The Emperor returns to take control of the First Order and lead an onslaught on the Resistance.
To paraphrase the tagline of another Fox studios properties, whoever wins, the audience loses.
I was looking forward to watching the sequel era Star Wars movies. I had not watched the previous four since they came out, and I had never seen The Rise of Skywalker before.
I thought it would make for an interesting series of reviews. Maybe time would give me a new perspective on these films, particularly as someone who has not kept up with any new Star Wars media since this movie came out.
This review is not going to be long. I have nothing to add.
Going straight from The Last Jedi to this was a bad idea.
Even then, I doubt this movie would go down easier without the run up.
The opening crawl is a disaster. I heard of its ridiculousness before, but there is nothing like the sudden jolt of this mass of words sliding off into the distance.
Rather than setting the scene, it feels like a whole movie of characters and action.
And when the movie proper starts, it never stops moving.
The whole film feels powered by fear, racing towards the finish line.
It is as if the filmmakers believe that fast pacing will help paper over the lack of character development or a coherent story.
It is a crime what they do to the characters in this movie.
Kelly Marie Tran goes from a major character to a non-ironic take on the exposition-spewer that Sigourney Weaver sent up in Galaxy Quest.
Rey’s retconned ancestry is a cheap move that completely undoes the series’ best storytelling decision.
After watching the trilogy in a row, it is John Boyega which is the franchise’s biggest waste - after the promise of his introduction, Fin is… what?
- A deprogrammed cult member?
- A maybe-force user?
- A potential lover interest for Rey?
- A generic action guy?
Who cares, we need to get to the next plot device!
The introduction of rogue stormtroopers inspired by Fin’d example is a neat idea, one of a couple that filmmakers throw into the pot.
This film is a rush of sound and fury, a blender that reduces story, character, theme, even basic set-pieces, to bland slop.
Disastrous.
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