Spoilers Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Grading & Discussion
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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It was a good movie, much better than I think professional reviewers gave it credit for. Sure it played it a bit safe, but I accepted a long time ago that they were always going to re-do the original trilogy and not deviate too much from that. Plus Palpatine being back reminds me of the old Dark Empire comics which also had him survive Endor, raise a secret fleet to retake the Galaxy, and try to pass his essence onto a younger body (one of Leia's just born children if I recall.) I think even Lucas once talked about bringing Palpatine back as an idea for a sequel trilogy when asked about Dark Empire.
Whether it was intentional or not, the writers handled Finn poorly. His character could have been the most compelling one in the ST, a war weary soldier deciding to make amends for his past. Someone with no true friends who constantly had to watch his back now learning to trust those around him. Maybe he could have been suffering from PTSD having witnessed the horrors committed by the First Order, and having to work through those types of issues. There were dozens of possible writing paths to take for an ex-soldier of the FO and allow for some real character development. Unfortunately, we didn’t get anything like that. Finn is largely the same character at the end of the trilogy that he was at the beginning. He did get a couple moments to shine in TFA, so I guess that’s something...
Well-said. They took a very cool backstory and just turned him into a lightly goofy everyman, basically leaving all the interesting potential of his history untapped.
I actually did find Finn very compelling in TFA, as he's one of the only SW characters in any film who actually gets to be afraid and wary, a reaction which is far more easy to identify with than just endlessly courageous heroes.
That said, he basically runs out of story in TFA and, as much as I like TLJ as a film and appreciate what that movie tries to do with his arc, it doesn't totally land. And in RoS, he literally might as well not even be there.
Paul Hirsch would disagree on that, I'm sure, since he was the only of the three editors who stayed through to the end after Marcia Lucas and Richard Chew left. This is not to diminish any of their contributions, but it's not entirely true that Marcia edited Star Wars. She was part of a team.
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Lucas has said what was in the quote since the 1970s He's no Roddenberry in spinning tall tales about the origin of his signature creation by any stretch of the imagination.
His motives for creating SW had nothing to do with a money grab, as he had no faith it would be successful--another point he has recalled over and over again since the 70s.
Even that would have given him something of a purpose, but JJA, Kennedy, et al., had no desire to have that black male character ever have a compelling story of his own, through his unique vision. Films are not produced with its creators not knowing what "the other hand" is doing. It was committee filmmaking, with Finn being a modern day minstrel being their obvious intent, no matter how other SW fans (not meaning you) want to wish that away to defend the indefensible in this sequel trilogy.
All Finn was doing was panting, sweating and running. There was no depth to his story at all--no psychological plight of being taken as a child, and because he was a sweat-drenched stereotype sanitation worker who moonlighted as a stormtrooper, there was no way for Finn to act as one who has committed too many crimes as a trooper. He never admits to having a past as a kidnapped child / raised killer because he did not have one, so that too robbed him of a justifiable place from which he could make changes to his life and impact the world around him. He was running like a coward with no substance and no identity.--just as the SW-PTB wanted him to be.
Being taken as a child, he should have expressed that trauma and that of one his own kind who had no voice to stop what was happening to his people (one can assume he was not the only one from his world forcibly drafted into the FO service as children).
As I've said before, he was chasing others around and changing not a thing in the world; he should have been to the FO what Anakin ended up being to the Jedi Order, only in Finn's case, his being an "inside job"/ticking time bomb would be the right path for him. He should have been a young soldier/officer on the level of a Hux who knew the FO intimately and could corrupt it from within, as it stripped him of his culture/identity and he had to get his hands dirty, adding to his guilt over what he's done to people like himself. That would have been a compelling path for Finn to be a true hero, reclaiming his lost identity (by "exorcising" his corrupt life as a FO officer) and changing the galaxy in the process.
Nope. That was never going to happen to one of the worst "main" characters in Star Wars history.
He was tapdancing and screaming from start to finish. A hero to no one, especially many black audience members.
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Thank you.
This was my first thought as well and, after seeing it a second time yesterday, I think that's exactly what was going on. Explains Snoke's Force powers in addition to the voices which Palps said he was responsible for..
Was there even just one Snoke? We a see a vat full of Snoke parts.
I refuse to believe that the portrayal of Finn is intentionally racist. I'm not really in a position to argue about whether he is unintentionally racist, but there is no way I'm going to believe that the producers and writers went into these movies with the intention of making their portrayal of the character racist.
Finn isn't a racist stereotype. He's just criminally underutilized and not given enough of real importance to do and that's a big difference given that the Sequel Trilogy is the story of Rey and her journey and everybody else is along for the ride as a supporting character. We need to stop calling every character of color who isn't used the way we want as some racist stereotype or victim of malevolent and bigoted thinking.
Finn just wasn't written all that well and that's the end of the story.
Finn just wasn't written all that well and that's the end of the story.
This is sad. Because what is being said about Finn, is being said by racists who are desperately grasping at anything to tear these movies down. I though Finn was great, and fucking heroic when the bell rung and it was time to save the galaxy.
I don't know if that's going to change. I've seen arguments for both sides and it's really challenging and frustrating debate. I agree because I don't see Finn as being a stereotype. I think he could have been a very interesting character to really explore. But, I see it more as untapped potential not a stereotype.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertain...-difficulty/ar-BBYsyp2?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=HPCDHP
Oh really CGI was difficult.
Excuses now have started
Oh really CGI was difficult.
Excuses now have started
You'll have to explain it's greatness to me. I just don't see it. I was bored, struggling to keep myself from falling asleep.
Rogue One also has the direct line, which is immediately prior to that:
What do you know of kyber crystals?
My father, he said they powered the Jedi lightsabers.
My father, he said they powered the Jedi lightsabers.
https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=rogue-one-a-star-wars-story
(Apologies, if this was already mentioned.)
Difference in taste? I fall asleep during the Marvel movies, yet my wife sits right next to me loving it all.
I don't dislike SW, or find SW films boring, just this film. I actually thought TLJ was a well done SW film, TFA didn't bore me. I don't think I was just tired. Hours earlier i was fully engaged watching a S2 episode from the NETFLIX'S LOST IN SPACE.
Not what I meant. Sometimes 'greatness' is hard to explain and what one finds 'great' may put another person to sleep.
