Yes, John indeed shows up briefly tending bar, and I think he had an eyepatch on. It's a more memorable moment than anything in his score (sorry!).

This is a hard film to review because it's so weird.

It plays like a direct sequel to THE FORCE AWAKENS, not THE LAST JEDI -- tonally, visually, it "fits" with that film, while avoiding basically anything to do with THE LAST JEDI outside of where the characters are "positioned" at the outset. It actually goes to great pains to avoid referencing anything that happened in THE LAST JEDI, while bringing back JJ Abrams' company players (Charlie from LOST even appears this time). On the other hand, there are actually fewer "nostalgia callbacks" than some people promised and the story isn't "recycled" completely -- yet that, alone, doesn't make it good.

It's a more entertaining film, and a more "respectable" sequel, than THE LAST JEDI, but it's frustrating because while you can see some areas where, yes, the story works, especially concerning the Rey and Kylo arcs -- those moments are fleeting and sabotaged by banal action, boring supporting characters, and a maddening number of things that never pay off. And there's also the nagging feeling that, had Abrams been around to "guide" the storyline through the 2nd installment (instead of hiring/firing Colin Trevorrow and then bringing in Rian Johnson, who also should've been axed), these three films may have had a fighting chance to at least function more coherently than they ultimately do.

I'm not sure if certain issues are due to the movie having been reshot but my guess is that some of it is connected to the re-editing -- and proof of that, without divulging too many spoilers, has to do with poor John Boyega. Let's just say Finn spends the whole movie saying "he has something to say to Rey", and it's referenced a HANDFUL OF TIMES, even joked about, and yet...he NEVER SAYS IT. EVER. I'm guessing that resolution was in the ending that was deep-sixed? Just bizarre.

I'll write a formal review over the weekend but briefly:

The Good:

*Adam Driver - Kylo Ren ended up being the best thing about this trilogy. The arc to the character was interesting and, had Abrams been around to write the 2nd film, maybe the pay off would have been stronger -- especially with more time devoted to that specific concept. Driver's performance is also "unpredictable" and I was compelled watching him to a degree nothing else in these movies can match. (Daisy Ridley, on the other hand, I became bored by -- she's not very emotive and once you watch her for 5 minutes, you've seen everything she can do).

*The Emperor's return actually explains a lot about this whole "First Order" thing -- but it would've made sense to introduce this element long ago, at least in the 2nd movie, instead of just popping up with it here out of nowhere. (Don't go looking for explanations either -- a single line about "unnatural elements of the Force", reprising that dialogue from REVENGE OF THE SITH, is all you'll get in terms of explaining his resurrection).

*Some interesting visual elements, including a lightsaber duel on the Death Star wreckage with giant waves surrounding Rey and Kylo, manage to hold one's attention.

The Not So Good:

*Too many characters cluttering the story -- ZZZ to all the scenes with Poe and Finn, neither of whom have a payoff -- with a main scenario that becomes incomprehensible very quickly (you'll be quickly trying to remember where they're all trying to go and what they're looking for)

*Disappointing waste of Keri Russell's time (and what was the point of her and Poe batting eyes at each other -- only to laugh it off at the end?)

*Horse-like creatures galloping on the wing of a star destroyer

*Numerous audience members laughed/groaned outloud at the kiss between two characters near the end

*Billy Dee Williams looked like he was wondering where the salad bar was. Seriously it's nice and all to "bring back Lando" but he appeared dazed and his eyes wandering off the frame whenever he wasn't speaking -- obviously another "finessed" performance, like Carrie Fisher's material, that was assembled in post-production. Unnecessary and obviously just brought in on the heels of SOLO to connect with that turkey.

The Disappointing:

*John Williams' score is the least of his works for this series. In keeping with the prior two scores, it's bombastic and exhausting, underscoring every scene, and dramatically doesn't lift the material the way so many of his scores have in his career. I detected next to nothing thematically of note other than some theme heard in fragments here and there...but the score itself is a real letdown. There's also a point in the movie that just SCREAMS for a reprise of DUEL OF THE FATES -- but we don't get it. We do get reprisals of other themes here and there...and a sadly very underwhelming (almost clumsy) full reprise of the STAR WARS theme itself near the end...but unless this score somehow works on the album, it really doesn't do anything for the film at all. Even at the end, it falls flat.

