Topic: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion

I say this as someone who loves TFA. Who loves TLJ. Who loves these characters and the journey they've been on up to this point.

What an absolute shitshow.

Anyway, that's gonna be my only contribution to this thread, I don't have the energy to talk about it. Have at it, you lot.

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

I liked it on its own merits. I certainly had fun watching it. But I hated it for how it tried its hardest to retcon everything about Last Jedi. It's apparent that Abrams wanted to make a trilogy and stuffed two movies of ideas into this one.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

I liked it, and I suspect it'll be my favorite of the sequels. There was definitely some stuff I didn't like (stupid dagger mcguffin) but it was generally separated by a bunch of stuff I did. It is basically the plot of Dark Empire adapted to their characters and cranked to 11 though.

"ShadowDuelist is a god."
        -Teague Chrystie

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Palpatine as a third movie villain is bad. Would have worked if introduced in the second movie. Instead, second movie set up Kylo as antagonist who had his chance to turn and didn't - him and the First Order were what the first two movies built towards and we got basically nothing from the First Order, and Kylo Ren was turned into a diamond in the rough deuteragonist.

Even down to the details, it wants to undo everything TLJ ever did. "Hey, that's really cool that Luke used an s-foil off the X-wing as his hut's door. Oop here's the X-wing with all four s-foils, nvm."

Edit: I'll write more after waking up, this is disjointed and bleh. Having someone open and close a trilogy with someone else doing the middle act was always going to be unfair to the middle movie, which I greatly enjoyed. Gotta sit and stew on it and type at a computer when I'm back at it tomorrow rather than on my phone in bed.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

It was nice to have a movie come out over here first before the US. If only just a day early. Though, this had some neverous employee come out before the start of the movie and specifically say "make sure to put your phones away - someone will be checking with night vision goggles 'cos Disney would kill us if it leaked being that we get it a day early'. I laughed thinking it was just bullshit. Lo and behold, about 4 times during the movie, some dude with nightvision goggles stood at the side scanning everyone. It was rather off putting. Sort of felt like the feeling you get (or atleast I do) going through airport security - you're nervous even though you haven't done anything wrong - but you know you are being watched. I mean, the odd occasional staff member popping in and doing a quick glance to make sure everything is tickety boo but never the whole-hog nightvision thing.


I aint got much to say about the movie. C3PO never said the line "I'm taking one last look at my friends" and I'm kinda glad. Seems it was just for the feels in the trailer. Also, it didn't really feel like much of a fanfair was made by the characters that the talking toaster was getting his memory wiped being the R2 had a back-up/purpose in this movie. As much as Palpatine wasn't set up in anyway in the other sequels - I dug the weird arm thing he was on - the visuals seemed very H. R. Giger - and probably just came from some really good concept art. I kinda got a bit frustrated trying to see his face 'cos the only time you see it is in flashes of lightning. I really wanted a bit more of a direct battle with him and Rey/Kylo but he, I guess, only really has one move, force lightning and if Rey/Kylo bum-rushed him with lightsabers, he'd be shit outta luck if he didn't get in some force move first.

I kinda wanna see it a few more times and live with it before passing judgement.

Last edited by Regan (2019-12-20 09:19:41)

The difficult second album Regan

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Morning, and yeah, I'm gonna see it another couple times to live with it before trying tk set my thoughts in cement. I'm going to say that I don't think Kylo earned his redemption and I *know* he didn't earn a kiss from the one he abused so heavily through the saga. The rest, I'm upset that it's not the movie I wanted, and J need to work past that myself.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Someone being turned back to the Light side by the power of love is such a Star Wars trope that Kylo's redemption didn't bother me, but some of my friends did question it. I feel like if we're going to say he didn't earn it, then we have to be honest with ourselves and go back and admit that Vader didn't really earn his redemption either. I'm with you on the kiss though.

"ShadowDuelist is a god."
        -Teague Chrystie

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Yeah, I'll probably come around on the redemption. That's one of those things where it's not the movie I wanted, but I'll get over it.

Better version - he heals her, she wakes up, sees him. They smile. Then he dies. She cries, kisses his forehead; as she does, he fades away.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

I didn't hate the movie, but its attempts to please everyone felt a little desperate at times. Rey's "And I am Iron Man" line and the "Avengers, assemble!" moment with the Rebel fleet came off as somewhat weird just 8 months after Endgame.

The Rise Of Skywalker is inoffensive almost to a fault. Sure, I would have preferred something more auteurish instead of this apology for TLJ (that was probably forced by the studio), but that was just impossible to do for the grand finale of the new trilogy with a budget over $250 million. It could have been better even with these restrictions, but I think it also could have been a lot worse.

