Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

I went into the film without spoilers and with hope. But I was greatly disappointed. I love Star Wars but this was a mess. It was over two hours of a scavenger hunt with a bunch of forced nostalgia. The first third of the movie was greatly rushed trying to fit in all the plot elements that were going to be needed for the rest of the movie. There were too many forced nostalgia moments to make them meaningful. It was like they remembered all the bad things from the Solo movie and thought they would try them again in a main Star Wars film but they didn't work for me. In the end, the old original characters come out as still the heroes, and the new Disney characters take the credit. So many forced moments that just did not work and made me cringe. And the plot holes and stereotypes are so obvious that it's painful to watch and think about. I really don't like to slag a movie but this was just bad. If you want to think of it as trying to finish the plots and fix the mistakes of the last two movies you could see it that way, but the way it happened was unfortunate and obvious that there was no plan for the three movies to tell a greater story, and it all ends up being a mess. Visually beautiful and nostalgic but a mess.

I finally got to watch it and I enjoyed it alot. So many things have become political these days and movies are one. And when I say political I mean it becomes a war of words of opposing sides that need to be won. And the movie itself could suffer because of it. This battle is over lore and what has come before. To many it's like religion and if you deviat from what's expected the call to war is triggered and the movie itself become secondary. I started with the first movie at the theater at a midnight showing at the Glenwood theater in Overland Park Kansas (which now is gone..the theater not the city) and went into the movie knowing nothing about it. We didn't have the internet so the main way you learned about movies was the sunday paper and the ads that came along with the movie times. That movie was unique and loved right away so we overlooked it's flaws and just looked at it with a positive eye. Now movies are judged with a negative eye and we live in a world where so many are now striving to be a force in their opinions. I suffered through Empire and Return with those multi-years long waits to see the story progress so by the time they came I was just overjoyed. Now in today's world movies are often panned before they open either with stolen copies or pre-knowledge and being super critical about every little thing has become a competition. I enjoyed the movie and it's been a long road from that midnight showing at the Glenwood and I'm glad we got to take that journey. Try a positive eye when you look at the world. You'll be a happier person.

The more things change; the more they stay the same. I wrote a similar review for Terminator: Dark Fate. The movie is somewhat of a good watch but only once. Unfortunately this movie suffers from being part of a legacy. Like with all movies that were established hits from the 80's (Tron; Terminator; Predator; Ghostbusters; Bladerunner etc) there's too many familiar elements from the past in the present movie. The same template just repeats itself from Return of the Jedi. Palpentine's dialougue was almost exactly the same before Luke fought his father Anakin. JJ Abrams was either caught between a rock and a hard place in that he had no creative license to take the film in a direction away from George Lucas' intent. Or he simply ran out of ideas to take the series from Last Jedi to Rise of Skywalker. Why did this movie make a billion? Simple. Marketing and cross generational appeal. I saw the original 1977 movie in theaters and would have probably taken my kids (if I had any) to see these; but that would be before I knew what they were. Slightly weak copies of the original. For $275 million; you certainly can't say the visuals and effects were bad. The pacing was too fast for any real development a plot. But seeing as you basically find out it's just a wild goose chase to nowhere in particular; the final battle was pointless. One thing I also say in another review (The Predator); I noticed FOX seemed to recycle their "use" of previous actors; from X-MEN films into new roles. For those who saw both LOGAN and X-MEN Origins Wolverine; those actors are here. Casting. Is it about quantity or about quality? I'm not sure.