@finfan Thanks for your tag, I appreciate your time writing the review. I never wrote what I actually liked about this movie. It's all about a particular moment: the sacrifice of Leia to save his son from the dark side, Ben throwing away his lightsaber and confronting his dad. The original trilogy was about a father and his son, this trilogy became in that very moment, a mother and son story. Considering the death of Carrie Fisher, Abrams and his team made a great job. It's an emotional moment for me, it justifies this trilogy and I have to admit that I never felt so heart broken for a SW movie.
About Kylo Ren, we find out he's just hearing voices. Some sort of schizophrenia induced by Palpatine. It's not much, considering it's all sudden, like the resistance fleet at the end. Apart from the moment described above, I admit I care less about other scenes in this movie, even if it's a really fun drive. It's because I am interested in the characters and Ben fascinated me from the beginning. I am less impressed with the other characters. I generally liked Rey. Even knowing she had a hard life growing up, it's nice to see her failing on screen, I was finally able to relate to her in this movie.
I was expecting something different from this trilogy, a more personal journey for Luke and his students, a story about the balance of the Force, but I realized it was going to be a rebels vs empire sort of thing when I saw the teaser of TFA in 2014. I have to admit that Leia's sacrifice impressed me so much I felt happy after the ending of the movie.
Some conclusions I think about often:
1. In ROTJ there is a powerful scene where the main characters are entering the moon of Endor. Vader feels the presence of his son and Luke is preoccupied he is going to ruin the mission. It's sad that we don't have these moments, only action packed scenes (maybe the most similar one is the Kylo Ren\Leia moment in TLJ).
2. I think Abrams was the right choice for this trilogy, it would have been great if he was the only director, he is a master in directing actions scenes and works really well with the actors. I was expecting to see a more active Story group in the LucasFilm department. The story for the entire trilogy needed 10 writers, 5 familiar with the Star Wars material (Chris Avellone, Dave Filoni, Timothy Zahn...) and 5 less familiar with the saga. The story then passed to some screenwriters to write dialogues and scenes. Similar to what happened to Raiders of the lost Ark with Lucas and Spielberg discussing their ideas to Kasdan.
3. The best story excluding the original trilogy is still Knights of the old Republic 2 by Chris Avellone and his team. I don't know if you are familiar with the videogame. There are great analysis and trailers if you search for "Kreia" on YouTube.
@andreas1138 Your welcome. It's not that often someone asks for my opinion, so thank you for that.
Yes, the scene with Ben, Leia and Han was one of the better parts of the movie if not only for the fact it gave Han's death at last some meaning. Or shall I say more purpose ? Unfortunately it was a bit lost on me concerning Leia as, in my mind, she died in the previous movie, the moment you describe. (check back my comment about Ep.8 if you don't remember). It would have been one of the most powerful moments. But Johnson screwed that up. That was literally the moment the sequels lost me and they never managed to get me back.
And I think this movie really was an attempt to minimize damage. Right at the beginning of the Making of for Ep.9 JJ Abrams says, and I quote loosely: "I never thought I would be back here". So he probably was the firefighter. And I'm pretty sure to remember reading that making Rey a Palpatine was never in the original draft for the trilogy. But I have to agree he was ultimately the much better writer/director. And that is high praise coming from me because I really don't like him since in my eyes he screwed up Star Trek. And I don't like his style of filming. I still think TFA was a good starting point and maybe having different writers wasn't such a good idea.
I watched the complete SW saga incl. many interviews in the last months and one thing that I never considered until I heard Lucas say it was that the whole Ep. 1-6 was actually the story of Anakin/Vader. That Luke was the catalyst in this story to bring Anakin back to the Light. I don't know why I never heard that before or even noticed it myself. Lucas story for the last trilogy was something completely different that Disney had zero interest in. Would it have been better ? Who can say but if Lucas had done it himself I would have bet on it. Like you mentioned, there is a lot of personal things missing from the sequels.