Overall Verdict:

*When THE FORCE AWAKENS opened in 2015 I was moved hearing Williams' music and seeing STAR WARS on-screen again -- but after 5 Disney-produced movies in 4 years, that thrill is gone. By the end of EPISODE IX -- even if it's a mild improvement on THE LAST JEDI -- I was ready for it to end, and unmoved by corporate moviemaking that, ultimately, has nothing new to add in a series that, initially, had quite a bit to say. Regardless of what you think about George Lucas, there was a point to both of his Star Wars trilogies, and a message that these Disney films don't seem, ultimately, to understand. His artistic impulse seems to have been left in a cinematic realm far, far away.

6.5/10

AndyDursin wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 1:38 am *Billy Dee Williams looked like he was wondering where the salad bar was.

I'll probably still see it -- if only to stay "up" on its pop culture references (which are certain to enter our lexicon).

The girl in front of us had already seen it at 6:00, and was seeing it again. When I asked what she thought, she was like "eehh, it's just okay. At least it's better than THE LAST JEDI"

AndyDursin wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 1:38 am It plays like a direct sequel to THE FORCE AWAKENS, not THE LAST JEDI -- tonally, visually, it "fits" with that film, while avoiding basically anything to do with THE LAST JEDI outside of where the characters are "positioned" at the outset. It actually goes to great pains to avoid referencing anything that happened in THE LAST JEDI, while bringing back JJ Abrams' company players

I thought the exact same thing. You could easily add a paragraph to the opening crawl telling what happened to Luke and pretend TLJ never happened.

5/10

Man...they Annie Wilkes'd the HELL out of Last Jedi.

Clumsy, dank-looking (especially in 3D), full of awkward Fanservice and character turns so abrupt it's mildly astonishing (mainly the identity of the "mole" in the First Order), Rise Of Skywalker is a crushing disappointment, and such a middle-finger to the unfairly-maligned second film in the trilogy that I was sorely tempted to take off a shoe and hurl it at the screen. What most people felt about Last Jedi, I feel about this...it's a complete and utter botch, and ranked with Attack Of The Clones as the worst entry in the entire nine-movie cycle. There's still good character work (especially from Adam Driver), but I can't believe they gave top billing to a "performance" by Carrie Fisher that was nothing but an assemblage of cutting-room-floor trims! Add to that an excruciating audience experience (some idiot letting his three or four-year-old kid wander around the theater playing hide & seek and constantly calling out, "Wheh AW yoo...?" for two+ hours, and yelling back at the several people who rightfully complained and asked him to leave, "You gonna make me...?!" Not to mention the guy sitting right next to me and obviously live-Tweeting his thoughts for the ENTIRE FILM, his face buried in his phone for minutes at a stretch), and I came out of my matinee screening irritated and utterly deflated. I'll see it again just because my brother will want to see it with me (and hopefully with a more respectful audience), but I can't think of a more disappointing "grand finale" to a cinematic sage.

Well that's probably the only time we'll read "it's not enough like THE LAST JEDI" -- as a criticism!

I actually don't disagree with you much on this one though -- but why in the world would you see it in 3D?? The movie isn't "dark" or dingy at all.

There's still good character work (especially from Adam Driver), but I can't believe they gave top billing to a "performance" by Carrie Fisher that was nothing but an assemblage of cutting-room-floor trims!

It IS weird. Must have been a contractual thing. Ford got top billing, then Hamill, now Fisher...but it's bizarre. It's actually bizarre how they went into these movies framing them around Leia to begin with -- especially when she was the weak link among the cast and hadn't professionally acted in like, what, years? Decades? I know it ties into the "Girl Power" theme but...still a weird conceptual choice from the get-go.

