Knights Reborn

Spoilers ahead (and a minor The Mandalorian spoiler if you aren't up to date)

So I just came back from watching the Rise of Skywalker, and wanted to share some initial thoughts and see what others thought about the movie. Overall, I think Rotten Tomatoes' critics consensus sums it up well: "suffers from a frustrating lack of imagination, but concludes this beloved saga with fan-focused devotion." I definitely wouldn't rate it 56% (current RT score), but I did understand why as a movie it wasn't the best. In that sense, it was kind of the opposite of TLJ. To me, TLJ was a decent movie but lacked elements that appeal to the fans (in the sense that I didn't like what they did with Luke). TROS felt like a huge fan service but as a movie it felt a bit meh. Not bad, but not going to be the greatest Star Wars movie either. Overall I'm satisfied with how it ended, but not as much as I had hoped when I heard the Sequel will be rolling out.

Some of my initial thoughts/comments/vents/complaints/whining/questions:
1. Why did Rey introduce her as Rey Skywalker in the end? Is it because she felt that Luke & Leia are her parents at that point? Is she even mildly concerned that a random stranger (who happened to be passing by an abandoned house that's not close to anything else) may have seen her burying those lightsabers?

2. Not a fan of Palpatine's return. He was supposed to be dead in Episode 6, and I think it was a bit lazy to bring him back (to be fair, I do not like most story lines that bring the dead back - Darth Maul should've been dead in Episode 1, for example). This is probably my single biggest complaint for this movie. I swear, if they end another future trilogy with Palpatine using Force lightning...

Also it sounded a bit strange that Palpatine had a child and somehow he failed to become a Sith (I guess, because Palpatine already had an apprentice, but how about after Vader died?)

3. Who were the ones at the stadium in that Sith Temple? Are they previous (and dead) Sith Lords? How are they still there? Did they all train to become the Force ghost?

4. Teleportation & Force materialization (?) were kind of cool, although I feel like that opens up a lot of doors. Like, was Luke just too weak in TLJ to materialize himself from far away (and passed away just from projecting himself), while Rey and Kylo didn't seem to have any trouble in TROS? Also in Episode 1 couldn't Yoda just transfer the Nubian parts to Qui-Gon? Or was this supposed to be a lost art that Rey learned from the Jedi texts (which doesn't explain how Kylo could do it)?

5. Force heal was cool, and it even coincided with the baby Yoda's using it in this week's The Mandalorian. I don't think it was shown in the movies before.

6. The fact that Rose didn't get a lot of screen time was a bit surprising. I didn't really like her in TLJ so no complaints, but thought she'd take more roles.

7. What did Leia do to die? Did she use all her Force to just disturb Kylo so he'd get stabbed? Kind of goes back to #4.

8. Leia & Luke training scene was really cool. That Mary Poppins scene in TLJ makes more sense now that I know Leia was in fact very well trained in the Force (which I don't think was ever mentioned before in a canon story).

9. A bit surprised there weren't much romance scenes. Based on TLJ, I thought Finn was going to be more intimate with Rose. And Reylo kind of happened, but not for long.

10. What was the significance of that new saber in the end? That she's an independent Jedi now? But Luke didn't seem to have trouble using the saber he was given until his arm was cut off (which, we still don't know how it ended up with Maz - not that it really matters).

11. Wondering what the significance of that kid in TLJ was (the one that uses the Force to summon his broom at the end). Was it just to tell the audience that the Force users can be anywhere (but what was the point of that?)?

12. Adam Driver's acting was purely awesome.

13. Not sure what to make of Hux. Kind of felt like a lazy way to help Finn and Poe escape.

Will probably add more and/or feel stupid about some of these comments later.

I actually liked The Emperor here. He wasn't bad. The part where Rey and him are fighting and then suddenly you hear the voice of multiple Jedi. The Sith speaking on the lightning shots. Kind of reminds me of the speaking holocrons on Kotor 2. General Hux died in a real stupid way though. Rey being a Palpatine. I actually saw that coming due to certain signs. This movie, you can really see Kylo Ren take on his father's and grandfather's hand gestures. It's was real interesting to see him do all that. Han Solo returning. I didn't think he'd return since Harrison Ford doesn't really like Star Wars. So that kind of caught me off guard. OMG the music though. The music was great. The variations of The Emperor's themes. I'm glad this movie actually did a good job in cleaning up with Episode 8 The Last Jedi messed over. The planet The Emperor was hiding on. Exogol. The planet of a bunch of Ancient Sith in the Unknown Regions. I wish he was on Korriban instead. But I can see why they didn't use Korriban. Ben Solo/Kylo Ren dying in the end was a bit unnecessary in my opinion. He should have lived after kissing Rey. Could we be getting some sort of different story now since Rey buried both Anakin's and Leia's lightsabers in the sands of Tatooine. Anakin: "I don't like sand." Rey: __**buries Anakin's lightsaber in sand.**__
Overall, I thought the movie was good. Definitely better than The Last Jedi even though that movie wasn't really a high bar to pass to begin with but it was good.

