulling out the X-Wing.

 

[stillanerd]

Well everyone, I saw the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker last night (even drove an hour out of town in the pouring rain to boot) and...can we just say the Star Wars saga really ended with Return Of The Jedi? Here's my complete review of the film.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker review: A visual wonder that lacks a soul

 

[heatvision38]

Poe's flashlight did make me laugh.

Especially since in Jedi Fallen Order, you use your saber in dark places and I wondered why not just use a flashlight.

Answer received.

Edit: Why can't I type sabER? The site changes it to sabre after I hit save. Weird.

It's still doing it. Ahhh

Sab
er

 

[samsnee]

A good sequel should build on its predecessor. I didn’t really care for Last Jedi, but this movie flat out ignored it rather than improve it.

Spoiler

This movie gave me whiplash and needed better editing. I think in the first hour, there wasn’t a scene that lasted longer than a minute before cutting to somewhere else.

And nothing was allowed to stick for more than 4 seconds.

Chewbacca is dead! No he’s not.
3CPO has his memory erased! No he doesn’t.
Zori hates Poe and is going to turn Rey in! No she doesn’t.
Zori has a medal she is going to use to escape to new life! She gives it to Poe.
Kylo is dead, Ben is back! No he’s not. He gets thrown down a pit.
Ben isn’t dead, he climbed back out! No he kisses Rey and dies.
The Millennium Falcon and the rest of the galaxy’s rebels show up to save the day! No they don’t, the Emperor uses lightning to incapacitate them.

I didn’t hate this movie but it’s just an incoherent mess. I thought Poe learned to be more humble from Last Jedi but he’s back to being a hotshot again who fights with his so called friends. Finn is back to crushing on Rey, even though he and Rose made a connection in the last one.

I’m glad this trilogy is over because it didn’t really expand the universe in any meaningful way. At least Rogue One filled in an interesting backstory. These movies banked so much on nostalgia and nothing else.

 

[MahvelBaby!]

Voted 8 but I'm really like at a 7.5

 

[inomilan]

I enjoyed it but i know they could have done much better a 7/10 at most

 

[Spider-Fan]

I am going with 5 out of 10, or a 2.5 out of 5 in the scale I use

 

[Tony Stark]

6/10 only because of the visuals and I liked some of the nostalgic moments with Lando and just like the prequels Ian McDairmid can make any mundane nonsensical plot interesting with his acting. Other than that this film is a total mess. If they focused more on Kylo the movie might have earned its title. Instead this is the Rise of Skywalker In Name Only.

 

[Ninjablade]

I just got out of the theater. My initial reaction is that this was a more enjoyable film than The Last Jedi, but probably worse overall. The editing a mess and the script is nonsensical. It left me feeling empty as opposed to angry (give or take a few things). There were a few things I liked, but it was mostly a little too late.

Need more time to process, but it’s sitting at around a 3/10.

 

[j0ke5ta]

7 1/2 to 8 out of 10

While there are points of this movie I don’t like or wish went slightly differently plot wise. I didn’t despise decisions like I did with TLJ, and Can accept these ones more. Overall I’m happy.

I despised TLJ and decisions or answers I got in that film. This movie while eliminating or retconning a lot of what I had problems with, made TLJ watchable for me again.

While it does poo on a lot of what Rian did much like what Rian did to TFA. It does implement some things from TLJ and expand on them.

in short I think like TFA this will get good word of mouth with casual fans despite critics.

If you loved decisions in TLJ and disliked TFA you’re likely to dislike it.

If you loved TFA (like me) or enjoyed both you should like this film.

I went to first showing Thursday on premier night and to give a review based on theater reactions.

The crowd during and after the first showing premier of TLJ were silent. Some clapping and a couple of cheers during TLJ but nothing to the extent of TFA. Afterwards most I seen were not discussing, or silent, or looked very angry.

TROS crowd was more in line with TFA crowds. Lots of the crowd laughing, crying, loud cheering, clapping, and even one dude at least 2-3 times yelling after some retcons to things “Thank you JJ!”.

Most came out smiling, discussing, and the mood seemed a lot more positive much like the crowds at TFA, and RO.

I know for me, someone who hadn’t watched TLJ since I bought it on Blu Ray (because it’s Star Wars), that it definitely made that movie watchable for me again knowing where everything goes.

I already got my ticket for my second viewing tomorrow to digest so much of what happens knowing it’s coming and to look for things I missed.

