Movies Nerrel: The Rise of Skywalker - Look What You Have Made

[SaysWho?]

 

This comes to you from the guy who did a fantastic dissection of The Last Jedi:

 

 

 

And while it does vocalize much of what's wrong with the movie, articulating it in ways that perhaps you were unable, the video points out some things that I didn't appreciate before. Ex: the use of practical effects was actually still quite high even in Rise of Skywalker, and the effects of the movies will age quite well compared with the very sterile looking prequels. And the actors put in some very good performances, on the whole, for three movies back to back.

 

It's enjoyable, and he makes a joke at the beginning about making these videos way down the line when "nobody gives a shit," so by all means ignore the video if you've had your fill But if you entered this thread, I'm assuming you don't mind a watch! He's good, so I think he's worth it.

[Brick]

Yeah I saw this the other day. I loved his TLJ video, and he's made some other great videos as well (like the benefits to the Wii motion controls). One of the only handful of channels I actually subscribed to. 

 

His questioning of if JJ lied about loving the things Johnson did, and wanting to change them back, does also make me question it. I want to take JJ at his word and think he just made the wrong choices to continue them, but then again it still does seem like he wanted to find a way to get Rey's lineage back to how he envisioned it. 

[ort]

I can barely even remember what happened in Rise of Skywalker. It feels like a distant fever dream.

[Brick]

5 minutes ago, ort said:

I can barely even remember what happened in Rise of Skywalker. It feels like a distant fever dream.

 

I bought the Blu-ray back in like April or May, and have yet to open it and watch it. As a Star Wars fan, that is a damning indictment of the quality of the movie, and just goes to show how disappointing it was that I have no strong desire to rewatch it. 

[Greatoneshere]

I dunno if JJ intentionally lied but he certainly did everything he could to change, backpeddle, or minimize a lot of what TLJ did, from Rose's minimal screentime to Luke's need to reappear pointlessly as a force ghost to reintroducing Palpatine because Snoke was killed off to Rey's lineage, etc. 

[Brick]

JJ was the wrong choice for IX. A rushed, and panicked decision. Honestly, I think he was also the wrong choice for VII, even though I like The Force Awakens; it's a fun movie despite its flaws! He was too obvious and safe of a choice for VII, and while it mostly turned out all right for VII, all the worries of him being chosen came through with IX with his worst tendencies coming through; the mystery boxes, the pandering fan service, the nostalgia, the spectacle in lieu of meaningful character and story progression/arcs. 

 

If Damon Lindelof can take the criticisms he got from Lost and Prometheus, learn from them, and turn out an absolute stellar show with Watchmen, I really hope JJ can learn from The Rise of Skywalker for his future projects, even if I hope none of them involve Star Wars. Same with Chris Terrio; dude just does not have the strengths to work in genre fiction. 

[Greatoneshere]

6 hours ago, Brick said:

JJ was the wrong choice for IX. A rushed, and panicked decision. Honestly, I think he was also the wrong choice for VII, even though I like The Force Awakens; it's a fun movie despite its flaws! He was too obvious and safe of a choice for VII, and while it mostly turned out all right for VII, all the worries of him being chosen came through with IX with his worst tendencies coming through; the mystery boxes, the pandering fan service, the nostalgia, the spectacle in lieu of meaningful character and story progression/arcs. 

 

If Damon Lindelof can take the criticisms he got from Lost and Prometheus, learn from them, and turn out an absolute stellar show with Watchmen, I really hope JJ can learn from The Rise of Skywalker for his future projects, even if I hope none of them involve Star Wars. Same with Chris Terrio; dude just does not have the strengths to work in genre fiction. 

 

Damon Lindelof did The Leftovers before Watchmen, which is an even better show (and Watchmen was excellent). I just thought I'd mention that since he never gets enough credit for it. I agree with everything else you said, though he changed the tone of Star Wars too much with VII, so I don't think he was a good choice at all there either, though Force Awakens is at least competent compared to Rise of Skywalker.

[Brick]

9 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Damon Lindelof did The Leftovers before Watchmen, which is an even better show (and Watchmen was excellent). I just thought I'd mention that since he never gets enough credit for it. I agree with everything else you said, though he changed the tone of Star Wars too much with VII, so I don't think he was a good choice at all there either, though Force Awakens is at least competent compared to Rise of Skywalker.

 

I keep meaning to watch The Leftovers. Think I'll get on that soon what with all the free time I have in lockdown. 

 

Not sure what you mean by be changed the tone of Star Wars though. 

[Greatoneshere]

7 minutes ago, Brick said:

 

I keep meaning to watch The Leftovers. Think I'll get on that soon what with all the free time I have in lockdown. 

