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

Grade the movie...


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    219
Significant, yes. But also severely overstated by this forum in the past. A vocal minority focused on it as ‘SJW propaganda’ or whatever, and I think a lot of diehard fans kinda latched onto that as a convenient way to explain away negative opinions of TLJ. As I said repeatedly at the time, most people who didn’t like TLJ weren’t rabid misogynists. They just thought it was a crap or forgettable movie.
It’s not overstated in this forum since it’s most of what we deal with. You’re new so you’re missing a lot.
 
It's better than the critics are saying. I loved some parts of it and the end of the film made me tear up. It has some genuinely beautiful and heartwarming sequences that remind me why I'm a Star Wars fan and why I've loved it for almost the entirety of my conscious life. It also has clear signs of Disney and the suits tinkering with it to make it a more palatable movie and I believe it suffers greatly for the Mouse having overseen the entire thing and marketed it.

It's good. In some spots great. But it could have been a lot better.
 
It’s not overstated in this forum since it’s most of what we deal with. You’re new so you’re missing a lot.

I don’t think you’re taking in what I’m saying. When I say it’s overstated I don’t mean that it’s not a big issue. Im saying lots of people seemed to use it as a way to excuse the negative buzz surrounding TLJ. It fitted into this general idea that people didn’t like the film for reasons other than it might have been bad.

I’m not really ‘new’. I just don’t post all the time.
 
Captain Marvel was only "divisive" in the minds of insane sexist weirdos using YouTube videos about other YouTube videos as a source and no everyone else. In reality it was a successful film and another hit for Marvel.
I kind of like there being a divide between the insane sexist weirdos using YouTube videos about other YouTube videos as a source, and the rest of us...
 
Hey all my friends,

i''m not to to bash the film or anyone on here for their views or opinions. But I wanted to ask a question or maybe have an understanding.

First of all I blame MYSELF. Like everyone here I am a Star Wars fan, It was created the year I was born, I grew up with it, and maybe I'll die with it.

I just dont understand the deviation from the concept of Saga or Serial. Its what Lucas created, its what Disney bought the rights for. Why change that?

I understand the need to create something new, to put your own stamp on it. But also Disney understood what they gain to inherit. The problem in one way as I see it, with Marvel or any comic character is a slow gradual evolutiom or change over years and decades like Stan Lee' Spidey or Bob Kane's Batman in the 1940s to present day.

But for Star Wars it started with Lucas, and it was 40 years of Lucas's creations film-wise. Sure the Expanded Universe were other creator's always under Lucas's direction to a degree.

Honestly I wished Lucas and Disney worked closer together, let Lucas finish this Sequel Trilogy and then Disney and Lucasfilm create an entirely new characters and situations or time periods, then with new people. I hope this makes sense.

I look at it this way. Like KFC I can pay money buy the franchise, recipes and spices and make chicken. But if I radically alter something then why not just do something else?

Honestly I think people dont seem to understand Hollywood and movies in the last 30 years seem to miss the restlessness in movies in general. Bad and poor acting and writing and directing all combined. Huge sums of money thrown into a movie just because, and the constant chase for the mega blockbuster or the next classic.

But, it all starts with bad writing. The one thing Lucas struggled with, WRITING. But, a good strong story is the foundation of a good movie. Honestly, I believe the key to success now for Disney is find someone with Lucas's background of the studies of humanities, folklore, myths, and a true vision and direction, and Disney will get what it wants that recreation of events of 1977 Star Wars. Not a remake but a recreation of a fresh story and a fresh and mind blowing experience for all, all over again.

I finally understood the prequels from the viewpoint of Lucas creating it, and you can overlook the faults if you see it as a confrontation of Jedi vs Sith. The more I read the excellent The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski, the more I truly got Lucas and what he was trying to do with the Saga as a whole. The Sequel Trilogy looked so different from Lucas's viewpoint. It's truly is about the Jedi and the Skywalkers and that's it. Sadly it's like Jenga move and change too much and it all falls apart.

