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jnlnyaface · 4 years

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The Rise of Skywalker...Thoughts...

I finally bit the bullet and saw “The Rise of Skywalker” in theaters. I have some thoughts...

Spoilers Obviously!!!!!

My general review is that the whole time I was in the theater all I could think about was how much better it would’ve been if this movie and “The Last Jedi” were combined and divided in two. By that I mean, there were so many things in this movie that would’ve worked better if they were done in the 2nd movie and then built upon in this one. There were things in the 2nd movie that I thought would’ve worked great in this one.

Have you ever taken a creative writing class and the teacher gives you a sentence to start a story and 2 mins to write. When your time is up you pass the paper back and continue the story the person in front of you wrote on their paper. And you keep going until everybody in your row has written a piece of each story. Do you remember reading that story and how one kid turned it into a fairytale and then the next into a horror show? And the last kid was left to try to put a bow on it and call it one cohesive story?That’s what this trilogy felt like.

Here are some quick thoughts before we dive in:

1. Finn being force sensitive *chef’s kiss*

2. Poe-Finn-Rey relationship = actual gold

3. I can now understand why people ship Poe and Finn

4. Even though the story was all over the place the effects with Rey and the Emperor were creepy in a good way

5. Overall I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I would be but there’s so much that could have been done to make it better.

More under the cut!

Ok guys! Here’s where we do the deep dive. I’m pretty much going to outline all the problems I had with the film, why and what I think they could have done to make it better.

1. The whole Rey Palpatine thing - even though I (and many other people) wasn’t the biggest fan of “The Last Jedi” (because it was just one long car chase where nothing really happened) I did like the idea that Rey didn’t come for a force sensitive family.

I thought it would be cool if the stronger Kylo got on the dark side, Rey got equally as strong on the light side to keep balance in the force. (Like the force itself chose someone to keep balance, someone random) I didn’t like the way it was handled, him just saying it in an offhand way, but I thought it was a good choice. To backtrack and have her be Palpatine’s granddaughter was more than a little ridiculous and way too rushed. If they would’ve introduced this possibly in one of the last two movies that would’ve been fine. But a third movie plot twist? Why?

2. Finn - There are some topics in my life that I feel like I could literally write a college level dissertation on and the treatment of Finn is this trilogy is definitely one of them. Finn was teased so heavily before “The Force Awakens” and ended up being a misdirect for Rey being the real hero/chosen one. I was ok with that because Rey and Finn were so intent on being together. That meant, to me, that throughout the trilogy they would be with each other. They became each other’s family and they weren’t going to let the other go. Then TLJ happened and they were seperated for most of the movie. Why would you separate characters with such great chemistry? (They actually separated all three of the main trio in their own storylines. The problem with this? They never got a chance to be all together and build up their bond (as a trio) before they’re separated.)

This would’ve been fine (ish) if Finn’s storyline wasn’t a side quest of epic proportions. He’s one of the MAIN CHARACTERS and he went to a planet to get a thing for reasons. WTF?! (I will concede he did have some ok character development but it didn’t happen until the very end of the movie) Then they hint that he’s force sensitive and do nothing with it. I’m with the group that believes he moved the rocks at the end of TLJ when he ran to Rey and that was the first hint of his force sensitivity. I was hoping he would be training with her by the time the 3rd movie started (it was a long shot but one can dream). It’s obviously more explicit in TROS but nothing comes of it. He doesn’t have some big moment where he uses his powers and saves someone. He doesn’t have some confusing moment where he’s wondering what’s happening to him. Nothing! He just senses some stuff and exists.

He really doesn’t even add much to the plot of the movie itself. He’s once again benched but they give him busy work to make it seem like he’s actually contributing. John Boyega is an excellent actor and their underuse of him is criminal.

3. The Knights of Ren - Soooooo..... What’s up guys? In the first movie they talk about Kylo and his Knights of Ren being amazing then in the second movie they are never mentioned. Now in TROS they are there lurking in the shadows and....doing nothing. They seemed like they would be these fierce badasses but they get beat while by Kylo while he pretty much has one hand tied behind his back. Wha...

4. Kylo and Rey - I have very many problems with Kylo and Rey. Like so so so many. My biggest one is the kiss. Not necessarily that it happened just that it made zero sense. Yes they had a connection throughout the trilogy but why would that have to translate to romance? Why is it that when a female hero tries to redeem a male villain (or anti-hero) it means she wants to smash? Rey should have been allowed to want to save Kylo/Ben without having to fall for him. I asked a question on here a while back (when I was still contemplating whether or not I wanted to go see the movie).

