Ars Technica’s review (oblique spoilers. summary – there are plot issues, and characters that are not used well, but the Kylo/Rey stuff is awesome)
I have vowed to not read any other reviews, or even check the tomatometer until after I see it.
In general I like eps 7 & 8 but even if I hated them I’d probably see ep 9 (I didn’t like Matrix 2 very much but saw Matrix 3 for completion)
On the other hand, if there was Highlander 2 
I woudn’t see any sequels.
Brian
If ep 9 sucks its cause:
The entire structure of the trilogy. No idea what the stakes are, not enough about the characters. Not enough character development. Little room for investment in the characters. Combined with how Rian utterly wrote the movies into a corner.
If Slate doesn’t like it, I probably would. But I just don’t have the interest to go see it. Hell, I might really like the Mandalorian, but I don’t plan on getting Disney+ until the MCU series start.
But who allowed him to write the movies into a corner? As a delegation of visiting Chinese Principals observed after Bart Simpson failed to deliver on a fireworks display:
Principal 1: All week, he promise big firework display.
Principal 2: Bad student.
Principal 1: Uh-uh—bad principal!
(And yes, I am aware that it was actually Marge’s fault for dousing the fireworks because she assumed Bart had to be lying about the fireworks display, but that’s beyond the scope of this analogy.)
The guy who wrote that review seems like he’s looking for something completely different in Star Wars than I am. He says that a promise of “The Saga Will End” has been made and broken before, but I have no idea what he’s talking about. RotJ did end the original saga, and did it quite well in my opinion. Episode III was obviously not going to wrap things up in any way. That leaves Episode IX, and I’m waiting until I see it myself to see if that promise is going to be broken or not.
ETA. I also don’t get why a fan is “toxic” Judy because they want their Star Was to continue on in the same style as the original trilogy. Why is that a bad thing?
Because entertainment has become all about tribalism and picking sides and drinking the tears of the toxic man-baby incels or snowflake SJWs.
See: The shitstorm about the Joker movie.
Ep. 7 came out and I was happy to get more Star Wars.
Rogue One, DAMN! that was awesome. They are only gotten better.
Ep. 8 and Solo, I don’t have time to go into the mountain of missteps taken in those two. There are plenty of space movies from Japan and Italy from the 60s that are more entertaining and have better thought out stories.
Given what has preceded this and the trailers, I’m putting this into the wait for it to come out on video category. Cheapest rental possible. That’s where Man of Steel fell to and deservedly so. That is a real blow to me for a Star Wars movie. I otherwise want to see it opening weekend. Before going into 8 I was thinking for 9 I might do this right by getting a costume, taking the day or more off if needed and go as a bitter old Skywalker. Normally even for a rental I want to avoid big spoilers, and I’ve tried so far, but I don’t have enough faith in this approaching train wreak to bother. But, hey, maybe I’ll see something to change my mind.
I don’t think there is any satisfying way to end this given the direction they chose. It is almost beyond belief, but this trilogy, with it’s enormous budget, returning for the last time original stars, backing of the worlds biggest studio, should probably be removed from cannon. Ep. 7 included since it was just there to be a mystery box. There are a few characters that could be salvage, but otherwise it’s looking like a total loss.
About this new one.
Rise of Skywalker? How can that even be?
If Rey is Luke’s kid they are one movie too late for that reveal. If she is Leia’s kid they are two movies too late, plus it’s really weird. Some men might sweat a little going out to the mailbox on fathers day worrying about a single misspent night leaving a surprise that will bite them years later but women have to go through 9 months of getting clued in.
Now, if Finn turned out to be Luke’s son, then I’d buy a ticket. That might be the one thing that could save this trilogy.
I can’t see Luke or Leia being the ones to Rise. I’d like it, but they force ghosted him and she very sadly wasn’t available to film enough to have that part in this movie.
It looked like Rey was training in the trailer. How does that make any sense in this new trilogy? Her thing is that seconds after getting a lightsaber in her hands she was better then anyone in the galaxy with thier years of experience. Why is Kylo still getting into fights with her? Just nuke the planet she is on from orbit. It all just too stupid to watch.
If I was writing this:
When the Falcon lands Luke would be waiting for them. He’d be like “Why would you think I’m dead? I just use the force to teleport from planet to planet these days. Look, I even stopped off for tacos for everyone (product placement)” Much dumber things have happened in these movies.
The Emperor only cares about his own life, let the rest of the galaxy explode if it buys him 5 more minutes. All 9 movies would have been part of his long range plan to get hold of something only a Jedi could give him, Qui-Gon’s path to ascension. Luke could at the end finally give in, take his place at the Emperors side and teach him the secret. Of course when Palpatine does pass on he will have a super pissed off apprentice to deal with as well as Yoda and all the rest on the other side.
It would leave Luke in a strange situation as the head of a galactic army and all the planets that built it. On one hand they want to dominate and continue to do evil, but now they got a new boss who is Lord Vader’s kid and not to be messed with. So, Luke would have a new balancing act to take on. I guess that would make Rey the new Vader, for goodness.(or else!)
The other thing that bothered me about the new trilogy is that Kylo Ren practically worshipped Vader like a god. He was his cult following. But this is Star Wars. Anakin was a force ghost and Kylo is strong with the force. Therefore, Anakin should have been able to visit him at any time. Maybe say he took a wrong turn and no one should go around committing mass murders in his name. But none of that happened and it’s really weird Anakin was silent all those years. Because of that much of Kylo’s blood shed is on his hands.
