Rise of Skywalker

Just got back from seeing Rise of Skywalker. Not sure yet how I feel in whole. Thought I’d ramble out some thoughts because this is the internet and that’s what it’s here for. Right?

SPOILERS! You have been warned.

Wow. Chewbacca has been two Jawa’s in a fur suit this whole time? Did not see that coming.

Now on to the real spoilers.

I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.

I came across a comment on Reddit that went something like this

The overall arc for the prequels was great but the execution was severely flawed.

The overall arc for the sequels was severely flawed but the execution was great.

I think that sums up my thoughts on Episode IX. I place the blame entirely on JJ Abrams. He knows how to film a movie, get good performances from actors, edit to keep a scene moving and engaging .He knows how to build a mystery and keep you intrigued. But the man can’t present a coherent plot to save his life.

Lost, Star Trek, Alias, The Force Awakens, Rise of Skywalker all were full of good ideas and were fun to watch in the moment. They were full of intriguing mysteries and surprising twists that got you thinking. But that’s all they were. Mysteries without depth.

A JJ Abrams movie is essentially a series of beautiful, perfectly thrown pitches. Curveballs, sliders, fastballs, breaking balls. They’re amazing to watch. But there’s no batter or catcher. So, in the end, you’re just throwing balls at a wall.

That is what this sequel trilogy turned into when they invited Abrams back to do Episode IX. He started things off in The Force Awakens and laid the whole ground work for trouble. TFA created a lot of mystery for no really good reason. Who are Rey’s parents? Where did the First Order come from? Who was Snoke? What happened to Luke Skywalker? What is Awakening?

No one had any idea what the answers to those questions were. Certainly not Abrams. He threw out a bunch of ideas. Presented them well and with a love of Star Wars so that TFA comes out as an enjoyable enough movie if a bit contrived and messy.

Rian Johnson had to take this mess of mysteries with no answers and try and do something with it. No matter your opinion of the movie, you have to remember that he didn’t ask all of these questions. They were handed to him without any planned answers. I personally think he did it well as, aside from some quibbles, I quite enjoy The Last Jedi.  There is a plot and definite character arcs for all of the main characters.

If anyone else had come into make the Rise of Skywalker I think it would have been something. Instead, Abrams kept throwing out more mystery because the man can’t help himself. He basically ignored TLJ and turned the throw ideas at the wall schtick up to 11.

Now, most scenes were executed well they just weren’t connected coherently.  Overall, the trilogy suffered because of this. As for the movie itself, some random thoughts:

