[Traveller]

I'm just glad you didn't hate it! And yes, we can agree that the best moment in the entire new trilogy was

Spoiler

the saber pass

Seriously I have no idea what the Chinese have to do with anything.

I'd say in response to

Spoiler

Hux scene and other slightly hokey lines - they're funny! They're SW cheesy, I think I legit laughed - that's not a bad thing to me though. That bit at the end of LJ when Kylo force throws Hux against a wall also makes us laugh; he's kind of been the foil to the Kylo seriousness all along. That's why they brought in RE Grant, so they could have a legit bad guy. Point is, it's not a bad thing to be laughing in a SW movie, at a line that was basically played for that reason.

Strongly agree that Ben/Kylo is the best character throughout. And yes, when we finally see him smile.. really wish he'd survived.

The kiss wasn't needed. At the end of Rogue One, the world ending, Cassian and Jynn looked at each other.. and didnt, and it worked. They should have copied that.
At least we saw Ben for a short time though; that smile was important and perfect.

I'm just glad you liked it, and it looks from the comments that for the most part you did!

BK - mystical jizz, lol. If

Spoiler

passing a saber through the force is possible then why not send...!

This post has been edited by Traveller: 21 December 2019 - 08:25 AM

[Traveller]

Who thought

Spoiler

that Reys vision with the voices was the closest ref we'll get to the World between Worlds from Rebels? It was pretty direct, so much like Ezras experience.

[Primateus]

I saw it last night and really enjoyed it.

There were some stuff I didn't enjoy, like typical JJ bullshit;

Spoiler

Everything is so small, you can instantly travel from planet to planet. The whole lightspeed skipping thing, sure it looked cool, but it was kinda stupid. And the stuff about "we only have 16 hours, so lemme just send someone in the complete other direction to get some reinforcements to fly all the way from the core to the outer fucking rim...in less that 16 hours.
The same JJ bullshit can be found in TFA with blasts from a planet killer visible, in real time, all across the galaxy apparently. And their explanation? It's "phantom energy"? Bullshit excuse for a bad idea!

But, there were a lot of stuff, A LOT of stuff I enjoyed the heck out of;

Spoiler

I agree that the Lightsaber pass was by far the coolest scene in all the new trilogy, holy fucking shit that was so badass cool I could feel myself go all giddy with childish joy. I agree that Hux's "I'm the spy" was a bit hokey, but it was saved by his reasoning for being the spy; "I don't care if you win, I just want Kylo Ren to lose!" He managed to get a bit of that bad guy feel back from TFA where he held his big, actually rather terrifying and well done, nazi-esque rally speech. Well done, very well done!

Also, Lando Calrissian! That is enough to say about him to make it cool.

Would it have killed them to say "Korriban" instead of "Exegol"? It's a minor thing, sure, but still.

The big party in the desert, I didn't think it made much sense, but I can't really say anything bad about it, I'll just go with "Sure, a party in the desert with weird tentacle faced aliens? Sure, no reason that's not cool even if I'm not sure I get it."

Rey's new saber? Pretty damn cool.

I would have liked to have seen more about the Dyade, Leia's training and all the force ghosts (if it's true that they caved to China on this one, fuck them and fuck china!), but I guess it could come in a Director's Cut someday?

Yeah, I liked it, a lot. It had the distinct smell of Star Wars, and it is a good smell. And those people who go "You can't like Rise of Skywalker and be a true fan of Star Wars" can go do despicable and unenjoyable things to themselves!

[Primateus]

Hmm, and apparently the whole thing with China might be a myth.

[QuickTidal]

 Primateus, on 21 December 2019 - 10:11 AM, said:

Hmm, and apparently the whole thing with China might be a myth.

The guy who leaked the whole plot, was the one who originally noted the full force ghost scene, and then revised it a few weeks later and added the addendum about “ghosts” and China. So if he was right about the plot, it stands to reason he’s right about the capitulation.

[Slow Ben]

Good to hear everybody is enjoying it. Probably still going to wait till its on Disney+, unless i magically get a free weekend with no work or family. But i just dont care about the conclusion of this series to make that much of an effort.


But i have been jonesing for some Star Wars since everyones been talking about it, so i started a re-watch 1-6 while i'm on the treadmill.

[Gothos]

Fanboys vs Whiners, the conflict older than Jedi and Sith...

[polishgenius]

Man it's possible that I hated that even more than QT hates TLJ. I disliked almost every single thing about it. The things that I didn't:

Spoiler

The lightsaber pass and the previous fight scene across the town and ship; Threepio; and the little droid, whose character arc was by far the most sensible and coherent and sweet thing about the whole film.

Beyond that, although theacting and general production competence mean it isn't as wince-inducing line-by-line, I thought that was prequel-bad.