The entire sequel trilogy mostly works OK for me. Mostly.

So honor the valiant who die 'neath your sword
But pity the warrior who slays all his foes...

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

*pokes head in*

*decides to keep powder dry*

*pulls head out*

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Regan wrote:

C3PO never said the line "I'm taking one last look at my friends" and I'm kinda glad. Seems it was just for the feels in the trailer.

Um. What? Yes, he did. It was literally in the movie exactly like the trailer. I think you just missed it.

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

My bad.

The difficult second album Regan

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

What I Liked:
Rey's and Ben's whole thread worked for me, that is their stuff together. Aside from agreeing that the kiss was completely unearned and unnecessary, there was some really cool stuff with the fighting-in-different-locations and teleportation. It got set up (some of it in TLJ) and paid off well.

What I Didn't Like:
Juuuust about everything else. It had some fun lines and good moments, but man was it a mess.

As a movie...this was not a movie. It felt like a thousand disjointed vignettes all clamoring for attention, with characters saying nothing but catchphrases, exposition, and platitudes to each other. Which, yeah Star Wars has always had dialogue problems but it really felt like 95% of the lines were like that. The scene where older General is kneeling before the Emperor (so we can see he serves him) and says, TO THE EMPEROR: 'I served you before, I serve you now'.....what? That was such an unnecessary thing to say. And it felt like that was most of the dialogue.
Mind you, this was not an especially bad movie. It was just bad. That's fine. It's about what I expected Abrams to do.

But as a story? Fuck this movie. For all its pacing issues, TLJ made an awesome theme that you don't have to be related to someone special to accomplish great things. AND, the Jedi have been arrogant to claim the 'force' or at least its 'light side' as their own. The force is everywhere and everyone. Rey claiming the Skywalker name would have even been fine if she really was nobody. She just wanted a family, and she got one. She didn't need to be related to anyone to matter. And Luke was right about the Jedi being prideful.
But this movie says, "NOPE. You have to be related to someone uber-powerful. AND, NOOOOOPE, the Jedi are literally all the embodiment of GOOD."

Fuck that.

Witness me!

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Writhyn wrote:

The scene where older General is kneeling before the Emperor

"older General" ?!

Mate, that's Richard E. Grant!

Extended Edition - 146 - The Rise Of Skywalker
VFX Reel | Twitter | IMDB | Blog

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

....yeah. Good on him. His character was as dumb as the rest of the movie though. Not his fault I'm sure.

Witness me!

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Regan, sorry, I was a dick up there. Should have just nicely pointed out that you missed it. I had gone through a break up not 10 minutes earlier and needed to clear my mind by getting on a forum and talking about Star Wars and was an asshole instead. I'm sorry dude.

This movie and TLJ are polar opposites for me. I absolutely love the themes that TLJ raised and explored, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. It's nonsensical at times and, besides Kylo/Rey/Luke/Yoda for a second, the remaining 90% of the movie is completely unsatisfying and is just sort of pointless.

This movie, on the other hand, is...well, thematically and as a story, as everyone said it's a mess. But it's a *glorious* mess. This one fits in the same bucket as Solo for me: it's damn stupid, but man is it fun. A satisfying end to the Star Wars saga it is most definitely *not,* but in many ways this movie gave me much of what I missed from the other two:

-The gang felt like a gang. It's an ensemble film, and IMO that is integral to "feeling like Star Wars." This one got that right.
-It's fast-paced, perhaps to a fault, but I really appreciated that this film had *energy.*
-The Emperor and all that makes absolutely zero goddamn sense, but in a batshit-crazy EU kind of way. The whole movie felt like "fuck it, let's go for it," and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't smiling like an idiot when Palpatine Force-lightning'd an entire fleet of ships out of the sky. Like, WHAT. It's so over the top and fucking stupid that I kind of love it.
-Speaking EU-type stuff, a lot of the imagery is just...again, stupid as fuck and not at all explained and doesn't really matter, but a lot of the imagery is fucking awesome. I have no idea who was in that absurdly giant Rebel fleet, but damn it was a fun dogfight. The Emperor being hooked up to some...mechanical arm...life support thing...with mangled skin and smoky blind eyes...surrounded by tens of thousands of black hooded figures who are apparently loads of Sith we've never heard about...all stupid, all completely unnecessary, and all fucking awesome.
-Billy Dee Williams seems literally unable to act at this point, but he seemed real happy to be there, so that's cool I guess.
-Babu Frink FTW. Easily one of my favorite characters in all of Star Wars in that "tiny side character a la Salacious Crumb echelon."

