User reviews

Unfortunately, this movie somehow reflects the way society's been going on for the last 15-20 years - the ever growing trivilialization, consumerism and regurgitation of works of genius from past generations who paid blood, sweat and tears for their works to be seen, heard and fealt - all of this now to get a quick buck at the local mall. Shameful...shameful...

... which is that there was no overarching story to this trilogy planned.

Say what you will about the prequels -years later they aren't considered secretly great or misunderstood. But they did one thing right. They expanded the universe of Star Wars with more world building and more lore, some good, some bad. The prequel story, while stilted, was the product of a single vision. In the end you had bad execution with good building blocks.

The Sequel Trilogy doesn't expand anything, instead it makes everything smaller. Star Wars has never felt so small and tired as it does after The Rise of Skywalker. Each movie exists just to tear down and apologize for what came before it. Anakin/Vader's entire character arc is completely and unforgivably undermined after this film.

Overall the movie was so bloated and overstuffed with choppy pacing to course-correct from The Last Jedi. It's Flanderization in action. The original movies had so many little touches and so much atmosphere and craftsmanship beyond a few big reveals, neat action set pieces, and bizarre coincidences with the same ten people running into one another over and over. The original films built iconic imagery and characters in the context of them doing things and bonding and building. This was not always perfectly done, but it was done well enough to feel meaningful.

You can't just write a movie with the assumption you already have all of those things and skip the work it takes to get them. You can trick people for awhile by using the familiar imagery and beats and deconstructing the world with meta-humor (Abrams did that well for The Force Awakens if nothing else), but you just cash in that goodwill and cheapen all of that stuff by association.

Oh well, the big action movies these days are indeed made for children and China - I can't remember who recently said that, but it's true.

I can't call this movie good. I yawned my way through the first half and when it finally started telling a story in the second half, I hated the story they told. I shouldn't be surprised from what they did in the previous movies though.

I just wish they respected the history of the movies and didn't try so hard to outdo everything that came before.