I will probably see multiple times but overall good end to these 3 movies, and still leaves room for them To revisit some characters again in the future. JJ satisfied this fan.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Honestly, I will probably give this movie another chance at the theater. But just one. In general, I think the only one of these 3 films I will revisit in the years to come will be The Last Jedi. I just don't feel like watching inferior versions of the original trilogy. To get my fix I will just watch the original trilogy. I just don't see why I would revisit this movie or even The Force Awakens in the future.

 

[Holy Slapper]

About a solid 8. Plenty of stuff that worked and some very emotional moments that outweigh the stuff that didn't. Not reading any spoilers beforehand was definitely worth it.

 

[sycamore]

A 5.5, only because of the great visuals and the first half was pretty strong. But I have no desire to see it again.

 

[BlackFox]

5/10

Its not fun to stick the boot into something I loved from my childhood, or maybe these films just arent aimed at me anymore but this was a mess, from the rushed and schizophrenic beginning to the muddled and lore breaking finale this was a shambles, it didnt even really feel like a Star Wars film.

So much "humor" didnt land and so many plot holes before you even begin on the questions this film raises that can never really be answered properly in terms of the world and its lore. Maybe the damage was so much in TLJ this couldnt course correct enough to be a fitting end but at least they tried throwing everything at the wall but most of it missed or flat out knocked the wall down.

The early signs didnt look great but never have I been this bored in a SW movie which should never be the case. Ah well hopefully sounds like The Mandalorian will keep my love of the universe going once I get the chance to see that. This trilogy has never really worked for me truth be told.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I don’t know, guys. I liked it. I enjoyed it more than the other two. Sure it had problems... I don’t know what Star Wars seems to feel the need to violate basic story structure by always starting the movie AFTER the inciting moment (The Emporer’s voice is calling out from beyond the grave! Wait, when did that happen? What? I assume anyone who went into it blind without watching trailers was really confused). But again, this has been a problem in multiple films, I think because they’re so obsessed with the opening crawl that they think it’s sufficient to introduce major plot points in it and not really explain them (it isn’t).

That said, this movie felt like the SW film I’ve been waiting for in this trilogy. The three core hero characters finally had a lot of screentime together, and we even got some teary eyed moments for characters like C-3PO, who is generally just a comic relief character. And no one can play a better pure evil villain than Ian McDiarmid. Making him undead and hooked up to that machine just added to his creepy, unsettling performance. Loved all the stuff in the outer regions or whatever it’s called. Some stuff I didn’t care for (the Reylo kiss was kind of a WTF moment for me, and I kinda thought Rose got the shaft just because insecure fanboys attacked her and so JJ kinda sidelined her). And what the hell was Merry Brandybuck doing in this movie? He did nothing of significance so it was just kinda distracting to see him there. Still, I had a great time and I felt like they mostly wrapped things up well.

 

[Tony Stark]

My problem with it is how it's used, particularly the

Spoiler

Dyad and Healing

for a Mary Sue character who apparently irritated everyone already with how strong she is.

Just poor and sloppy writing, a contrived way to try to ratchet up emotion and a convenient way to cheapen death or fix holes. There's hardly any stakes or threat to care about other than to characters who obviously needed to die.

It's especially bad when we are told that Anakin is supposed to be the most powerful Jedi ever, but on screen he is never seen doing anything close to what Rey did. Hell if he had Rey's powers he'd have two working hands and he wouldn't need to worry about Padme dying in child birth.

JJ does this crap because he thinks it's cool. I know he's more of a Star Wars fan, but J.J. was a much better fit for Star Trek than he was for Star Wars.

 

[Teelie]

I thought it was great but it did stumble a few times. The critics and some of the fans are being too harsh IMO but I don't care what they think. For a movie that needed to course correct TLJ it did the job well. I think it could have been better had there not been a need to compensate for that.

 

[Blade Hoarder]

Jesus christ, wtf did I watch? I know what. The worst kind of cynical, focus group tested, fanboy pandering, toy factory dependent, mass produced, automated, copper wire snake pit. This movie is a conceptual sequel to Transformers 2. The last movie that felt similarly scattershot in its duty to zig zag through corporate mandates.

This is the very definition of a movie made by algorithm. It attempts to replicate the components of what makes a good film. But somewhere there is a flaw in the coding and it comes out as mutated entrails. Vomit worthy. Purely contemptuous. Fugly.