I thought it was ok but I don't really like JJ abrams' style applied to star wars. A lot of the same gripes I had with 7 were still problems in 9. It wasn't as actively bad as 8, but wasn't as good as it could have been

Sakito wrote:The part where Rey and him are fighting and then suddenly you hear the voice of multiple Jedi.

I'm a bit torn on this scene. 1) Why did we hear Ahsoka's voice? One, she's dead, and two, did she rejoin the order before her death? Is it going to be in another show in the future? 2) Where's Ezra? Is he still alive? Was he in Ghost? 3) The fact that we *only* hear the voices of pretty much all the Jedi that we know about kind of sounded a bit forced too me (or commercialized? I don't know what's the right word, just felt a bit unnatural. Thousand years of Jedi, yet we hear the voices of the select few Jedi that were shown).

Sakito wrote: The Sith speaking on the lightning shots. Kind of reminds me of the speaking holocrons on Kotor 2.

As mentioned, I was hoping Palpatine's return won't be real after the trailer was released. One thing I would've rather watched was some "wannabe" Sith Lord finding a Sith Holocron and training Snoke and becoming the ultimate villain in this trilogy. Or is that too corny?

Sakito wrote: Han Solo returning. I didn't think he'd return since Harrison Ford doesn't really like Star Wars. So that kind of caught me off guard.

I actually saw a YouTube video saying Carrie Fisher was supposed to be in that scene. Would've made more sense why Leia died (since Luke also died after doing that Force projection stuff in EP8).

Sakito wrote: Anakin: "I don't like sand." Rey: __**buries Anakin's lightsaber in sand.**__

LOL

MasterM wrote: I thought it was ok but I don't really like JJ abrams' style applied to star wars. A lot of the same gripes I had with 7 were still problems in 9. It wasn't as actively bad as 8, but wasn't as good as it could have been

I feel like the overall issue wasn't really with Abrams. The problem is that the new lines of Star Wars shows after the Disney takeover lacks a Kevin Feige figure (which I don't believe Kathleen Kennedy is doing a good job of) that can bind all shows coherently.

My only stand-out question is how the hidden Exogol planet which required a long and complex paper chase to find, managed to also have the resources to build and staff 1000+ planet destroying ships.

Jawfin wrote:My only stand-out question is how the hidden Exogol planet which required a long and complex paper chase to find, managed to also have the resources to build and staff 1000+ planet destroying ships.

Exactly.

Also how did Palpatine survive? How did he find the assistance to create all of this? How did he bury fully functional star destroyers under rubble?

I personally found this movie embarrassing and insulting to our intelligence. They literally just copy pasted the villain into this film with no rational explanation of how he survived, how he created this massive army, what his ultimate motivations were, any of the origin behind his having children. Not to mention this totally erases the Anakin prophecy about him destroying the sith.

He felt completely out of place in the movie and he killed the credibility of all other major events that occurred. The first two movies would have been better if this one didn't exist. For that matter, the other 8 star wars movies would have been better if this one didn't exist.

Some of the laziest writing I've ever seen.

I really wasn't a fan of the "9th verse, same as the first" move by making the final battle be a bunch of small ships shooting the big planet killing weapon in its weak spot again.

Mnsomc wrote:

MasterM wrote: I thought it was ok but I don't really like JJ abrams' style applied to star wars. A lot of the same gripes I had with 7 were still problems in 9. It wasn't as actively bad as 8, but wasn't as good as it could have been

I feel like the overall issue wasn't really with Abrams. The problem is that the new lines of Star Wars shows after the Disney takeover lacks a Kevin Feige figure (which I don't believe Kathleen Kennedy is doing a good job of) that can bind all shows coherently.

Jon Favreau is making a pretty solid case for himself to be at the helm with how well The Mandalorian is doing.

MasterM wrote: Jon Favreau is making a pretty solid case for himself to be at the helm with how well The Mandalorian is doing.

Agreed. Also hoping Dave Filoni would be more involved in future films.

This movie is by no means a masterpiece. It was better than TLJ but then again... so is The Room (If you don't know what this movie is, go see it).

RoS raises more questions than it does answers. There was some good parts and some fan service in here but overall a pretty sloppy plot and movie in general. The story line would have probably been better having JJ doing all three of the movies instead of RJ doing Ep8 but hey ho. We got what we got.

Praying Jon Favreau takes the helm for upcoming Star Wars movies. The Mandalorian was really good and shows promise for season 2.

Decent fun movie. However, the kiss at the end put me off a bit. I got some real sibling vibes from Rey’s and Kylo’s interactions throughout the trilogy.

The fact that if he survived once with unexplained reasons leaves a lot of holes in the story. How do we know he didn't survive this time as well?