The most disturbing think about this trilogy it that it looks like every character from previous 6 movies must die. Is anyone going to live? Maybe they still have to throw George a few extra bucks if they use any of his characters. But, this is a brutal way out. It doesn’t look like anyone rides off into the sunset or gets a condo in Florida. They are straight up killling them off. Except for the guy at the end of the Solo movie. The most certainly dead of all dead characters gets brought back to a cameo.
Just my guesses but here’s how likely I think some of the originals are to survive.
R2D2 >99%
C3PO >99%
Chewbacca 75%
Lando 25%
Leia 0%
Everyone else = already dead
Stranger, it opens today ans as I type I’m sitting in An almost empty theatre (2 other people) and it starting in 3 minutes.
It is midday here and 2d, but still…
Verstuurd vanaf mijn moto g(6) met Tapatalk
Just to bring balance to the attendance count, I was in a huge, packed theatre.
At midnight, the lobby was full of 20-30-somethings, some in Jedi robes (one said he loved it, apparently spoke Earth English). And then I realized most of the people milling around were getting popcorn; they hadn’t seen it yet, as there were still three more showings.
Most of the things that Jonson did that he gets so much criticism for were the only things he could have done, given what Abrams gave him. Like, Rey’s parents: Either she’s a Skywalker, or she isn’t. No other point about her parentage matters. With VII ending with her meeting Luke, that can’t possibly remain unresolved for an entire movie. So Johnson resolved it. He had to either make her Luke’s daughter, or the daughter of some nobodies. And he chose the better option of those two.
She could be related to Obi-wan or for that matter Wedge, but I agree not a Skywalker is the better choice.
Brian
Thinking in toy terms, that makes sense. Although, R2D2 may take away from BB8 sales.
For me, the whole thing is built around R2. He was there from saving Padme in her escape to get help from the Jedi to destroying the Death Stars. Although Luke and the rest did their part.
That was certainly one way to go.
Here’s the problem: the next movie is called “Rise of Skywalker.” From day one we knew this was going to be a trilogy. Yet, nobody had a plan even in the broadest sense. The only point was to make three movies and suck as much money from it as they can.
The biggest problem with JJ’s first movie is it was too much set up with no idea where it was going.
Even Luke’s/Anakin’s lightsabre came out of nowhere. But that’s a story for another time? Umm, ok. A movie dedicated to scavengers would have been on par with the way they are milking things. I’m enough of a sucker to have liked it. But where is it?
Also, big things happen to with no explanation. One day the Empire is gone, the next it’s back.
These movies are just a bunch of random things that got thrown together with images of space ship whizzing by shooting lights at each other. The people making it don’t care why or if it makes any sense and they don’t don’t deserve to get paid.
For a while there was speculation she could be from the Palpatine lineage.
OK, yeah, I can definitely agree that all three movies should have been planned together, at least at the plot-outline stage. And I suppose that you can’t really lay the blame for them not being so planned on any one movie. Unfortunately, planning for the future seems to be a rare quality in TV and movies.
I was fine with Rey’s parents being nobody—I mean, there used to be a lot of Jedis before Anakin came onto the scene and killed them—but less fine with her taking anything Kylo said at face value. There are a lot of things about TLJ that I was “fine” with in principle, but felt the execution was botched. Example:
Poe getting called to task for wanting to solve everything by jumping into his cockpit. Fine, but the example used (his driving home the attack on the dreadnaught) and the specific setup whereby Leia basically abdicated her command responsibility and then pinned it on Poe when the successful (and ultimately necessary) attack resulted in massive casualties. It’s the sort of moral cowardice one loathes to encounter (but, regrettably, does) in the real military, where leaders create toxic environments whereby they are never responsible for failures, but then happily take all the credit when things turn out alright.
Useless side quest to Canto Bi…whatever. I’m fine with things planning out, I just hated the contrivance of them getting picked up on a parking violation, and then coincidentally meeting someone with the exact skill set they needed. Running into an unsavory character who would sell them out was fine.
Luke being a bitter hermit could have worked, I just wish we’d have gotten a more convincing turn around, maybe something developing out of his budding relationship with Rey rather than his ancient history relationship with Yoda.
The villains were all morons. Hux and Kylo in particular. How I miss the days of villains who are good at villainy. I know Johnson knows how to write good villains, but for whatever reason he went cartoonish with this.
Holdo would have been great if she had actually been shown to be a good leader, with Poe’s reaction to her being related to his supposed flaws (an overt bias for action) rather than her refusal to share key information with her subordinate commander. If they really wanted to show Poe as a hothead, they could still have had him try and charge off to lead another attack—in spite of Holdo’s plan—but instead of his fighter getting blown up, he gets… stunned by Leia (or Holdo, or whoever). The point is, Holdo as portrayed was toxic, but we were clearly meant to walk away thinking she was an amazing leader and that Poe was wrong to even dare ask questions (which is basically how the Charge of the Light Brigade went down, at least according to literary tradition).
There were some head-scratchers with the physics, not just in terms of real world physics (which I understand go out the window in Star Wars) but just in terms of internal consistency. These would be the least of my problems with TLJ.
Kylo killing Snoke and then trying to join up with Rey… Actually, that was kind of cool and would have been a great scene to end on, with Kylo offering his hand to Rey in a callback to the end of TFA and then roll credits. Hell, I’d say just ending the movie there would actually have me excited to see the final installment, spoilers notwithstanding.
ETA:
Seconded. You’d think a multi-billion dollar franchise would be a little more concerned with planning, though.