Rise of Skywalker - A Lifelong Fan's Rambling Review

I feel like there was a lot of bad decisions, but those decisions were pulled off the best way possible. Overall, I liked it.

At least they didn't bring back Phasma again only to die again after 30 seconds total screen time.

Having Palpatine get an offspring at all is stupid. It's the exact same mistake Thorne and Tiffany did to He Who Must Not Be Named in "Harry Potter and the The Cursed Fanfiction". If your main villain's goal is living or lasting forever, an offspring is useless to them.

I'm not against the idea that Palpatine had a wife or at least a mistress. We never spent enough time with him to know how his personal life functioned. Also how many old decrepit politicians use there money and influence to bag women in REAL life. Not a stretch to think the emperor did it too. Not to mention he could have manipulated women with his powers.

its a set up for a spin-off "Palpatine: Love and Lightning"

I hate that Ben died. Hate. It. But I also hate the Redemption-through-Death trope. To me it's lazy writing at best, and a huge slap in the face to the audience if the character has had, say, a shitty life. I know so many people who's seen themselves in Ben (and in Billy from Stranger Things who fell to this trope), who'd been abused in their childhood and who coped and gave in to rage and darkness like Ben did. Tangent: I do however LOVE the way they killed Kylo Ren. Rey stabbed Kylo Ren with his own lightsaber, but she healed Ben Solo. The broken way Ben said "Dad." The unsaid "I love you". The physical way Adam played Ben Solo, even more impressive considering the only lines he had as Ben Solo was "dad" and "ow". The way Ben is finally allowing himself to FEEL and emote, including pain. The swaggy Han Solo shrug. Shooting a blaster over his shoulder without looking. Smiling, laughing, saving Rey, choosing the LIGHT. And then they kill Ben Solo too. That's the slap in the face. To have them say "this character is for the first time in years/their entire life, feeling some happiness and seeing hope for a better future. But they don't deserve it. They only deserve to die." No chance for further redemption, no chance for atonement. Just an execution. What an inspiring and hopeful message.

I don't mean to be a morbid pessimist, but I feel the decision to not film these movies back to back made me think they were gambling with the longevity of these old actors. Time is ticking on the original trilogy cast. Most of them in there 60's. Why not use the time you have with them to film as much as you can? Get Luke/Leia/Han on set and just film as many scenes as possible. Un-used footage can make for great deleted scenes. They completely blew it.

I really like that there are still people who make videos to say they liked something even if it was flawed. ❤️

didn't expect to feel this way, but Adam Driver was the MVP. agree with almost all your points

IMO The Rise of Skywalker is a movie that exists.

I went into Rise of Skywalker after a bad day, with low expectations, and ultimately had a fun time watching a silly fantasy action film, which is all Star Wars was arguably ever intended to be.

The biggest issue I have with Episode IX is that it doesn't feel like a continuation of Force Awakens & Last Jedi. As someone I was talking to about the movie put it "This feels like they condensed an entire follow up trilogy into one movie". Hell, an author I tweeted at told me it felt to him like a condensed version of a season of TV. This is what happens when there's no damn plan going into a trilogy. And I say that as someone who has mixed (veering positive these days) feelings on Force Awakens and loves Last Jedi. I hope to god Lucasfilm actually learn something from this. Say what you want about George Lucas but at least the OT was one guy guiding the ship from point A to point B.

Really is it hard to believe that the guy who had a secret identity wouldn’t have a cover family remember before he came out as Sidious he was just a simple politician from Naboo

I would have preferred Snoke to still be the main villain. Then the Palpatine bloodline could have 'returned' via Rey being a clone of him. Add to that some genetic material from Leia (snatched when she was a prisoner on Death Star 1), and you sort of have an explanation for Rey being OP, and you have a pseudo-legit reason for Rey Skywalker. Of course that rules out Reylo...

I tried as hard as I could to temper my expectations, but... ... I think this is the first time with Star Wars I've come out of a theater feeling disappointed. I fully agree with the comparison to Justice League, but, when I saw Justice League, I thought it felt like a step in the right direction, done too late. This I felt was a hasty step back the wrong way, at the last minute. I think my biggest issue is, there was a lot of things in the old EU I was very glad this new timeline was stepping away from. ESPECIALLY the Emperor Reborn saga. Even more than what I hoped this would be, there where things I hoped this wouldn't be. I think that, more than anything else, is why I was let down. Not to mention the weird, and I think it's fair to say, lazy, retconning of Rey's heritage. I liked her being a "nobody". I liked the thematic resonance of her being "nobody", with Kylo Ren as the legacy character. I didn't hate it. But the more I think about it, the less I enjoy the experience. Still! I'm at least happy that SOMEONE found the movie a net positive experience!

People wanted mecha luke in TLJ but they got mecha Palpatine.

I was so sad when Ben died. I never cry and films and it brought me to tears

So, surprisingly, I had a very similar experience to you! I went in with VERY low expectations and I ended up... having a fun enough time? Like, I think the movie has a lot of structural problems, and mostly if feels like a very “safe”, low stakes and “Disney doing Star Wars to sell toys”, and like you said, a bit fanfic-y, but... none of that bothered me as much as I thought? I also really did not want Rey Palpatine or the Emperor back but... I didn’t hate the execution? And the stuff I liked I REALLY liked - funnily enough, mostly same as you! Trio feels, Jedi voices and of course, the Rey and Kylo/Ben (and agree, I’ve started slipping into Ben more) force bond - absolutely LOVED what they did with that, the editing of it and the BRILLIANT pay off (and I wasn’t even that invested in that relationship as such before, but this movie really sold it for me). Overall, I think your point about expectations are really fair. Which is why I’m not surprised I’ve seen so many divided takes all over the place. But in the end I left the theatre more entertained than annoyed and excited to see it again!

What a roller coaster going from Force Awakens to Last Jedi to this. I loved Force Awakens, was meh about Last Jedi, and hated this one strictly because of the whole ridiculous Palpatine return. They left so many things unanswered. There was so much potential for this trilogy. They killed off Han and Luke too early, and Carrie passed away tragically. It's just sad to me we never got the three of them together one last time.

Best line is obviously "I know! " Leave it to Harrison Ford to own an epic movie with two words, without even being credited...