The Star Wars Cinematic Universe

[Dogg Thang]

No, no - I meant divisive in that it has a high critic score but a low audience score.

And I meant divisive more as just among fans.

I doubt that critics will pan Rise of Skywalker to feed trolls. I just suspect they are very, very different movies. But what critics make of a movie is far from everything and, like I say, RT is a terrible metric.

[Zaki]

Empire gave it 3/5.

[Zaki]

I heard the practical effects are pretty good. Still not sure how Dave Chapman fit inside BB-8

[fishbowlhead]

“Critics” = paid advertisers.

Plain and simple.

[MoFo2]

Just saw the movie, and I liked it.

[MartyG]

“Critics” = paid advertisers.

Plain and simple.

Not sure the people paying for those adverts are going to be very pleased then, can't see TIME magazine getting any more Disney money.

[fishbowlhead]

I'm sure Disney will survive but this trilogy has deserved every bashing its got, absolutely terrible in every way.

[Neon Ignition]

Seena few comments from peeps on other forums who've seen and it it's mostly down as an enjoyable entry. Disney certainly haven't 'cracked' Star Wars yet but it's still not hit prequels tier weak sauce.

[CMcK]

Saw Episode 9 tonight. Tripe. Reheated old ideas with maximum fan service. It’s basically trying too hard to be Star Wars. Looks and sounds great with some lovely shots.

[Paddy]

Saw Episode 9 tonight. Tripe. Reheated old ideas with maximum fan service. It’s basically trying too hard to be Star Wars. Looks and sounds great with some lovely shots.

You honestly shouldn't be surprised after seeing Abrams direct The Force Awakens.

I'll be making my own mind up tomorrow. As long as its entertaining for its runtime that will be a good starting point.

[MartyG]

Should have called it Star Wars Episode 9: Maximising merchendising. It's okay, but the original trilogy and Empire particularly are still the better films, this is barely iterative, in fact you could probably have spliced in half the dialogue from RotJ in places and noone would have noticed the difference.

[Neon Ignition]

Seen it. For me there are issues and the pacing is rushed but generally the negative online push is over reaction. The franchise has seen much, much worse days.

[Zaki]

Disney certainly haven't 'cracked' Star Wars yet.

The Mandalorian is better than every new Star Wars film. It really is special...even if Favreau ripped off Gendy Tartakovsky

[Asura]

The Mandalorian is better than every new Star Wars film. It really is special...even if Favreau ripped off Gendy Tartakovsky

Only as much as Tartakovsky borrowed from earlier westerns & samurai movies

[Neon Ignition]

->Open Spoiler<-

So, to a fair extent I'd say the most common issues are correct. The films two most jarring elements are the first half's pacing and the aspect of pulling force powers out of thin air for seeming convenience sake. The film is breakneck paced and in many places it feels poorly done. I don't mind it cutting to chase on several fronts, this many films in I don't need 30mins going on set up, but it's definitely a case of cramming too much in at the expense of story telling.

The second half of the film is better paced even if much of it comes down to them being on the run the whole time. The things I'd expect to be common issues would be:

-The extent of Rey and Kylo's powers
-The Emporer's return
-The Force Healing
-The continued reliance on Death Star weaponry as a key threat
-Rose's sidelining
-Rey's reveal

There's a few other elements but along with the pacing but when it comes the films biggest issues I can't help but lay most of the blame on the obvious elephant in the room...

The Last Jedi

A lot of this comes from that film. Well, that and Disney's pointless stubborn sticking to the idea of this being a trilogy where an Episode X would have really come in useful to do this storyline properly. Broadly though I think a lot will rest on what the viewer wants from the franchise. To me Star Wars has never been anything other than a very simple adventure film in space, like Indiana Jones with space ships etc. There's little depth to them or plotting and by that simple measure TROS delivers a lot of fast paced Star Wars action with a lot of fan nostalgia (which is perfectly fine in this case given this is the final Skywalker arc film) and enough of an ending even if it would be incredibly easy to do Episodes X-XII on the back of this given the plot doesn't actually stop the end of the Empire, First Order or Emporer etc.