Enjoyed the movie greatly!

Was it perfect, no. Haven't seen a perfect film in any series along time.

That aside it was exciting, provocative, and dramatic! Droids, aliens, laser swords 🧐 and starships! I was seven again and escaped to a world I forget about from time to time. It was credits well spent and I will go see it again.

SPOLIER:

I hope to see an Billy D LAndo movie! It would be awesome!

What a frenetic and disappointing movie.

I liked it! Most of the chatter around me as I left the theater was positive too.

In the end the sequel trilogy as a whole will be divisive though. I can foresee a lot of people hating RoS.

Im glad that the Skywalker saga is done. Im looking forward to what Disney continues to do with new characters and time frames (Loving the mandalorian).

For my wife and I (and much of the audience we were with) one big, important scene goes one beat too long, or did one turn about too many too soon, and became a farce when it was supposed to be solemn. Otherwise, enjoyable, and it avoided ripping off set pieces and big moments from earlier films. More even in quality throughout than TLJ, which (for me) had higher highs and lower lows.

My thoughts:

The movie was a solid 5/10 . It wasn't bad, nor good. However, I would not pay to see it again.

The first half was pretty enjoyable, though very choppy (lot's of character teleportation). I wish this was TLJ with more development and flesh out the details.

Second half was a disappointment, but not terrible (see TLJ).

Also, the leaks about the movie screenings WERE true (weeks ago).

Non-Spoilers: + / -

What I liked (No big reveals, but I mention main cast of revealed characters)

1. Rose is completely out of the movie. She's one of the most uninteresting main characters in the SW franchise. I'm so glad that she was barely in the movie.

2. Poe is one of the few well-fleshed out characters across these three movies. He continues to impress me and was excellent in this movie.

3. Leftest Propaganda left out of the movie. I felt I was watching a movie and not CNN.

4. This movie is for the fans of the original trilogy. Abrams gives lots of nods to characters, events, and scenes from the original trilogy.

What I didn't like:

1. Leia scenes felt weird and out of place. Seeing her on screen makes me feel uneasy.

2. Rey continues to be a Marry Sue, however Abrams did his best to reduce it. Some of her scenes made me burst out laughing in the theater. Way over the top.

3. Climax of the movie needed to be rewritten completely.

Imperial Advisor’s Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, Triva, and Canon

The entire movie feels like it was written and directed by people on reddit and forums with an ax to grind against both The Last Jedi and anything from previous movies that was conveyed through subtext. It is almost 100% tell and very little show. Every beat is explained by a character out loud and most are explained aloud multiple times. Almost every beat with the potential for emotional punch is undone MINUTES later. It is shockingly bad storytelling.

There are visually beautiful moments, some interesting new characters, and some scenes are individually compelling. But it's the most disjointed movie in the series, easily and by far.

It was fine. May be a breath of fresh air since it seems like a reverse TLJ. Fans enjoy it and critics hate it. Cats may be RoS savior since most review sites will move on to that train wreck.

Poe stole every scene and they leave a lot for comics and books to cover (for better and worse).

It really had pacing issues which made me mad with how much time it spent retconing everything from TLJ. Retconing a decisive movie is one thing, but they had two movies they rushed through on top of that.

Really interesting to see if this movie was a sacrifice to the hardcore fans in an attempt to unify the fandom again.

I thought that this movie was a really solid conclusion to the story. Could it have been better? Sure of course it could but they didn't want to try anything drastic and risky or we might have ended up with another Last Jedi. After what we were left with from TLJ, JJ Abrams did a really great job with what he was handed. Visual effects in this movie were some of the best I've seen in any movie

30 minutes ago, RyantheFett said:

this movie was a sacrifice to the hardcore fans in an attempt to unify the fandom again.

There it is.

It was an okay Star Wars movie. No one whined about sand, no podracing, and no bipedal frog people yammering through the movie. In that aspect it's better than at least 2 other SW films out the gate. The action scenes were actiony and the lore was lorey. I enjoyed the ride... that said... It was an obvious attempt to gain favor with mass appeal.

The pacing was rushed, and really... the plot points were very unoriginal.... which, doesn't make it bad, by any means, but it certainly wasn't the ending it could have been.


I really hope all these people who spent 2 whole years complaining about TLJ liked what they got, that all the vitriol and hate was worth it. And I mean that unironically. Personally, I think it's a waste. JJ was free to go any direction he wanted, somehow just ended up with a watered down but acceptable conclusion.

I definitely think the leadership here made a call based on future endeavors.

They made a movie that doesn't really do anything great but has enough laser swords and fanservice to be enjoyable while they set up to make their own original product line that no fan could hate for "ruining" their childhood.


If nothing else, I'm interested to see where they go from here. Lots of opportunity for an Old Republic series or something completely original. Should be cool to see.

14 minutes ago, Darth Sanguis said:

I really hope all these people who spent 2 whole years complaining about TLJ liked what they got, that all the vitriol and hate was worth it. And I mean that unironically. Personally, I think it's a waste. JJ was free to go any direction he wanted, somehow just ended up with a watered down but acceptable conclusion.