So just got back from it...will not give it a grade, but here are some comments:

If Leia was a Jedi master this whole time, it would have been nice to have seen that at some point before this film. Instead it comes across exactly as it was - the Corporate Office heard people complain about the Mary Poppins garbage in space, and wrote an explaination into the final film. I was irritated by the whole Leia thing in the last two films, but whatever. (And Luke admitting he was wrong in isolating himself - Abrams should go back and digitally insert a Disney representative in his place. Hearing Disney admit they botched Luke's character would be nice).

I too, Andy, thought about how weird it was having horses galloping up on a Star Destroyer in the air. My brother and I both looked at each other like, "Really?" Same with the whole battle on the Star Destroyer...are these people so well conditioned that they can run and breathe as if they were on the ground?? I know I am supposed to suspend disbelief, so this is a really dumb complaint. But, there it is.

The dialogue about doing things together, repeated ad nauseum, got really annoying. We get it - do things together. We have to do things together. Doing things together makes us stronger. If we do things together, the bad guys can't beat us. Only standing together will we be able to win the victory. I am going with you - you are not alone...etc. etc.

Ultimately, the above ties in to my biggest complaint: it is too much too late. They should have been developing these relationships throughout the trilogy. Instead, I would argue there is TOO MUCH development of relationships in this...way too much, as if Disney Corporation realized they screwed it up and overcompensated to a wild extreme. If you develop these relationships throughout the trilogy then you won't need to pound people over the head with it in the last film. Episode IX is less a film in a trilogy and more of a "fix" for previous "blunders." Too much too late.

I agree that Adam Driver did a good job. The film has its moments too despite my complaints. Definitely better than JEDI by miles. The score also had its moments, but those moments were mostly from when Williams used music from previous films. This will make a boatload of money, and Disney will go back and slap each other on the backs for "saving" the franchise...but what a huge missed opportunity to make something that advances the canon.

Last thing (without spoilers) - I really didn't like the title of the movie as I don't feel the movie really captures the essence of the title...I guess until the end? But even that I don't really get...bad title choice IMO.

The title made no sense Michael...and this guy agrees. Is he still going to have a job tomorrow?

This was not the sequel he was looking for.

Actor Jake Cannavale, who plays a supporting role in Disney’s Star Wars web series, “The Mandalorian,” is no fan of the franchise’s latest big-screen offering.

Cannavale, the son of actor Bobby Cannavale, took to social media to trash “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” — the latest chapter in the sci-fi series.

“Rise of Skywalker was hands down the worst Star Wars movie. An absolute f–king failure,” Cannavale said on Instagram, according to Digital Spy.

“There were more plot holes than there was plot,” the actor ranted. “The amount of ‘by the ways’ was absolutely infuriating. Rise of Skywalker (btw dumbass title) was worse than Phantom Menace AND Last Jedi combined".

https://nypost.com/2019/12/22/mandalori ... ssion=true

Opening down 20% from Last Jedi officially classifies this as "disappointing"

Awful opening in China, just like all the previous Star Wars movies

Gleiberman (finally) gets it in his Variety column.

We all know what’s left. Disney, the company that bought and now owns the soul of “Star Wars,” will drag out this franchise for the next 10 or 20 years. They will launch new trilogies and spin-offs; they will program “Stars Wars” in theaters and on streaming services; they will sustain it as movies and chop it into series. And, just maybe, we’ll even keep watching. But we’ll no longer feel as if we’re gazing up to the heavens of our imaginations to do so. “Star Wars” won’t be a religion anymore. It will just be a bunch of movies, or shows, or whatever. We now have to find something else to bring us together.

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/star ... 203451706/

mkaroly wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 7:47 pm The score also had its moments, but those moments were mostly from when Williams used music from previous films.

I still haven't seen the movie, but I got the CD the other night. Maybe I need to give it more of a chance (and see the film), but I found it less listenable than the scores for 7 or 8.

That "For Your Consideration" sampler being bounced around the web a couple of weeks ago was a fairly accurate representation of the music overall. It's very programmatic and stacato, with lots of short, arrested phrases and abrupt shifts in mood and tone -- which I'm sure works well dramatically, but (as usual) doesn't make for the best album.