I'm grateful for all the Star Wars stories, its become an entirely different beast, but hey Im hopeful for the future.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and best wishes to all on the forums, and thank you all for one hell of a great and eye opening discussion. Please keep it going all.
-Koric
 
But, a good strong story is the foundation of a good movie.
You'd think, wouldn't you, but...not so much these days.

We're in the era of "visual storytelling" and you get swept up in the visuals end the experience . Plot, and particularly a tight plot is secondary.

It simply amazes me, but there you go...
 
Random thought: Rey and Kylo are probably distantly related. I mean they're both descended from Naboo, and that population is descended from the survivors of just one crashed colony ship from Grizmallt several thousand years back...
 
Well, Rey is the granddaughter of Palpatine and Palpatine either directly or peripherally participated in the creation of Anakin Skywalker, who in turn spawned Luke and Leia and built C-3PO. Leia gave birth to Ben Solo so in a way she's his cousin. And C-3PO's. ;)
 
Agreed. Honestly negative reactions to these movies are a pretty big win for Lucas after the prequels.

Interesting way to make a final assessment of this now horribly pockmarked, uneven series. The prequels suffered from a torrential flood of problems, but it was closer to a pure Lucas vision (for the most obvious reasons of all) than this meaningless sequel trilogy.


I thought it was quite the stumble. Overstuffed and under baked.

The scenes with Leia are a weird Mad Libs thing and a stand in. “This is what we have of her talking, what can the other side be?” It’s wooden and obvious.

Yes. Well, that's what you get from producers so greedy and soulless that they could not resist "Game of Death-izing" footage of deceased performer that was incomplete & best left in a vault.

And the final Reylo moment is cringing and, my audience anyway, laughed.

Yes--pandering to a group of people who like the idea of a woman with a mass murderer, instead of the one character she had any sort of romantic chemistry with. As I've said before, it says much about that end of SW fandom.

Edited to add: and they made such a deal and Finn wanting to say something to Rey and then just dropped it.

Finn never mattered. Droids and secondary characters had more development that he did, and he was supposed to be--arguably--the second most important character among the new set. I'm sure 20 years from now, Boyega will not reminisce about his time in this series. Aside from basic visibility for the actor, he was creatively sidelined with a disrespected character every step of the way.
 
You don't exactly help matters, trying to shout down anyone that disagrees with you.

Exactly. That is the hypocrisy embraced by those making derogatory statements about anyone who dares to criticizes this--or any production. Indeed, in trying to shut down the voice of others, they are committing the same thing they accuse their targets of doing.
 
Ultimately, it comes down to engagement with the characters, which has been repeatedly demonstrated as lacking among those who do not enjoy the films. And doesn't change the fact that the original poster called out white males specifically in his irritation at strong females. It's absurd, and the point that the original argument made it include white males specifically even though that is a ridiculous position to take, that white males somehow must always look better or equal to a strong female. So @Santa Cruise is quite correct in his assertion that the original poster made it a strange racist argument centered around white males.
I disagree . you just read it that way. The whole trilogy trilogy has been all about KK's obsession with strong independent women, and unfortunately she approved scripts that not only had those.. whether or not they came out of the story organically or were just shoved in this corner and that.. but they are ALL better than the males (white black, alien whatever) throughout the films. The trilogy did not have a consistent vision.. she looked at RJ's script not for how it built toward a conclusion but how strong the female characters were. "he writes such strong fiercely independent women"

She should be removed. This trilogy was a clusterfuk. John Knoll had the pedigree at Lucasfilm where his idea (R1) was going to be approved by her and if she didn't it would have cemented her stupidity .. and same with Favreau's show.. and these have been the only stories worth watching since she took oven.