Honestly... Kelly Marie Tran got done wrong . I appreciate that not everyone's beef with Rose was coming from a place of toxicity, but an awful lot of it did . And to see Disney's / JJ's reaction to that be that she's essentially written out of the sequel is INCREDIBLY discouraging. If you took her out of the movie it would have absolutely no impact on the plot. It's unbelievable how cowardly that was and it will absolutely embolden trolls.

51 minutes ago, KalEl814 said:

It's unbelievable how cowardly that was and it will absolutely embolden trolls.

I believe it.

Money talks.

Disney can't risk the franchise going the way of Solo. Even though Solo was DOA from a mixed bag of reasons, most having nothing to do with the fan division from TLJ, they couldn't risk it. Especially since this sequel trilogy was very apparently designed to use up the existing franchise characters before moving to their own content. It would completely defeat the purpose of even doing these movies if half the wallets were alienated.

In all fairness, I see IX as a sign that they've won. If not just this battle maybe even the whole war.

It's neither here nor there in terms of the self contained content of this movie, but it certainly seems a sign of impending stagnation. There's a good chance Star Wars will be exactly the same from here on out. Every time. A mindless, soulless, cash cow.

I'm hopeful, as Star Wars is always fun, and my happiness isn't derived from pretend characters, but time will tell.

I have a lot to say about the movie, both good and bad. But I'm not going to say it now, other than I did enjoy it. Instead I'm going to leave you with one controversial statement.

This movie would have been way better if they had kept the story and had Rian Johnson film it instead.

15 minutes ago, Izzboticus said:

This movie would have been way better if they had kept the story and had Rian Johnson film it instead.

The direction / editing of this movie is generally pretty bad.

1 hour ago, Darth Sanguis said:

2 hours ago, KalEl814 said:

It's unbelievable how cowardly that was and it will absolutely embolden trolls.

I believe it.

Money talks

This may be true (and I think it is), but I would like to offer a brighter option. JJ is a hardcore OT fan and given the chance would of course change anything that went aginst them.

The list of complaints just so happened was hijacked by YouTube clickbaters and the culture war trolls. So it looks like bowing down, but its really just a guy repeating what he did in TFA since he only has one trick.

44 minutes ago, Izzboticus said:

This movie would have been way better if they had kept the story and had Rian Johnson film it instead.

That Holdo ram is still just one of the greatest things I have ever scene in Star Wars.

My wife and I saw it today. She is completely non-nerd btw. We both liked it. It was fun and got some emotional response from us at points. We have not analyzed beyond that.

It seems you can go in negative and then nitpick it to death to reinforce your opinion, or go in positive and enjoy it for what it is.

58 minutes ago, RyantheFett said:

This may be true (and I think it is), but I would like to offer a brighter option. JJ is a hardcore OT fan and given the chance would of course change anything that went aginst them.

The list of complaints just so happened was hijacked by YouTube clickbaters and the culture war trolls. So it looks like bowing down, but its really just a guy repeating what he did in TFA since he only has one trick.

This is a much more charitable read than the movie warrants, I think. A non trivial amount of the issues in RoS came from JJ's content in TFA or even from RoS itself. Why is Poe back to wanting to just blow stuff up? Or if you're going to do that to him, why does he relearn the exact same lesson he did in in TLJ? What was Finn going to say to Rey? That's not a TLJ problem, JJ did that himself. Why is Sheev surprised that Rey and Kylo are joined in the Force? Snoke did that, and Sheev made Snoke.

The writing is just... BAD. Why bother saying, "Artoo's backups are notoriously unreliable." We KNOW Artoo is incredibly reliable. And Threepio ends up being fine. Not only does he end up being fine, but nobody cares about Threepio's memories up until they're about to be lost, and then nobody cares when he gets them back. It's drama set up and discarded immediately. RoS does that over and over and over. It's so lazy.

EDIT - I'm a fan of TLJ, but I can appreciate why people didn't enjoy it.

But it's a much better written movie than RoS regardless of whether or not someone likes the actual output.

To wit: In TLJ, there's what seems to be a throwaway line from Kylo the first time her and Rey ForceTime, "you're not doing this, the effort would kill you." And then the effort of doing something like that DOES kill Luke. Setup and payoff. TLJ has stuff like that throughout the movie.

In RoS the first 33%-50% of the movie is about getting the stuff that they need to get to the Unknown Regions. They need a wayfinder, and they need the knife to find that; this is what drives most of the action in the first half of the movie. Then Rey ends up in Ireland and wouldn't you know... Kylo's waysfinder was in the ship Rey stole! Even though Rey already blew up one of Kylo's ships and the movie does nothing to establish that he took it, that he put it in his other ship, etc. It's just there for no reason other than the plot needs it to be at that moment. No setup, just convenience. RoS is filled with that.

