Spoilers Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Grading & Discussion

[ScottJ85]

I just started another canon argument, didn’t I?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Do the guns still go "pew pew pew?"

 

[DigificWriter]

I just started another canon argument, didn’t I?

Not really, because there's not an argument here when it comes to Anakin and Palpatine: there's just opinion and the truth, and the truth wins out.

A brief conversation I had with a close first cousin of mine at a Christmas party last night has helped me realize that part of the underlying cause of perceived division within the Star Wars fandom over creative decisions that were made with the Sequel Trilogy movies is that people aren't seeing below the surface of what the story is showing us, which is why you get people saying that Last Jedi!Luke wasn't Luke and the perception that The Rise of Skywalker wasn't respectful of The Last Jedi, and I will openly admit that I fell into the same trap with regards to The Force Awakens.

The Rise of Skywalker and the things its story does actually help address complaints about the stories of TFA and TLJ not feeling consistent because Rey being a Palpatine but rejecting that lineage cements both her and Ben Solo as the co-protagonists of the Sequel Trilogy and places their connection to each other at the heart of the story just as Anakin's hubris was placed at the heart of the Prequel Trilogy and Luke's connection to Anakin was placed at the heart of the Classic Trilogy.

The Episodic films might be referred to as the Skywalker Saga, but they're actually ultimately about two families, Palpatine and Skywalker, and that's why they work.

 

[ScottJ85]

Do the guns still go "pew pew pew?"

Why yes, yes they do.

to the point that when Laura Dern fires her gun in TLJ you can see her making pew pew noises with her mouth.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Oh my.

Palpatine was almost Transgender.

Subtext suggests that Palpatine was far from his first body, the evil soul inside that chassis had had, and his plan was to jump into Rey and bang Ben.

Thus becoming a Skywaker, or sadly more accurately a Solo. An inch short of reaching a touch down.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I just started another canon argument, didn’t I?

Go to the naughty step and think about your behaviour.

 

[Romulan_spy]

If there are more movies, there will be more evil. Bigly evil that will overwrite these victories.

Much like we are still fighting Nazis 65 years after we defeated them.

Yes and The Force Awakens used this idea. It introduced a new evil in the First Order and a new villain, Snokes for the new characters to defeat. We could have been satisfied with the fact that Luke and Leia and co did defeat the Empire and did defeat Palpatine and bring peace to the galaxy for awhile but as always a new evil eventually rose up (First Order and Snokes) for a new generation to defeat. That would have been fine. I think it was a mistake to kill off Snokes in TLJ and a mistake to bring back Palpatine in this movie. By bringing Palpatine back, it undermines the victory of Return of the Jedi.

Using your analogy, it's one thing to have neo-nazis that a new generation has to fight, it would be quite another to actually bring Hitler himself back so that it's a bunch of Millennials or Gen Z that actually defeat Hitler for real, not the WW2 generation that we thought.

 

[ichab]

90 million dollars on Friday. Predicted to hit $190 million for weekend

Box Office: 'Star Wars' Soars to $90M Friday, 'Cats' Declawed

Friday audiences didn't like 'Cats' much more than critics, giving the musical a C+ CinemaScore, while 'Rise of Skywalker' is the first recent 'Star Wars' pic not to earn an A.

J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker soared to $90 million at the Friday box office, putting the tentpole on course for a domestic debut in the $190 million range.

Not even The Force is immune to some sequel fatigue, despite the latest Star Wars pic being billed as a finale to the Skywalker saga. Two years ago, Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi — which divided fans — opened to $220 million domestically, preceded by a then-record $248 million for Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.

Nevertheless, $190 million would be a huge number, as well as repping the third-best December launch of all time behind Force Awakens and Last Jedi. Friday's haul, which included $40 million in Thursday previews, is likewise high up on the list of all-time biggest first days for any time of the year, or No. 6, according to Comscore.

Movies hitting the big screen just before Christmas can enjoy unusually strong multiples during the final two weeks of the year, putting less pressure on the opening number.

Potential challenges facing Skywalker include mixed reviews and a B+ CinemaScore. It's the first Star Wars pic made by Lucasfilm and Disney not to earn an A from audiences. Exit scores on PostTrak are more promising.

Elsewhere, Universal and Working Title's Christmas event movie Cats is looking at a disappointing fourth-place finish behind holdovers Jumanji: The Next Level and Frozen 2 with a projected $8 million weekend, behind expectations.

