"The Force Awakens" (with SPOILERS)

Visually, it was very pretty.

Plot-wise, literally everything in this movie was conceived in an attempt to sooth the kind of fans who hate the idea of growing up, growing old. All of it — and I mean all of it — was reheated, rushed emotional beats already done better in previous installments. Whenever people say "You have to remember, these are movies for kids" while also insisting it is through this lens that allows them to love them, this is a fascinating tell that they are so addicted to nostalgia, they cannot risk digesting new things that might not feel familiar. Thus we get:

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER...

Rey revealing she's related to the big bad, just like Luke and Vader, except with no actual emotional resonance. We also get Ben stepping into the role of Vader, feeling emotionally conflicted by love and ultimately choosing to save the hero and sacrificing himself, just like Vader. And the Emperor! Let's not forget the Emperor reheating old lines about striking him down and hatred and how you friends are too late. Oh, and Chewie even gets a medal! Because hey why not turn a running internet joke about the Battle of Yavin into an actual plot point, so as everyone gets to feel warm. One last thing: How about a quick shot of the Ewoks too!

SPOILERS END HERE...


I thought it was fitting that two of the previews shown prior to this film were Top Gun: Maverick and Bad Boys For Life. You would think that eventually people would overdose on nostalgia, but it actually seems like they won't. We've created a massive culture of grown, but scared little boys who can only experience joy by tapping into emotions they felt as teenage boys or young men, and everything mass produced by the entertainment industry is worse for it.

 

If they were gonna resurrect a big bad, why not go all the way and have Grandpa Darth come back from Force Ghostism to light-saber tomahawk Palpy once and for all, as Spirit Luke and Leia give him the fist pump?

Now that would have been the Rise of the Skywalkers.

 

Just watched it and agree with a lot of the takes. I did enjoy it because I enjoy the universe, but at one point, I sat there thinking they were trying too hard to make Finn seem like Luke and to make Poe seem like Han. The Palpatine stuff was absolutely forced, though when she took down that transport with the lightning coming out of her hands, that was very Emperor-like. The writing was meh, but the action and visuals were great, which was pretty much what I expected going in.

sorry so no spoiler tag used because this thread has spoiler literally written in the title

 

Yeah, I think it is fair to post spoilers here. I actually liked The Last Jedi, so I wouldn’t have minded something that flowed more naturally from that one.
I enjoyed this one, too, but I get the criticism. They didn’t take many risks and they went very far out of their way to expunge all the stuff many fans hated about the last one.

 

Bringing Palpy back makes the sacrifice and redemption of Anakin meaningless, as well as Luke's part of it.

 

Ok then.

 

Was anyone else bothered by the fact they didn't truly address HOW Palpatine came back? In the old canon/Legends, he was cloned and came back. In the prequels, he said he had been taught how to cheat death. In RoS, he says the same stuff he said in the prequels, basically, but he doesn't make it clear if he came back through clones, through some Force sorcery or through cybernetics or whatever else.

 

If you don't think it applies to you, no reason to be bothered by what I wrote.

 

I've found a list of the Jedi voices Rey heard for those who are interested. There are some serious spoilers in the link, so click at your own risk.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Has The Cameo Fans Always Wanted

 

These two paragraphs from the AV/Club review are bullseye.

The conclusion of this trilogy jettisons much of the work done by Johnson’s film—to the point where, for all intents and purposes, The Rise Of Skywalker could almost pick up where The Force Awakens left off, were it not for a couple of characters pretty definitively dying in the interim. The most obvious of Abrams’ efforts to reverse The Last Jedi is the retconning of Rey’s parentage, making her the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. It’s a decision that doesn’t just undercut Johnson’s story, in which Kylo Ren reveals to Rey that her parents were nobodies, the better to reaffirm just how isolated and meaningless she is in the eyes of others. It also undermines the crux of Johnson’s point in making that narrative choice: that your past doesn’t define your future, and a hero who changes the course of the universe can come from anywhere.

By making her part of an aristocratic bloodline that directly ties her to the most powerful Sith Lord who ever lived (and died, and lived on as the undead, in this case), Abrams undercuts the entire emotional thrust of that story. Sure, he can include plenty of defensive speechifying from multiple characters about how we don’t have to let our ancestors define us, but it still upholds a mythos more dispiriting than any midichlorian—namely, that you can only really be special if you come from special beginnings. Multiple characters can be equally important parts of the story, but in true Animal Farm form, some are more equal than others. It’s like if someone revised Usain Bolt’s autobiography to say that his great-grandfather was Jesse Owens. “Oh, now he makes sense,” track-and-field fans could think. “Otherwise he’s just a Mary Sue!”

 

So at one point does the story of rey’s parents become a thing? Because, damnit, one of them better be a three-eye freak of nature.

 

I’d be curious to watch Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker back to back. I admit that I only saw Last Jedi once and really haven’t been all that invested in revisiting it.

oh, and that was Jodie Comer from Killing Eve making a cameo as Rey’s mother