Now, I actually don't have a lot of issues with this film. Only 3 issues really stand out to me, but they are 3 very major issues. The first is the pacing. Were the prequels or The Last Jedi too slow for you? Well, this movie moves along so fast it barely gives you any time to breathe! For some who just want to go on a fun ride, this might be a good thing. For me though, slowing down and letting the characters just talk to each other is really important. This movie barely does that. There is always something going on or a plot twist being dropped. It went so fast, I didn't even have time to comprehend a lot of it! This movie feels very rushed. It does slow down a little later on, but it's still a major issue with a good chunk of the film. There are also WAY too many new characters introduced! You have a large enough cast as it is, just work with what you already have! My second issue is Palpatine. It's no spoiler that Emperor Palpatine returns in this movie. His voice can be heard in every trailer and he's on the teaser poster. You're supposed to know this going in. Palpatine's return is handled horribly. He's supposed to be the main villain even though he's been completely absent from the last two movies. It's completely anti-climactic. None of the characters know who he is or have any real connection with him. We're supposed to accept that he's somehow still alive even though we saw him die! He fell down a pit and EXPLODED!!! It's not like bringing back Maul or Boba Fett. They literally tell you he came back to life in the opening crawl and then go on to hand-wave it away with a prequel meme. That's it. I'm not kidding. It's embarrassing how poorly-written he is. They never explain where he's been all this time, what he's been up to, why he's been doing it, how he's been doing it, why he's waited so long, or how he was resurrected. Did someone fish his body out of the Death Star? Is he some kind of clone, like in the old Dark Empire comics? Is he a ghost? I have no idea, and I bet the filmmakers don't either. It's insulting. The third issue I have with this film is the lack of continuity with the other movies, The Last Jedi especially. A lot of that movie is either ignored or undone by this movie. Rose is replaced with a giant slug monster and relegated to a background role, they bring in an Emperor figure when the last movie made a point to get rid of that and have Kylo Ren be the main villain, and let's just say that Rey isn't exactly a nobody. Could you imagine if Richard Marquand got rid of Lando and made Luke not actually Vader's son in Return of the Jedi? It's so frustrating. JJ Abrams sacrificed a flowing narrative for this trilogy for his own original vision. It's selfish and it's childish. Again, this may be a positive if you hated The Last Jedi. I really like The Last Jedi, so this really bothered me. It's clear that there was no plan for this trilogy from the beginning and the filmmakers didn't have enough communication with one another. It's not only TLJ that this movie retcons. Bringing Palpatine back really diminishes Anakin's sacrifice at the end of Return of the Jedi and kind of rewrites the entire Star Wars mythos. He was the chosen one, prophesied to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. He did that by killing Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. Only he didn't, Palpatine survived. I had the same issue with the old Expanded Universe. I thought the reason they got rid of the EU was so that they could improve on the post-Jedi storyline, not repeat the same mistakes it made, only somehow worse. Who's the chosen one now? What's the point of the prophecy? What did Anakin die for? I have no idea! This movie also contradicts some of the newer books and comics. Again, I thought the point of getting rid of the EU was to create a more cohesive universe with the films and the non-film material. If the movies are still going to ignore or contradict the books and comics, why did they find it necessary to discontinue the old books and comics from coming out at all? They could have two timelines going on at the same time, I don't think it would be confusing! Anyway, I'm getting very nerdy and off-topic. From how much I'm trashing this movie, you might think that I hate it. I don't. I still had fun watching it and there was quite a bit that I enjoyed. Rey and Kylo Ren are still great, the effects are excellent as always (The integration of the Carrie Fisher footage is pretty seamless.), the action is thrilling, there's good comedy, the acting is good and there are many surprises that got me genuinely excited. I also liked how it didn't retcon the Luke storyline from TLJ, they just made it more clear for those in the audience who didn't fully understand the point of it in the last movie. This movie also explains why Hyperspace ramming isn't a common tactic in warfare in the Star Wars universe, after it was shown to be so deadly in The Last Jedi. Overall, this movie is an absolute mess and a major disappointment, but it makes for a fun time out at the movies. Just don't think too hard about how it connects with the other Star Wars movies and you'll be fine. I can see why people like it, it's just not for me.

Star Wars: Episode IX is, at times, a decent thrill ride, and it provides us with some satisfying moments, but it fails to tell a compelling story. It feels empty. It rushes through a corporate checklist of must-have moments at a chaotic pace. It manages to thrill with epic space battles, but it lacks a soul. There's no creative vision here, no story to tell. The pressure that comes with making a Star Wars movie seems to have shackled the creators, preventing them from doing anything interesting with the film. It's a shame. The Star Wars universe is one of the greatest fictional universes ever created. It should provide fertile ground for many new and interesting stories. If I were Disney I would take a serious look at the creative process for these films. They could probably learn a thing or two from Marvel Studios.

Let me say this... In no way is The Rise of Skywalker a perfect movie, it has its flaws. But that doesn't change the fact that I loved it. Yes it has tons of fan service. Yes most of the events were predictable. And still... It was everything I want Star Wars to be. Funny, exciting, a bit odd sometimes but with a group of loveable characters at it's core. Say what you will, but I loved Star Wars since I was 6 years old and this new movie just made me feel like a very happy kid again.

You should probably disregard any review that gives this a 1/10 or a 10/10. It is not a terrible movie, nor is it legendary. For the average movie-goer I suspect it will fall somewhere between 6/10-8/10. Highly enjoyable in terms of visuals and plot twists, but not enough to stick around with you for years to come like the original trilogy.

I can't say I am a huge fan of Star Wars, I do like the movies, but never geeked out about them, I did watch all of them and in most part I enjoyed the story, the characters and the visuals.

But when it comes to TROS ... I felt like I was watching some cut scenes from a game, where you know the story is bad, the characters are superficial and bland but hey, you are there to play a game.

The amount of plot holes and patched scenes that lead to nowhere is alarming for a title like this.

