GA Reactions and Comments (family, friends)

Ok, I went a third time with my parents, brother, sister-in-law and 11 year old nephew. I felt really bad to give Disney more money for what I consider to be a bad corporate movie, but they all wanted to go. My level of dislike for what I dislike (which is 90% of the movie) was even higher. I had a hard time restraining from swearing out loud. I will not go again. If I see Finn yell “Rey” one more time, I’ll scream myself. And the whole Palps thing... No, just no.

So reaction of my GA relatives.

My Dad doesn’t like such movies at all and was laughing all the time because he thought it was all ridiculous. But that’s a usual thing for him to do. My nephew said he loved it, but then I think he was just happy to watch a movie and he apparently is starting to enjoy SW. 2-3 years ago I bought him a buildable Lego figure of Kylo and he quite brutally told me “I don’t like SW”. This Christmas he kept looking at my phone cover and asked if it was Kylo of episode 7 or 8 and that he had seen episode 7. And he seemed genuinely interested. That’s how we ended watching TRoS. He said something interesting directly after the movie “I loved it but there is one thing I didn’t understand: why is it called the rise of Skywalker”. Yeah, why? JJ, CT? The last Skywalker died and Rey didn’t rise, she just took the last name.

My mom loves Kylo. She was smiling up to her ears when he was onscreen. I had already told her about the kiss and death. She didn’t care much for the kiss - so she says -, but she found his death after the kiss a bit tough. In the last scene between Poe and Zorii, she let out a “I like these two”. Yeah, surprisingly me too. In the car, I asked her if she liked the movie in general. She said yes, but then when we started to talk more, you could tell she was starting to try to make sense of the story and couldn’t. She also thought there was too much happening and couldn’t tell sometimes who was who in the battles.

My brother and sister-in-law haven’t seen TLJ so they were oblivious to the retconing. They said coming out of the screening that they liked TRoS. But, again, after a few minutes my sister-in-law said that the more she was thinking about it, the more she was noticing that nearly everything in TRoS is a copy of things we’ve already seen in previous movies. And she is, like me, not a romantic person and avoids romantic comedies, but she was bummed by Ben dying after the kiss. I find it interesting that it’s even more the non-romantically-inclined people who get bummed out by that. Maybe because we have less expectations and just run with that moment of happiness without headcanon, only to have it destroyed 10 seconds later. She also didn’t find the end uplifting for a SW movie.

So, it echoes the usual “once you start thinking about it, you start realizing how unoriginal and nonsensical it is”. And the French audience was as silent as the German one during the movie but also after. No passionate discussion walking out of the theater.

Piper Maru wrote:@nickandnora

Yeah, she was really distressed about the film, which is a rare thing for her. She's also upset about Rey on Tatooine and even called Rey "Luke 2.0" and made fun of their hermit tendencies. Kind of shows that no matter how hard people try to project a future storyline for the character, the closing shot of the movie depicts the heroine alone with a droid in a desert.

@Piper Maru

I think that I could stomach the ending more, if it ended with Rey and BB-8 boarding the Millenium Falcon, and then it takes off - framed by the suns. That would have done a lot! The way it ends now is...ugh...

I forgot something.

At dinner after TRoS, my brother said that he had seen the trailer with Dark Rey before seeing TRoS and regretted that it was so short in the movie. He even said he would have liked it if she had really turned to the Dark Side and had been on the throne. And when I bounced on it and said that they could have fully turned the tables and make him fight to turn her back, he was excited about it. See, they could have gone bold. I know, it would have been too similar to GoT... But still, if you want to make her a relative of Palpatine fighting with darkness, go for it.

Speaking of relatives reminds me of that scene with FG Luke telling Rey that Leia trained her because she could see her heart and the whole speech on seeing beyond blood or whatever. Funny how some people fight more for strangers than their own flesh and blood. I guess it’s easier. I never ever want to see that scene again. It re-opened a personal wound in me.

Now, my brother wants to see TLJ because I keep talking about it and how I wish they would have built on it instead of doing what we have now.

SanghaRen wrote:I forgot something.

At dinner after TRoS, my brother said that he had seen the trailer with Dark Rey before seeing TRoS and regretted that it was so short in the movie. He even said he would have liked it if she had really turned to the Dark Side and had been on the throne. And when I bounced on it and said that they could have fully turned the tables and make him fight to turn her back, he was excited about it. See, they could have gone bold. I know, it would have been too similar to GoT... But still, if you want to make her a relative of Palpatine fighting with darkness, go for it.

