Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, December 20, 2019) Movie • Page 379

It's Sheev, Snoke, Vader.

 

Rian Johnson

 

Ruin Johnson*

 

at least we'll always have the last Jedi to enjoy out of this total car crash of a trilogy

 

I really didn't mind TFA. I like TLJ more, but at least TFA's mystery nonsense J.J. needs to do is setting things up and trying to lead somewhere as opposed to literally just tossing it in to do something and then never even bothering to address it.

 

TFA was good for bringing back the franchise after the prequels totally disillusioned and jaded me. It was like seeing an old friend in a lot of ways.

 

TFA was definitely the best of the trilogy

 

TFA did what it needed to do. It gave us a good Star Wars movie and got us excited about it again. It hit the same beats as previous movies, but if it works, it works. I probably like it the most out of this trilogy but TLJ is a better movie.

Rian did a great job of taking TFA and expanding on it and making it interesting.

Then there's this one.

 

TLJ is far and away the best movie in this trilogy, because it presented something challenging and didn't lean into nostalgia (too heavily) to tell a story.

 

lol “Then there’s this one” is such a painfully accurate way to describe it.

 

TFA has a lot of the same problems ROS has (not as many, but a lot), they were just excused/ignored because people wanted to like a Star Wars movie again and it was good at establishing likable/interesting characters (mostly carried by casting, rather than writing) that people were excited to see more of, and the Last Jedi is the only good Star Wars movie since 1983

 

Yeah, honestly this made me like TFA less for that reason

 

TLJ is the best. None are particularly great. This trilogy will go down as a failure of planning and leadership.

 

Loved two movies out of three, liked all three well-enough in the end even with my well documented frustrations. Hard for me to call that a failure.

 

My strong reaction to TROS is a testament to how invested I was in what JJ and Rian gave us before. I couldn’t hate something that much without a deep well of affection haha.

That’s a win as far as I’m concerned. I’ll alway have those first two.

 

It’s definitely the best, but it’s riddled with just as much nostalgia as any of the others, hitting many of the same beats as empire. AT-AT walker battle, rebels narrowly escaping an imperial assault, travel to a distant planet to meet with a Jedi Master, lessons about the force, dark side cave, X-Wing underwater, leaving prior to completing training, seeking help from a turncoat stranger, pursuit by a giant Imperial ship, incompetent imperial officers...

 

Honestly though ive never actually realized all of that before hahah still love that one the most of the 3

 

TLJ definitely echos the beats and elements of Empire's structure (as well as ROTJ). It would have been hard not to with what was set up in TFA. But what happens within those confines feels truly original.

 

This trilogy definitely isn't a failure. I even found enough joy during the second viewing of TROS to calm my dramatic ass down. I'll watch these a ton over the years

 

I will say TLJ has moved up on my list after watching it a couple times since it came on Disney+.

 

Healing the Dark Side in RISE OF SKYWALKER

This is obviously a fantastical oversimplification of a real world problem – we can’t just lay hands on our enemies and fix their hearts – but this is a fantastical movie about space wizards. The metaphor tracks, and that’s what’s really important. Rey has learned a new way to deal with her enemies, a way that doesn’t require her to hit or slice or blast anyone. A way that finally fulfills Yoda’s admonishment that wars are not what make one great.

But what if Rise of Skywalker had taken this one step further? What if, rather than deflecting the Emperor’s Force lightning (which, frankly, isn’t even cinematically interesting) Rey had followed the rule of threes and healed… her grandfather? What if the big ending of the nine film Star Wars saga (I won’t call it the Skywalker Saga, since it all came down to two Palpatines fighting) was not killing the big bad guy but fixing him? After all, we know killing this dude may not have much of an effect – but healing him, making him whole, that could actually end all the bullshit that’s been plaguing the galaxy for seven decades. She could have destroyed Darth Sidious by bringing back Sheev Palpatine.

That, I think, would have been the kind of redemption that the Jedi needed.

 

It would have been interesting if they went down that route, but damn it would have been extremely hard to pull off.