Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Non-Spoilers! (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

No one is obligated to feel pleased by a movie. A movie, any movie, is judged on its own merits (or lack thereof). Sturgeon's Law applies as much to Star Wars movies as it does to anything else.

 

[Wayne_j]

All this shows is that they needed to have a better blueprint for the trilogy before making it.

 

[TravisR]

A movie, any movie, is judged on its own merits (or lack thereof).

Then I should have said that the reaction, when a SW movie is deemed lacking, is wildly different to how other movies that don't measure up are judged. If that isn't the case, people wouldn't still be crying about the prequels decades after they were released. Is anyone still saying that The Mummy was lame or that Austin Powers 2 raped their childhood? No because anyone that didn't like those movies just didn't like them, forgot about them and moved on like a sane person. Star Wars is judged or reacted to in a different manner than almost any other movies.

 

[RobertR]

Then I should have said that the reaction, when a SW movie is deemed lacking, is wildly different to how other movies that don't measure up are judged. If that isn't the case, people wouldn't still be crying about the prequels decades after they were released. Is anyone still saying that The Mummy was lame or that Austin Powers 2 raped their childhood? No because anyone that didn't like those movies just didn't like them, forgot about them and moved on like a sane person. Star Wars is judged or reacted to in a different manner than almost any other movies.

I'm not sure what you're complaining about here. You seem to want people to like Star Wars movies, but you don't seem to want people to be at all (or so much) emotionally invested in the "brand".

 

[Jake Lipson]

Could the thread title be updated to designate this one as the NON-SPOILER thread? I 100% agree with having two threads, but I think a label on this one would help clarify which is which, since they're both near the top of the page right now in Movies.

 

[Chris Will]

All this shows is that they needed to have a better blueprint for the trilogy before making it.

Maybe mimic the way Marvel has done things because it has worked out pretty good for them. Considering they are owned by the same parent company, you would have thought that this would have crossed their minds. But, they were in such a rush to get something on the screen after buying LFL that they didn't step back and breath.

 

[Chris Will]

Saw it last night.

I absolutely, honestly and unabashedly loved this movie. It had me from start to finish and wouldn't let go.
I don't see it as a "course-correction." I see it as a sequel. One might as well call ROTJ a "course-correction" to ESB.
This movie actually makes TFA and TLJ better, and I really liked those movies too (despite a few minor qualms I had about specific details). Hell, for me it's a much better finale than ROTJ (which I've bitched about since 1983 anyway, so that's just me). ROTJ and TPM both could have used the Act I pacing that TROS has.

Also, this is one of the only Star Wars movies in which the acting did not make me cringe.

Incorporating Carrie Fisher into this movie was damn near flawless. I didn't even once think about the fact that she had died before they shot this movie.

......

The ending was powerful and beautiful on every level for me.

I'll be seeing it again on Sunday, and I'll see if anything strikes me as objectionable the 2nd time around.

Damn dude, I thought this was the spoiler free thread.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Damn dude, I thought this was the spoiler free thread.

That post has been moved!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Could the thread title be updated to designate this one as the NON-SPOILER thread? I 100% agree with having two threads, but I think a label on this one would help clarify which is which, since they're both near the top of the page right now in Movies.

Done! Please, no spoilers as I already moved one post to the other thread. Thank you.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Then I should have said that the reaction, when a SW movie is deemed lacking, is wildly different to how other movies that don't measure up are judged. If that isn't the case, people wouldn't still be crying about the prequels decades after they were released. Is anyone still saying that The Mummy was lame or that Austin Powers 2 raped their childhood? No because anyone that didn't like those movies just didn't like them, forgot about them and moved on like a sane person. Star Wars is judged or reacted to in a different manner than almost any other movies.

I'm not sure what you're complaining about here. You seem to want people to like Star Wars movies, but you don't seem to want people to be at all (or so much) emotionally invested in the "brand".

I don’t think that’s what Travis is saying. By all means, be emotionally involved in the storytelling. That’s why I watch - I enjoy being on the journey with the characters.

But there is a toxic element to Star Wars fandom that only seems to grow. George Lucas was sent death threats for doing the special edition; is that a rational response to a filmmaker recutting his work? Jake Lloyd went back to school after Phantom Menace and was bullied and beaten up by so-called fans there to the extent that it basically ruined his life. Ahmed Best was nearly driven to suicide from the non-stop drumbeat of hate that was directed not just at his character (for which he was just an actor for hire doing a job like anyone else) but himself personally; is it normal that people sought out his personal address so they could show up at his house and scream in his face? Kelly Marie Tran left the Internet after she was made to feel unsafe, all for the sin of being a working actor hired to play a part in a movie that she neither wrote nor directed nor had any creative control over.

That kind of behavior is not normal or healthy but it is frequent in Star Wars fandom and frequently ignored or dismissed.

