Rise of Skywalker: What I liked
Because I don't want to come across as completely negative, here's a quick list of things I actually liked in Rise of Skywalker. And if some of these come across as a bit like backhanded compliments... well, that's the nature of the beast.
- The opening was horribly rushed, throwing out a movie's worth of development in about five minutes. Nonetheless, the montage of Kylo fighting his way past enemies, tracking down the Sith wayfinder, and making his way to the Emperor's secret lair was a really well put together piece of cinema, a nice little short film in its own right.
- A lot of the later scenes with Leia felt very obviously stitched together from left-over footage of Carrie Fisher, but I thought the earliest scenes between Rey and Leia actually worked pretty well, and I liked the implication that Leia took over Rey's training after Luke's death.
- Hux betraying the First Order simply because he's petty enough to want to bring down Kylo Ren is perfect. And who can blame him? Kylo's the worst!
- The festival on Pasana was one of the few times the movie actually slowed down enough to have some character moments, and I thought it had some good moments for Rey. It is a bit odd that the only world we see actually under First Order occupation is also seemingly the nicest place to visit we've seen all trilogy, but hey.
- It was nice to see 3PO get to do something heroic, even if his sacrifice was immediately walked back. I mean, I don't mind that he survived - I've never been of the school of thought that an ending needs major character deaths to be meaningful, but it was just weird after we'd already had the fake-out of Chewbacca's death. I am glad that the main cast made it to the end intact. I mean, Leia died, but we all knew that was coming, and Kylo didn't make it - but, let's face it, did anyone really expect he wouldn't die?
- The sequel trilogy didn't have nearly enough new spaceship designs, so I really liked Kylo's personal TIE. It looked like the TIE Avengers from the old X-Wing games, which themselves echoed Vader's prototype fighter - which seems appropriate for Kylo Ren.
Hmm... is that it? I mean, there were a bunch of little moments I liked, because they looked like they were heading somewhere interesting, but so few of them panned out. I mean, the previous films had the same problem, but at least then there was the promise that the next one would pick up the pieces. Here, though... Unsatisfying is really the best word for this film.s
- The opening was horribly rushed, throwing out a movie's worth of development in about five minutes. Nonetheless, the montage of Kylo fighting his way past enemies, tracking down the Sith wayfinder, and making his way to the Emperor's secret lair was a really well put together piece of cinema, a nice little short film in its own right.
- A lot of the later scenes with Leia felt very obviously stitched together from left-over footage of Carrie Fisher, but I thought the earliest scenes between Rey and Leia actually worked pretty well, and I liked the implication that Leia took over Rey's training after Luke's death.
- Hux betraying the First Order simply because he's petty enough to want to bring down Kylo Ren is perfect. And who can blame him? Kylo's the worst!
- The festival on Pasana was one of the few times the movie actually slowed down enough to have some character moments, and I thought it had some good moments for Rey. It is a bit odd that the only world we see actually under First Order occupation is also seemingly the nicest place to visit we've seen all trilogy, but hey.
- It was nice to see 3PO get to do something heroic, even if his sacrifice was immediately walked back. I mean, I don't mind that he survived - I've never been of the school of thought that an ending needs major character deaths to be meaningful, but it was just weird after we'd already had the fake-out of Chewbacca's death. I am glad that the main cast made it to the end intact. I mean, Leia died, but we all knew that was coming, and Kylo didn't make it - but, let's face it, did anyone really expect he wouldn't die?
- The sequel trilogy didn't have nearly enough new spaceship designs, so I really liked Kylo's personal TIE. It looked like the TIE Avengers from the old X-Wing games, which themselves echoed Vader's prototype fighter - which seems appropriate for Kylo Ren.
Hmm... is that it? I mean, there were a bunch of little moments I liked, because they looked like they were heading somewhere interesting, but so few of them panned out. I mean, the previous films had the same problem, but at least then there was the promise that the next one would pick up the pieces. Here, though... Unsatisfying is really the best word for this film.s