Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

[Anders]

The movie had the fifth largest preview gross ever in the US, with $40 million.

[Coach]

Sequel trilogy ranking

TLJ > TFA > TROS

That's my initial reaction, too.

Hindsight is 20/20, but I would have let Rian Johnson handle all three.

[Anders]

TROS -> TFA -> TLJ

[Coach]

At the end of the day, we are debating a movie w/ a pretty bad rotten tomatoes rating of 57 based on reviewers who study this shit for a living. I'm not saying that site is the end all be all, but I tend to agree with most of its rotten vs. fresh rankings.

[Jorge]

Have we talked about how awful all the Leia stuff was?

I really don't know what they could've done with the material they had, but yikes, that was incredibly awkward. I don't think her

Spoiler: show

death

made any sense.

Probably should've had her die off-screen between TLJ and TROS.

We've already discussed it but I thought it worked better than it had any right too.

And her death, I thought, was incredibly impactful. I thought it was pretty masterful.

What about it didn't work for you? The dialogue aside, which I don't necessarily disagree with you about.

She and Ben died the same way Luke did: they’d exhausted the last of their life/Force energy by using the Force in extreme ways.

How did she use the force in an extreme way

She just said "Ben" and fell over

[Jorge]

First we see her escorted off by Billie Lourd while Maz explains to the audience that "it's going to take all her strength to reach her son now," which, uh, OK.

Then we see her in a darkened room. She interrupts the Rey/Kylo fight by saying "Ben." Then she falls over and dies.

What?

[B]

Here are my hot takes.

Spoiler: show

- The comedic beats with C-3P0, D-0, and Babu Frick were great. Especially, C-3P0, best he's ever been used across all 9 movies.
- Leia's dialogue was awkward, but if the alternative was to kill her off-screen, this was better.
- Why did they show Leia's face in the flashback with Luke? All that work to make her look good in this movie, and that scene fucked it for no good reason.
- I'm happy with the Emperor's return, even if it's because of "cloning, and Sith magic, and boogety boo," but what the fuck was his plan? Kylo, kill Rey. Oh, hi, Rey! Now you're the Empress. Oh look! I can suck both your powers and be the Emperor. Decades of planning, and he called 33 audibles in the last hour. He has crews for all of those ships, plus an entire stadium of people. Why didn't he just go blow up planets a long time ago.
- Why couldn't they blow up those fucking towers with ships? Only a ground crew can turn them off? Why would it keep working if you blew it to shit and it was no longer there?
- The Rebels never destroyed the tower on the planet. When they landed on the command ship, and it failed to lift out of the atmosphere, killing them all, why didn't they just switch back to the one on the ground.
- I enjoyed all the new force powers. It appears that the healing comes with a little bit of spirit bonding. That holds true in the Mandalorian. Good on them.
- I was happy to see the Ewoks. They deserved a nod since we spent all that time on their planet where the Death Star fell and apparently turned their ocean into a perpetual hurricane.
- I liked Ben's Han Solo vision, but Harrison Ford looked like the just pulled him out of one of his plane crashes. Why didn't someone comb his hair?
- The Knights of Ren really paid off, huh?

I had a lot of fun at the movie. I'm knocking it for fun, but I loved it.

[Jorge]

Have we talked about how awful all the Leia stuff was?

I really don't know what they could've done with the material they had, but yikes, that was incredibly awkward. I don't think her

Spoiler: show

death

made any sense.

Probably should've had her die off-screen between TLJ and TROS.

We've already discussed it but I thought it worked better than it had any right too.

And her death, I thought, was incredibly impactful. I thought it was pretty masterful.

What about it didn't work for you? The dialogue aside, which I don't necessarily disagree with you about.

Between her out-of-nowhere death (addressed above), all her disconnected response dialogue, and the fact that the lighting and color grading made it so she looked literally copy-pasted in from a different movie makes me think they really should have come up with a different solution to the Carrie problem.

I just don't know what that would be

[B]

Forgot one.

Spoiler: show

I liked Ben's Han Solo vision, but Harrison Ford looked like the just pulled him out of one of his plane crashes. Why didn't someone comb his hair?

[blueviper]

Going to see this in an hour. Then come back to play catch up.

Here we go.....

[dimejinky99]

The emperor wanted her to kill him so his spirit would possess her body and rule.

He says this but people seem to have missed it

[B]

The emperor wanted her to kill him so his spirit would possess her body and rule.

He says this but people seem to have missed it

That was plan #2 of 3.

[dimejinky99]

Leia doesn’t just ‘die’

She calls out to Ben. He hears her. Rey sees her chance and skewers him with her lightsaber.

*that* is what kills Leia. She obviously feels his immense pain. And he’s about to die too remember

[Coach]

Here are my hot takes.

