It’s already been five years since the new “Star Wars” trilogy, or postlogy for fans, ended. And since then the debate has continued to decide between “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker”. I tried to decide.
On AlloCiné, Star Wars The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker display an average rating of 3.0 out of 5. In reality, in the detail of the data, with 2.97 out of 5 The Last Jedi is slightly below The Rise of Skywalker and its rating of 2.99 out of 5.
But it’s played out in such a pocket handkerchief that your votes won’t decide between the films, so it’s me who will have to do it!
And let’s say it bluntly: I find the eighth episode better (less worse) than the ninth. So, I can already hear you telling me: “Yes, but 9 sucks because 8 broke everything”, except it’s more complicated than that. And what’s more, I agree with you.
Daisy Ridley suffered martyrdom during the filming of Postlogy
Disney The Fate of Luke’s Saber
The Last Jedi broke all the toys that fan-boy JJ Abrams had pumped out on A New Hope by camouflaging them under new proper names. In Rian Johnson’s film, Luke rejects his lightsaber that we spent all of The Force Awakens bringing back to him, Snoke is killed with a lightsaber blow, the mystery of Kylo Ren’s helmet is dismissed and Rey is ultimately the daughter of no one known.
All the fan theories born with The Force Awakens are therefore nipped in the bud, certain rules of the universe flouted and what was expected of certain characters changed (like Finn who, against all expectations, flees the Resistance) , all this causing a fairly massive rejection of Rian Johnson’s film.
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And yet, I find beautiful moments of cinema, like this final fight in the snow raising red dust or the fight against Snoke. I come to think that it may be a good film, but a bad Star Wars. Now, with Episode IX, I think we can say that it was a bad Star Wars AND a bad film.
JJ Abrams is trying to put back what he would have liked to see in the trilogy, so this is how Kylo Ren’s helmet makes its repaired return. Snoke being indeed dead on screen, he decides to bring back Palpatine, the big bad guy of the saga, who died at the end of Return of the Jedi and without a valid reason explaining his resurrection.
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Big mistake for me, he makes Rey the (grand)daughter of a character from the universe, Palpatine, thus trying to reconnect with fan theories without being able to link her to the Skywalkers as he undoubtedly would have done. initially wanted.
The result is very disappointing in a film where, moreover, the rather ugly scenes follow one another, like the fight between Rey and Kylo in the rain or all the sequences on Exegol, of a bluish blackness – the colors of Palpatine – quite not very aesthetic. Because if The Last Jedi didn’t disappoint me, it did visually.
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The Last Jedi
If The Last Jedi began the disinterest of some fans for a saga that they had cherished for decades and no more films were released, The Rise of Skywalker marked the fall of Star Wars for several years, even if a return of the franchise is now announced.
The lesson to be learned from all this? Don’t start a trilogy with only one film written and no plot for the sequel. It seems obvious to me to write though, but as Yoda said (at Disney?): “There’s still a lot you have to learn.”