More STER WERZ ranting
Dec. 30th, 2019 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
between_time_and_42You know, I just had a lovely dinner with my family, went on a night drive with some lovely musical accompaniment, got back to the house I'm living in and unpacked my stuff and everything is neat and orderly and it's all just lovely, and I feel that if I continue ranting I will throw off my mojo. BUT... I wanted to try to condense my issues with the film into one last post...
The Rise of Skywalker suffers from the curse of "all action, no talk." Which is to say two things. One, it couldn't just let scenes BREATHE- the first scene that comes to mind is the one where Poe was talking to Leia's spirit, saying how he was afraid he couldn't lead the Resistance, and I think he said two sentences before Lando shows up and reassures him and suddenly everything is okay. That happened a couple other times in the film, too, where I thought the scene should go on longer to hit the proper emotional beats, but it was all wrapped up very quickly, as if the screenwriters were afraid to let the conversations get in the way of the fight sequences. And two, it's exactly that- lots of fight sequences, not many conversations to flesh out character development. Like, even though the main trio are ostensibly best friends, I just couldn't buy their dynamic, especially with Poe and Rey not having much of a chance to interact meaningfully. Finn is pretty much the glue that holds that relationship together. (Another thing I just remembered- I feel like Lando was under-used. And what the hell was that scene at the end where he talks to the woman who used to be a Storm Trooper? Was that supposed to imply that he was her father, and if so, why didn't he just say he was, and also why throw that in at the literal last minute? Speaking of which... I thought the idea of Finn meeting the other former Storm Troopers was really cool and that perhaps he would find another kind of family in them, bonding over their shared experience, also there seemed to be a mild ship tease between him and the woman (insofar as she was a woman and he was a man, lol), but honestly... Finn was shafted as a character throughout this entire trilogy. This entire movie was Rey's story, and while I don't mind that because I love Rey and she is my favorite, I felt that the writers didn't know what to do with Finn, and it was very disappointing to see him being shoved around from scene to scene, just kind of thrown in there as an afterthought. Also... was Finn Force-sensitive?? Several scenes seemed to imply that he was, but that kind of came out of nowhere, and also if he WAS why couldn't it have been stated in the movie...)
Other things that came out of nowhere- the ability to heal wounds via the Force (????), the fact that Palpatine had been brought back to life (they glossed over the explanation for that ENTIRELY and I was mad. I mean, it felt like the writers had to resort to bringing him back because it was the only way the villain could live up to Snoke's waste potential, but it made NO sense to me, seriously), and most importantly... REY PALPATINE???? I seriously thought they were going to pull a retcon the whole time and make her Luke's daughter. I mean, there were SO MANY parallels in The Force Awakens that just can't be ignored. The fact the Luke's lightsaber called to her, for starters. And there was never any indication, besides her weird bond with Kylo, that she was on the dark side of the Force. Plus, since WHEN did Palpatine have a family? Why were they never mentioned until this movie? I just... UGH I have nothing more to say about this movie tbh, I actually think I disliked it more than The Last Jedi (which I still don't outright HATE, it's just not very enjoyable to me as a movie). At least I'll always have The Force Awakens, and the original trilogy, and I was never a huge fan of Star Wars to begin with.
...although I did remember one thing I liked about this movie- D-O. Predictably, I'm in love. Droids are the key to my heart.
...oh yeah that reminds me of one MORE thing to rant about. C-3PO lost his memory and then it was treated as comic relief?? I was actually acutely upset during that scene, it felt like he had straight-up died, and then his memory problems were played for laughs and I hated it. Also I think they should have saved his memory rebooting for the very end of the film, so it wouldn't feel like the dramatic moment from before had lost all tension.
The Rise of Skywalker suffers from the curse of "all action, no talk." Which is to say two things. One, it couldn't just let scenes BREATHE- the first scene that comes to mind is the one where Poe was talking to Leia's spirit, saying how he was afraid he couldn't lead the Resistance, and I think he said two sentences before Lando shows up and reassures him and suddenly everything is okay. That happened a couple other times in the film, too, where I thought the scene should go on longer to hit the proper emotional beats, but it was all wrapped up very quickly, as if the screenwriters were afraid to let the conversations get in the way of the fight sequences. And two, it's exactly that- lots of fight sequences, not many conversations to flesh out character development. Like, even though the main trio are ostensibly best friends, I just couldn't buy their dynamic, especially with Poe and Rey not having much of a chance to interact meaningfully. Finn is pretty much the glue that holds that relationship together. (Another thing I just remembered- I feel like Lando was under-used. And what the hell was that scene at the end where he talks to the woman who used to be a Storm Trooper? Was that supposed to imply that he was her father, and if so, why didn't he just say he was, and also why throw that in at the literal last minute? Speaking of which... I thought the idea of Finn meeting the other former Storm Troopers was really cool and that perhaps he would find another kind of family in them, bonding over their shared experience, also there seemed to be a mild ship tease between him and the woman (insofar as she was a woman and he was a man, lol), but honestly... Finn was shafted as a character throughout this entire trilogy. This entire movie was Rey's story, and while I don't mind that because I love Rey and she is my favorite, I felt that the writers didn't know what to do with Finn, and it was very disappointing to see him being shoved around from scene to scene, just kind of thrown in there as an afterthought. Also... was Finn Force-sensitive?? Several scenes seemed to imply that he was, but that kind of came out of nowhere, and also if he WAS why couldn't it have been stated in the movie...)
Other things that came out of nowhere- the ability to heal wounds via the Force (????), the fact that Palpatine had been brought back to life (they glossed over the explanation for that ENTIRELY and I was mad. I mean, it felt like the writers had to resort to bringing him back because it was the only way the villain could live up to Snoke's waste potential, but it made NO sense to me, seriously), and most importantly... REY PALPATINE???? I seriously thought they were going to pull a retcon the whole time and make her Luke's daughter. I mean, there were SO MANY parallels in The Force Awakens that just can't be ignored. The fact the Luke's lightsaber called to her, for starters. And there was never any indication, besides her weird bond with Kylo, that she was on the dark side of the Force. Plus, since WHEN did Palpatine have a family? Why were they never mentioned until this movie? I just... UGH I have nothing more to say about this movie tbh, I actually think I disliked it more than The Last Jedi (which I still don't outright HATE, it's just not very enjoyable to me as a movie). At least I'll always have The Force Awakens, and the original trilogy, and I was never a huge fan of Star Wars to begin with.
...although I did remember one thing I liked about this movie- D-O. Predictably, I'm in love. Droids are the key to my heart.
...oh yeah that reminds me of one MORE thing to rant about. C-3PO lost his memory and then it was treated as comic relief?? I was actually acutely upset during that scene, it felt like he had straight-up died, and then his memory problems were played for laughs and I hated it. Also I think they should have saved his memory rebooting for the very end of the film, so it wouldn't feel like the dramatic moment from before had lost all tension.