• Rey Palpatine
  • I did not like this as a general concept. Why did she have to be somebody? Why couldn’t she just be nobody?
  • Also, Palpatine having kids just comes out of left field and felt contrived. It’s not unbelievable per-say. Just felt forced.
  • That said, they at least tried to use it rather than just making it a throw away point. It also does help all the mystery TFA built up about it at least a little.
• Rey Skywalker
  • I like the idea but that needed to come out during her fight with Palpatine. Saying it at the end to some random person felt forced rather than the conclusion to a character arc.
  • Her burying Luke and Leia’s sabers was kind of nice though.
• The Pace
  • To much to fast. The movie needed to slow down a bit.
  • The scenes on the planet where they hack C-3P0 and we learn some of Poe’s past were the best. Movie seemed to slow down enough for them to stand around for awhile at least.
• Fake Out Deaths
  • Ugh. To many of these. They wanted to have meaningful character deaths but they undid all of them.
  • Chewbacca getting nuked by Rey would have been so meaningful to her arc. Sad but it would have driven the story. And they could have avoided the whole set of scenes aboard the Star Destroyer which would have freed up time for the rest of the movie to spread out some.
    • But also not sad Chewbacca didn’t die.
    • Maz giving him the medal at the end was total fan service and felt unnecessary. Give him Han’s dice.  That would have had meaning.
  • C-3P0 getting his memory back made that whole sequence worthless.
  • Rey killing Kylo and them healing him was the only fake out I liked.
  • Kylo getting thrown into the pit would have been a great death. But him crawling out and finding a dead Rey would have worked too. Him sacrificing himself to heal her…okay I guess.
  • The only real deaths were Snap and Leia. And we knew Leia had to die because Carrie Fisher died.
• Force Powers
  • The ability to move objects across space was utilized well in the movie itself. And the ability to move objects had been hinted at in TLJ with water. But the idea itself pushes the bounds of ridiculousness a bit much.
  • Super Force lightning was kind of cool. Raises the question of what the hell the Emperor needs anyone else for though.
  • Force Heal is cool.
• What the hell is the First Order? What the hell is Palpatine’s plan?
  • The original trilogy overall arc was clear. People rebelling against a galaxy spanning Empire.
  • The prequel trilogy overall arc was clear. The fall of the Republic and descent into Empire.
  • The sequel trilogy…Is what exactly? They do a terrible job explaining who and what the Resistance and the First Order are.
  • The power of the First Order is never clear. They seem to be everywhere.  Yet they still need Palpatine’s super fleet?
  • Speaking of that, where did this fleet come from? And if Palpatine had it, why does he need the First Order? Why did he lose to the Rebels? Why did he need Starkiller base and the Death Stars if you can just build super lasers into Star Destroyers?
• There’s more of us then them
  • This concept was good. The whole idea of standing up to the bullies should have been the central theme of the trilogy.
  • It tried to be.
    • Rey rejecting the hatred to defeat Palpatine much as Luke did.
    • Poe’s speech.
    • The Sith troops statement, “it’s not a fleet, it’s just people.” was a great line.
  • But the pay off wasn’t earned. The Resistance didn’t DO anything to earn the support and rally the people. TLJ laid the ground work there with the boy on Canto Bight. But TROS didn’t do anything with it.
• Sith Lore
  • The idea that there are only two Sith because it’s really just one Sith transferring himself from body to body through the power of an apprentice’s hatred works.
  • This explains why Palpatine wanted Anakin so bad rather than Dooku. And jives with Palpatine’s interaction with Luke. He wants Luke to strike him down because then he becomes Luke. Better Luke than messed up old Vader.
  • This needed to be built up better though. We needed to see hints of this and Palpatine having survived in the previous two movies. Because, how the F did he survive? The Dark Side is the only explanation given. So why is Rey able to defeat him this time then? What was different than Vader doing it and then the Death Star blowing up?
• The Jedi
  • All the Jedi from the prequels having a line talking to Rey was cool. Especially Ahsoka and Kanan.
  • No Anakin Force Ghost speaking to Kylo was disappointing. Hayden Christenson needed a real cameo.
• Finn
  • Got the short stick this movie. They imply some things with his kind of sensing the Force. But don’t do anything with it. Him and Jannah having that sense of refusing to do the First Orders bidding also suggests something but doesn’t go anywhere.
  • He has something he wants to tell Rey. But never does.
  • What is Finn’s fate? Rey goes to Tatooine alone.
• Poe
  • He was on a journey to becoming a leader in TLJ. That was a good arc.
  • JJ flipped that story off as it has zero bearing on this story. There’s no pay off. He leads the entire Resistance on a mission that gets a lot of people killed. Its a necessary mission which makes the growth useless. He doesn’t actually decide anything.
  • His backstory with Keri Russell was intriguing and doesn’t invalidate anything else. But it also didn’t build on it either.
• The Kiss
  • Completely unnecessary. Would have been a stronger scene without it.
• Leia
  • Leia training as a Jedi was clearly going to be a bigger part of the story that had to be sidelined when Carrie Fisher died. I would have been better with more but worked well enough as is.
  • Also her dying in order to reach out to Kylo worked well enough given what they had to work with. Her getting a Force Projection and final talk with Kylo and Rey would have been cool. But reality you know.
  • Her scenes were a bit cringey. She looked photoshopped.
• Star Destroyer Cavalry Charge
  • Land on the Star Destroyer to destroy a component is a cool idea.
  • Having horses ride across a Star Destroyer looks cool.
  • But what was the point of the space-horses? They are seen but have no impact on the battle. This is the perfect example of JJ Abrams doing something because it sounds cool but not actually using it in anyway. It just exists.
  • This is on par with BB-8 tearing the canopy off an AT-ST and going on a rampage. It looks cool but is pointless.
• Other Characters
  • Rose didn’t do much of anything. This is sad and a clear JJ catering to the TLJ haters.
  • Merry/Charlie/Dominic Monaghan was there but couldn’t tell you his name or why he was there.
  • Jannah could have been interesting but it’s clear far to much was left on the cutting room floor. What were they implying with her and Lando’s end scene?
  • Wedge man’s a gun on the Falcon. Cool, but he was already working for the Resistance as a pilot in the pre-movie book. Which established Snap Wexley is is son-in-law. Was Norra in the other turret? And had to see Snap get blown away? How sad.
  • As a Rebels fan is was cool to see Ghost in the fleet. But it just hammers in the question of why Hera wasn’t with the Resistance from the beginning.  That’s not really the movies fault though.

This has turned into a bit more of a rant than I originally envisioned. Overall, I need to see it again to figure out where I do stand. But right now I’m leaning to disappointed. It’s not Attack of the Clones bad in terms of ability to watch. But it’s a bit of a mess.

I reserve the right to completely change my opinion on a rewatch.