I believe in diversity but today it's being hammered out there on this board and social media as talking points .. hoping to hang on to the coat tails of success (if George had not succeeded making his first film - where he cared about story more than NOT offending anyone or having to include everyone) no one would care if the 8th or 9th addendum to that movie had a diverse cast or not.. they ONLY care about it because it succeeded)
 
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Exactly. Holdo was 100% in the right. Poe is lucky that a chewing out is all that Holdo gave him. At the very, very least he should have been thrown into the brig. The only part with Poe in TLJ that got a cheer out of me was when Leia stunned his worthless ass.
except.. well aside form the fact that she didn't look like a superior officer (and since film is a visual medium, it matters, and the way they filmed her in that silly dress towering over Poe with that giraffe neck.. meanwhile.. they are literally RUNNING ON FUMES AND THE SHIP IS BEING SHOT AT THE WHOLE GALAXY SOMEHOW DEPENDS ON 400 PEOPLE) AND HER ATTITUDE ABOUT HAMMERING HIM FOR BEING A FLY BOY IS REALLY GOING TO TAKE UP IMPORTANT SCREEN TIME IN THE SAGA.??

NO this is not about Poe or leadership or anything it is about RJ forcing a strong female character into his script so KK will love him so much and pat him at the back ant these events and give him another trilogy of his very own because his ego is HUGE.

Because the whole subplot had absolutely no bearing on the saga at all
 
At this point, Disney's narrative of blaming the 'fans' is wearing transparently thin.

But they will stick to that crumbling platform, and they are not alone, as other producers and directors in recent history are attacking movie goers for the failure of their films and/or overall poor reception. Transparent and weak to shift the blame for their lack of creativity or wrongheaded decisions.

It was a calculated corporate move to deflect the blame onto the audience, as opposed to all the internal mismanagement at Lucasfilm.

Correct.

The fans are largely pleased with "The Mandalorian," so it is possible to make them happy. It just requires the right oversight, creative team and those knowledgeable on the material crafting the final product.

Indeed. It is similar to those who falsely accuse some of "hating" all Marvel productions because they criticize certain MCU films, yet ignore that many of the same praised not only other MCU films, but some of the TV series as well.

Why does Finn have to look like a total buffoon, especially next to Rose?

Well, as I've pointed out earlier, he was a marginalized token with no self-awareness or dignity. The textbook black buffoon stereotype from Old Hollywood. He was never meant to be more than that, which was evident in TFA, where they had more than 2 hours to establish or even suggest there was more to his life and what should have been his unique perspective on the conflict & his place in it...but that was not going to happen at all. Hence the reason why his first scene in TLJ was Finn acting like a day player from a Hal Roach short subject, only to be abused by Rose, then stumble around with no individual purpose throughout the rest of the film. That was his function from producers who repeatedly championed their socially progressive handling of the sequels.

....which did not apply to Finn.
 
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Just watched it a second time. The things that bothered me the first time, didn't bother me as much the second time around, and the things that worked the first time, worked better the second time. So I think it's growing on me.

I'm curious to see what the reaction is from the younger fans who's introduction to Star Wars was TFA. I've heard enough opinions from grumpy old OT fans and slightly less grumpy middle aged PT fans to last me a life time, thanks!

Still didn't see the Colossus, but I'm like 90% sure a Jedi shuttle (the kind Ahsoka & Sabine were last seen boarding) was amongst those landing back at the Resistance base during the finale...
Aren't we all?
On a galactic scale, them more than most.
Not that I'm trying to make a point or anything; it's just something occurred to me on my second viewing. ;)
 
This is a big thread and there's no way I'm going to read the whole thing.

Bottom line: it was a very entertaining movie that was technically brilliant and well-crafted, but it was so overstuffed and frenetic that it was headache-inducing. In fact, the "hyperspace skipping" at the beginning of the film is an analogy for the whole TROS moviegoing experience: Fun and visually interesting, but we never linger anywhere for long enough for it to feel right.

That said, I give it a B+ because, well, I enjoyed it. It was flawed and contrived, but it had the magic these films need to capture my imagination. It had some absolutely brilliant scenes, but the parts were greater than the sum of the whole.

None of that matters too much though, because I enjoyed it and had fun.

New ranking:

1. TESB (A+)
2. ANH (A+)
3. TFA (A-)
4. ROTJ (B+)
5. TROS (B+)
6. TLJ (B)
7. Solo (B-)
8. TPM (B-)
9. ROTS (C)
10. AOTC (D-)
11. R1 (F)
 
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