Some things i liked were the kylo ren scenes, the actor did really well in portraying him, the visuals were top notch and the art team really shined, the music of course was great.

I think we are starting to replace talent and hard work with political views and woke mentality and in my opinion this is the death of art.

A tragic culmination of the flaws of the previous 2 films. Whether due to his own lack of imagination, studio meddling, or the previous abomination that Rian Johnson directed, JJ Abrams has wholly and utterly failed to deliver a satisfying end to this abysmal trilogy.

The storyline is a nonsensical mashup of bad original concepts and stolen ideas, the writing itself is hamfisted, and the climax is a laughable double ex-machina. The main plot point of the film is directly lifted from a 1991 comic series call Dark Empire, except the film did it badly. It comes off like a fan fiction story with a hollywood budget.

Any praise I could lay upon the actors themselves was wasted by the director and producers. Ultimately this film (and the Trilogy as a whole) is confusing, unsatisfying, anti-climactic, and wildly inconsistent with the original 6 films.

If you were to take a step back and think about all the different plot sequences (short events), they look good on the surface: fast-paced action, good dialog, humor, characters from previous movies, lots of cool worlds and great F/X.

Furthermore, if you look at the big-picture story ... it's quite acceptable for a Star Wars story.

So what went wrong? For me, the plot-sequences are not well-thought out and there too many of them for the movie's runtime. Many of the sequences have highly-convenient endings (like someone always swoops down at the last moment to avert disaster). You can almost count on that happening each an every time. It's a cop-out formula that's overused.

Furthermore, the big "reveals" were easy to guess. I'm usually terrible at guessing what happens next, but here it seemed obvious. They'd pose a question in a leading way, for example when raising the question of Rey's birth, pause for a long time ... and ... it's not that hard to put 2 and 2 together. It's like a spoiler during the movie.

Secondly, the movie needs to be longer or have fewer plot sequences. The sequence endings seemed rushed and not well integrated with the film itself. If they had a bit more time to edit the movie and catch these kinds of problems, the result could have been very different.

But without a doubt ... this is one of those movies you "have" to see sooner or later because it involves the completion of the culturally iconic Star Wars story.

It's not George Lucas' vision. The main crew doesn't have the same chemistry has the original one. It has some loose ends... This why it doesn't deserve 10/10. It's the first (on the new trilogy) with a proper original story. TFA was like a remake of ANH and TLJ was a mix of moments of ROTJ and TESB. This one has its own idea, and it's a good one. We can argue about some loose ends, for sure. But the story doesn't fail our expectations, it respects SW heritage and conflicts (the main one, the inner conflict to go down a dark path). It's frantic and has amazing battles, fine light saber duels, it gives Rey a solid background. There is a lot to like. Forget about most reviews and enjoy!

Not so good. To be honest, Clone Wars, yes, an animated show, was much better than this movie.

Not terrible, not perfect. Going into the theatre without paying attention to reviews allowed me to appreciate what the film had to offer. Make your own decisions, don't let someone make them for you.

It seems like a lot of people are still holding on to the old era of Star Wars, whilst everyone knows and loves the originals it would be pointless to make a film that was identical to them. This film isn't perfect, you can definitely see the presence of Disney but the budget only helps with the scale of the film and it still feels like Star Wars, it's entertaining for both a general viewer and Star Wars fans alike. A definite improvement on TFA and TLJ, brilliant choreography in the light saber fights, bitter sweet endings for many characters and the introduction of new ones - they recalled old characters well. A great way to end the trilogy and a great addition to the Star Wars universe.

This movie was vastly better than many of the reviews say. Was it a cinematic masterpiece? No. Was it an enjoyable movie? Yes.

It has been quite some time since I got excited about this franchise; I guess the TV shows maybe are doing more at the minute, but for the films there is little to get excited about within them, and probably far too many of them being made for all the 'proper' fan to make it a date. Rise of Skywalker had been largely panned by viewers and critics, but I decided it was a good Friday night sort of film - one that doesn't take too much effort to watch. I was correct because this film really doesn't have much of a plot to care about, and seems to have been patched together without a lot of thought to the whole.

