I have seen RISE OF SKYWALKER twice and I liked it just as much the second time. That tells me a lot about a film.
I like movie reviews. It is interesting to see the movies that fans and critics like. There’s not a lot of movies that please both. THE LAST JEDI didn’t cut it for a lot of Star Wars fans. The critics liked it. Generally, fans didn’t.
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is the reverse. The critics don’t like it and a lot of fans do. Who wins? Well—for the fun of it I offer the opinion that JJ ABRAMS did a great job.
If DISNEY wasn’t in such a stupid hurry to crank out these Star Wars movie, and gave JJ another 18 months, the film would have been much better. The guy only had about 22 months to get the job done while he had over three years to put together THE FORCE AWAKENS. My opinion is that the guy did a stellar job. DEREK CONNOLLY and COLIN TREVORROW wrote a solid story. Considering that big baddie SNOKE was toasted by JOHNSON in only the second movie of this trilogy, where the story writers went with PALPATINE was the only place they could go. I think the story and screenplay was the best it could be given the situation.
The first half of the film was a little too frenetic and fast paced for me—I think it reflected the hurry everybody was in to get it done. But the movie settled in. I think the writers introduced a couple of characters they didn’t need to introduce and there was no chance to develop them. Having said that there is a good chance those characters will get fleshed out in the next trilogy.
I think that what JJ ABRAMS has done is put the joy back in STAR WARS—joy that was missing in THE LAST JEDI.
I was thrilled with JOHN WILLIAMS being able to finish the series as its composer. I delighted in his classic style and picked up how his music has evolved to fit into a 2019 film. Well done, Maestro—we are forever in your debt.
The VFX, as we call them now, are amazing. JJ ABRAMS knows how to direct certain scenes with great emotion and not a lot of words and show the intense love and loyalty between these new characters. I love CHEWIE. It was nice to see R2 D2 have more to do in this film. I loved seeing ANTHONY DANIELS get a more prominent role as C3PO. I dig the way THREEPIO annoys POE DAMARAN the way he drove HAN SOLO nuts. DAISY RIDLEY, you’re great. your heart comes out in all your acting. I marvel at how they could still have CARRIE FISHER in the film and made it work with what they had and used their VFX wizardry to do the rest.
The themes of redemption and love are prominent. The surprises are there are well. RISE also warns us of the evil that can lurk in our hearts and reminds us to be vigilant. The story also tells us that normal people make a difference when they band together for a good cause.
My favourite movie of this trilogy is THE FORCE AWAKENS but RISE is a pretty close second. My favourite movie of all the new films since 2015 is ROGUE ONE.
I love the way JJ ABRAMS uses practical effects, rather than digital effects, to bring to life a couple of certain characters that will make ya smile.
I don’t see why they couldn’t have brought the cool new character ROSE TICO along on the whole adventure. She was cool. It would have worked. I think JJ was being a little too anti Last Jedi on that front. I would still like to know where MAZ got LUKE’S LIGHTSABRE and how they still have LUKE’S sabre after REN and REY blew it up in LAST JEDI. I am glad we get to know who REY’S parents are. And one little spoilers—could we not have heard what FINN wanted to tell REY. I think we know. Still...
But for me the biggest evidence that they pulled it off with RISE is that my daughter was thrilled by it and absolutely loved it—she was engaged and moved and excited and she didn’t like THE LAST JEDI. The fact that her new favourite is RISE tells me that we need to be careful not to be middle aged adults who are secretly bitter that we are never going to see a STAR WARS movie that measures up the original trilogy of STAR WARS, EMPIRE AND JEDI. But through the eyes of the young we can still get a lot of joy out of the STAR WARS universe. This is a new generation and JJ ABRAMS has made film that successfully bridges the old and the new—where RIAN JOHNSON simply tried to blow up everything that was old and make everything new—and it didn’t work.
Well done, Cast and Crew. I am giving this film 8.5 out of 10.
‘NUFF SAID.
