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SW:RISE OF SKYWALKER Discussion (All the Spoilers Here)


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Intrigued to see how Rise of Skywalker is received following The Force Awakens and especially The Last Jedi. That entry seemed to divide people into love it or hate it camps. I'm guessing this one will get a mostly positive reaction. 75-85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Bringing back Palpatine after all these years, will it be done satisfyingly or needed to be left well alone? I'm thinking the latter.

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Here's my initial reaction:

I'm very mixed. I'm sort of empty. Not that I hated the movie, but a lot of things let me down.

Secondly, my best point of comparison for this film: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. So that could make this good for some and bad for others.

This is like the At World's End of the franchise.

And yeah, it's basically like a whole trilogy's worth of story all crammed into one movie. Not only a course correction, but backtracking. Editing and pacing in act 1 is very jarring and awkward.

The movie blatantly panders to those who hated Last Jedi or disliked Last Jedi. At times it's amusing, at other times, I found it silly.

Edited by TheVileOne
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19 hours ago, The Natural said:

Intrigued to see how Rise of Skywalker is received following The Force Awakens and especially The Last Jedi. That entry seemed to divide people into love it or hate it camps. I'm guessing this one will get a mostly positive reaction. 75-85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Bringing back Palpatine after all these years, will it be done satisfyingly or needed to be left well alone? I'm thinking the latter.

57% Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes right now. I wasn’t expecting this.

Edited by The Natural
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I feel like I'm going to enjoy the thing more than not because my expectations have been set by the few spoiler-free reviews I've read. On the other hand, I just saw TLJ again for the first time since it first came out and the things I loved about it the first time, I loved all the more this time (like Ben wanting to find a new way forward, and the entire Luke arc, and the Rey being special because of her first name and not her last, and Poe's hubris, etc.), and I'm assuming all that stuff gets wiped.

Basically, the less I have a ball in the game, the more I'm going to enjoy this. The problem is that I kind of have a ball in the game.

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I'm taking my 8-year-old daughter to see this on Sunday.  I usually enjoy things more watching with her, so I think I'll have a good time seeing it.  Whether or not it holds up once I think about it for a few minutes is another story.  

I've been a SW fan since I was a very small child.  I vividly remember seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater when I was 5.  This is the first Star Wars movie (besides Solo) that I just haven't been excited to see.  I enjoy The Mandalorian and am optimistic about the next trilogy, but I just think this one has been ruined for me.  It's a shame, too.  They came up with some great characters who had real potential. 

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2 hours ago, Matt D said:

55% now (compared to TLJ's 91% and TFA's goodwill 93%).

I was.

Speaking as someone who only sort of cares about these movies, hasn't even seen them all, and doesn't normally read these threads, can you explain why?

I'm seeing some talk that maybe Disney paid too much attention to the people that hated TLJ?

 

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5 minutes ago, S.K.o.S. said:

Speaking as someone who only sort of cares about these movies, hasn't even seen them all, and doesn't normally read these threads, can you explain why?

I'm seeing some talk that maybe Disney paid too much attention to the people that hated TLJ?

 

I'm only hanging around in this thread for a little bit longer since it's a while before I'm going to see this, but yeah. Everything Abrams said up until now. The overcorrection from TLJ that seemed obvious. Abrams' deficiencies as a director. The fact that TFA got a lot of goodwill just for not being the prequels. 

But mainly, I read the io9 review: https://io9.gizmodo.com/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-is-a-disappointing-way-1840483002

and it sure sounds like a very believable 55% to me. 

Like I said, I don't know a single actual spoiler but my expectations are synchronized to the point where I'm sure I'll enjoy the thing for all the bloat and will tolerate the bludgeoning.

Edited by Matt D
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So, the gist I'm getting is that Star Wars fans basically don't know what they want...

I guess Abrams once again put way too much emphasis on George Lucas saying it rhymes, but I don't know what anyone was expecting with Disney's usual rushed release schedule and firings. Rogue One was definitely a fluke

Edited by BurningBeard
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1 hour ago, EVA said:

It’s a J.J. Abrams movie.  It’s definitely not going to hold up to more than 30 seconds of scrutiny.

I wouldn't go that far, but he sure has made some lower-tier installments of popular franchises. His Mission: Impossible was maybe better than the one before it, but well short of everything that followed. Of the new Star Trek movies, the best is the one he didn't direct. Including Super 8, all of his directing credits are trading either on nostalgia or something built by someone else. 