2/10

 

[jmc]

Normally I would write up a long breakdown of the film, but for this I can only just shrug. I am not even angry. I'm just sad. Sad at witnessing one of the greatest mythologies in human history become a broken shell of its former self. A grandiose tale reduced to nothing, devoid of all its meaning, devaluing it's past, because some idiots at a billion dollar corporation didn't understand why people loved it. George may not have done the best job at executing the prequels, but he at least had a vision that was leading somewhere that paid off in the end. This film, indeed this trilogy, is IMO the cinematic equivalent of spray painting the Sistine Chapel. I'm not going to even dignify this with a score because it's not even worth trying to place value on it. I wanted this trilogy to work, and was willing to give the creative people enough slack to answer the questions posed in TFA, but all that was exposed was that no-one had any idea about what it was they were working on. This trilogy to me is best wiped from memory, and the only true SW is everything that came before it.

 

[m2k]

I don't know. Feels like J. J. kind of quickly connected the dots knowing it's the last of the series. I was hoping for a more emotional core to this movie but I just never really felt it despite certain moments/revelations. Pacing was a tad too swift I thought. Nostalgic points seems just inserted there out of the blue with minor relevance to the plot. Certain characters/appearances did not really have to be there and it wouldn't have changed a thing honestly. Ending is pretty much cliche as it gets.

Anyhow, it is a entertaining movie throughout with with great action, visuals. Humor mostly a miss for me but that's alright. Was really hoping this would be the strongest film of the trilogy but just kind of let down by it all so would probably rank it lowest right now.

5.5/10

 

[godisawesome]

4/10

I respect The Last Jedi more, but this thing ultimately succumbs to all the bad mistakes The Last Jedi made, while also avoiding the few ideas and castings I liked from TLJ.

The Force Awakens is still leagues better movie than the other two, far more of a character drama than either TLJ or TROS, doesn’t end up endorsing an abusive romance as they do... and ultimately should have been the starting point for a far more successful and powerful Sequel Trilogy, even if some people would call it conventional or boring.

A little note here before the spoilers: it *should*, like the last Jedi, be seen as a decent blockbuster flick worth checking out once, and a positive and optimistic view of it is the right mindset of you want to enjoy it.

But this is not a film to watch if you want it to reach standards set by any previous Star Wars material that has a relationship with it or acts as a parallel or counterpart. TLJ is a far more artistic and bold film, TFA has far more heart and competence, it can never hope to match the epic engrossment of Revenge of the Sith, or the joy and emotional payoff of Retrun of the Jedi.

And in no way does it allow the Sequel Trilogy to even be close to the awesomeness of the Legends EU they jettisoned for it. There is no “fruit” comparable to Legends to be found in either this era of the Saga, or in the era between the trilogies if you’re looking at the Saga heroes; The Mandalorian is blessed to not have to try and build off the scorched earth of the Skywalker Saga, and my immediate desire right now is to buy back all those Legends books that I let myself give away or trash when I fell in love with TFA.

The spoiler review below repeats some of my points here because I’ve posted it elsewhere, but gives an accurate argument for why I don’t think this movie or trilogy should be heralded, even if it can be enjoyed.

Spoiler

Okay.

Here we go.

At heart...

...I’m simply not the type of person this film, and ultimately, *this* Sequel Trilogy was made for... because the standards and priorities I had made by the old Legends EU could not be matched with the Sequel Trilogy at core, and the characterizations and character priorities I had from The Force Awakens, are just not the ones they wound up building this film and two thirds of this trilogy either around, or towards. A whole bunch of my opinion is simply bias, disappointment, and disagreement over what should and should not be the focus or philosophy in this era of Star Wars.

This thing is probably best experience during by the younger, the more optimistic (I’d say a great deal of this board’s more esteemed posters fit here), or less heavily invested minds overall than I can have right now. A kid behind me enjoyed the hell out or it, and I’m glad about that. There’s a lot of people I respect on this board who liked it, and I’m glad about that. My dad and sister liked it, and I suspect most people probably will. But this could have and should have been a far superior trilogy anda superior film.

...And I do think there is merit to at least some criticism of TROS’s construction, execution, and relationship to TLJ, in the same way I firmly believe that TLJ has a lot of criticism that is merited.

But on the same way that TLJ deserves commendation for some things regardless of all else, TROS deserves likewise. This is a very gorgeous and imaginatijve film with great actors, and it bears mentioning that Rian Johnson’s boldness really should be regarded as *matched* by Abrams blockbuster styling, in terms of how important it was to the film.

But....