Spoiler: show

- The comedic beats with C-3P0, D-0, and Babu Frick were great. Especially, C-3P0, best he's ever been used across all 9 movies.
- Leia's dialogue was awkward, but if the alternative was to kill her off-screen, this was better.
- Why did they show Leia's face in the flashback with Luke? All that work to make her look good in this movie, and that scene fucked it for no good reason.
- I'm happy with the Emperor's return, even if it's because of "cloning, and Sith magic, and boogety boo," but what the fuck was his plan? Kylo, kill Rey. Oh, hi, Rey! Now you're the Empress. Oh look! I can suck both your powers and be the Emperor. Decades of planning, and he called 33 audibles in the last hour. He has crews for all of those ships, plus an entire stadium of people. Why didn't he just go blow up planets a long time ago.
- Why couldn't they blow up those fucking towers with ships? Only a ground crew can turn them off? Why would it keep working if you blew it to shit and it was no longer there?
- The Rebels never destroyed the tower on the planet. When they landed on the command ship, and it failed to lift out of the atmosphere, killing them all, why didn't they just switch back to the one on the ground.
- I enjoyed all the new force powers. It appears that the healing comes with a little bit of spirit bonding. That holds true in the Mandalorian. Good on them.
- I was happy to see the Ewoks. They deserved a nod since we spent all that time on their planet where the Death Star fell and apparently turned their ocean into a perpetual hurricane.

I had a lot of fun at the movie. I'm knocking it for fun, but I loved it.

Spoiler: show

was thinking the same thing about the lack of a plan from the emperor and all the audibles he called...."oh, you two coming together has made me more powerful than ever.....ah, what?"

[dimejinky99]

At the end of the day, we are debating a movie w/ a pretty bad rotten tomatoes rating of 57 based on reviewers who study this shit for a living. I'm not saying that site is the end all be all, but I tend to agree with most of its rotten vs. fresh rankings.

It’s got 86% audience score on that site so go figure

[dimejinky99]

Here are my hot takes.

Spoiler: show

- The comedic beats with C-3P0, D-0, and Babu Frick were great. Especially, C-3P0, best he's ever been used across all 9 movies.
- Leia's dialogue was awkward, but if the alternative was to kill her off-screen, this was better.
- Why did they show Leia's face in the flashback with Luke? All that work to make her look good in this movie, and that scene fucked it for no good reason.
- I'm happy with the Emperor's return, even if it's because of "cloning, and Sith magic, and boogety boo," but what the fuck was his plan? Kylo, kill Rey. Oh, hi, Rey! Now you're the Empress. Oh look! I can suck both your powers and be the Emperor. Decades of planning, and he called 33 audibles in the last hour. He has crews for all of those ships, plus an entire stadium of people. Why didn't he just go blow up planets a long time ago.
- Why couldn't they blow up those fucking towers with ships? Only a ground crew can turn them off? Why would it keep working if you blew it to shit and it was no longer there?
- The Rebels never destroyed the tower on the planet. When they landed on the command ship, and it failed to lift out of the atmosphere, killing them all, why didn't they just switch back to the one on the ground.
- I enjoyed all the new force powers. It appears that the healing comes with a little bit of spirit bonding. That holds true in the Mandalorian. Good on them.
- I was happy to see the Ewoks. They deserved a nod since we spent all that time on their planet where the Death Star fell and apparently turned their ocean into a perpetual hurricane.

I had a lot of fun at the movie. I'm knocking it for fun, but I loved it.

Spoiler: show

was thinking the same thing about the lack of a plan from the emperor and all the audibles he called...."oh, you two coming together has made me more powerful than ever.....ah, what?"

We’re pretty sure he made Anakin through unnatural means. She’s directly his granddaughter and no doubt he’s fucked with himself with dark force stuff like in the plageuis book to make his genes all powerful. Trying then to absorb both their power just makes sense

[Anders]

At the end of the day, we are debating a movie w/ a pretty bad rotten tomatoes rating of 57 based on reviewers who study this shit for a living. I'm not saying that site is the end all be all, but I tend to agree with most of its rotten vs. fresh rankings.

I never care what reviewers think. If I look at a public score I would rather see the audience score.

[Coach]

At the end of the day, we are debating a movie w/ a pretty bad rotten tomatoes rating of 57 based on reviewers who study this shit for a living. I'm not saying that site is the end all be all, but I tend to agree with most of its rotten vs. fresh rankings.

I never care what reviewers think. If I look at a public score I would rather see the audience score.

I find the professional reviewers helpful; there's been some movies I didn't like but after reading the review, things make more sense and I find a new appreciation for dialog, etc.

[Jorge]

At the end of the day, we are debating a movie w/ a pretty bad rotten tomatoes rating of 57 based on reviewers who study this shit for a living. I'm not saying that site is the end all be all, but I tend to agree with most of its rotten vs. fresh rankings.

I never care what reviewers think. If I look at a public score I would rather see the audience score.

It should go without saying but of course neither should matter

[Anders]

At the end of the day, we are debating a movie w/ a pretty bad rotten tomatoes rating of 57 based on reviewers who study this shit for a living. I'm not saying that site is the end all be all, but I tend to agree with most of its rotten vs. fresh rankings.

I never care what reviewers think. If I look at a public score I would rather see the audience score.

It should go without saying but of course neither should matter

Indeed.