Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker had its premiere last night at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. Non-Spoiler reviews and Twitter mentions are trickling out and they're overwhelmingly positive.
I'll be seeing the film Thursday night, 6:30pm PST but I'm not sure if I'll have time to post because we're traveling for the holidays, leaving at 4am the next morning. If I can't post Thursday evening, I'll get to it at some point over the weekend, maybe after I've seen it a second time.
It's a Spoiler thread but let's try to keep the real spoilery stuff in the Spoiler Tags through the weekend, just so we don't ruin the movie for someone that accidentally clicks on the thread.
So I finally saw Rise of Skywalker. This won't be a popular opinion, but I didn't hate it as much as I expected to. It wasn't great, but it wasn't a disaster, either. Unlike any of the prequels, I could see myself actually watching it again someday. If there's nothing else going on.
The main problem for me - outside of Rey being about as boring a protagonist as possible, as was well established in the previous two movies - was that they tried to cram two movies worth of shit into 2:20.
And I still don't think JJ can put together a complete, coherent movie. He's like the Stephen King of filmmakers. Although maybe that's being unfair to his Mission Impossible work. [Reply]
VIII was such a fucking disaster that IX was good by comparison. When I walked out of the theater I liked it.
But the more you think about it, the worse it gets. I have no desire to ever watch it again. Which is pretty much the way I feel about all the numbered films outside of the originals.
Rogue One was great. Solo was entertaining and fun. Those are the ones I'll happily rewatch from time to time. [Reply]
If the sequel trilogy had actually been good, they'd have probably crossed the 3 billion mark at some point. The thing that disappoints me most I think was that they were just...mediocre. Like if they didn't exist it would in no way have any impact on the saga. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Well, not only that but Episode IX invalidated Anakin's journey and destiny as The Chosen One that brought balance to The Force.
It also invalidates the notion that these movies have been the "Skywalker Saga" when in the end, it was all about Sheev Palpatine and his offspring.
Anakin, Luke, Leia and Padme were all reduced to bit players.
Finally watched this shit show. Better than the previous one, i guess that's about as high as praise as i can muster. Ignoring the major problems for the moment, how in the fuck do they have c3po willingly agree to have his memory wiped and not use THAT opportunity for the callback on the line "never underestimate a droid?" [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
OR...not release a freaking movie until the entire trilogy galaxy was planned out and set in stone, like the MCU.
It was a completely wasted opportunity that they'll never have again.
It’s almost like they rushed the movies just to set up merch sales and their theme park section at Disney land. I just don’t get it. They are going to look back and shake their heads at this disjointed mess [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
OR...not release a freaking movie until the entire trilogy galaxy was planned out and set in stone, like the MCU.
It was a completely wasted opportunity that they'll never have again.
Yeah, that's just nuts.
I remember hearing that Lucas had prepared an outline for all nine installments of a triple trilogy back in the 70s or 80s. If true, I assume that must have been tossed aside. Can't imagine that he would penned such a disjointed mess, especially back before he became a bloated, egomaniacal jackass. As bad as I, II and III were, at least the overall story line was mostly coherent. It was the execution that failed.
If only someone could travel back in time to 1983, make him watch the shitshow that his baby would devolve into later, and scream at him "DON'T FUCKING LET THIS HAPPEN!"