I asked why people ship/started shipping Reylo. None of the answers I got gave me an “aha” type moment. You know that moment when you’re like “oh I get it now” (not that it changes your mind about the couple just that you understand why that person likes them so much). I didn’t get that at all for the answers I got. Some people said “because of their connection through the force” and I’m like ok...and? Why does that mean romance?

I have never seen him as anything more that a homicidal villain. I always thought their connection was a way for the audience and Rey to get to know Kylo so he wouldn’t be some one dimensional villain. I never saw them in a romantic light. In my opinion that final kiss could’ve been a hug and it would’ve had the same effect. (Or he could’ve just died. I would’ve been fine with that too)

5. Kylo Redemption - My problem with his “redemption” arc is that he didn’t earn it. He literally started the movie taking out an entire battalion by himself to get the pyramid thing. In the first movie he ordered his troops to destroy a whole village of innocent people. After killing Snoke he didn’t disband the first order he just took over and reaffirmed his commitment to the dark side. He killed his father, tortured Rey and Poe and the only reason why he wanted to help Palpatine was to get the fleet he was offering. But then in the 3rd(?) act Leia dies, Rey almost kills him, he has a conversation with the ghost/memory of his dad and suddenly he wants to be a good person again? Kylo is dead and Ben is just back?

The thing is (in my opinion) every great redemption story starts with the person admitting they were wrong and asking for forgiveness. Then putting in the work to earn that forgiveness. Or at least acknowledging they were wrong and dying for the greater good. But Kylo/Ben never acknowledge the mistakes he made, he never asked for forgiveness, he didn’t do anything the showed he should be redeemed. (But he didn’t shoot on Leia’s ship in TLJ and he and Rey fought together on Snoke’s ship) wow he did one not terrible thing and fought with Rey so he could take over the first order. I’m not seeing how that creates a redemption arc for him.

I’m going to expand on this more in my next point but I think if he just fully embraced his villainy it would’ve been better. If he killed Palpatine and became the final boss I think that would’ve been more interesting than a last minute turn as a good guy then dying.

6. Finnrey - When I said I was going to expand on that what I meant was: I’m going to tell you what I think should’ve happened in regards to FinnRey and how they should’ve been handled. In no other movie/book/tv show/short story/play will you see the main female actress and the main male actor not get together. It was so heavily hinted that Finn and Rey had/were going to have romantic feelings for each other (they were supposed to be our Han and Leia) and this was just forgotten about so abruptly.

Even in the second movie, the first thing Finn thinks about is Rey when he wakes up. He wants to get the beacon as far away from the resistance’s ships as possible so when she gets back she won’t be in danger with the rest of the fleet. And Rey talking to Chewie before she goes onto the ship “tell him I said...” what did Chewie say? Who speaks wookie? This movie was such a great opportunity to expand on that relationship and what do we get? Nothing...again. They didn’t even have one full conversation. Ok but why though? Don’t even get me started on the whole quicksand incident. Why wouldn’t he be telling her he loved her? Why is that such an absurd possibility? This is what has been hinted at for 2 movies and now...? Sensing a theme when it comes to hints involving Finn? Yeah me too.

There was a comment or article that I read somewhere that talked about Finn getting knocked out in the first movie during the final battle. This person said it was unfair because of the bait and switch in regards to the trailers teasing Finn vs Rey being the force sensitive in the movie. And I thought “wouldn’t it be cool if Finn and Rey fought Kylo together?”. I don’t just mean that one battle I mean throughout the whole trilogy. Wouldn’t it have been interesting if Kylo and Rey were connected because they were the equals in the dark and light sides of the force and if Rey and Finn were connected because they were a force dyad? That way if Kylo was going to be the ultimate final boss Finn and Rey could train/fight/work together to beat him once and for all. I thought that would be much more compelling. They didn’t even necessarily have to become a romantic pairing.

I’m ok with subverting the, every series ends with a romance trope (even though it seems like the only time this trope is subverted is when a character of color is involved) but in this last movie Finn did little more than follow Rey around the galaxy and call her name when crap was going down. At least if you have force sensitive Finn, who has trained with and is connected to Rey he can actually help her instead of standing around staring the whole time. I, of course am a FinnRey shipper so I was disappointed when they didn’t get together but I’ve had plenty of other ships disappoint me in the past so this was nothing. I just wish they would have communicated for longer than two collective minutes in the 2.5 hour movie. They had such a great relationship/friendship. It was one of the best things about the first movie and it just evaporated in this movie with no real explanation.

