Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker **Spoilers from post 2076**

robinph

seandotcomm wrote: »

Thats an absolute sickner for the hardcore fans that avoid all trailers etc for months in the run up to the film. it happened us in omniplex before TLJ and then after the trailers, some chick flick started before they realised they loaded up the wrong film & set of trailers

Don't worry about that, it was actually just a few clips from the making of stuff in 77 which seemed like an odd opening to the new film, but it then ended with a Star Wars logo telling us that the film was out on Thursday 19th.

Next thing was the certificate and then the opening crawl.

robinph

Slydice wrote: »

I didn't guess

who the Spy was but then when Hux asked for the blaster it was obvious. It was hilarious how crap he faked it and how fast Pryde reacted.

The way that happened it seemed like they wanted a party throwing for them with party poppers, ice cream and jelly and a big well done from mummy for being a good boy.

UI_Paddy

Disappointing box office take less than a billion

I liked it, but I didn't love it, even though I loved Force Awakens and Last Jedi. It felt like it could have been a two parter, but there was some good drama and action sequences. Hopefully I'll enjoy it a bit more after my second viewing.

geecee

I was at the midnight show in Screen 1 in the Odeon point village

The theatre was no more than 30% full. Such a contrast to the same screenings for TFA and Rogue 1, which were at capacity.

Feels like TLJ really killed a lot of fans interest in midnight viewing... Next question will be whether it has killed the fan base altogether....

robinph

geecee wrote: »

I was at the midnight show in Screen 1 in the Odeon point village

The theatre was no more than 30% full. Such a contrast to the same screenings for TFA and Rogue 1, which were at capacity.

Feels like TLJ really killed a lot of fans interest in midnight viewing... Next question will be whether it has killed the fan base altogether....

Where I was there were 12 screens running it, and whilst the front section in the screen I was in was empty where you have to break your neck to see the screen I don't think you can call 12 screens running at 60%+ capacity at midnight on a Wednesday a failure. There were less people dressed up compared with TFA when there were multiple people in Jedi robes and dressed as bounty hunters etc, now you just get the occasional person wielding a lightsaber. But that we've had a Star Wars movie every year for the last while the need to go in your full costume has probably waned a bit.

There were plenty of people out to watch though and the carpark was full.

Theboinkmaster

Total flop and a financial loss for Disney

geecee wrote: »

I was at the midnight show in Screen 1 in the Odeon point village

The theatre was no more than 30% full. Such a contrast to the same screenings for TFA and Rogue 1, which were at capacity.

Feels like TLJ really killed a lot of fans interest in midnight viewing... Next question will be whether it has killed the fan base altogether....

I agree - I think TLJ and Solo has destroyed a lot of fan goodwill. Many of my friends who would go see these films opening night are opting just to watch it at home in a few months - completely apathetic.

I think the problem was that TFA, whilst ANH rip off, eroded all the bad feeling over the prequels as well as delivering a solid film with great new characters. So everyone was feeling optimistic about the next 2 films and TLJ being the middle one had scope to being the best out of the 3.

But that was such an absolute turkey we realised Disney hadn't a clue what they were doing and really the 3rd film didn't matter anyway.

It's quite an indictment that you can skip the middle film completely in a trilogy of films.

Also I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to start a trilogy without a solid story line for all 3 films and why hire 3 different writers and directors - had disaster written all over it. Say what you will about the prequels and George Lucas but at least he had a solid coherent story.

B.A._Baracus

Runaway hit highest gross beating The force Awakens

Personally I don't buy that they didn't have an idea / story over the three films. I think they just changed gears after TFA. Which was for the worst too!

ZV Yoda

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

I think the problem was that TFA, whilst ANH rip off, eroded all the bad feeling over the prequels as well as delivering a solid film with great new characters. So everyone was feeling optimistic about the next 2 films and TLJ being the middle one had scope to being the best out of the 3.

But that was such an absolute turkey we realised Disney hadn't a clue what they were doing and really the 3rd film didn't matter anyway.

It's quite an indictment that you can skip the middle film completely in a trilogy of films.

Also I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to start a trilogy without a solid story line for all 3 films and why hire 3 different writers and directors - had disaster written all over it. Say what you will about the prequels and George Lucas but at least he had a solid coherent story.