Speaking of relatives reminds me of that scene with FG Luke telling Rey that Leia trained her because she could see her heart and the whole speech on seeing beyond blood or whatever. Funny how some people fight more for strangers than their own flesh and blood. I guess it’s easier. I never ever want to see that scene again. It re-opened a personal wound in me.

Now, my brother wants to see TLJ because I keep talking about it and how I wish they would have built on it instead of doing what we have now.

@SanghaRen

Oh I feel you! This movies (and the last one in particular) really point out the fact that the Skywalkers are more inclined to help Rey than their own blood. Many times. I really hated this aspect, with all my heart.
It's probably one of the thing that hurt me the most of this entire story, because you see this boy falling down and apparently nobody in his family tried to really help him. It's so sad. The only character that tries to make amends is Han and he's the only I still love. Maybe with Carrie still here things would have been really different and we'd have had a better Leia. Who knows, it's just so sad...

Both my parents were confused about the third act, my mums first comment she made was "it's sad Ben died though" she did not understand it. My father went to the bathroom right at the moment Luke gave Leias saber to rey so by the point he came back he was like...wtf is that? (Such a pointless freaking prop)

Later i told him it was leias but also explained who's I thought it was originally meant to be and he agreed it made more sense to the other trilogies but not to the story we eventually got given in TROS.

He felt the ending was weird and rushed and Ben being killed was harsh and spiteful from the writers.

My dad is an OG from the original days and he knows the PT well and understood what I thought the symbolism at the end of the film was originally possibly  meant to be, especially the 2 sabers and they just kept the empty meaningless symbolism for Rey Palpatine so that's why the ending seems so off. They were too lazy to make it something relevant to Rey Palp and just kept all the original emotional beats for rey Random or Kenobi and Ben in tatooine instead but had a Palpatine standing there.

My mom cornered me yet again to complain about the movie . This time she asked me about Rose, if the actress was ill and couldn't do her scenes, because she liked her a lot in TLJ and thought she'd end up with Finn. Then I told my mom about the online harassment and what happened to Kelly. My mom's response: "Those people are disgusting! She was so cute."

This is my dads overall reaction to all 3:

TFA: "it was good but it was a copy of A New Hope"

TLJ (watched at home): " I cant remember watching it..did Luke die?

TROS: "it was too fast, what was that? And that?"

My cousin is in his 50s, a lifelong Star Wars fan and a big reader of the EU books.  He disliked TFA, liked TLJ better but didn't love it, and loved TRoS.  He said TRoS reminded him of ANH in that it was a complete story in itself.  He felt you didn't even need the first two films of the trilogy to understand and appreciate TRoS.  He also said he didn't really care about any of the ST characters until TRoS.

My son hated TFA, refused to see TLJ, and greatly surprised me by asking to see TRoS.  He liked it much better than TFA.  His favorite part was the lightsaber battle on the Death Star and he thought Palpatine was hideous and very cool.

My friend really liked TRoS, after having hated TLJ.  He wished that Rey had not found out she was a Palpatine until she was in Palps' presence.  He thought the transfer of objects through the Force bond was "unrealistic".  I said, "These films are about knights in outer space with magical powers."

All the GA I know really liked TROS. This includes people who didn't like TLJ and people who did like TLJ. In all, it's about 10-12 people I've either seen their positive posts on social media or talked to in person about the movie.

Husband saw it without me the other day. His reaction was almost exactly mine (minus any caring about Rey and Kylo): he "enjoyed" it. However, the second he started to talk about it, the cracks began to show. He hated Rey Palpatine, really disliked the ending scene and literally everything it implied, pointed out a lot of places that there was weirdness and/or poor storytelling. I don't think he cares that Kylo died, but also doesn't care/mind that they kissed. The love story aspect never resonated with him anyway, but he's just indifferent, not upset or thinking it was dumb or anything. He thinks it's downright bizarre he didn't show up as a force ghost at the end, and thinks it's a terrible message that Rey basically forgot her parents who supposedly loved her and protected her. He also said that a writer has to follow up on previous story threads as much as they might not personally like them, and THAT'S how you end up with a good, coherent story.

