Topic: The Movie Thread

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I think it’s time to post my Rise of Skywalker impressions.

As I stated on another thread, I largely agree with the consensus and those that have already written their thoughts — that is, that the film is a decent enough installment in the sequel trilogy, one with some great Star Wars moments, and yet it’s a movie that leaves a bit of emptiness in me. Although I echo the feelings that others have expressed, I do have some of my own specific thoughts I’ll share, if you’ll allow me to indulge for a moment.

First off, to pare it down to the basic problem here — the emotional impact and payoff of a nine film epic should have resonated with me more powerfully. For some reason the movie just falls flat. Not that the movie doesn’t have its spectacular moments, huge reveals, plot twists, and dramatic scenes that a concluding entry should have — it just feels relatively forced (no pun intended) most of the time.

As you all know, over the last several months I’ve had a few marathon rewatches of some favorite multi-movie series, like Harry Potter and the MCU Infinity Stone saga, so it’s hard not to compare them with how the “Skywalker Saga” concluded. In the case of those other beloved franchises, I felt a much more satisfactory crescendo of emotion and gratifying closure than I did with this movie. Some of that had to do with the execution of the story and its breakneck speed, and some of it had to do with its nebulousness and “open to interpretation” type of approach in some of its closing moments.

Before I proceed further, my apologies to @RogerRoger and KALofKRYPTON (KAL I trust you’ll see this and I won’t officially tag you because I’m not sure you’ve seen the film yet and I’m delving into spoilers here. I get the feeling you don’t mind them, but I’ll let you decide, rather than bombard you unwittingly through the email) for my comment #3385 on Dec. 16th on this thread (don’t go back and read it again KAL! Unless you want to) My accurate prediction of a major turning point in the movie was purely accidental. I had no foreknowledge through any leaks, I had not read that theory anywhere on the internet. I hope you realized it was just me spouting nonsense which inevitably actually proved to be prophetic. It was not my intent to spoil any of the movie for you or anyone else.
....And therein lies the problem — in a “a couple pals at the bar spouting off random ‘wouldn’t it be cool if...’ ideas” type of moment, I managed to half-jokingly predict with exactness one of the biggest turning points in the movie. I’m not saying this to boast, I’m saying that whether it was just signposted or merely predictable in a fan-service kind of way, the desired effect was cheapened by its conventionality and it’s ‘safe bet’ type of orthodoxy. Nearly the whole movie suffers from similar platitudinousness.

The same could never have been said of big moments in the other installments. I would have never gone into Empire saying: “[yawn] Vader is probably gonna end up being Luke’s father,” or before seeing RotJ “Wouldn’t it be cool if Vader is actually the one who kills the Emperor.” Those moments were able to catch the audience off-guard and yet make narrative sense, unlike the combined sequences of film making conventions and literary gymnastics that Rise makes the viewer sit through.

To be fair, I didn’t predict Rey was a Palpatine (I didn’t peek at KAL’s late pre-release spoiler tagged theories until after I saw the movie because I had a feeling his leaked information was starting to sound legitimate so I held off reading them) but despite it being a surprise, it still felt hollow. The whole series of conclusive moments feel jam packed and “let’s write this story as we go.” Again, contrast this with Harry Potter where it’s clear that the late series events were conceived at the very beginning, and circumstances at the end are cleverly tied back to the very first movies/books with plenty of “Aha!” moments that make you appreciate good story construction, as if each of the story’s machinations was preconceived to unfold at the prescribed pace.
If Harry Potter is a lovely tapestry of cleverly weaved together threads, and the MCU is a nice art school painting project where the whole class has a chance to add a few colors and images to the same lovely scene, then the Skywalker saga is a 5 year-old child’s first attempt at making something with his Lego set. “Look daddy! It’s a spaceship!”

To give another example, the movie just goes too often to the trope of the Darth Maul-esque “character appears to have died but actually comes back to life” too much (Emperor Palpatine, Rey, Kylo, Chewie, C3PO... not to mention the return of characters in ghost form - Han, Luke, Leia, Yoda...). Lots of movies use this plot device for dramatic effect, and it can be a fun and exciting twist to see a hero appear to die and then, “Ta-da! Just kidding! He’s really still alive! Tricked you didn’t I!” But if you go to the well too much it cheapens the effect. It’s why I felt nothing when Rey appeared to have died, or when Kylo was throw off into the abyss. In my mind, I knew that wasn’t the send off he was going to get, so there was no gasping and hand wringing when he is seemingly thrown unceremoniously down a dark hole by Palpatine. (Of course I had virtually no emotional connection with him anyway because his character was so mishandled from the beginning, but that’s a different point entirely). Then when he actually does die in the bizarre “giving all my life force to you through a kiss” in one last selfless act, it just didn’t impact me. I really felt nothing. Not like the deaths of people in Avengers End Game, Harry Potter, or like the tears I shed watching Frodo leaving on the ship at the end of Return of the King with the Elves, or heck... I can list dozens of video games right now off the top of my head that handled the death of major characters with much more emotional impact.

Things I did like:
I genuinely do like Rey (as opposed to Kylo). I like the character, I like the actress, I like the story arc. Admittedly, I really don’t care for her weird relationships with a couple other characters the strange love triangle of her, Finn, and Kylo/Ben and her strained and flat appearing relationship with Leia and Luke. However, unlike the outraged fan base, I don’t mind the new lightsaber at the end, or the illogical speed with which she masters the Force. I can swallow all that due to some of the cool things she does and chock it up to her rich Palpatine blood. I like Poe and Finn somewhat. I like BB-8.

A couple of the new characters were fun. shout out to Babu Frik! And as I said elsewhere, I didn’t mind Poe’s love interest and general BA, Zorii Bliss, despite her cheesy name. Also Finn gets a new buddy Jannah (since Rey runs off with Kylo?) who is a decent character. The seeds for her to get her own movie or TV series were clearly sown.

The visuals and art direction were quite good. Not just visually appealing, but they were unique with new species of humanoids and creatures. The music seems good, the acting in general was good, and the sound design was great, as to be expected with lightsabers, speeders, and ships.

Above all, I’m glad it’s over and we can all move on with our lives. But like I said elsewhere, don’t get too comfortable. Don’t be surprised if some of these characters, storylines, and lore will be showing up in the TV series that will be populating Disney + for the next several years.

I’ve droned on long enough.
I give this post a 6.75/10. Points deducted for lack of brevity.