I could have written this exact post! My feelings exactly. The first thing my teenage son said as we walked out of the cinema was “they might as well have not bothered making TLJ”. I made the same comment to him about the prequels... they had many faults, but at least they felt like a coherent story for the most part (mediclorians anyone?)

I differ in that I enjoyed Solo for what it was

Theboinkmaster

Total flop and a financial loss for Disney

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Personally I don't buy that they didn't have an idea / story over the three films. I think they just changed gears after TFA. Which was for the worst too!

Rian Johnson has confirmed he wasn't given any story

johnny_ultimate

When the opening crawl is asking you to make some gigantic leaps, you know you're already in trouble. And so it goes.

It's hard to describe this without comparing it to The Last Jedi, and indeed everything I love so much about that film is at best diluted and at worst contradicted in this curious but ultimately sorta stupefying hot mess of a film. TLJ's themes about looking forward and demystifying traditional notions of cinematic heroism; Johnson's elegant crafting of distinctive, clear arcs for each character; emotional moments and setpieces being carefully built before moments of magnificent catharsis... There is none of that here, replaced instead with as much fan servicecy Star Wars gubbins as you can fit into 140 minutes.

In the moment of watching events play out (and there are a lot of events), there are things to like. I've long defended Abrams as if nothing else a talented craftsman, and yes many of the visuals in this are memorable and striking (if never packing the emotional force of Snoke's throne room or the Holdo manoeuvre). Dan Mindel and an army of artists have crafted landscapes and locations that look far better than your average over-egged Hollywood blockbuster, and while there are missteps (particularly a

very late film revisit to Tatooine

that looks bizarrely artificial) it has a certain cinematic flair you don't get with, say, the Marvel movies. There are cool and funny moments dotted throughout - to the point even C3P0 gets some decent material. And yes I know Babu Frik is blatantly designed as a crowdpleasing meme magnet, but you better goddamn believe I fell for it.

If only the craft and expense was in service of something meaningful. Heck, even if it was in service of anything - after a film as loaded with meaning and thematic throughlines as TLJ, this is just a hodgepodge assault of insubstantial plot. Rules seem to be made up as they go along, and the chase for a series of MacGuffins and do-dads manages to give everything a rather rote feeling. As is often the way in Abrams' films, a big emotional moment is almost always undercut due to the incessant need to move things along (

Chewie's 'death'

being a prime example). And while I fully understand their decision to do what they did with Leia given the circumstances (even if dealing it with in the title roll IMO would have been preferable), her scenes can't help but come across like that scene in the Simpsons where they try to recut the Radioactive Man film without Milhouse: conversations clearly built around stray lines of leftover dialogue, and an inevitable flatness as the actors aren't interacting with each other. The less said about the completely unnecessary

de-aging flashback

the better - at least it is mercifully brief. The fan service -

from the dumb Knights of Ren to the redundant cameos

- is as frequent as it is obnoxious.

I think criticisms such as 'it doesn't feel like Star Wars!' are often vague and insubstantial... but you'll excuse me if I open myself up to similar accusations when I say there is stuff here that really doesn't feel like Star Wars. Alongside the whole 'find the mysterious Sith do-hickey!' structure (which does indeed feel like the persistently annoying main objective in an open world video game), the whole

zombie Palpatine / cultists

malarky might give us some cool imagery (

the force lightning disabling the ships is, admittedly, pretty ****ing cool

), but it really felt like it didn't suit this series - or at least this particular trilogy - at all. I also think this particular avenue of storytelling is a hole entirely of the making of Abrams' and co, and their cowardly decision to give in and make

Rey of infamous bloodline after TLJ gave an infinitely more satisfying and rewarding answer

is as dumb as it as lazy.

Also, the whole last 15 minutes or so are total nonsense and sometimes completely baffling, and I don't think I need to elaborate any more than that.

The film moves fast enough that it often doesn't give you time to stop and say 'wait a second...' - that's not to say there aren't audible 'wtf?' moments - but honestly the relentlessness quickly wore me down. There's always an epic vista to enjoy, and the cast try their best with extremely limited material -

props, at least, to giving Hux the absurd punchline and brutal end he deserves

. It's a bummer they wasted the likes of Kelly Marie Tran, and failed to follow up on the interesting places TLJ left Poe and a few others.