Its okay to not like any or all things Star Wars. It’s not okay to seek to harm the individuals involved in making Star Wars because of that dislike. It’s not okay to threaten harm to those involved in making Star Wars because of that dislike.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Its okay to not like any or all things Star Wars. It’s not okay to seek to harm the individuals involved in making Star Wars because of that dislike. It’s not okay to threaten harm to those involved in making Star Wars because of that dislike.

To be clear, this quote is why I gave your above post the Like -- not that I like the details of what happened to the people you describe for doing their jobs.

For reasons that I went into in the spoilers thread and will not regurgitate here, I did not like The Rise of Skywalker at all. I am extremely disappointed in it and I wish it had gone differently than it did. However, even though I don't like the movie, I am not going to threaten, harass or otherwise try to contact J.J. Abrams in any way. I wish him nothing but the best and, because he has made other movies I've liked in the past, the chances are high that I will be there whenever his next movie comes out to see it. This movie didn't work for me, and that's sad, but it's ultimately just a movie. It didn't ruin my life, and no one should ruin his or Rian Johnson's or anyone else's whose film they don't like.

"Fans" need to learn to grow up.

 

[Tino]

"Fans" need to learn to grow up

Will never happen. Ever.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Will never happen. Ever.

You're probably right. But that's a sad state of "fandom."

 

[RobertR]

But there is a toxic element to Star Wars fandom that only seems to grow.

I saw nothing in the post I responded to about bullying of or racist tirades against actors, only a statement about vehement, even passionate dislike of some movies. Please do not associate or equate all such dislike with the behavior you mentioned.

 

[Chris Will]

(I haven’t seen TROS yet.)

There is something that has bothered me for a while now with TROS. Why does this have to be the end?

I’ve grown up with Star Wars, born in ‘78. I had all the kid fantasies, ruined toys that would one day be collectors’ items (who knew?). The scores are the reason why I love film music so much. Star Wars has shaped my life, at least a little bit.

So, growing up with the OT, living through the special editions, the PT and now the ST, I have never once heard the series referred to as the “Skywalker Saga” until TROS advertising started to ramp up.

Lucas was inspired by old Saturday serials which just kept you tuning for the next episode. So, why does Disney feel the need to put an end to the “Episodes”? By all means, take a break if you need to but, don’t stop. There are no rules that say an episode 10, and beyond, have to tell the same on going story. Saturday serials always found ways of ending one story and starting a new one.

I don’t want it to end, I want an episode 10, even if it is 10 years from now. Why Disney, why paint yourself into a corner by declaring this the end?

 

[Robert Crawford]

I don’t want it to end, I want an episode 10, even if it is 10 years from now. Why Disney, why paint yourself into a corner by declaring this the end?

It's not the end, but perhaps it's the end of the Skywalker storyline.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Why does this have to be the end?

It's not. It's the end of this story, but we all know there will be more theatrical Star Wars movies coming. But it was time for this story to come to an end instead of just going on into infinity. In order to get The Force Awakens, they had to undo the permanence of the victory in Return of the Jedi. If they wanted to continue the storyline of these characters after The Rise of Skywalker, they would similarly have to present new threats for them to face in Episode IX. How many times can they do that to one set of characters, really? Part of the story is the end.

Take Endgame as another recent, better, and incidentally also Disney-owned example. That one provided an end to the story arc Marvel has been working on since 2008, and now they're going to do something new. They're not going to stop making those movies either. Endgame just provided a way for the actors and characters who have devoted the last decade-plus to Marvel with a graceful exit that honored their work, and now Marvel is in the reshaping stage. Star Wars is going to go into the same thing, but it's not going to stop.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I saw nothing in the post I responded to about bullying of or racist tirades against actors, only a statement about vehement, even passionate dislike of some movies. Please do not associate or equate all such dislike with the behavior you mentioned.

But that was the point that I was making and possibly similar to the one Travis was making.

There are a lot of people that don’t like a lot of movies. But when, say, Ryan Gosling stars in a Blade Runner sequel, he doesn’t get death threats for it. When Spielberg tinkered with E.T., no one accused him of raping their childhood, it was just a bad choice they didn’t agree with. There is something about Star Wars specifically that seems to bring out an extra extreme reaction in some people that is disproportionate to how people react to nearly every other movie or franchise.

I don’t mean to suggest that everyone who dislikes something in Star Wars is a monster, far from it. I love our HTF conversations because we have a good group of folks here who can chat about what works and doesn’t work for them and it’s never a bad conversation. But that’s not what I was referring to. I just don’t know what it is about Star Wars that makes a disproportionate segment of its audience turn into hostile, militant gatekeepers.

By contrast, Star Trek fans can be a pretty unhappy bunch and there’s no consensus in the fandom about the new shows, but no one is threatening the showrunners and the lead actress hasn’t had to go into hiding.

There is something about Star Wars which a certain segment of the fanbase takes as license to channel their passionate or vehement dislike into something far less benign than dislike.

 

[RobertR]

But that was the point that I was making and possibly similar to the one Travis was making.

Show me the part of the post I responded to that talked about "bullying" or "racist tirades". It isn't there. You chose to interject a topic that wasn't even part of the discussion.

 

[TJPC]

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