Review: Star Wars Rise of Skywalker

*** NO SPOILERS ***

OK, I've had a week to digest Rise of Skywalker and to give it a grade both as a movie and as the end of the Sequel Trilogy and end of the saga.

First off, as a movie: its Star Wars; even when its bad its good. This movie leaned into the bread and butter of the franchise which is space fighting, blaster fighting, and light saber duels. Like all the new movies it leans into spectacle far more than slow story and character building. This is a trend we see starting even in Empire Strikes Back (giant space asteroid worm? Why?) and Return of the Jedi, and since today's modern big name action directors have so much more ability to make what they envision in their heads appear on the screen due to CGI effects and knowing that these Star Wars movies are remembered for the big scenes, the trend towards spectacle over story is almost inevitable.

That being said, the lack of space to breath is really noticeable in this movie. It really goes from scene to scene to scene at a frenetic pace, trying to put a big explosive covered bow to wrap up its own trilogy and the 9 movie saga as a whole. It tries hard, very hard, to raise the stakes to a 9 movie conclusion and really, I feel like it failed in that regard.

Overall, at first I thought I liked it more than The Last Jedi but I feel now that maybe that's not true, but keep in mind I'm a big fan of TLJ so this is not a big hit on RoS. If I were to give TLJ a 7.5/10 score, I'd give RoS 7/10.

Now, taking a look at it as the end of the trilogy and saga, I think it scores better because it hits all the notes you want a big saga end to have: biggest of the bad guys, biggest of the stakes, duels, crisis, combat... you kind of want the frenetic spectacle at the end of the saga, just like Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith both did. On that note, I'd give it a passing grade.

Was fun, would watch again.

UPDATE:

OK, I want to take a minute and talk about The Last Jedi again.

Yes, there were problems. Poe Dameron should have been summarily executed by firing squad for his disobeying orders, going rogue, and full blown mutiny, not gushed over by Leia and Holdo. Arcing turbo lasers without a gravity well. Taking a handful of skimmers out against an army of walkers.

But outside of those issues this movie tells a story, has meaningful character arcs for multiple characters (Rey, Finn, Poe, and even Luke!), and looks and sounds gorgeous! I love re-watching this movie with my sons, it just hits the right notes in so many ways.

And I found Old Man Luke believable and relatable, his story and arc satisfying. His confrontation with Kylo was compelling and more than just a light saber duel.

The issue with the resistance bombers dropping bombs? Capital ships generate gravity fields, it makes sense to utilize it with smaller easier to make bombs you drop into its gravity field than make more expensive torpedoes, especially for a cash strapped resistance.

Canto Bight scenes? I don't see any problem with it, it was a nice fresh look into a galaxy unconcerned with the dark/light war and profiting from it.

Anyone who wanted the Luke / Rey arc to go differently, or hated what the writers and director did with Luke as a character, I sympathize but just because its not what you expected does not mean it was not good.

The movie told a new Star Wars story and told it well.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Thoughts

I finally got to see the new Star Wars movie on the holidays and I enjoyed it a lot. Its not a perfect movie but none of the previous six were (excepting maybe Empire Strikes Back).

I have some thoughts to share but they cannot be spoiler free so....

** SPOILER WARNING -- SPOILER WARNING **

Turn back now if you have not seen the movie.

OK, ready? Here we go.

Good:

- The pacing was much better than the prequels. I realize that Lucas was trying to fill in a lot of the rationalization of why there was an Empire and a rebellion, but the political backstory was very boring in the grand scheme of things when what we really wanted was Jedi versus Sith fighting.

- The acting was so much better, the dialogue was better. The characters were more realistic and less cardboard cutouts to act out George's fan fiction. No Jar Jar.

- The improved camerawork and less reliance on CGI was noticable and appreciated. The movie LOOKS amazing.

- I thought I would be annoyed to hell by BB-8 and his cutesiness, like a combined Jar Jar and R2D2, but I was pleasantly surprised he was much more low key than expected.

- I loved the Finn and Rey and Poe characters, I emphasized with them so much more than any of the prequel characters.

- The light sabre work was very nice and much more subtle, very enjoyable.

- The First Order Storm Troopers and star ships were top notch on the aesthetic side of things.

- The Light Sabre of Doom!

Bad:

- I realize we don't want to descend into the political chicanery of the Prequels but some explanation of the First Order, the New Republic, and the Resistance and their relationships to each other would have been nice. I looked it all up after the movie on the internet so I understand now but at the time I was very confused. Resistance, what are you resisting? (1)

- Similar note, why was there so many wrecks on Jakku? (See 1)

- Kylo Ren as the Bad Guy Stand In for Darth Vader (like Darth Maul, Darth Tyrannous) was not horrible, but failed to resonate with me. Seeing him start so evil at times yet so conflicted made him seem very non-threatening to me. It didn't help his helmet was unnecessary and he just looked too damn slim in his outfit. HOWEVER, I liked him a lot more after he killed his father Han Solo. Full Evil Kylo Ren much better than Emo Kylo Ren.

- Supreme Leader Snokes has a bad name, looks like a horrible Gollum clone, and evokes no menace to me.

- Starkiller planet was borderline too cheesy "Its even more deadly than a Death Star! OMG!!" but worked for me as a set location for the climax. And the parallel between the sun going out and Kylo Ren losing any light side he had left was well done.

- Captain Phasma got a raw deal. Awesome look, but no cool action, dialogue, scenes, and gets captured and used as a patsy to disable the shields like a weak idiot. FAIL!

- I did not like the Maz character. Not sure exactly why/ Too much like ancient Asian woman caricature maybe? Too much plot device? Hope she's dead.

