Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

55% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 391 reviews)

Runtime: 142 minutes

Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Starring: The usual people from this new trilogy, some old names from the past and even some new characters

From: You know who

I apologize for this being posted here a few days late but things were hectic for me then starting on Sunday I have been on vacation. At the very end of the year I am sure I will get back on schedule but for now:

Well, it was better than The Last Jedi, BUT...

This will be one of those reviews the length of a dissertation as there is plenty to say even with only having one paragraph that has minor spoilers and no major plot points are brought up. I have mentioned before how as a kid (and I am uncomfortably close to 40 now) I watched the original movies on VHS and this was made easy when my parents bought them in a 1990 box set release. The prequels, none of them are good-this includes Revenge of the Sith-and this new trilogy, I had a blast with The Force Awakens... even if it is a remake of A New Hope. The Last Jedi I know many love to death, and I'll never comprehend why. At the time I was awfully kind and gave it an average rating; if I ever were to see it again, I have a feeling the rating would be lower. The plot made zero sense when it came to logic and all the “humor” was not only unfunny and stupid, it ruined multiple scenes and was NOT needed in Star Wars. IMO, all that Canto Bright stuff was a waste of time and to list one of MANY examples, how exactly was The First Order in control of things shortly after the events of The Force Awakens if at that time, they were just revealed... it was like many months had passed between the end of Force and the beginning of Last and we know that can't be true as Rey wasn't waiting there for months waiting to hand Luke his lightsaber... and Lord did that movie ruin Luke.

I realize those online that complain about TLJ the most are the type that bullied Kelly Marie Tran off the Internet (as if she was the reason Rose was a character that many hated) and even now whine and bellow about it on YouTube... to millions of views, so no surprise many jumped on that bandwagon. I am not one of those loonies or obsessive people; I just thought TLJ was not a joy at all to sit through and to be blunt, it was stupid that Rian Johnson tossed away the plot points set up in The Force Awakens in order to “be cute” or “subvert expectations” or whatever the hell. Then again, I can't entirely blame him as I never looked into how much of the script came from him versus other people and of course, people like Kathleen Kennedy ultimately had to approve the story.

Anyhow, I enjoyed this more than TLJ, and even then I can admit this has its issues. The opening act wasn't as convoluted as others have said, at least to me... but overly busy, hurried and jumping right into action in media res... yes. The story I had plenty of issues with and there are stupid moments; thankfully they were not stupid swerves or characters not sharing information for no reason like in The Last Jedi. Unfortunately, the other thing I was hoping wouldn't be in this movie... it was. OF COURSE there is way too much humor that is not only pointless but ruined multiple scenes, and I was not happy about it. Looking at the reviews of people I follow on Letterboxd and a few other places, that aspect is rarely brought up but I understand there is too much humor in a typical Marvel movie and I've only seen a few of those (as I don't care about comic book movies in general and never will) so maybe that's why it bothers me more than most. I'd like to think I am not a joyless curmudgeon, anyway!

This is the sort of movie where the plotting made it difficult to judge how much time has elapsed... I'll just state that the first hour and a half or so I did not love due to the “humor” thing and various plot problems. The last hour, once they got serious & focused & hardly had any jokes present, magically it was much more enjoyable for me as there's the big showdown; I never bring up such things and if anyone reading this had photosensitive epilepsy, but even I noticed there was part of the finale w/ plenty of strobing lights. Some chains have noted this to people but not all of them, so... a word of warning. Anyhow, right as I left the auditorium I was not mad at the movie overall because the final act was exciting (the final scene, that can be debated) and there was no issue w/ The Last Jedi mostly being ignored. Plus, the cast tries its best and naturally, such things as the production design and musical score were top notch.

(This paragraph contains minor spoilers) In the hours after the movie, though... my enthusiasm has died down. The mainly flaws with the final chapter of this nine movie saga became more apparent the longer I thought about it. I then got mad at this new trilogy in general and how Finn should have had more of an arc due to setup that was rich with possibilities... or the various problems with Rey or how various new/returning characters are short-changed (I am looking at Tran and Keri Russell-no relation) or needing to have Palpatine return with little explanation of how he survived the ending of RotJ or various conveniences or how “14 hours” is brought up as a plot point then is forgotten or how Finn is about to make a revelation to someone on two occasions but it doesn't happen and it's never brought up again or how in a flabbergasting moment, Abrams ripped off a horrible plot point from STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS and used it here, and it's just as bad an idea.

I am not like the segment of YouTube which has already made rage-filled diatribes concerning this (one of which is almost as long as the movie itself); instead, I am just disappointed they did not have a set plan for Episode IX before they started with Episode VII and instead they winged it. In addition, this following the modern movie trends that I don't like is a shame. Three last things:

Eventually I will subscribe to Disney + and at that time I'll finally check out The Mandalorian. Hopefully it's more to my tastes and it is more than just Baby Yoda.

No matter what you think of Rise, at least it is not Cats. Of course I am only judging this based on the horrifying trailer from a few months ago and the amazingly bad word of mouth it has from both critics & fans, but discovering that they originally sent out the movie with RENDERING ERRORS and it played before new copies had to be downloaded by the cinemas. As bold as it was to apparently go all-in on such a risky idea-even if it was a popular musical decades ago-the CG failing spectacularly and there not being much of a plot means that I will presume Cats is a poor movie.

Starting tomorrow I will be out of town for about a week (as is customary) and I probably won't have time for any movie-watching as I will be with family. In any case, a Happy Holidays to everyone.