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The Rise Of Skywalker DVD review
Well, I finally saw Ep. 9 of the Star Wars Saga last night, I bought the dvd for giggles. Since most everybody here has either already seen it or heard about it, I won't get too deep into the "story" aspects, since there are many elements that are direct clones of Ep. 3 (see what I did there), especially the climactic fight between Rey and Kylo Ren. It can be summed up as " Resistance fighters battle the attempted return of the "First Order". Wackiness ensues.
My first groan of many during this viewing was at the VERY lame wording of the opening crawl. Really? Who TF wrote that lame intro? I think my nephew at age 6 could have done a better job. And frankly the Disney versions all suffer greatly from the lack of the Fox Fanfare to start the show. The silent opening gives the impression that the sound isn't working during the start of the movie.
While some of the visual elements are very good, complex and well rendered, too much of it suffers from JJ's adolescent heavy handedness, which distracts from the characters and story. His trademark lens flares appear but thankfully were somewhat restrained, though they still were distracting. The original trilogy was visually stunning without being cluttered like Ep. 7-9 and Ep. 1
Speaking of characters, while the actors all did IMO a great job with the material at hand (Adam Driver's acting in a key scene with Rey near the end was especially outstanding), in far too many scenes the dialog sounded (and was) rushed and forced, though that is more on the director than the actors. Some of the attempts at humor also fell flat for the same reason, feeling very forced and deliberate. Another jarring and unnecessary bit of dialog was Poe telling C3PO to "Move your ass." The saga has never relied on or needed to have any profanity, no matter how mild. It was a jarring line that killed the reality of the moment for me.
As for the dvd copy I bought (from Walmart, which may explain this next bit) the video quality was not that great. The end credit roll was virtually unreadable and the overall video appeared to be overly compressed. I may spring for a blu ray copy to see if it resolves that.
Had I paid to see this in a theatre I would have been disappointed, left with a dissatisfaction about all of the points I mentioned above, but still I think that even despite the issues, it brought the Skywalker story line to an ok, but not impressively satisfying, conclusion.
My overall ratings would be:
Overall rating of the movie: 3 out of 5
I have been a fan of the saga from the very beginning, my first time seeing Ep. 4 was at the AMC La Habra, in a small auditorium with car speakers for surrounds, but despite that, was blown away by how great it was (and the OV still is). The prequels and sequels all have their good points, but far too many bad or unnecessary points to make them stand up IMO as worthy of the standards set by the Original Versions of the Original Trilogy. The OT was the Golden Age of the Star Wars Saga, and nothing since has met that high standard.
My first groan of many during this viewing was at the VERY lame wording of the opening crawl. Really? Who TF wrote that lame intro? I think my nephew at age 6 could have done a better job. And frankly the Disney versions all suffer greatly from the lack of the Fox Fanfare to start the show. The silent opening gives the impression that the sound isn't working during the start of the movie.
While some of the visual elements are very good, complex and well rendered, too much of it suffers from JJ's adolescent heavy handedness, which distracts from the characters and story. His trademark lens flares appear but thankfully were somewhat restrained, though they still were distracting. The original trilogy was visually stunning without being cluttered like Ep. 7-9 and Ep. 1
Speaking of characters, while the actors all did IMO a great job with the material at hand (Adam Driver's acting in a key scene with Rey near the end was especially outstanding), in far too many scenes the dialog sounded (and was) rushed and forced, though that is more on the director than the actors. Some of the attempts at humor also fell flat for the same reason, feeling very forced and deliberate. Another jarring and unnecessary bit of dialog was Poe telling C3PO to "Move your ass." The saga has never relied on or needed to have any profanity, no matter how mild. It was a jarring line that killed the reality of the moment for me.
As for the dvd copy I bought (from Walmart, which may explain this next bit) the video quality was not that great. The end credit roll was virtually unreadable and the overall video appeared to be overly compressed. I may spring for a blu ray copy to see if it resolves that.
Had I paid to see this in a theatre I would have been disappointed, left with a dissatisfaction about all of the points I mentioned above, but still I think that even despite the issues, it brought the Skywalker story line to an ok, but not impressively satisfying, conclusion.
My overall ratings would be:
- STORY: 2 out of 5 (Points lost for the lame opening crawl, forced humor and unnecessary profanity, otherwise it was a 3)
- ACTING: 4 out of 5 (Higher due to Adam Driver's performance, otherwise it would have been a 3)
- DIRECTING: 2 out of 5 (Lens flares and heavy handed cluttered scenes Grow up JJ!)
- VISUALS: 4 out of 5 (Despite the clutter, most were very well rendered and stunning.)
- SOUND: 4 out of 5
- DVD QUALITY : 2 out of 5 (Overly compressed overall and unreadable credits)
Overall rating of the movie: 3 out of 5
I have been a fan of the saga from the very beginning, my first time seeing Ep. 4 was at the AMC La Habra, in a small auditorium with car speakers for surrounds, but despite that, was blown away by how great it was (and the OV still is). The prequels and sequels all have their good points, but far too many bad or unnecessary points to make them stand up IMO as worthy of the standards set by the Original Versions of the Original Trilogy. The OT was the Golden Age of the Star Wars Saga, and nothing since has met that high standard.
I am sure I am not the only one who wants to hear your thoughts on this one. 
they were often referred to as "Carrison". 
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