Anthony Zampella

Well ... for me this review involves three broad categories of problems that I'd categorize under lack of imagination: 1- WRITING - It was poorly written, and disconnected with too many plotholes that are eye-rolling: Palpatine coming back to life just at this moment (without exposition, or plausibility); Princess Leia Organa's death in that manner (didn't forward the story); introduction of new characters without any development (so that we care about them); how Luke ghost-appears and magically can alter the physical world; how the Force now can do anything like magic, including bringing people back from the dead; how planet-killing "death star-like" weapons have been placed on small starships that suddenly rise for this moment. All of this is eye-rolling and lacks imagination. 2- RUSHED ACTION - What poignant moments there were -- and there weren't many -- were rushed with gratuitous action that didn't allow us to absorb events or small connections. There were two possible connections between Poe and his ex-girlfriend, and Finn and his new interest -- but who cares, since those characters were stand-ins for plotholes as was the new droid. Waisted opportunities here (not too mention the missed opportunities in the relationship between Poe and Finn, and Finn and Rey; the tension here was evident and never explored). The film lived off of fast-paced action on steroids, offering whiplash effects to entertain rather than development to advance the story. Remember this was the ninth in a three-arc series. Good stories, actually entertain. Think about it: was anyone aghast -- or did they care -- at the reveal about Palpatine and Rey, like we did/were when we found out Darth Vader was Luke's father? 3- ABRAM'S SAFE PLAYS - JJ Abrams had two fixations that showed up as disconnected and safe: a) The gratuitous and obvious fan service for no reason that to sell the movie (nothing forwarded the story); and, b) retconning the movie to make it fit into the original, past narrative, not opening up the "universe" for new stories, hope, or possibilities. It was a safe play for $$ and lacked the risk or genuine adventure to advance the story. Of the sequel trilogy, "The Last Jedi" is the only movie that forwarded the story in new ways that might have made for a possible new generation of stories. The first and third movies were retconned to death to play is safe, and sell tickets. Some of this dynamic in "Rise" seemed to undo much of the original plot devised by Rian Johnson in "The Last Jedi." This became obvious and cheap. Overall, in a large trilogy of trilogies -- the arc of nine movies -- we need to care about the characters. I didn't. One reviewer said it best: the three of the leads did their best with poor writing but at the end of the day they were not friends; they showed up to events, engaged action together and hugged a lot. We never saw or experienced their friendship evolve. The hyper-focus on fast-paced, action and gimmickry can't replace good character development. This might have worked if the plot didn't have so many holes. It's already ranked as the worst of the cannon -- I have to agree. It was the first of the nine movies that I thought about walking out.