blog Rise of Skywalker — Held Back by Damage Control?

I wanted...really wanted... to like the new Star Wars stuff, and even went to see this movie on opening night. I have nothing nice to say about this movie, and after a lifetime of being a fan, I truly feel Star Wars is dead to me. I will never return. I could list out a lot of reasons, but I would have to use words that would be impolite, and would not likely illicit receptive responses.

But you have asked for some feed back...

First, I had forgotten most of my feeling on the Rian film, and after reading this I am reminded that I also thought that film was terrible. I am personally disappointed that JJ Abrams gets to do both Star Wars and Star Trek, I much preferred these two space stories to come from different minds. I don't know how I can say this, but I miss George Lucas, and I've been pretty down on him since the prequels. I was interested in his vision. I don think this is that, and I have no use for this new stuff.

I agree with the statements in the article. I liked Adam Drivers conflicted Kilo Ryan presentation, that was the only decent part of the entirety of the films. I wish I found this movie and story wrap-up to be worthy of working out the deeper hidden meanings of all the choices, and how now that we know X, that means this to Y, but I need better than this for that. Palpatine back...weak. Better to let him stay dead and let Vader and Luke struggle to be meaningful.

I would call this whole movie Hollywood garbage, it will be the first Star Wars movie I will not personally own, and will be the last one I see.

A much better example of someone taking a franchise that has been hurt by recent additions, and brought back to cool is the most recent Terminator Movie, which took some bold moves and made a better story for everyone. Cameron is the best. Abrams...so far he has made two movies that killed an entire series for me.

I've heard some talk that Rian had a personal stake in undoing some of Abrams work, and I have seen him personally make comments that he was sorry for mistakes in the last film and did not think his poor choices would mean so much, and create so much disappointment. I can forgive him, but perhaps best would have been to push the movie aside and the way Cameron did, and go on as if it did not happen.

I too was impressed that manage to get Carrie Fisher to fill out the movie. What a tragedy it has been that she passed on. But I must say, I question the ethics of that. With CGI no is really gone. When I saw Grand Moff Tarkin on one of these films, I was like…Wow… that’s really impressive, but also I wonder, should his legacy include stuff he did not actually do? Its weird world we have now.

This movie, however, is not worthy of articles, and for me, Star Wars ends in disgust.

PS: C3PO was never really one of my favs either

 

I'm weird I guess. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan to begin with...but I loved The Last Jedi and think it was the best of the three. (Rise of Skywalker, the worst.)

Having grown old and curmudgeonly myself, it spoke to me. Heh. So I could buy it fairly easily. In that mad world, isolation like he found appeals to me as well.

 

I find this rather interesting, everywhere else I've been people were at each others throats. Yet here there is meaningful discussion! Granted its still only page one but still!

Anywho, for me my biggest issues with the last three films had a lot to do with how the main character (Rey) was portrayed as being superior in all areas. While it took Luke three films to master his techniques, it seemed to only take Rey one (maybe two) and she was able to beat someone more experienced than she was. To me that put a bad taste in my mouth, as I wanted to see a character struggle, not one that had it all figured out. It was also why the way they portrayed Luke really rubbed me the wrong way.

Having read the novels, and even some of the comics, at no point was it ever shown that Luke would act in this manner. He came *close* in one of the novels, but pulled himself back and didn't fall to temptation. Killing his own nephew *is* a dark side decision when it comes to star wars, which means that the way it was shown meant that Luke had been falling to the dark side when he tried to kill his nephew which again makes no sense.

Sadly, based on what I've read so far about the way Disney has chosen to treat the character, I think this was done more to try and get him out of the series. So that the other characters would have more screen time. I'm not against that, but if they wanted to get rid of the character, they should've remained true to that characters story and personality.

 

Yep.

For me, the biggest problem was the way the creators of that final trilogy attempted to recreate the original trilogy, giving it a few "tweaks" to make it seem "fresh." But the original was better, heh. The reboot Star Trek movies did something of the same with Khan, only this time "killing" Kirk rather than Spock. What is it with directors thinking fan service=mere repetition? Annoying.

For me personally, Rey seemed most likely, of all of them, to turn to the dark side. She was very dark throughout the movies in the way she handled her abilities. Very aggressive, very angry at times. It was off-putting. In the first two trilogies, that kind of attitude/approach was always a signal of being in danger of going to the dark side. (First w/ Luke, then in the young version of his father.) But this aspect was simply ignored or brushed over too lightly in this latest trilogy. There was no authentic fear/suggestion that she might go dark.

 

I am an old man who actually grew up with this crap and I agree with FifthView - whatever the various lines and characters there is no actual tension to the plot- and after the second one where Finn was sidelined.. I frankly lost interest. A lot of bait and switch going on and it just turns me off.

I went with my daughter to the second movie and we walked out- and it may have been the second movie ever for me to do that. but I did not regret it.