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These were some of my thoughts about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. I didn’t write this to offend anyone so if I did I’m sorry. I just needed to get this off my chest. I really got into the Stars Wars fandom with TFA and it has been a rollercoaster ride ever since. I try to reserve judgement on a series until it is over, since middle movies can be kind of boring because they’re trying to move the plot forward. I like to wait until the story is done before I say whether or not I liked it and this well...I’m still not sure.

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koujaaku · 4 years

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opinions on rise of skywalker?

After watching it twice, I’ll admit I actually did really enjoy it. I still stand by my initial thought that it feels like they shoved too much into one movie, that the pacing was wonky and characterization wasn’t consistent throughout the trilogy... but with the fiasco that was TLJ, that was pretty much inevitable. TROS was good! but it could’ve been great.

things I liked:

throwbacks to the original trilogy

Chewie finally got his medal 🥺 I read up that it’s actually Han’s... which makes my heart ache even more, because now it also serves as a memory for him and Leia (since she was the one who originally handed them out and wanted Chewie to have it)

Babu Frik

Force-sensitive Finn!!!

Jedi Leia!!!

Co-Generals Finn and Poe!!!

Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) cameo

Kylo’s little shrug before he beats the shit out of the KoR

seeing Adam Driver smile on screen

Rey’s face right before she hugs Finn and Poe

they played the “Luke and Leia” track at the end (my fave) 🥺

YELLOW LIGHTSABER MADE FROM HER STAFF. (I want to know if it’s double-sided!)

“Rey Skywalker,” fuck yeah

that end shot on Tatooine

things I’m neutral about:

Palpatine & Rey being a Palpatine -- I mean... I guess it works. It’s the only thing that could be a successful shock factor at this point. I don’t want to think about Palpatine doing the nasty, though.

dark side Rey got me like 🥵 but her teeth got me like 😨

the dagger -- HOW DOES A DAGGER ALIGN WITH DEATH STAR WRECKAGE? WAS THE DEATH STAR DESIGNED TO BREAK APART LIKE THAT? HOWWJFKFLJDHG

things I disliked:

THE PACING. I already mentioned this and it’s obvious that they just had too much to wrap up, but some particular moments that stood out were: the whole first third of the movie especially, C-3PO regaining his memory (the audience is still mourning the fact that he doesn’t remember R2D2, then the film does a 180 and gives you whiplash with R2 immediately fixing the problem), Finn and Jannah are just suddenly there on the Death Star wreckage, etc.

HUX. Part of me was thrilled at the aspect of double agent Hux (especially the Kylux fan in me), but realistically, it didn’t fit his character at all. Yes, he hates Kylo and the humiliation Kylo put him through, but TFA Hux would never have dreamed of stooping low enough to help the Resistance, even if it meant take Kylo down a peg or two. I think Pryde’s character was completely unnecessary and Hux could have taken his role easily, and that would’ve pitted Kylo and Hux against each other even more. Hux would get to live his dream of leading the fleet (if just for a brief time) and it wouldn’t feel like they shoe-horned his character in last-minute because they couldn’t figure out what to do with him after the joke he was made into in TLJ.

POE. Poe’s characterization wasn’t as mangled as it was in TLJ, but it was still a mess, and Oscar has every right to be as tired/frustrated as he is. Was it really necessary for him to tell C-3PO to shut up at least five times? Yeah, 3PO won’t stop talking and one or two quips about it would’ve been fine, but his nonstop complaints felt excessive. Why did Finn and Rey have to be so hung-up on him being a spice runner? Han worked for the fucking mafia and he’s still a hero, so stop criminalizing Poe’s past and move on...... and also: it would’ve been nice to see Poe grieve a little for Leia.

ROSE. I don’t have much to say because there was hardly any of her in the movie. They did her and Kelly so dirty and my heart aches for her.

KYLO’S REDEMPTION. I mean... where do I start... yeah, the sap in me liked seeing Han again and the part where Kylo whimpered “dad” did take a stab at my heart... but that whole Han/Ben scene was literally taken straight from TFA all over again and it’s like... now it works because mommy called his name once and died for it? because Rey healed his boo-boo? again, I’ve dreamed of a Kylo redemption story as a Kylux fan hundreds of times, but I don’t think he actually deserves it. Half a movie is definitely not enough time to start trying to make up for what he’s done, not even close.

THE KISS. They spend 2.5 movies hating each other, and then suddenly Kylo does ONE big good deed and he’s boyfriend-worthy? Anyway.

THE OTHER KISS. The one-second, blink-or-you-miss-it lesbian kiss that they edited out for Singapore. :) Fuck you, Disney. Representation, my ass.

#there's probably more I forgot to mention but that's the gist of it!#tros spoilers #anonymous #ask

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