And it's not that I feel Williams has "lost it" -- I felt the same way about most of Jurassic Park and The Lost World -- it's just clear this is just one of those movies which didn't give him much opportunity to write "broadly". The end title is much-more melodic and theme-driven, but other than one new (very nice) theme, it's all material we've heard before. The performance is top-notch, though I feel the Hollywood musicians have a slightly "harder edge" to their playing than the London Symphony does (and the Sony Scoring Stage doesn't have the same spacious acoustics as Abbey Road or Air Studios).

A lot of people are greeting this score with the notion of how John Williams' Star Wars scores are a "momentous achievement" -- and yes they are, but they already were back in 2005. And most of his really impressive Star Wars music is to be found in episodes 1-6.

It is only John Williams’ scores that enable these films to convincingly pass themselves off as "true" Star Wars movies at all — which says a lot about his enduring influence over the Star Wars universe. But while I do feel there are a few genuinely great moments in 7 and 8, I’m not convinced these sequels have been the best use of his talent and time. It’s like Williams scoring Jaws The Revenge. You kind of want to ask "Why bother?"

I just ordered the CD and will listen to it when I download it. Scoring a nine film arc (well, six connected stories and three "WTF are you doing?" stories) is an incredible achievement, and I would love to have full versions of all the scores to listen to them and absorb it all. After all is said and done, the scores for each trilogy kind of match the times in which they were composed and the composer-director/studio relationship contexts (as well as film convention contexts) Williams had at the times he scored the films.

I have been pondering Episode 9 for a while now. I am going to double down on the comments I made about the horse and ground assault team on a Star Destroyer in the air at altitude. Just so dumb IMO...I would actually rate that sequence the second most bothersome sequence in the series as a whole behind Space Leia for me. And speaking of Leia...I do not think they did any justice to her character in these films. I know she is older and wiser, and I know she has been through the loss of her son and Han...but she comes off more as a the saintly "bathed in spiritual light" angelic grandmother figure than the leader of a resistance movement. I guess she is supposed to be Rey's Yoda which I guess explains her demeanor. It is hard to put this into words, but it just seems like she was less a leader and more of some wisdom figure which made me feel her character got washed away in it all.

A viewing of the film won't help the score, sadly.

it's just clear this is just one of those movies which didn't give him much opportunity to write "broadly".

As we know, virtually NONE of these kinds of movies, the way they are produced, gives a composer a chance to write broadly. It really sums up where movies are at in the 21st century.

All of them are basically movie trailers that go on for 2 hours, and are paced as much.

I saw someone on the other-board talking about how that's not necessarily bad, it's just different -- and to me, that's a huge "WTF are you talking about Willis" moment.

Movies in 1977 actually needed PERFORMANCES and required WRITING that enabled dramatic development and emotion to be generated. Pauses inbetween the action. "Mushy stuff." We get next to NONE of that now. It's all edited for ADD-riddled kids and comes off the assembly line with few alterations. Actors aren't needed -- and neither are composers!

Anyway...my John Williams "Star Wars Journey" ended with REVENGE OF THE SITH. Rey's Theme is fine and all but it sounds like something out of HARRY POTTER, not the Star Wars universe. And I don't have much use for the rest of it. Nor do I think these Disney scores either connect or compliment with what he wrote before. The style, the lack of strong themes -- he could've written this stuff generically for some Disney World ride.

He musically said everything he needed to say with the end of REVENGE OF THE SITH and it was the natural place to end. With Lucas no longer being involved, it was the right time to say goodbye. His involvement with the Disney films kind of, frankly, smacks of him cashing the check -- and that's fine, but consider he turned down Spielberg movies to work on these films. What did he owe Kathleen Kennedy? It's just kind of baffling to me.

Lol what nobody in the world wants to see: a ROSE TICO series on Disney+.

I'd like to meet the "disappointed Star Wars fans" wanting to see more of this disposable character. This is the media in total fabrication/advocacy mode, with Chu just trying to get himself some work in the process

Hilariously the comments section for this story on Yahoo have been so negative they've actually clensed/reset them twice already!

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/star ... 203453060/

See, all the good stuff was left on the cutting room floor.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat- ... ut-1266205