Technically it is very impressive - although of course it is because hundreds of millions of pounds were spent to make it sound and look good; and it mostly does. If you want lightsabers and space battles then you get it here. However if you put aside the technical feat, it is very much hollow. I struggled to care about anyone in the film; the dialogue was often clunky, and there was almost nothing natural or organic in there. The writing doesn't help itself by doing things that seem fan-service at best, and cynical at worst. For example the constant references back to other films by having scenes that echo scenes in the original films break things up. Meanwhile moments or aspects are included that don't seem to mean much in the moment and feel like they have been included in the hope of linking to yet another spinoff opportunity. With all this, the cast are mostly stuck with just going with it the best they can but nobody really stands out as an actor.

In the end, it is a fairly bland product; full of noise and spectacle but nothing of any real grit, interest, or substance.

... Disney make movie for money. SW IX - TROS will be a solid source of them. If you are looking for inspiration or examples of excellent graphic art here is fantastic one.

I was very happy that I took my kids (5y and 8y) with me, because they know everything about that universe. There were able to explain a lot of things, because I was bored whole time. There is very bad story, boring characters with superpowers. In some screens (when I wasn't sleeping) I was very confused if I am not watching another Avengers. Yes... Stormtroopers have still problems with aiming, but our main characters like Ray and Kyle are more powerful than all Sith and Jedi's in whole history of galaxy. They are able to stop whole starship, blasters, swords and even maybe time... WTF??? Will be there any Thanos finger snap???

Locations, scenes and structures are iconic, fantastic, orgastic, but same pictures you can find on Google for free...

Problem with many scenes is that there are not believable. After final credits I was happy that there will be no more movies... My sons were crying because their heroes Kylo Ren and Darth Vader are gone.

who will pay to rise them once again???

In 2015 JJ Abrams had the daunting but almost impossible task to come up with a new Star Wars movie that would not only entertain the critical old fans but also satisfy the new ones. His trick? He introduced new characters and made a remake of A New Hope. For me that worked fine.

He actually does the same with The Rise of Skywalker.

To conclude both the new trilogy as well as the whole Skywalker saga he revisited famous old Star Wars locations and "copied" some of the most famous scenes from A New Hope, The Empire strikes back and Return of the Jedi. And of course he made a comeback possible of the biggest Star Wars villain around, emperor Palpatine.

Cheap? Maybe. But all of Abram's decisions work out very well. With The Rise of Skywalker he made an entertaining and epic conclusion of the Skywalker saga. He wasn't able to please all fans of course, but that's what you get when you tackle a project like this. Too bad a lot of people wanted him to fail and never gave him a chance. Some people even suggests that this episode is even worse than The Phantom Menace - and that's absurd.

The Rise of Skywalker is not a perfect film.

There's a lot going on and especially C3PO's storyline in the beginning takes a lot of screentime. The "MacGuffin" in the story seems far fetched, but the film really delivers at the moments when it has to.

Because it's best to see the movie without knowing anything here are some things that I think are worth mentioning.

• The opening crawl of the movie starts with "The Dead speak", referring to the return of Palpatine who has given the entire universe a terrorist-like message that he's back

• Rey, Finn and Poe are together almost the whole film

• The scenes with Carrie Fisher are well done. If you didn't know that she died you'd think that she filmed all new scenes. Only one shot of Leia seems fake

• The confrontations between Ren and Rey are highlights

• Kylo Ren's character is the most interesting

• There one big WTF moment in the movie that no doubt will be spoilered by trolls on the internet

• JJ Abrams does a lot of fan service (nothing wrong with that)

• Who or what is Rey? I could live with the answer

• In the last scene the thing that you hope would happen actually does

Well, that's it really. I hope in time the haters will see what a great JJ Abrams has made. I can't wait to see the film a second time!

8.5/10