- Rey is still an under-defined character compared to Luke and Anakin; both of them are significantly more developed and believable protagonists, with Luke being a much stronger classic hero and Anakin a much stronger tragic hero. She *does* work as a power fantasy character, which has some advantages and disadvantages (just ask Superman fans)... but I would say that she is fundamentally undermined quite a bit by the Reylo tumor, and schizophrenic writing across all three films.
- And yeah, she should have just been a Skywalker if they weren’t going to do Random. There is not enough time to sell the idea they really wanted to sell under critical analysis at all: for all that a found family idea could work, what little they can do with the well-executed but so very few scenes with Carrie can’t sell a relationship hard enough to match its closest counterpart in this series (Finn and Rey in TFA), and it’s just too clumsy to try and assert “Skywalker” as her name choice.
- McDiarmid is still a magnificent actor, and *does* bring gravitas and power to his scenes... but they’re few, far between, more akin to a video-game boss than the character, and ultimately, I just don’t think he’s nearly as well formed this time as he’d need to be for the ST’s goal of capping off a nine-film Saga, nor as Rey's final villain.
- Finn’s time on screen was wasted, and I hate that crap. Demoting Finn from lead is a kriffing stupid idea. He’s still the most heavily developed and well constructed character at the end of the ST, all because of TFA, still has the most original and interesting character premise, now is revealed as a Force Sensisitive, and encompasses all the little-guy, underdog, “you can be the hero too!” stuff far better than Rey could... and I can’t have this because I should care about “Ben” kriffinging “Solo?”
- That reminds me: Adam Driver is fantastic. “Ow...” is funny. The shoulder roll is great. But none of that $#!+ is worth the lives of all three OT heroes, demoting Finn, and ending the kriffing Skywalkers. We’re sacrificing all this - AND Kylo’s potential as a villain, since he actually still kind of sucks in that role here which I’ll get back to - for five minutes of Adam Driver being a mime. I traded Jacen Solo, Jaina Solo, Ben Skywalker, and apparently any and *all* other characters from the Skywalker family... for “Ben Solo.” I. DON’T. CARE. ABOUT. “BEN.” KRIFFING. “SOLO.”
- An on Kylo Ren, who apparently I wasn’t supposed to think was the actual substantial character here... We had a character who walked onto screen, immediately committed mass murder, violated our main character’s mind during torture, filleted the real male lead’s back, murdered his dad, and was an intimidating villain *perfectly* set up to be the epitome of every arrogant, elitist, prejudiced anti-progressive villain... and they screwed that up because we took that too literally and did’t prioritize his lip-wobble game as they wanted us to.
- And all of that... because of Reylo. Reylo is poison. Reylo is a tumor. It didn’t have to be. Disney? Lucasfilm? Star Wars? They’ve all done this enemies-to-lovers story, and done it competently before. This? This is a liability to both characters that undermines the very themes and moral philosophy of Star Wars. Rey falls for the Neo-Nazi... while he’s a Neo-Nazi... and when the most substantial thing she has to justify this is...he’s pretty, and if he stopped being an @$$hole for five minutes, he might do something useful over the corpses of his millions of victims. They never made the substance of Kylo - Or Ben - more than that. So he remained limited... and she was decayed and twisted to fall for that.

Having ranted about all that...

...This Trilogy is not complete poison, should not be considered so, and I will not object to people liking it. I wished that young girl behind me who gleefully enjoyed it to keep doing so, and Star Wars ain’t going to die from this at all. And you know what? I *am* interested in at least one idea - Finn getting his Jedi powers realized. I just may not be able to stomach Rey in the same scene as him because of her Space Neo-Nazi cooties.

But I don’t want to hear any bull about the PT being “weak,” Anakin being sloppily executed, or his romance with Padme being weird, because the ST did worsein all those categories. And I don’t want to hear any tripe about the ST taking a stand “against” elitism, eugenics, misogyny, or racism when it ultimately bent over backwards to demote the black slave soldier hero in favor of the privileged white dude who got to parasitically drain the heroine of believability and characterization in exchange for a cheap-ass fanfic romance. And *bad* fanfic romance at that.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I honestly think the bigger issue here is that Star Wars never had that great of a story to begin with (yeah, I’ll say it). So whether you’re trying to emulate the original (TFA), venture into new territory (TLJ) or course correct (TROS), you’re still trying to build on a foundation that was average at best. The original trilogy worked so well because of special effects that had never been seen before and overall great performances by actors who were perfect for their parts. The story? LOL, they “hid” Luke away but he was walking around using his real last name on the planet where his dad grew up. Obi-Wan ALSO goes by his real last name and somehow Vader never finds him. The Empire’s big mcguffin is the SAME thing in the first and last movie. But it’s fine; the movies are enjoyable enough. I just think people are looking for more than this series has ever really given them because it’s been like their religion since they were kids. No wonder Rian Johnson made a SW movie about destroying religion, lol.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I don't think it's the matter of whether a SW trilogy was made for us. It's just simply a terrible movie.