 

Not sure what you mean by be changed the tone of Star Wars though. 

 

The Force Awakens (I've gone into depth on this in other threads) doesn't feel like Star Wars. It feels like a more typically shot Hollywood blockbuster. Brighter, faster, more bombastic music, etc. The original trilogy had goofy dialogue and silly scenes, but they are also based on David Lean and Akira Kurosawa films in part, they move slower, establish tone, take time with their scenes, etc. The first, like, 15 minutes of TFA did this, and then JJ went full JJ and that was the end of Star Wars ever going back to the feel of the OT. Just rewatch the first 15 minutes with Rey in TFA, that's Star Wars. And then it just gets dumb. TLJ tried to rectify this somewhat with its cinematography and filmmaking, but it needed to match TFA to some degree, so Johnson was already hamstrung to a degree. I remember walking out of TFA the first time I saw it and went: "that was fun" but "that didn't feel like Star Wars to me". The tone just felt completely off and Star Wars has been paying the price ever since. The Mandalorian and Rogue One have somewhat course corrected this, thankfully. But the sequel trilogy and Solo got ganked as a result. I just don't understand; you could have hired any filmmaker in the world to restart Star Wars and they went with fucking JJ Abrams. Could have had literally any great director.

[SoberChef]

9 hours ago, ort said:

I can barely even remember what happened in Rise of Skywalker. It feels like a distant fever dream.

 

...except fever dreams are far more entertaining. As is botulism I may add!

[skillzdadirecta]

9 hours ago, Brick said:

JJ was the wrong choice for IX. A rushed, and panicked decision. Honestly, I think he was also the wrong choice for VII, even though I like The Force Awakens; it's a fun movie despite its flaws! He was too obvious and safe of a choice for VII, and while it mostly turned out all right for VII, all the worries of him being chosen came through with IX with his worst tendencies coming through; the mystery boxes, the pandering fan service, the nostalgia, the spectacle in lieu of meaningful character and story progression/arcs. 

 

If Damon Lindelof can take the criticisms he got from Lost and Prometheus, learn from them, and turn out an absolute stellar show with Watchmen, I really hope JJ can learn from The Rise of Skywalker for his future projects, even if I hope none of them involve Star Wars. Same with Chris Terrio; dude just does not have the strengths to work in genre fiction. 

Lindeloff redeemed himself for me with Watchmen and although I keep hearing how good leftovers is, I don't think I can watch it for other reasons... 

[Brick]

7 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Lindeloff redeemed himself for me with Watchmen and although I keep hearing how good leftovers is, I don't think I can watch it for other reasons... 

 

Because it's about 2% of the population disappearing? Come on man, if you're young and healthy you have nothing to fear; just isolate the sick and vulnerable and let the rest of us go on with our lives. It only affects 2% of people! 

[CitizenVectron]

I don't know what you guys are talking about, ROTS' audience score is much higher than TLJ, so it must be for a good reason.

[BloodyHell]

On 1/29/2021 at 3:33 AM, Greatoneshere said:

 

The Force Awakens (I've gone into depth on this in other threads) doesn't feel like Star Wars. It feels like a more typically shot Hollywood blockbuster. Brighter, faster, more bombastic music, etc. The original trilogy had goofy dialogue and silly scenes, but they are also based on David Lean and Akira Kurosawa films in part, they move slower, establish tone, take time with their scenes, etc. The first, like, 15 minutes of TFA did this, and then JJ went full JJ and that was the end of Star Wars ever going back to the feel of the OT. Just rewatch the first 15 minutes with Rey in TFA, that's Star Wars. And then it just gets dumb. TLJ tried to rectify this somewhat with its cinematography and filmmaking, but it needed to match TFA to some degree, so Johnson was already hamstrung to a degree. I remember walking out of TFA the first time I saw it and went: "that was fun" but "that didn't feel like Star Wars to me". The tone just felt completely off and Star Wars has been paying the price ever since. The Mandalorian and Rogue One have somewhat course corrected this, thankfully. But the sequel trilogy and Solo got ganked as a result. I just don't understand; you could have hired any filmmaker in the world to restart Star Wars and they went with fucking JJ Abrams. Could have had literally any great director.

The only film that felt like SW from Disney is RO. I still think TLJ is a great movie, just not a great Star Wars movie.

[Greatoneshere]

24 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

The only film that felt like SW from Disney is RO. I still think TLJ is a great movie, just not a great Star Wars movie.

 

TLJ and Rogue One are really the only good films to have come from the Lucasfilm sale so far. Thankfully Rebels and Mandalorian also exist.