At least they do include a moment where the everyday resistance fighters finally unite, even if in action it's just another in the blockbuster trope of huge armies arriving at the last second to save the day

. But this is a flat, confusing and overly busy film that struggles to justify the way it asks us to take a bunch of story leaps for little gain.

But that's that. One enjoyable opening film, a masterpiece of a middle one, and a half-baked finale. Not entirely dissimilar to the original trilogy in that sense, IMO, although credit to A New Hope for at least opening up this whole unwieldy saga and introducing the imagery & ideas the series will never be able to shake. Hopefully when the broader series inevitably returns from its short hiatus, they'll take the sort of risks TLJ passionately urged the series to take - I live in pessimism that that'll happen. In the meantime, this whizzbang mess of a conclusion does not justify the many annoying months / years of internet chatter it will undeservedly generate. Except for the Babu Frik memes, which I will make no apologies for enjoying.

Loafing Oaf

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Personally I don't buy that they didn't have an idea / story over the three films. I think they just changed gears after TFA. Which was for the worst too!

This line from the Times review almost puts me off seeing it:

Nothing here is original, everything is repetition and yet, remarkably, in the context of the preceding eight films (starting with the original Skywalker story in 1977), there’s very little narrative coherence.

bennyl10

Runaway hit highest gross beating The force Awakens

also, while i did enjoy this(as previously said).
The opening crawl. the very first line of it. Why was that not shown, in any way? it was something they could so easily have put in at the end of TLJ, instead of making a huge jump and having a "ya this is just the way it is now".

The Nal

Going to see this tonight. Looking forward to it.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing middle aged men getting really upset over a childrens movie.

buried

The Nal wrote: »

Going to see this tonight. Looking forward to it.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing middle aged men getting really upset over a childrens movie.

Sounds like you'll be in episode seven heaven when you leave the theatre so :pac:

The Nal

buried wrote: »

Sounds like you'll be in episode seven heaven when you leave the theatre so :pac:

Lucas purposely tried to annoy this lot by having Jar Jar Binks give the final say on the vote that started the Clone Wars. Thought that was genius myself.

liamtech

Iv long considered that 'blind faith' affects some franchises - particularly Star Trek, Doctor who, and now Star Wars - when i say blind faith, i refer to an episode or film, being very poor, but fans being reluctant to actually acknowledge it, out of loyalty to the franchise. I sincerely believe that is at play here when it comes to this film.

NOTE - if you enjoyed this film, and the previous one (episode 8) i am genuinely happy for you - i do not begrudge anyone, and i am only giving my opinion. Please feel free to ignore me or discuss

This was, in my opinion, worse than the prequels - they at least made SOME sense, albeit in a boring way when it comes to TPM and AOTC.. ROTS was excellent and clearly the best of the prequels. But at the very least, almost everything ended up where it was supposed to in the finale of that trilogy.

But back to this film. The writing was absurd. The Plot was ridiculous. The delivery was abysmal.

Palpatine, the best character of the prequel trilogy, was ruined in this farce. His actions in cloning Snoke make no sense. Also we have the Emperor surviving, which would EASILY have kept the Empire alive in some fashion - and yet he decides to run and hide, while Imperial forces throughout the galaxy are wiped out. Why did he need to create and control Snoke? If he is able to drain force energy off powerful force users, why not make a bunch of snokes? and just regenerate himself that way?? I mean out-of-universe, we can answer this question. The reason none of this makes sense is that Palpatine was never supposed to be involved in the sequel trilogy -(i dont believe for a second that Palpatine was ALWAYS going to come back - thats JJ's PR speak) - in universe we see the man who brought down the Jedi, brought forth the empire, and almost succeeded in destroying all hope of freedom, become a crazy, zombie like cliche villain, hiding out in the middle of no where - and laughing that this was always the plan.

The retcon-ing about Reys family, and Leia being a jedi - again it reeked of damage control after the last film. made very little sense, and even less when you watch it back to back with TFA, and TLJ - continuity is totally destroyed

I did not feel that Leia's parts of the film were good - i may be in a minority here, but i feel that when the actress died they should have simply had her character die, either off screen, or in the opening sequence. It felt forced.