I mean there are literally two towers in the movie and without them the entire Sith fleet cannot tell what direction up is relative to a planet. Say what you will about TLJ but there is NOTHING that approaches that level of stupidity in that movie.

I think it was great! Personally, when I saw that the critics were saying it was bad in the lead up to the movie, I thought to myself: Dude! this movies going to be good if the critics think it's bad! They were wrong about tLJ and they were wrong about tRoS.

It wasn't perfect, they're were some points were they took away things that they should have left in, but it was still very good. Also, It seems JJ rewrote Poe's backstory, and I'm not sure I liked it. Read 'Before the Awakening'

The plot was decent, they could have done a little bit better with the lightsaber fights, but they were okay. I had fun, also, SO MANY NEW DESIGNS. Not as many as possible and they were mostly in the background, but the ships were cool. 1 of 3 popular Rey backstories has been confirmed. The Cameo ships in the background are awesome! I spotted a Mandalorian ship(not the Razorcrest, one of the transports from the cartoons).

-Cheers!

1 hour ago, KalEl814 said:

This is a much more charitable read than the movie warrants, I think.

My bad that I was not clear. I was going with more what was the cause behind RoS and not a review. Just not sure if the movie was more of a response to the vocal fan reaction to the TLJ or JJ just doing his mystery box.

Funny enough since I am stuck behind a computer when I work I care way more about if the comics, books, and the games are good then the movies.

4 hours ago, Darth Sanguis said:

Disney can't risk the franchise going the way of Solo. Even though Solo was DOA from a mixed bag of reasons, most having nothing to do with the fan division from TLJ, they couldn't risk it. Especially since this sequel trilogy was very apparently designed to use up the existing franchise characters before moving to their own content. It would completely defeat the purpose of even doing these movies if half the wallets were alienated.

In all fairness, I see IX as a sign that they've won. If not just this battle maybe even the whole war.

Pretty much all this here. Feels like they rather have a bad movie make money then have a controversial movie that drives away fans.

On the bright side if they are done with the Skywalker saga and stick to one offs every few years I think they could do something different.,.......

8 hours ago, Dark Don said:

Enjoyed the movie greatly!

Seeing it Sunday, I have a completely open mind.

8 hours ago, Dark Don said:

Was it perfect, no. Haven't seen a perfect film in any series along time.

Mad Max: Fury Road. Rogue One. Those movies were well into the 95% range.

8 hours ago, Dark Don said:

I hope to see an Billy D LAndo movie! It would be awesome!

Me too.

6 hours ago, KalEl814 said:

Honestly... Kelly Marie Tran got done wrong . I appreciate that not everyone's beef with Rose was coming from a place of toxicity, but an awful lot of it did . And to see Disney's / JJ's reaction to that be that she's essentially written out of the sequel is INCREDIBLY discouraging. If you took her out of the movie it would have absolutely no impact on the plot. It's unbelievable how cowardly that was and it will absolutely embolden trolls.

I'm sure she's a wonderful person. In the context of the SW sequels, her character is bland and uninteresting. This isn't her fault, and I'm not blaming her. It's Rian Johnson's poor writing to blame. It feels like Rose was forced into the TLJ and didn't belong. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons why JJ didn't include her in the story.

Maybe JJ agrees with the fan base that her character didn't 'belong' in the universe?? Maybe he wanted to develop other, more interesting characters? We honestly don't know, but it's a stretch to say that it was in response to internet trolls (In fact that makes me laugh just thinking about it). A director of several blockbuster movies afraid of what internet trolls think...

3 hours ago, RyantheFett said:

The list of complaints just so happened was hijacked by YouTube clickbaters and the culture war trolls. So it looks like bowing down, but its really just a guy repeating what he did in TFA since he only has one trick.

Other people bring up pretty valid points (see the video). Joe is unbiased in his assessment. He states facts and makes his opinions based off facts . This doesn't make him or I a troll. It's 'normal' to be afraid of other people's views. Just look at American politics and how dividing it is. Both sides refusing to listen to others .

If you read my post, I mentioned several things that I liked and disliked about the movie (different from my previous posts). 5/10 is a pretty reasonable rating. JJ did the best with what Rian Johnson had left him.

The only Sequel thing that I'm looking foward to is a Poe origin story (with that new female character from RoS).

Rose is still my favorite new sequel character. Well, after Rey.

Course I also vastly prefer TLJ to TFA. Starkiller Base (and the addition of Snope to the series) was just that much of a deal breaker for me.

It's kind of funny how most of the good stuff in this film came from TLJ, while most of the bad stuff is Abrams being Abrams.

29 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

Rose is still my favorite new sequel character. Well, after Rey.

Course I also vastly prefer TLJ to TFA. Starkiller Base (and the addition of Snope to the series) was just that much of a deal breaker for me.

Good think she's a main character in TLJ then. You can rewatch that movie after RoS to fill the Rose void that Ros will leave you with.

Another interesting video... This one discusses rotten tomatoes rating system and the discrepancy between the critics and the audience reviews. Something doesn't add up.