One thing he pointed out in terms of bad BASIC storytelling and tension building was how the script had Lando announce that he was going to get help for the final battle... and then show up with help. Husband pointed out that if they wanted to build any tension, like, at ALL, it needed to be that we didn't hear Lando say that, we forgot about him completely, and then have him show up at the end. I thought this was a really good point and shows that they were devoid of even the most rudimentary ways to add any tension to the story.

Again, it's indicative of why the movie isn't super rewatchable.

My Mom, Dad, and Sister all thought the movie was good/fun.

My Mom was in the camp that Kylo Ren/Ben Solo should have died because, "guilty by association" he still was a part of the First Order and they killed a lot of people and of course he killed Han.

Going into the movie, my Dad was a fan of TLJ but after he likes TROS more.

My sister just was looking to be entertained, but she has a habit of falling asleep in films, so was out for about five minutes of it. It could have been longer if I didn't nudge her to watch the Han and Kylo Ben scene.

I am glad that I have outlets(forum, twitter, discord, and even a Reylo meet-up group) to read and discuss all the issues found in TROS because my family doesn't get it...but you guys do.

Personally, I feel like more people that exist in the world, more stupid runs amok. *sigh*

Whole family liked it that went to see it: sister, brother, sis-in-law, mom, and dad. I have a sister and bro-in-law who refuse to see it, because they heard what happens and both believe the plot is horrendous, hates that Rey takes the Skywalker name, and Ben ends up dead.

When I went with my family to see it, we went to lunch after and they were all eager to hear what I had to say. I didn't hold back. The more my brother thought about it, the more he started to get annoyed with the movie. He even brought up how weird the Lando and Jannah scene was. Like, was Lando hitting on her? The vibe was weird. I was like "Oh, that's his daughter." No joke and I wish I had filmed it because every single one of them stopped eating and just stared at me, floored. Then they all started talking over one another and saying they didn't remember that in the movie. To which I answered "It's not. It's in the Visual Dictionary." That caused more of an uproar and my dad was pissed and started saying that it's stupid that to understand the movie, you have to buy a users manual. I agreed. Man, seeing their faces after dropping that piece of information keeps me warm at night, not gonna lie. After I explained Ben's backstory in depth – you know, since it wasn't in the movie for the GA to see – they all agreed that what had been done to him was tragic and that he shouldn't have died. But at the end of the discussion, while they all agreed with me on basically everything I said, they all said that it was a fun movie to watch and they still liked it. I didn't talk anymore after that. Wish I could shut off my brain so I could enjoy the movie like they could, but I don't have that kind of skill.

My sis-in-law did ask toward the end when the next one came out. Told her this was the last one. She seriously thought I was joking. I assured her I wasn't. "And that's how they decided to end it?" she said. I was pretty much done talking, so I just was like yeah, that's the ending. Enjoy it with a nice side of heaping depression.

I think as my family thinks about it more, they will like it less. Seemed that way when we were at lunch after the movie. My husband though... loved it. Let's just say there has been some tension in the house the past couple of weeks.

I only know one of my friends who hated it, mainly because she is a HUGE Anakin fan and she feels like the ST as a whole craps all over his character. She hated that Ben died and that he wasn't the one to kill Palps. She texted me yesterday and she's still mad about the movie, and she wasn't as big into Star Wars as I am.

Anyway, I'm done with Star Wars. The Mandalorian is mediocre to me. I always loved the Skywalkers since I saw them when I was a kid. I'll stick around here and on social media just to see the fallout of this movie and keep up with other Star Wars news, but I can't watch any of the movies anymore. Not when I know how it all ends. I packed away my Star Wars merch, and while I have always loved Disneyland, I have no inclination to go. And that's saying a lot for me. I feel betrayed and while Disney doesn't care how we feel, the one thing I can do is not give them my money anymore. It sucks that my husband refuses to cancel Disney+.

A friend will watch it tomorrow. I think she will like it, she is more this type of superficial audience, mostly there fo the pew pew and the spectacle.
I refused to watch it with her again. I hope she will not texting me tomorrow nonstop how gooooood the movie was.
I´m just slowly recovering from my Star Wars depression.

SanghaRen wrote:I forgot something.

At dinner after TRoS, my brother said that he had seen the trailer with Dark Rey before seeing TRoS and regretted that it was so short in the movie. He even said he would have liked it if she had really turned to the Dark Side and had been on the throne. And when I bounced on it and said that they could have fully turned the tables and make him fight to turn her back, he was excited about it. See, they could have gone bold. I know, it would have been too similar to GoT... But still, if you want to make her a relative of Palpatine fighting with darkness, go for it.