I don't want to hear these excuses or blaming something else for trying to soften the bad quality of a movie.

It's a terrible movie. That's it. It has only itself to blame.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Saying Star Wars never had a great story is just a flat-out lie. We can argue that the story is basic, but the story is definitely good. It's a good play on the hero's journey and all that stuff that we hear talk about ad nauseam. It also has great characters, great character moments, and earns every bit of its legacy. Saying that Star Wars never had a great story is just some excuse some people want to use so that they can broad-stroke make excuses for why they like something that is considered inferior by some people in these arguments.. It just doesn't work guys, Star Wars was a great story. A story doesn't need to be complicated to be great.

I also want to add that simply because various prequels and sequels made long after the fact didn't live up to the standards the series once had, the story is no less great today than it was back then.

 

[godisawesome]

I honestly think the bigger issue here is that Star Wars never had that great of a story to begin with (yeah, I’ll say it). So whether you’re trying to emulate the original (TFA), venture into new territory (TLJ) or course correct (TROS), you’re still trying to build on a foundation that was average at best. The original trilogy worked so well because of special effects that had never been seen before and overall great performances by actors who were perfect for their parts. The story? LOL, they “hid” Luke away but he was walking around using his real last name on the planet where his dad grew up. Obi-Wan ALSO goes by his real last name and somehow Vader never finds him. The Empire’s big mcguffin is the SAME thing in the first and last movie. But it’s fine; the movies are enjoyable enough. I just think people are looking for more than this series has ever really given them because it’s been like their religion since they were kids. No wonder Rian Johnson made a SW movie about destroying religion, lol.

I see what you’re saying, and I think there’s some merit to it... but simple story can still have complexity, and if it has that, and is far better than a story that is complicated but lacks complexity. Plot convulutions do not guarantee or immediately eliminate complexity; complexity is created by successful storytelling that allows emotional complexity and impact, and where story elements act to assist each other as time goes on and as rewatches and expansions occur.

The OT had a simple story, but still had complexity; the characters outgrew their archetypes to become more than that, and the emotional story arc surpassed its imitators and many of its contemporaries. There’s a reason why a throwback to pulp adventures created the Space opera.

The PT had complications that occasionally drowned out complexity... but started pretty good (TPM’s reputation is far more tarnished by AOTC than its own quality) and genuinely ended on a high note with ROTS, which *did* help emphasized the simple but complex story of the OT.

The ST... the ST has succumbed to contradictory, underwhelming, and damaging schizophrenia that facilitates wildly between manic complications vs simple-but-opposing themes and storytelling directions, moments of laziness and apathy vs with hyper-investment and tunnel-vision, and making a lot f noise without saying much at all.

TFA was by far the simplest story of the ST. And it unequivocally had more complex characterizations and a stronger, character-driven plot. Finn, after three films, still had the most complex and deep story - because he actually had a story in TFA. He then got ignored for two films in favor of Kylo, a character written so inconsistently and with such different complications to his plot that he never escaped a banal and binary portrayal that can be summarized as “Uttlerly, loatsomely evil, with a meaningless lip-wobble game - until we need him to be a heroic mime for five minutes.”

Rey’s story is one big, overly complicated mess that fails to match either Luke or Anakin’s story, in part because her story is *literally* suffering from multiple personality disorder. Is she a rough and tumble survivor with a found family in Finn and a righteous but dangerous temper? A naive and gullible little girl hoping someone tells her what to do? Kylo Ren’s abused girlfriend? Rey of Jakku? Rey Daughter of No One? Rey Palpatine? Rey “Skywalker?”

Ultimately, this trilogy screwed itself over by both failing to plan out what should be done where and who should be focused on and who they are. TFA had a simple story... who’s heart and soul was totally ignored by TLJ, which had some cerebral focus (even if it had a gigantic whopping blindspot towards Kylo and didn’t truly “get” Rey or Finn)... with neither the soul of TFA nor the mind of TLJ making it into TROS.

A simple, conventional Sequel Trilogy based off TFA would have been far more successful in the long run and made more money both with its two companions and with a more fruitful storytelling ground between trilogies.

Instead, we’re stuck with a stale and decarbonated Diet Darth Vader, a main hero with no identity until the last film twisted around an abusive romance, and a black sidekick who never got better writing than he did in the first movie.

And a story that actually hurts the films before it.

We had Star Wars, which may not have been much... but now, we kind of have Transformers 1-3.