It occurs to me that this isn't so much an ending to the story so much as it is a coked-up celebration of the whole saga that you'll probably regret in the morning, and it'll all be a blur, but you'll probably be sure that you enjoyed yourself somewhat, even if you maybe regret it.

So, TLJ is a nutritious meal that doesn't taste very good as it goes down. TROS is pure candy. Less and less satisfying the more I think about it, and very probably the worst of the three sequel films, but also very probably the most *enjoyable.* It's like Transformers as Star Wars.

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Alex, I'm really sorry to hear about the break up sad I'm glad we have a good space here for you to go to and yell about Star Wars in.

Alex wrote:

It occurs to me that this isn't so much an ending to the story so much as it is a coked-up celebration of the whole saga that you'll probably regret in the morning, and it'll all be a blur, but you'll probably be sure that you enjoyed yourself somewhat, even if you maybe regret it.

...A summation I can 100% get behind.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

I enjoyed the movie a whole bunch. It’s a big ol’ space adventure that strings together a bunch of set pieces with some character drama in between, and to me, that’s how you do a Star Wars. I feel like people who didn’t enjoy it don’t have their expectations properly calibrated for the fantasy romp whose target demographic includes under 10 year olds.

I felt like it tied in to The Last Jedi in enough ways that the whole trilogy does feel like a single story, albeit one with a few rough gear shifts. Really, that’s an issue that should’ve been fixed in 2012 by making a more solid outline for the trilogy, and not the fault of any individual film or director.

Favourite throwaway moment was the muppet-looking hand puppet that was Lando’s driver, shouting ‘okay!’ with all the exuberance of a golden retriever puppy chasing a ball.

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Candy, I can see that. I totally get why people enjoy this one for the crazy 1000% way it does things. And honestly I think I could enjoy it on that level if they'd just...not shit on the themes I mentioned man. I see how this could be fun, but I'm just bitter (albeit not remotely surprised) that they did it. Have Palpatine want Rey just because he sensed this immensely powerful 'nobody' being born, and have the jedi ghosts acknowledge that they were misguided in life, but now they see that Rey can be good without needing their dogma.

Still woulda been a mess, lol. But fun as hell smile

Witness me!

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

So, I saw The Rise of Skywalker twice on opening day. The first time around, I really did not like it. I wouldn't say I particularly hated the film or anything, it just didn't do anything for me. For the entire movie, I felt nothing. I had to go back for a second time to either see if I was wrong in the first place or make my peace with it. And well...I kinda liked it?

Don't get me wrong, I still don't love it. If I were to rank them all, it would probably come in at dead last. But after just letting go of all the baggage, I was able to just relax and take the film for what it is - a (clunky) big, sprawling, space opera. But unlike The Last Jedi, where the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated it - The Rise of Skywalker just doesn't have that lasting effect.

I feel like I have so much to say about this film, and at the same time - I really don't want to, the internet has enough negativity out there. I started typing this post with the intent of laying out all my thoughts about TROS - but fuck that. I know people who didn't like TLJ so much that it has consumed them, and almost become tied to their identity. Fuck. That.

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny".

I'm not gonna pretend that I don't have any problems with this movie, I do - a whole bunch of 'em (and Faldor has the chat logs to prove it), but to paraphrase a quote from the last film, I don't want to fight what I hate. I want to cherish what I love.

Like Babu Frik. Babu Frik is awesome.

The Star Wars saga has meant so much to me throughout pretty much my entire life. It's just a shame that this saga went out, not with a bang - but with a whimper.

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Ive just seen it again and I feel nothing for it still. Its odd that it comes in last place of movies ive seen today. And Ive seen Cats and Jumanji today.

The difficult second album Regan

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Owen_Ward wrote:

I want to cherish what I love.

Like Babu Frik. Babu Frik is awesome.

Now that's an opinion I can get behind. I haven't kept up with these here Star Wars, but I enjoyed listening to Jonathan Mann follow up his infinitely catchy Baby Yoda song with this:

alicia ♆
twitter | instagram | website

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Owen, that's more or less what I expect. A second viewing to watch it on its own terms rather than what I had hoped for the conclusion of the saga.

Boter, formerly of TF.N as Boter and DarthArjuna. I like making movies and playing games, in one order or another.

Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

Just got back from an IMAX3D showing.  Wow.   Loved the sound and the music.  The score is doing so much work.  It's JJ, and I've read this thread so I know the whole thing is basically gibberish, but I literally can't remember what just happened, and the parts I do remember don't make a lot of sense.  Gonna hafta see it a couple more time before I can figure out what just happened.

Last edited by Beeg (2019-12-23 18:23:28)

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Re: Rise of Skywalker [HERE THERE BE SPOILERS]

"The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of The Force."
Now we know that's true.

(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)

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