Kylo turning back - made no sense. I do not see the genuine VADER/LUKE style moment that was needed for him to switch back to the light - which for me destroys his character

The ending was laughable. Which for me means the end of the 'Skywalker Saga' was laughable

Im interested in peoples reactions and whether a cold sober conclusion can be reached over what went wrong. I avoided leaks/spoilers - although i did notice certain headline reviews were scathing -

I also knew that the hatchet job done by Rian Johnson, on the Last Jedi, hampered the story. I personally have no time for apologists of that film. To basically take the things that interested fans most (Snokes history, Reys backstory) and destroy them in the name of 'subverting expectations' - was entirely unjustified. I consider Johnson to have done it as some kind of Ego trip - but i knew 2 years ago that some serious writing was required to fix Star Wars

What we ended up with was a total mess in which JJ tried to fix all the issues from TLJ and tie the whole thing up as quickly as possible. Reeked of GOT's finale too - like he had a list of things to do and he got em outta the way as quickly as possible.

For me it does call the whole sequel trilogy into question.

Ep7 TFA - basically a rehashed version of A New Hope. I enjoyed it, and suspected many of the mysteries would be revealed in the next movie.

Ep8 TLJ - Johnson 'subverts our expectations' by telling us the things we were interested in, were not interesting to him. The Sequel Trilogy is hollowed out, and we spend 2 years hoping that JJ can give us a fitting conclusion

Ep9 TROS - we find out that JJ utterly fails, and this abomination/fan-fiction is the only way he can think of to bring it to a conclusion.

For me there is a genuine possibility that i will just view Star Wars as being Episodes I - VI - and thats it. complain about the prequels but the underlying story (which we all knew of in advance - boy becomes jedi - jedi turns bad - kills all the jedi) - the story actually made sense - its execution was poor but the underlying story, and what these films added to the franchise - was acceptable

The best of the Sequel Trilogy was TFA - the rehash of A New Hope - and lets be frank that was supposed to lead somewhere more exciting - in my view, it didnt.

Anyway il follow this thread and discuss with anyone who wishes too - and like i said at the beginning, if you enjoyed this film - honestly i could not be happier for you. I did not, and as a Star Wars fan, i am outraged by what i have watched this morning

EDIT - the music was as usual - phenomenal - Williams is as always, outstanding

Beric Dondarrion

Went to see this last night as part of a triple bill.

It was just ok and it does have some closure to the whole Skywalker family arc started in the prequels and the original trilogy, it's a very messy end.

A lot of material used in the movie makes zero sense

Palpatine and Rey's relationship - when was it ever mentioned that The Emperor had any sort of family/heir/offspring???

and there are multiple threads left hanging

Luke's lightsaber, still wondering how it ended up with Maz even after 3 films

. And TROS totally ignores almost everything that happened in TLJ so what was the point of that? Also

the new found benfits of using the Force stink of "make it up as you go along" = transferring your "lifeforce" from one being to another, transporting objects across distances..wtf??

I consider myself a fan of the Star Wars saga but this last installment (coupled with the mess that was the previous film), I think it's fair to say my patience has been tested.

c.p.w.g.w

Just back, man did i enjoy that...Got straight into the action.

Was a typical Star Wars film, but will probably be "too star wars" for some, but those are the same folks who felt ROTJ wasn't "star warsy enough".

Can't wait of the masses to lose their sh!t with the return of

the ewoks

homerun_homer

Total flop and a financial loss for Disney

Beric Dondarrion wrote: »

the new found benfits of using the Force stink of "make it up as you go along" = transferring your "lifeforce" from one being to another, transporting objects across distances..wtf??

I see the latest episode of The Madalorian got in there right on time to set this up as something they can do. Poxy.

The Nal

Guardian 4 stars

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker review – a thrilling, fun-filled, light-speed finale

Beric Dondarrion

homerun_homer wrote: »

I see the latest episode of The Madalorian got in there right on time to set this up as something they can do. Poxy.

I was in the cinema waiting for the 1st movie to start when an article popped up on my feed about needing to see the latest episode of the mandalorian before ROS. This is obviously the reason for that. Pure bollox IMHO.