On Friday, Cats took in an estimated $2.6 million after landing a dismal C+ CinemaScore from moviegoers and getting banished to the litter box by critics.

Directed by Tom Hooper, the PG pic hopes to make ground in the coming days as families become available. (Two years ago, The Greatest Showman bowed to $8.8 million over Christmas on its way to grossing $174.3 million domestically.) Cats cost $100 million to make after tax rebates and incentives. That doesn't include marketing costs.

Lionsgate's Bombshell is likewise coming in behind expectations in its nationwide expansion, albeit by a slimmer margin. The Fox News drama rounded out the top five Friday with an estimated $1.8 million for a projected weekend gross of $5.5 million-$6 million.

Of the three movies, Bombshell — an awards contender — boasts the best Rotten Tomatoes score (65 percent), followed by 57 percent for Star Wars and a mere 19 percent for Cats.

Meanwhile, audience score on RottenTomatoes..

Rise of Skywalker 86%
Cats 62%
Bombshell 85%

 

[DigificWriter]

The Episodic films were never going to end without their ultimate villain, regardless of the fact that he had seemingly died.

Being surprised by or upset about Palpatine's return is like being surprised by or upset about the fact that water is wet.

 

[ichab]

link

19 references and callbacks you may have missed in The Rise of Skywalker

1. Mysterious broadcast — Believe it or not, one of the first references in The Rise of Skywalker is to ... Fortnite? Yes, when the opening crawl mentions a "mysterious broadcast, a threat of revenge in the sinister voice of the late Emperor Palpatine," this ties into a recent Star Wars event on Fortnite, in which players could hear the actual message that has no presence in the film itself.

2. Is it possible to learn this power? — We don't get much information about how Emperor Palpatine has returned in The Rise of Skywalker, but he does tell Kylo Ren, "the Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural." Palpatine said this same line to Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith while discussing the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis' ability to cheat death.

3. Every 42 years — A festival taking place on Pasaana is said to happen once every 42 years, a meta reference to the Star Wars franchise having turned 42 in 2019.

4. The Unknown Regions — The Rise of Skywalker satisfies fans of the tie-in books and comics by making frequent mention of Palpatine being in the galaxy's Unknown Regions. Supplementary material like the Aftermath books already established Palpatine's interest in this area of the galaxy, where Imperial remnants fled to later re-emerge as the First Order, making his return just slightly less out of nowhere for book readers.

5. What is this, a crossover episode? — The sudden ability of Rey to use the Force to heal others in The Rise of Skywalker is less jarring for those who watched this week's episode of The Mandalorian, in which Baby Yoda does the same. Now, Disney's decision to drop the episode two days early so it was out before The Rise of Skywalker makes more sense.


6. Best conductor — Keep an eye out on Kijimi for a blink-and-you'll-miss it cameo from John Williams, who composed his final Star Wars score with The Rise of Skywalker and gets an appropriate send-off on screen.

7. Telling the odds — After C-3PO spent years telling the improbable odds to people who don't care to know them, for once, that information is actually useful in The Rise of Skywalker, with Rey noting he knows the odds better than anyone.

8. Roger roger — During the scene in which Threepio takes one last look at his friends, take a look behind him and you'll see a battle droid from the prequel trilogy.

9. What he has to do — The emotional conversation between Kylo Ren and Han Solo just before he turns back from the Dark Side pulls out several iconic lines to punch us right in the gut. First, Kylo Ren tells Han that "I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it," the same thing he told Han before murdering him. This time, he works up the strength not to kill his father, but to kill Kylo Ren, finally emerging once and for all as Ben Solo.

Even more heartbreaking, after Ben begins to say "dad..." to Han, he responds, “I know," the famous line he uttered in The Empire Strikes Back in response to Leia saying, “I love you." Here, the "I love you" between father and son is implied.

10. That is why you succeed — After speaking with Rey on Ahch-To, Luke Skywalker dramatically lifts his X-Wing out of the water, the same action he was incapable of in The Empire Strikes Back — and John Williams even pulls out a rendition of Yoda's theme like in that original sequence.


11. The Holdo maneuver — Dominic Monaghan's character recommends making use of the Holdo maneuver, a reference to Vice Admiral Holdo in The Last Jedi jumping to lightspeed to cut a ship in half. At the time, some questioned why exactly this maneuver isn't being used constantly, and The Rise of Skywalker attempts an explanation, as it's dismissed as a one-in-a-million move.