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6 minutes ago, JonnyLaw said:

 

As for ROTS, and the whole new trilogy in general, it’s mind-boggling that they launched this without an overarching vision and story, choosing instead to let each director basically play “Yes, and...” with each new installment. Only it sounds like instead of playing “Yes, and...” with the third installment, Abrams is behaving like Michael Scott doing improv.

Holy shit, I’ve been having this exact same thought all day.  To be fair, though, the plan was kind of working until the Trevorrow fiasco.  Johnson (and I know opinions are divided on this) took what J.J. left him and created something really interesting.  The problem seems to be that J.J. came back and decided to put all his toys back exactly where he left them.

You can’t set up this structure based on directors playing telephone with the story and then go back on it at the end.  It’s gotta be one or the other, one vision all the way through or three different ones.  You gotta commit to the bit.

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2 minutes ago, EVA said:

Johnson (and I know opinions are divided on this) took what J.J. left him and created something really interesting.  The problem seems to be that J.J. came back and decided to put all his toys back exactly where he left them.

As someone who really enjoyed The Last Jedi specifically because it did away with Abrams' mystery box bullshit, hearing about this bugs the shit out of me.  I mean I'll still see the movie, but this is a fucking bummer.

Edited by Technico Support
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I really didn't have a problem with the character aspects of Last Jedi and I actually liked the storyline.

My only issue was the time dilation of the fleet having a matter of hours to survive (or at least what felt like hours) and yet Finn and Company made a round trip Casino World and back with time to spare and that included being locked in a jail cell.

I also had the white man becomes kenjutsu master during winter problem that I experienced while watching The Last Samurai with Rey apparently learning in a matter of days the things that Jedi Masters devoted lives of study and practice to achieve.

The Star Wars movies have always had a bad sense of chronology, but TLJ was worse than usual.

Edited by J.T.
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32 minutes ago, EVA said:

Holy shit, I’ve been having this exact same thought all day.  To be fair, though, the plan was kind of working until the Trevorrow fiasco.  Johnson (and I know opinions are divided on this) took what J.J. left him and created something really interesting.  The problem seems to be that J.J. came back and decided to put all his toys back exactly where he left them.

You can’t set up this structure based on directors playing telephone with the story and then go back on it at the end.  It’s gotta be one or the other, one vision all the way through or three different ones.  You gotta commit to the bit.

You’re right. I actually really liked how it played out that TFA was basically an homage to Star Wars, only for TLJ to come along and challenge your expectations. If JJ really does revert back to the Star Wars homage, then that will be disappointing.

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How are we expecting this to do at the box office? It'll probably come nowhere close to Force Awakens numbers. Do we expect a big drop from The Last Jedi?

Anecdotally, TFA and TLJ were both opening night or weekend events for the group I went with. This time around, there's a lot of apathy and shrugs of "Maybe we'll see it after the holidays." Zero excitement. And even though it was a side story, I get the feeling Solo really over-saturated the market for Star Wars movies. Thee brand is still in good shape and this'll make a whole lot of money. But they've milked this thing pretty hard the last few years. 

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I think it'll do very well.  Maybe not up to standards of a Star Wars movie, but probably numbers that other studios would kill for.

I agree with @West Newbury Bad Boy that it's time for a break from SW stuff.  As a longtime fan, it was cool at first to be getting all this stuff after decade waits before, but it's become too much.  Take a break, and come back with something fresh that still feels like Star Wars, and all will be forgiven.

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8 minutes ago, BurningBeard said:

@West Newbury Bad Boy His infamous Ted Talk about the potential of mystery being greater than the answers

Thanks for the answer. In spite of it being infamous, I haven't seen it or read highlights. Which goes to how little I've ever really cared to think about JJ. 

I ask because I still see people blame his insistence on introducing mysteries without having satisfying solutions as one of the shortcomings of Lost. Which would be fair if he worked on the show for more than half a season (plus coming back to co-write one episode in season three). While he's credited as an EP in every episode, that barely means more than Scorcese being listed as such on Boardwalk Empire. It's absurd to see people continue to hang that show around JJ's neck. While he kicked it off and set the tone, Lindelof and Cuse own everything about the show that frustrates people.

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