SharpshooterTom

Currently as a 6.8 rating on Imdb.

The Nal

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Currently as a 6.8 rating on Imdb.

Thats not bad considering the amount of middle aged men who haven't seen the movie giving it 0/10 from the PC in their mums spare bedroom.

ErnestBorgnine

The Nal wrote: »

Thats not bad considering the amount of middle aged men who haven't seen the movie giving it 0/10 from the PC in their mums spare bedroom.

lol, nobody biting eh Nal

The Nal

ErnestBorgnine wrote: »

lol, nobody biting eh Nal

Too close to home!

mikhail

Runaway hit highest gross beating The force Awakens

The Nal wrote: »

Thats not bad considering the amount of middle aged men who haven't seen the movie giving it 0/10 from the PC in their mums spare bedroom.

The fools who give 0 or 10 to a film they haven't seen are as bad as each other, and Star Wars fans certainly contain enough of both to make those kinds of stats essentially meaningless, at least for a few years after the film's release.

The reviews are about what I expected, so I'm going to up my plans on this one to "will probably pirate, eventually".

Relikk

It's entertaining and I enjoyed it quite a lot, especially the first two acts. The final act is a bit rushed, and the ending from the leaks that I read is still there that I wasn't overly satisfied with, but after seeing it I can certainly accept it. The movie is at it's very best though when the trio of Rey, Finn and Poe are working together. All of those scenes were really great and what makes those first two acts enjoyable.

I would have loved to have seen the stupid, beaming smile on my face

when Lando took off his helmet to greet Chewie and they embraced, and especially when Luke caught the lightsaber after Rey threw it into burning wreck of the TIE Fighter and said something along the lines of "A Jedi's weapon deserves more respect", and also a very emotional moment for me when Luke lifted the X-Wing out of the sea with the "Yoda And The Force" theme playing along with it.

As with The Force Awakens all the humour was in the right places, and wasn't puerile either. I'd go to see this again no problem.

DellyBelly

I went to this with a lot of trepidation. Really feared it would be terrible but it's actually not as bad as I feared. Not great but not as bad as some of the reviews I read

ZV Yoda

liamtech wrote: »

For me it does call the whole sequel trilogy into question.

Ep7 TFA - basically a rehashed version of A New Hope. I enjoyed it, and suspected many of the mysteries would be revealed in the next movie.

Ep8 TLJ - Johnson 'subverts our expectations' by telling us the things we were interested in, were not interesting to him. The Sequel Trilogy is hollowed out, and we spend 2 years hoping that JJ can give us a fitting conclusion

Ep9 TROS - we find out that JJ utterly fails, and this abomination/fan-fiction is the only way he can think of to bring it to a conclusion.

For me there is a genuine possibility that i will just view Star Wars as being Episodes I - VI - and thats it. complain about the prequels but the underlying story (which we all knew of in advance - boy becomes jedi - jedi turns bad - kills all the jedi) - the story actually made sense - its execution was poor but the underlying story, and what these films added to the franchise - was acceptable

I'm a Star Wars fan. I saw the original trilogy as a kid when they were released. Always loved them.

While I enjoyed a lot of the films made after ROTJ, the reality for me is that "Star Wars" or the "saga" will always mean Ep 4-6. That's the real story line for me.

There's some good action / blockbuster stuff in the later movies, but from a plot perspective, I don't think any movie after ROTJ actually improved the story line.

Actually, Rogue 1 might be the exception to that. I loved how it tied into Ep4. Very clever & Vader was more consistent with the original trilogy.

It's a shame Lucas decided to make the prequel plot-lines unnecessarily complex. They were way too CGI intensive. He should have spent more time / effort on dialogue and performances. Maybe shorten each movie by 30 mins too.

As for the sequels, well, plot-wise, the writing was on the wall when they kept hiring & firing throughout.

It's a shame really, but still a lot of decent movies in there.

Ipso

DellyBelly wrote: »

I went to this with a lot of trepidation. Really feared it would be terrible but it's actually not as bad as I feared. Not great but not as bad as some of the reviews I read

I'm sure I will enjoy it, I will just have that nagging thought of why the hell they didn't have some kind of big picture story line at the start.