Speaking of relatives reminds me of that scene with FG Luke telling Rey that Leia trained her because she could see her heart and the whole speech on seeing beyond blood or whatever. Funny how some people fight more for strangers than their own flesh and blood. I guess it’s easier. I never ever want to see that scene again. It re-opened a personal wound in me.

Now, my brother wants to see TLJ because I keep talking about it and how I wish they would have built on it instead of doing what we have now.

That actually was a horrible scene. I cringe whenever I think of it.

The worst thing about TROS is it's destroyed the entire saga for me. The whole thing, from TPM to TROS, now leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I'm genuinely astonished that some fans are content with the ending.

The whole idea....was absolutely awful.

Back from the second viewing, this time in my native language French. Went with my two brothers, my best friend and his parents.
Yesterday, we watched Revenge of the Sith as a "preparation" for the movie. The reaction I was so most excited about was my oldes bro who hadn't watched it yet. He and my bestie hadn't watched TROS, hadn't seen any trailer and hadn't read any spoiler. There was a funny part of our convo where I and my youngest bro covered our faces with blankets so that they couldn't read our reactions. My bestie said that he had no idea who Rey might be and my oldest bro said that he suspects Rey to be linked to Palpatine in one way or another in order to mirror Kylo Ren as descendant of the Light Side going to the Dark. My bestie was like: "Ugh, so you think that Palpatine planted his seed in a woman?" I was struggling hard not to burst into laugh under the blanket. So tonight, we went to the cinema and I was sitting between my oldes bro and by bestie, watching their reactions sometimes, especially because my bestie tend to comment important parts of the movie. Verdict at the end of the screening: they all enjoyed the movie much. My younger bro still had the same opinion after second screening: TFA= neither ood, nor bad; TLJ = neither good, nor bad; TROS = good. My oldest bro who deeply analyze things and is generally hard to satisfy was convinced by the movie. Back in TFA times, he wasn't particularly fond of the movie while recognized that the ST could have potential. He had serious issued with TLJ, felt much better during the second viewing a few days ago while still being bothered by some aspects (i.e. the Canto Bight part). Regarding TROS, he found the movie generally enjoyable and coherent. Most problematic for him was the lack of context regarding the Resistance fleet showing out of nowhere. He thinks that Kylo's voice should have been heard by Rey while she was hearing the voices of the Jedi and he was rising the pit. Although he doesn't mind Reylo at all, he doesn't feel like the kiss was necessary but said that it felt a little too rushed because we should have got a more explicit hint that he was now one with Rey. Like me, he loved the DS sequence very much. My bestie's first comment was something like "It's the best Star Wars". His biggest reaction was to Rey kissing Kylo (same for the theaters in general): obviously, he didn't really expect that outcome but didn't mind it either.  Parents aren't massive SW fans but were barely in their twenties when the frenchise began so it was like the circle was complete for them.   Father said that it felt like a little too much Hollywood  but definitel looked more pleased by TROS than when we watched TLJ together 2 years ago, because it was too long and too visual. Mother found the ending good as it is and asked why do we think that Rey takes the Skywalker name. I said that IMO it's because Ben and Rey are now one in the Force and that's why he didn't appear as a Force Ghost.  