This post has been edited by polishgenius: 22 December 2019 - 02:30 AM

[Silencer]

Yeah, I feel like JJ really messed this up. I mean, I can't lay all the blame at his feet, there was definitely a lot of planning mistakes that led to this, but this is definitely my least favourite in the trilogy.

It had some cool, great moments, but overall it was poorly paced, had too many plot points going, and didn't respect the last two films' plots at all.

I didn't hate it, but I certainly didn't think it was above average.


If there was one thing I think they should have done (if this was the ultimate plan, say), was make this a quadrilogy. Split this last movie in two, change the final showdown a bit, remove one of the plot lines, and you've got yourself two solid films. Alas.

I give it a 6/10.

[Silencer]

 BfuckinK, on 22 December 2019 - 05:21 AM, said:

Really need a 2nd watch id say my personal fav moment was

Spoiler

Rey just stopping a fucking spaceship in mid air. People gasped out loud when that began playing out. I heard one dude close to me “No fucking way!” in hushed excitement. I just grinned

Legitimately my favourite as well I think, especially with what followed. A real stand-out scene.

[Gothos]

 polishgenius, on 22 December 2019 - 02:27 AM, said:

I thought that was prequel-bad.

Hey! The Prequels have immense meme-generating material and the best lightsaber fights of the lot. Don't be hatin'.

[Traveller]

It's just interesting that people have such opposite reactions from the same movie. It just goes to show how different expectations, age, who you see it with all make for such a variety of outtakes.

I think for me personally that for the first time in years I ticked all the boxes of the target audience that it was aimed at. And I've got to say, adding the kids into the mix changes things significantly. Theres always a part of you indirectly monitoring their interest/boredom levels, watching what they react to most, and when they're looking at me to see how I've just taken something.

And this movie, from that point of view, was a blast. They were engaged right off the bat, dumbstruck by

Spoiler

Rey holding the ship/chewies escape

laughed at funny bits, and were glued to it right to the end. That doesn't often happen at the cinema with actual kids movies. It was my favourite SW cinema experience - and theirs too. So comments about pace? It was perfect from my perspective.

Whereas - some people are straight up crying about it. Palps won, Skywalkers ' lost', other movies irrelevant now, everything... massive disappointment. I'm sad for them but I can't help feel that high expectations and projecting your own ideal version onto something before you've even seen it is always going to lead to upset.

I actually think, again for me at least, that this movie makes the bits of tLJ I wasnt so happy with much more palatable. Far from highlighting differences and conflicting goals, it makes me want to sit and watch all three together.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 22 December 2019 - 09:37 AM

[polishgenius]

That scene was pretty cool in the moment

(warning for those who don't feel the need to see an extended bitching out of the film right now, there's a fairly long rant inside this spoiler tag)

Spoiler

but was almost immediately spoiled by the revelation that Chewie wasn't really dead. Like if you're gonna introduce consequences, have consequences. This trying to have your cake and eat it type storytelling is one thing that's guaranteed to drive me nuts.

Other decisions that I thought were lame or outright cowardly storytelling:

Making Hux the spy- in a dreadful moment but a good idea- and then immediately removing the need to deal with such complexity by having him shot.

Making Rey Palpy's grandaughter, of course I was never going to like that decision.

Every single Palptroyer has a world-destroying cannon OF COURSE THEY DO.

Why a 16 hour limit? That just made space feel even smaller than ever before and was completely unnecessary to the building of tension. JJ's idea of space is laughable even by SW standards.

JJ either bowing to those who hate Rose as a love interest for Fynn or disapproving of it himself but dealing with it in the most pathetic possible way by just not adressing it at all, handwaving her off screen for most of the movie, and hinting at other love intersts for Fynn without ever actually committing to it.

Convenient that they just happened to stand in the exact correct spot for the dagger to mean something. And that the Death Star wasn't crumbled in a way that ruined that line of sight.

Han appearing to Ben I mean what the fuck. Force ghosts are fine, they're clearly a thing in the series, but this wasn't that, it was pure figment-of-the-imagination stuff. Which is another pet storytelling peeve of mine.

That's off the top of my head- almost no decision they made with this movie worked for me.

[Traveller]

That's kind of what I'm saying about different takes.

Spoiler

The chewie thing worked for the kids, and me because of that. We were staring at the screen, at each other, like wtf!! The reveal a little later had my daughter all relieved and happy he wasn't dead. She was shocked, surprised, happy and relieved all in the space of a few minutes over like two scenes.