12. The return of Wedge — The final battle briefly features the triumphant return of Denis Lawson as Wedge Antilles, the original trilogy pilot who recently popped up in the novel Resistance Reborn.

13. Son of Ackbar — Also showing up in The Rise of Skywalker is Aftab Ackbar, the son of the late Admiral Ackbar; his presence in the film was previously teased by the Allegiance comics.

14. The Ghost — Keep an eye out in the final battle for tons of familiar ships, including what appears to be the Ghost, the ship at the center of the animated series Star Wars Rebels.

15. All of the Jedi — A powerful sequence sees Rey being inspired by the legions of Jedi who came before her. It's difficult to catch all the cameos the first time, but according to the credits, we hear Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Luminara Unduli, Ahsoka Tano, Aayla Secura, Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Adi Gallia, Kanan Jarrus, and Qui-Gon Jinn.

16. The chosen one — The most important line of this sequence is Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker saying, "bring back the balance, Rey, as I did," a much-needed reference to Anakin having, as established by the prequel trilogy, restored balance to the Force by killing Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. This suggests Anakin truly did bring balance with his sacrifice, even if that balance didn't last forever.


17. Finishing what he started — After Anakin Skywalker in the prequel trilogy failed to cheat death in order to save the woman he loved, Ben Solo accomplishes exactly that in The Rise of Skywalker by sacrificing himself, meaning he did finish what his grandfather started in more ways than one.

18. Victory celebration — As Palpatine is finally defeated, we see Return of the Jedi-style glimpses across the galaxy, checking in on Bespin from The Empire Strikes Back. We also, of course, see the Ewoks, and specifically Warwick Davis' Wicket.

19. Long has he waited — After fans spent decades complaining about the fact that Chewbacca doesn't receive a medal at the end of the original Star Wars, one of the film's last acts is to have Chewie finally get one. So was the entire sequel trilogy launched as an excuse to eventually right that wrong and give Chewie his due? From a certain point of view.

 

[Mach5]

90 million dollars on Friday. Predicted to hit $190 million for weekend

$180 seems to be the roof after that Saturday decrease. It's even worse overseas.

 

[ScottJ85]

If there are more movies, there will be more evil. Bigly evil that will overwrite these victories.

i have no idea how true it is, and it was Buzzfeed that broke the news so take it with as big a grain of salt as you need, but apparently they’re working on a movie based on the Knights of the Old Republic setting.

 

[BillJ]

Using your analogy, it's one thing to have neo-nazis that a new generation has to fight, it would be quite another to actually bring Hitler himself back so that it's a bunch of Millennials or Gen Z that actually defeat Hitler for real, not the WW2 generation that we thought.

Cloning technology is probably not too far down the road.

 

[Mach5]

I hope they bring back Elvis.

 

[BillJ]

I hope they bring back Elvis.

There's a billion dollar movie, Elvis vs. Hitler: The Final Battle.

 

[BillJ]

With the new Canon system in place, there are no illusions: every single piece of content that comes out with the Star Wars brand on it is automatically Canonical unless it is explicitly stated otherwise, and the Lucasfilm Story Group exists to oversee, determine, and shape the Canon to ensure 100% consistency, which is why comments from individuals like Pablo Hidalgo and the aforementioned Matt Martin matter and hold both weight and consequence.

I wish these companies were as driven to make good content as they are to piss on about "canon". It ends up stifling creativity and community involvement.

 

[Booji]

Did the Colossus ever make an appearance during the final battle?

 

[CorporalClegg]

I wish these companies were as driven to make good content as they are to piss on about "canon". It ends up stifling creativity and community involvement.

Canon isn't a real thing. It never has been. It's an artificial construct created by "fandom" in the last 30 years. And - within the last decade or so - the big-wigs finally discovered they can use it as a cheap marketing ploy and means of exploitation. Why people still continue to fall for it is beyond me.

But you're absolutely right. They only thing its persistent existence guarantees is suppression of any genuine originality and imagination.

 

[Captaindemotion]

There's a billion dollar movie, Elvis vs. Hitler: The Final Battle.

Sounds like a potential Bubba Ho-Tep sequel

 

[CorporalClegg]

I think you just found Michael Bay's next project.