Ultimately this story had nothing in it for me. It's not the ending of a nine episode story arc. I don't even see it as a continuation. It should have been more about the old characters but they waited too long. Those new group did not connect with me. Maybe I'm old fashioned but just one example, why do they constantly need to remind them they are in this together ? There was nothing like that with Han, Leia and Luke. They knew, the audience knew. It's a flaw of many movies today that the writers seem to think their audience is stupid and need constant reminders and explanations of what is happening. The idea of a deserting Stormtrooper has appeal but Finn became somewhat of the comic relief I felt. Althought I didn't like Ben he had much more potential then Rey due to his inner conflicts.
Funny that Kathleen Kennedy just now said they need to step back and look at what they got. For me that translates into: "yes, we could have done better and we know it". I hope they draw the right conclusions. If I had something to say I'll give Filoni the keys to the vault and let him run with it.
I could probably go on and on but more is said and written about those movies then I can ever read or watch. As I said I leave this to others you can appreciate it. Which is totally fine. I can watch hours of SW and be satisfied with what I got.
Review by FinFanBlockedParentSpoilers2020-08-21T19:20:02Z
I actually did it. Despite telling everyone I know, I'll never see this movie, I abandoned my principles. Well, that and I pay for Disney+ anyway. So, what the h***, right ? So, did I like it ? Not particularly. Do I hate it ? Same Answer. Truth be told I didn't expect anything.
First of, I felt I was sitting in front of the TV for at least three hours and was surprised it was way less. Is that a good thing ? I don't know. And I still feel they could loose an hour of the movie if the cut all the crap out. Visually it was great, althought at times overloaded. Which is true for many movies nowadays. But seriously, why? A hundred Star Destroyers are not impressive enough ? Let's make it one thousand ! You know what, it's CGI. Once we have the model they cost only pennies. So here's ten thousand (I didn't count them but I want to make a point). Same goes for the resistance fleet coming to the rescue. And those grand scenes where your character becomes a pin tip that is hard to make out. All this just to make the audience awe and to reflect from the fact that there is little content.
Because the story is all over the place with no real direction. Everything is coppled together. Is this the movie they wanted to make in the first place or is it them trying to plug the holes in the dam that came after TLJ? Everyone insists Johnson's movie didn't change a thing but I have my doubts. From my point it was a bad decision bringing Palpatine back. The way they did it with just the line in the opening text. Maybe do a flashback how he survived the fall, who found him, how he got to where he is. But he did little for me at all, that chapter closed with ROTJ. It was literally beating a dead horse. And with every scene and twist they try to climb one more step on the ladder to make something grand, not realizing they already went overboard two steps below.
How many times do we need to see a fight between Rey and Kylo ? Plus those fights were awful. Look at the Duel of the Fates or the Anakin vs Obi Wan on Mustafar as a template. They were full of intensity and emotion. Here it was one-two-three- STOP. Change position, repeat. I know a dozen vids on youtube with better choreographie.
And please do remind us another half dozen times that we are in this together because I am not sure I got it. Spanning the whole trilogy I didn't connect with any of the main characters at all. Which is another factor why this whole sequel is not for me.
In the end it is Star Wars as imagined by Disney. It's a benchmark at what is visually possible and at the same time an excample of what to avoid.
Now, I wrote a lot about something I didn't care about at first, didn't I ? I care for the franchise, but not for this sequels. I tried to see them as something seperate, removed from the Lucas movies. But even that didn't help. While TFA was not bad (or maybe it was the enjoyment of new SW getting the better of me) Ep.8 and Ep.9 are just not good movies.
Like everything I write it's my personal opinion. I don't attack people who like the movie so please grand me the same courtesy.
May the Force be with us.
@andreas1138
you wanted my opinion but it is not favorable.
Concerning Ren, I never liked him as his story is flawed to begin with. He wanted to continue Vader's work. But Vader came to the realisation that ultimately he was on the wrong side, killed Palpatine, and by that fullfilling the Prophecy and bring balance to the Force. He became Anakin again. Up to this point Vader was the ultimate evil. Kylo a wanna-be. He didn't understand Vader because if he had he would not have idealized him.