As for me: I spent a really good time watching this movie, realizing by the way that I had missed a lot of key details in English so a lot of things were more coherent in my mind in French. Like for the first viewing, it felt like time stopped because there was no moment when it felt boring, to the exception of the end of the first part that I still find a little too long to resolve. But honestly, I realized that some inital critics I had during the first viewing were biased. Although I still think that Rose should have had  more important role, she seemed to have more screen time than I realized at first. Biggest bias was about Finn: I focused too much on him going after Rey. Actually, I realized while rewatching the movie that he was given a much better role than in TLJ and has no critic to raise anymore. I think through that he should have said loudly what he was going to reveal even if it's becomes pretty obvious with the movie progressing. In the French version, Reylo doesn't feel as romantic as in the original version but it was always the  case in my mind. Thus, they don't convey the same kind of romantic vibe that I feel in the original version. Although I would have loved Kylo/Ben to have more screen time, it didn't feel like he was more sidelined than in the previous movies because he actually had few screentime in both previous movies too. He actually had a more active role than in TLJ where he spent his screentime struck on the Finalizer having no other purpose than bonding with Rey. Of course, I would have preferred more screentime because some of his scenes felt too short but I am rather in peace with the choices regarding his role and his death. Like always, Adam's presence is so imposing that the few screentime he has is gold. I was concerned that the line "I have been every voice" would be too short of an explanation - especially for my oldest bro - but from what I witnessed, my bros and my bestie were able to sympathize and understand him without getting much explanation. My oldest bro who didn't really like Kylo Ren/Ben Solo really enjoyed his arc. Although he's always been against fanboys, he was critical about Kylo Ren being portrayed as an emo child in the body of a 30 years old man. And my youngest bro who wasn't particularly fond of him either said he felt more "upset" by his death during second viewing. Generally, the movie felt as enjoyable as it was during first screening and much more coherent during the second viewing thanks to the native language. I don't know yet where TROS should fit in my final ranking but I know that I genuinely like this SW movie after all. A first part a little too long, not particularly brillant but still fun to watch and a second part with truly powerful scenes: one of the best sequences of the franchise (including one of the best lightsaber fight, neither overtechnic like ROTS nor underimpressive like in ANH), a truly beautiful Force bond moment and an emotional death/rebirth scene. As for the message conveyed by the movie and the entire franchise, it feel even more coherent after watching it. Some people may argue that Skywalkers fought more for Rey than Ben: second viewing reinforced my impression that the deeper message is that Skywalkers were aware that they f**** up with Ben by treating him like Vader 2.0 and made sure not to repeat the same mistake with Rey. The only thing that made me upset was the idea that Leia felt that her son would die at the end of her Jedi path without more explanation and Maz's little smile as if it was Ben's destiny to join his mother in deth. Hopefully, noveliztion will provide more detail about what's happening exactly during the ending.

Most of my students haven't seen this film as far as I know, but one of them told me yesterday that a bunch of people he knows did and they said, "it was really, really bad, and Adam Driver was the only good thing about it."

Yes.
I really wish someone could persuade Rian and Adam to do a single standalone film that can bring Ben Solo back. Sheer wish fulfilling fantasy of course, but the character is so darn good, he needs his own film away from Poe Dameron and co.
As for Rey....I'd like very much if Ben could get a love interest, if anyone deserves it, he does. But I don't know if they can salvage Rey's character now. And Daisy seems to be against it. Pity they couldn't get Rose!

Now all my friends seem to dislike the movie. Even my fanboy friends, who hated TLJ. Their initial response to the movie was "it's bad, but felt good". Now they're talking in our group about how bad this movie is and that it's probably their last favorite from SW.

@Atenais That's the strange thing about this movie. It feels genuinely entertaining/fun when I watch it because it definitely has all the ingredients of a compelling SW movie in itself. But there is something that feels uncomplete when I look at this movie as the closing of a story that has lasted for 40 years.

I'm just sad that such an epic saga ends on such a sour note, from the appalling waste of Ben Solo to the fact that it was simply a bad film.
What a waste.

A GA friend saw it last weekend and thought it was mostly forgettable, except the AD scenes.
And she said she left the the theater somehow unsatisfied and with a feeling that something was missing.

Yeah, I wish only "something" had been missing instead of almost everything.
Maybe we will try a drunk watch togehter this summer at an open air showing.
It´s the only way I can maybe endure this crap a second time.

I honestly don't know if I can sit through a second viewing, , I actually find the Tiresome Trio unbelievably irritating.

unicorn wrote:A GA friend saw it last weekend and thought it was mostly forgettable, except the AD scenes.
And she said she left the the theater somehow unsatisfied and with a feeling that something was missing.

Yeah, I wish only "something" had been missing instead of almost everything.
Maybe we will try a drunk watch togehter this summer at an open air showing.
It´s the only way I can maybe endure this crap a second time.

@unicorn

Pretty telling how so many people - even those who genuinely had fun - can't help the frustration that it doesn't feel like an ending because something is missing.

people writing in to my fave radio 5 film show.

@reylo1992
That´s the sad thing: everything inside you tells you this CAN´T be the end of this saga, but you´re realizing this IS the end.

@motherofpearl1
It´s a big "maybe" and if ever, a lot of alkohol is needed, also previously.