I was happy because it included the moment you thought he was gone, which was always a possibility, without the horrible feeling I left the cinema with after Han was killed. During my first watch of tFAs I was really getting into the movie with Han and Chewie back together, blowing shit up, and then he got skewered and dropped off a gantry. Yeah real consequences! But still, they didnt need to repeat it with Chewie. I think the balance of humour, lack of main deaths apart from Ben's, pace and some dumb stuff made it what I remember made SW so watchable.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 22 December 2019 - 11:24 AM

[QuickTidal]

 polishgenius, on 22 December 2019 - 09:38 AM, said:

That scene was pretty cool in the moment

(warning for those who don't feel the need to see an extended bitching out of the film right now, there's a fairly long rant inside this spoiler tag)

Spoiler

but was almost immediately spoiled by the revelation that Chewie wasn't really dead. Like if you're gonna introduce consequences, have consequences. This trying to have your cake and eat it type storytelling is one thing that's guaranteed to drive me nuts.

Other decisions that I thought were lame or outright cowardly storytelling:

Making Hux the spy- in a dreadful moment but a good idea- and then immediately removing the need to deal with such complexity by having him shot.

Making Rey Palpy's grandaughter, of course I was never going to like that decision.

Every single Palptroyer has a world-destroying cannon OF COURSE THEY DO.

Why a 16 hour limit? That just made space feel even smaller than ever before and was completely unnecessary to the building of tension. JJ's idea of space is laughable even by SW standards.

JJ either bowing to those who hate Rose as a love interest for Fynn or disapproving of it himself but dealing with it in the most pathetic possible way by just not adressing it at all, handwaving her off screen for most of the movie, and hinting at other love intersts for Fynn without ever actually committing to it.

Convenient that they just happened to stand in the exact correct spot for the dagger to mean something. And that the Death Star wasn't crumbled in a way that ruined that line of sight.

Han appearing to Ben I mean what the fuck. Force ghosts are fine, they're clearly a thing in the series, but this wasn't that, it was pure figment-of-the-imagination stuff. Which is another pet storytelling peeve of mine.

That's off the top of my head- almost no decision they made with this movie worked for me.

Spoiler

Re: Han and Ben. It’s a memory in Ben’s head. That’s why it plays out almost to the word like the TFA conversation. It’s Ben Solo re-litigating the moment and making the RIGHT choice this time. It’s not meant to be him as a ghost, it’s meant to just be in Ben’s head. I thought that was fairly clear.

[polishgenius]

I understood it, I just hate that trope presented in that way. That’s not how memory works!

[Cause]

Is this movie worth the high price of American tickets or is it better left till it comes to Disney plus? I’m hearing bad things

[Primateus]

 polishgenius, on 22 December 2019 - 02:54 PM, said:

I understood it, I just hate that trope presented in that way. That's not how memory works!

Who the hell knows how memory works, especially with Jedi who can actually see and talk to ghosts.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

 Traveller, on 19 December 2019 - 12:45 PM, said:

Just come out!

No spoilers or anything here, I'll just say that the kids absolutely loved it, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. There were tears, leaving happy though.

That is all.

I think you and I had roughly the same experience of the film. I really loved it, for me it's by far the best of the three and does everything I want a Star Wars film to do.

There were also tears for me. I remember watching Return of the King at the cinema as a teenager and feeling so bereft at the end because there would be no more Middle Earth films. Not to anything like the same level, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a tiny bit of the same for the end of the saga.

Also, there were some tears I knew would be coming for:

Spoiler

Leia. That character means a lot to me and I'm so pleased they handled her passing so beautifully, particularly when they no longer had Carrie. I really liked that she faded away when Ben did. The last Skywalkers left together.

Quite a bit of what I liked I suspect is what will be denounced as fan service..... but I loved it, I don't care

This post has been edited by TheRetiredBridgeburner: 22 December 2019 - 04:46 PM

[Traveller]

 TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 22 December 2019 - 04:45 PM, said:

 Traveller, on 19 December 2019 - 12:45 PM, said:

Just come out!

No spoilers or anything here, I'll just say that the kids absolutely loved it, and I enjoyed the hell out of it. There were tears, leaving happy though.

That is all.

I think you and I had roughly the same experience of the film. I really loved it, for me it's by far the best of the three and does everything I want a Star Wars film to do.

There were also tears for me. I remember watching Return of the King at the cinema as a teenager and feeling so bereft at the end because there would be no more Middle Earth films. Not to anything like the same level, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a tiny bit of the same for the end of the saga.

Also, there were some tears I knew would be coming for:

Spoiler

Leia. That character means a lot to me and I'm so pleased they handled her passing so beautifully, particularly when they no longer had Carrie. I really liked that she faded away when Ben did. The last Skywalkers left together.

Quite a bit of what I liked I suspect is what will be denounced as fan service..... but I loved it, I don't care

That's good, glad you enjoyed it!

I went briefly back online to see reactions; now I'm keeping clear again until things settle down.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 22 December 2019 - 05:00 PM