star wars 9 spoilers and postmortem shit talk

I get why they had the “memory” of Han showing up as a non-force ghost but it didn’t gel. Pretty obviously an insert due to Carrie Fisher’s death and an inability to have her deliver exposition, but Harrison Ford looked weird too! Was that actually him? Has he been hitting the botox or was he animated into the scene

on the other hand, the bit where her body only
disappeared after Ben‘s death worked. She was walking with him, narratively

sorry for nerdist link but it covers everything I hate about the Rey Palpatine arc: https://nerdist.com/article/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-rey-reveal/

i don't even hate the idea that he returned and she has to fight him! But it was unnecessary for her to be either his granddaughter or a Skywalker. so fucking dumb.

Also Driver and Ridley deserve credit for anchoring it with a semblance of emotional weight that wasn’t rooted in nostalgia.

^^this otm, particularly Driver. Kylo Ren was basically reduced to an exposition machine and his redemption was oddly rushed (mother dies, gets killed, revived, has a conversation with dead dad, immediately realises the error of his ways. ok) but he still sold the hell out of it.

All the Reylo scenes were fantastic - physical objects being transferred through their connection was the coolest new use of force powers.

So have we addressed the fact that Palpatine had sex

^^Fixing to say.

...and that somehow Daisy Ridley is the eventual result.

Reminds me of that (iirc) Anthony Lane line re: the lack of chemistry between Christiansen & Portman in the prequals, and how Luke & Leia had to have been conceived via "Anakin in the bathroom with a Playwookie mag".

xpost explains the British accent?

I'm ignoring it lol, but other people should decide for themselves: I made a mistake of wading into a fan forum where I learned that it's apparently canon that Palpatine created Anakin/Vader either by impregnating Shri or messing with her pregnancy, so the whole Rey/Ben relationship is in fact incest in the Daenerys/Jon Snow tradition.

Tapping out

Back in

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a30273291/palpatine-darth-sidious-wife-child-granddaughter-rey-family/

The headline is much better than the link implies

sheev

Sheevy Wonder

Isn't he uglyyyyyyyyy

the canon-ish thing is that the Emperor was doing some serious dark side meditation trying to mess with the force balance and it ended up with a baby with no father — Anakin was immaculately conceived, just some woman getting pregnant because someone in the central part of the galaxy warping the force so far it created an amazingly force-aligned child

so Palpatine is Anakin’s daddy, but only in the way a war orphan is a child of the aggressor

^i lold

I enjoyed this more the second time. when you know the stuff you don't like is coming you can kinda brace yourself better I guess?

also Rey is the sweetest person alive but good lord does she have quite the body count by now.

why are you people watching this a second time when there are good movies out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cMPuByfwnY

Can someone who's seen it a second time confirm/deny that the stormtroopers observing Kylo's disciple gang walk by said "goals?" I'm hoping I just misheard that line of dialogue.

Will probably take my 9 year old to see it over the holidays although tbh he's more into the Marvel movies

I thought he said "Knights of Ren? Cool" but it was hard to make out both times

I hope it's not either those lol

Yeah I heard "Cool!" and it was very silly. They really didn't seem to justify that opinion.

they seemed like pathetic fedora guys tbh

I thought the guy said “ghouls” but “goals” is a lot funnier

You too can be a Knight of Ren!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiXTf0cyORw

otm

squad ghouls

Today I learned that there's a Stucky contingent for Star Wars, who believe that Poe and Finn are a clear queer couple and the romantic subplots for them is "a really explicit piece of intentional straight-washing"

The first bit of criticism I've seen that I haven't understood:

"I've been having some very in-depth conversations about things I'd change and a lot of them come down to wishing that Rey actually displayed some kind of emotion at any point, some kind of indication that these things are actually affecting her at all."

Xpost

Today I learned that there's a Stucky contingent for Star Wars, who believe that Poe and Finn are a clear queer couple and the romantic subplots for them is "a really explicit piece of intentional straight-washing"

I only know about this because of Oscar Isaac complaining about the straight-washing

I really enjoyed this overall.

It was very choppy & I could have done with some longer moments and a bit less exposition-dialogue, and some of the fanservice stuff was a bit too much JJ going “Eh? Remember this?”

