The Rise of Skywalker spoilers thread

[-Akronite-]

Much of the new mythos in the prequels adds little, detracts from the original story, or is just dumb. Pod-racing was cool. Darth Maul looks cool but is literally just evil looking bad guy the character. Did we need a fat guy in a 50s diner? Or midichlorians? Or a bunch of battles between clones and robots that mean nothing?

The lightsaber duels in the prequels are also overrated. Mostly sterile, over choreographed fanboy shit.

There wasn’t much to the dueling in this new trilogy, but at least they spent less time spamming the lightsaber button. They still haven’t figured out how to make the duels have weight like the original trilogy. The Obi-Wan v Anakin fight tried to have something going on but failed to land because we knew how it would end and they go to ridiculous lengths to make it “epic.” The last two movies barely tried to have duels in the traditional sense. While the specific powers Rey had bothered me, at least TFA built up to the moment when she Force pulled the saber to herself.

All three of the new movies are superior to all of the prequels IMO, but I’m gonna rewatch the prequels and see if my mind changes at all.

Edit: Something dumb from the prequels AND sequels? The overuse of the blast shield helmet/shooty ball as apparently the only training instrument for Jedi in the entire universe. COME UP WITH SOMETHING NEW! As Plinkett spells out in his reviews, it originally felt like an improvised exercise from Obi-Wan, not some officially licenses Jedi Council bullshit. A perfect example of how over-reliant new movies are on old imagery.

EDIT2: Re-watched Phantom Menace and Clones and wow... Just horrendous. TROS is a clusterfuck, but at least they feel like competently made movies with genuine attempts at emotion. It was so bad and I even got high just to make them better, still awful. Revenge of the Sith has gotten the most post-sequel rehab, but I doubt it holds up any better. Honestly, going back to the prequels only reinforced how I felt about them. Needed to re-watch Empire to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

 

[col63onel]

rewatched TROS

It was less of a cluster than I remembered. It's more coherent than I think people get it credit for. It's fan servicy, but it should be.

But I also left the theater a little sadder. This whole trilogy is a cluster, and while I liked this one, it's just an overall missed opportunity. I have it roughly near the prequels, but for completely different reasons.

Sigh

 

[Rich]

I watched it pirated and I literally cannot believe they just have Kyle go and find Sidious within the first 5 minutes of the movie with almost zero explanation at all when neither of the prior two movies acted like Palpatine still existed. Just.....god the storytelling from movie to movie has been shit.

 

[Sebastian]

Evidently there was some serious issues with Disney noting JJ to death. JJ's version was three hours long, and he asked to split the film in two.

This jives with the year old rumors of Hayden Christiensen being cut form the film. It seems Samuel L. Jackson, Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson were also in the scene...

 

[SalvadoranCavsfan]

Honestly if he wanted to split it in two to tell a better story? I'd have been fine with it.

Can you imagine the marketing of the final Star Wars movie?

STAR WARS X

 

[BMAN]

I finally saw it. Holy fuck was that bad.

 

[Triplethreat]

Absolutely INSANE to me how even EA can’t fuck up this character and get Disney managed to do it to an Embarassing extent.

 

[Sebastian]

Honestly if he wanted to split it in two to tell a better story? I'd have been fine with it.

Can you imagine the marketing of the final Star Wars movie?

STAR WARS X

JJ was right because TLJ did so much damage to the story. Needing two films to cancel out TLJ seems reasonable.

Instead, TROS is so over-stuffed. And also makes little sense (why didn't Palpatine just stop shooting lightning?). It seems the axed scenes would have tied much of it together.

It reminds of another film that really only made sense, and made good, by a Directors Cut, The Kingdom of Heaven.

 

[-Akronite-]

JJ was right because TLJ did so much damage to the story. Needing two films to cancel out TLJ seems reasonable.

The only thing they really canceled out was the Rey lineage, right? They could've come up with a much better and simpler story based on where TLJ left them.



BTW, rewatched ROTS as well, still absolutely awful. Not sure it's really any better than the other two prequels. No emotional weight at all. At the least the new trilogy tries.

 

[BMAN]

The only thing they really canceled out was the Rey lineage, right? They could've come up with a much better and simpler story based on where TLJ left them.



BTW, rewatched ROTS as well, still absolutely awful. Not sure it's really any better than the other two prequels. No emotional weight at all. At the least the new trilogy tries.

Tries what exactly? Making shitty remakes of the originals? They brought back Palpatine for god sakes.

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

Tries what exactly? Making shitty remakes of the originals? They brought back Palpatine for god sakes.

ROTS = Revenge of the Sith

 

[BMAN]

ROTS = Revenge of the Sith

Read his last sentence.

 

[-Akronite-]

Tries what exactly? Making shitty remakes of the originals? They brought back Palpatine for god sakes.

Tries to have emotionally resonant moments and good acting/direction. The writing is a mess and plot-wise it's disjointed, but the prequels are a joke in terms of selling the drama because there is no emotional weight to the characters. And visually I think they did wonderful work in the new trilogy, whereas the overly sterile CGI mess of the prequels is a huge negative.

For as bad as Rise of Skywalker was IMO, at least it had some moments, like when Ben talked to Han, that made me feel something. More than can be said for ROTS or the entire Anakin/Padme arc.

 

[Chris]

I saw it. Honestly enjoyed it, not nearly the trainwreck people made it out to be.

Granted I had low expectations.

Truth is this entire trilogy was flawed plot wise- It was so misguided and unfocused. All the potential stories they could have done and... this was what we got. Yeesh.

Anyways we need more stuff from the Old Republic time and the origins of the Jedi and Sith.

 

[Ohio]

To me, the prequels are much better simply because of plot development and originality. Those movies had serious flaws, but they flowed very well and made sense. And, despite much of it being pre-written, still had plenty of originality.