STAR WARS: "Rise of Skywalker" **SPOILERS**

On The Rise of Skywalker, unfortunately I didn't see it until it came out on home video. Prior to that I had to quickly skip over the herd articles in the press about how much of a jumbled mess it was, theories on how the studio forced changes onto the film Abrams didn't want, how Kelly Marie Tran's role was diminished and implications behind that, the focus the lesbian kiss and finally how the film ultimately must be a turd as result.

I had to watch the thing 3 times to clear all that from the mind. It's not a bad film. There is a lot to follow and it is a bit long, sure, but so is Endgame and it's still a thrill ride nonetheless. I didn't feel that the film invalidated or took anything away from Return of the Jedi's ending. I don't focus on what some are calling continuity errors. It's entertainment. It's ultimately what I've wanted since I saw it in theaters in 1983: more Star Wars.

 

Want 2 hours of people being disappointed by this film?

SWNCBC - Episode 51: The Rise of Skywalker (Davis Edition)

A thoroughly enjoyable listen; not my conclusions, but certainly some thought put into this criticism. The assertion in particular that Abrams took the opportunity to make his episodes VIII and XI in the same film rings somewhat true, complete with the built-in "OMG CHEWIE" cliffhanger mid-film.

There's an interesting theory presented as well that there were several scenes intended to involve Carrie Fisher's reused footage that were nixed for not being of the same quality as the others, leading to some of the disjointed nature of the final film. I'm not as on board with that, seeing as a partial rewatch of RoS last night reminded me that those Carrie Fisher scenes were done VERY well. It's a neat theory, at least.

 

For anybody who thinks Carrie Fisher's scenes in The Rise of Skywalker were poorly done, please watch the 1978 film Game of Death "starring" Bruce Lee and report back to us.

 

I only saw The Rise Of Skywalker twice in the theaters, but I enjoyed it way more than The Last Jedi. Warts and all.

 

A bit off-topic but I think it would be quite interesting to go back and finish that film properly with modern technology. I guess they did about as good a job as they could but there is some pretty bad stuff in that movie especially the one where they've quite clearly cut out a still photo of Bruce's face and composited it onto a double.

The only Fischer scene which I thought wasn't that great was the flashback, there is just a bit of a disconnect between the footage they used of Carrie and what Leia is doing on screen I think.

 

Talk about a two-dimensional performance!

 

My objections to the "Rise Of Skywalker" are more a 'general' thing...which just means that I'm a casual SW-fan and I don't get my knickers in a twist when character A suddenly turns up in movie B when he should have died on planet C in movie D.
It has more to do with a movie-making law that I just made up:

I think the frustrating thing is that "The Rise of Skywalker" could have been a better movie. But the maybe the makers (director? Scriptwriter?) teared up when there was a possibility that Chewie had died in that explosion. And they would never see Harrison Ford again in that role.
So after that movie I thought I had seen a SF-action movie that was at the same time a tribute-act! They wanted to include the SW-movie-history into the last one!
In hindsight they could have given this to Denis Villeneuve and give him free reign with the story. And maybe that would mean no returns of Ford, Hamill or Fisher and keep the real focus on the battle between good and evil, introduce some interesting NEW elements instead of recycling the old ones.

 

Great post but I don’t know that the actual death of Fisher was exactly a “franchise killer” when the story of the third trilogy was more centered around Rey and Kylo.

It seems to be a fine line. I thought Rian Johnson tried to do some legit different things with The Last Jedi and got endlessly s*** on for it by many (when really all that movie needed was edited down a bit). Doesn’t really seem that either the Star Wars fans or the Trek fans want much actual change.

 

I pity anybody who is unable to simply chill out and enjoy a "Star Wars" movie.

 

This sequel trilogy lost me from the start...

They don't even bother to put three iconic and beloved film characters (played by the original actors) in at least ONE single scene together???

Yeah, I get that it would be the ultimate in fan service, but...

F 'em all...

 

Exactly. I've cautioned people before, using my Alfred Hitchcock impression: "It's onnnnly a mooooovie."

 

I think George honestly felt he had more story to tell, and he wasn't willing to just hand it off to somebody else in the 1990s. He already had roughly $10 billion dollars in the bank, so it wasn't about money. (But the money didn't hurt.)

In the case of Disney, they're looking at television, theme parks, animation, toys, feature films, the whole deal. So they're thinking of Star Wars as part of empire-building, not just as entertainment. I get that all movies ultimately are business, but if they can tell a good story and keep the audience satisfied, they've succeeded. There are always Toxic Fans who want to slam the crap out of the shows and films, but the dirty little secret is: these morons still count for ratings, plus they spend money to see the movies (on streaming or home video or in theaters). So they still wind up as being part of the profit machine.

I'm reminded of the old Howard Stern line, where they interview radio listeners who like Howard and ask them why they listen... and their answer is, "I listen because I want to hear what he says next." And then the people who hate Howard say: "I listen because I want to hear what he says next." They make money on you whether you hate him or love him. If you ignore him -- something the Toxic Fans can't do -- then they make no money.

 

I am disappointed with the sequels but so what? As someone who has watched Star Wars at age 14 at the movies and since waited with anticipation for every release I’ll watch them no matter what the studio does, no matter how good or how bad. Take my money! I am too old for the toys, shirts and theme parks so no matter the studio won’t get much money out of me anyway. I’ll say the same for Star Trek, Terminator, Alien, Lord of the Rings, etc. Make it and I’ll pay to watch it. I am sure the studios need to prioritise attracting new fans the future 14 year olds and they won’t have the same passion for the original series.

 

As much as I enjoyed the sequel trilogy, I'm still in agreement that this was a massive missed opportunity. At the very least, some appearance of Luke as a hologram message in Force Awakens with Han and Leia viewing it would have done the trick for me.

Meets George's "it's poetry, it rhymes" storytelling approach (see: A New Hope), and would give a little more to the "Where is Luke" mystery if he's saying something about how he doesn't want anyone to follow him, or something cryptic about what he's off doing that still isn't clear to the viewer.