But the story hooked me pretty much right away & the pacing really made it feel like an exciting Saturday night space adventure. Leia felt so weird in those early scenes but man the death scene gave me an unexpected gut punch, i cried so much.

Ridley & Driver were so, so great - all of the Rey & Kylo story moments really glued the whole thing together, and had so much emotional weight

Do we think that Luke misinterpreted the main skill of a Jedi to be just raising starfighter out of swamps/oceans/etc? Does it even fly that good after it’s been submerged for so long?

sat next to irl Comic Book Guy
when chewie got the medal he said loudly “Oh jesus CHRIST” and put his hands over his face in frustration, then stomped out as soon as the credits started

lol

haha that's... why would anybody be mad about that.

this made me lol

Emperor Palpatine, the Rise of Skywalker (colorized, 2019) pic.twitter.com/tfpKQ3VdnR

— Nathan Hayford (@Nathan_Hayford) December 21, 2019

The Temple of Sith is black metal as hell

sat next to irl Comic Book Guy
when chewie got the medal he said loudly “Oh jesus CHRIST” and put his hands over his face in frustration, then stomped out as soon as the credits started

lol

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, December 21, 2019 4:28 PM bookmarkflaglink

Hahaha

I do feel like this is a much more polarizing movie than The Last Jedi, even though that one had a massive amount detractors, they were so obnoxious and nasty that they made us think more of them were out there due to the noise.

But despite the polarization, I haven't seen as much gatekeeping this time around, though obviously it's always gonna be there.

Wanna piss off a Star Wars nerd, tell them Star Wars is a franchise of good "bad" movies.

I believe this may also have been the tealest movie in history. Wouldn't say it had been an issue in any of the other recent SW movies but think they really over-did that this time.

Rey just took a DNA test and turns out, she is 100% that Sith

I was so pleased with this movie. I can't imagine them sewing everything up in a better way than they did. It was all so satisfying, and felt like it had real integrity -- both with respect to what they set up in the current trilogy, as well as the "saga" as a whole.

Sure, the plot was breakneck, and there were some (enjoyably) ridiculous moments and a few "huh?" elements.. but almost everything just worked so well. Even the stuff that I had been cringing a little to anticipate (e.g., Force Ghosts) were tastefully and effectively done.

It's interesting to think back to when JJ said that this movie would tie back to the Prequel Trilogy, and we were anticipating some heavy-handed Darth Plagueis shit... instead, it circled back in a more subtle & thoughtful way. When Palpatine told Anakin that the Force could even be used "to stop people from dying," that may have largely been salesmanship -- but it turns out to be true, only it's more complicated than it sounded. We already knew that death isn't permanent for Jedi, but the finale introduced a graceful sort of economy to the idea of life & death in Star Wars.

Given all the revelations & reversals, I imagine this movie may have a lower re-watchability factor than most of the other movies (can't imagine it having nearly as much oomph once you know what's going to happen)... but I'd rate it very highly based on a theatrical viewing with an (over)excited crowd.

I literally just watched two of my friends arguing with another friend about how it was a plot hole re: how Han could have somehow appeared in a vision to Kylo. Instead of arriving at the obvious and easy conclusion that it was the cinematic version of a vision, where you talk to dead relatives in times of strife.

I feel like most nerds need training on how to watch movies.

Word. And on another level, I feel like the last movie did a good job of priming the pump for “suspension of disbelief” with respect to these surreal new Force powers... I really dug the fighting & grabbing stuff across space, occupying two places at once, etc.

I feel like most nerds need training on how to watch movies.

― Bublé in the changer, I wish I was dead (Neanderthal), Sunday, December 22, 2019 2:06 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Truer words have ne'er been spoken.

I found the pacing & tone of this incredibly annoying - felt like 95% of it was just characters yelling exposition and scene descriptions at each other. Every scene just felt like endless variations of:

A: “We need to do this thing!”
B: “Are you sure we need to do that thing?”
A: “We are doing the thing now!!”
(smash cut to different location)
C: “Wow A & B just did that thing!!”

That's Abrams for ya. I liked it but can agree with that

Musically, it was great hearing that little snippet of “Rey’s Theme”(?) at the very end, tying back to the first movie (and a mood/feeling that I had completely forgotten about).