- As much as I liked the Rey character, I think they overloaded too much ability on to her. Survive on harsh desert planet alone, altruistic droid saviour, force sensitive and able to mind trick a storm trooper right away, able to defeat (an admittedly badly injure) Kylo Ren in a light sabre duel, AND a freaking amazing pilot capable of taking the Millennium Falcon through near impossible maneuvers we've only see Han Solo and Lando Calrissian do? Just too much.

- Gah, J J Abrams, I hate you. In the Star Trek reboot, the thing that nearly killed me was Spock seeing Vulcan get consumed in the sky from that ice planet in another solar system. Like fuck me. And here in star wars he does it again when the Starkiller destroys those planets in the Hosnian Prime system while the characters at the resistance base on D'Qar see it happen, in the sky. Fuck me. I hate that shit.

- Need more Luke Skywalker!

* * * * * *

Overall, like I said, I enjoyed the movie and will watch it again when I get it on DVD. And I'm really looking forward to the next one in a way that the prequels never made me feel. So good job.


(1) - After the battle of Jakku where the New Republic and the remaining Empire forces had a large battle, the two sides signed a treaty of sorts with military limitations and such. The First Order rose out of the ashes on the imperial side of that treaty and started rebuilding breaking parts of the treaty, but the New Republic remained ignorant (in some cases willfully) of the transgressions to avoid new hostilities. The Resistance are those who do now want the First Order to get away with their transgressions and are resisting in First Order territory with some illicit aid of the New Republic.

Things That Trouble Me About Star Wars

The Twins are getting into Star Wars, especially Twin B, and we've watched Episode IV and V together recently, as well he's been watching all the Clone Wars shows. As a kid I watched and enjoyed all the movies with a child's acceptance, but now as an adult I watch them and thought pop in my head.

1. Why are TIE fighters the primary ship of the Empire? I mean, you just went through a long painful war a decade or so back that demonstrated that cheap and plentiful (droids) are hard pressed when confronted with more capable but less numerous opponents (Clone Troopers) so why would you scale back your Imperial Fleet's main fighter with fragile and under-gunned fighters? Especially when the rebels start showing up with more powerful X-Wings that have more lasers, shields, and can travel through hyperspace? I realize that we eventually see TIE Inteceptors and Defenders (especially in games and spin off material) but in the episodes IV and V they are the only ones we see besides a brief cameo by TIE bombers.

2. Who is backing the rebels? And Why? The movies don't get into it because we can tell from moment one in episode IV that the Empire are the baddies, but as an adult I wonder at the overall goals of the rebellion and who is providing them with resources to fight the Empire.

3. Droids are enslaved. Look, they appear for all intents and purposes to be sentient, have feelings and loyalties, believe in the Creator, fear death, form bonds... yet they are treated like property in the Star Wars universe. Found a droid? Let's knock him out and sell him to a farm to work in the fields. Claims he belongs to someone else? Wipe his memory, he belongs to us now. And the salvery is so ingrained in all the biological races that they don't even see it in themselves. We love our droids, but give them free choice? Hahahahaha why would we do that?

4. The Death Star was a colossal failure, yet they decided to build a second one? The Emperor really has issues. The amount of resources could have built another fleet of Star Destroyers to hunt the rebels down with.

5. Blowing up a planet seems like overkill, why not just bomb the surface to dust? Again, Emperor Palpatine has issues.

The Old Republic...Not So Old, and Totally Off Point

I watched the latest trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic this morning and my disgust with this title continues to grow. Every time I see Republic Commandos that look exactly like Storm Troopers / Clone Troopers or Sith ships that look exactly like Imperial Star Destroyers a part of me dies inside while screaming "3000 YEARS OLD YOU IDIOTS!". I know the Knights of the Old Republic has never been a franchise of original ideas but I had hoped the MMO would make strides to be visually unique.

Also in that trailer I was put off by the Jedi throwing around energy bolts like characters from Street Fighter (I kept expecting her to yell "Hadouken!"). I always thought Jedi (and to some degree Sith) were more about finesse and not over the top theatrical power-spells. It smells like pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Then you have Bioware coming out and acting all arrogant saying current MMOs have no point and that The Old Republic will fix all that:

Bioware designer and writing director Daniel Erickson told CVG that the Mass Effect studio had been disappointed by the "lack of fun" in other MMO titles on the market.

He said: "In the early days when they first announced that there were MMOs, like the existence of them, I knew in my head what that meant - because I played Role Playing Games. It was just giant Role Playing Games.

"And then MMO [games] showed up, and it wasn't that. It was the ruleset to an RPG: There was combat, and there were areas, but that was all. Someone had left out the module. There was no story, there was no point. You just kind of wandered around. And that hasn't really changed all that much over the years.

"We've always had that thought in the back of our heads: That Old Republic should be all the things we thought an MMO would be in the first place - which is all the parts of an RPG. Which means - and this is the most radical idea - it should just be fun. Like, just fun to play. You shouldn't be trying to ignore all of the content to get to the end as fast as possible."

While he's not entirely wrong that a lot of MMOs have artificial barriers to "fun" its worth noting that he's just slagged every current player of MMOs as idiots that don't know that what they are doing is not fun. He's also dismissing all of the massive amounts of fun players do have in the current generation of games, be it WoW, Everquest, Eve, etc. It seems like he missed the point.

Which makes me wonder what is he making? How can TOR be so much fun as to obsolete all current MMOs? The mind boggles at the possibilities... no wait, it doesn't. They're going to make the same type of game as has been successful, add in lots of voice acting and story that most players don't give to craps about, and still miss the boat on the true fun in MMOs: other players are the ultimate endgame.

Don't give us another grind to raidfest Bioware, no matter how pretty it is. Star Trek Online already demonstrated that pretty only gets you so far.

Bah, its already too late.