SPOILERS Star Wars IX - The Rise of Skywalker SPOILERS (Off-Topic)

by cheapLEY , Monday, December 30, 2019, 20:46 (1578 days ago) @ INSANEdrive

Perhaps a useless exercise, but I can't help but wonder what could have been. I think a few small changes could have really elevated the film for me, as a conclusion.

The first and most important is one that could not have been possible with the unfortunate death of Carrie Fisher. The Han moment should have been Leia. Han felt out of place to me (despite how much I loved to see him again). This film should have been about Ben and Leia, the inverse reflection of Luke and Anakin. I think it was pretty widely know that this was supposed to be Leia's movie, and unfortunately that didn't happen, and it couldn't, given the circumstances. I've no doubt they did what they could with what they had. You can maybe read the scene with Han as still being Leia's doing, somehow. She was clearly doing something, her body stuck around until Ben died.

The other thing would have been giving the Emperor more time, somehow. I haven't worked out how to do this, the movie is already blistering fast, I'm not sure how you smash anything else into it. But, as it stands, you're just told the Emperor is back, and you either have to buy that or the movie mostly just feels completely ridiculous. Leading me in would have helped, I think. It mostly still worked for me, but that's based solely on the presence of the Emperor and how sinister and terrifying he is. Some clearer motivation for Kylo to accept him (beyond, hey, here's a bunch of Star Destroyers if you do what I want). Although, at a certain point, it doesn't matter how they set it up, bringing Palpatine back is silly and ridiculous, so maybe just revealing that in the opening crawl and making the audience buy it before the movie even starts was the only way to do it.

There are a few things I would have taken to the extreme, too. It's already a movie that has a lot of fan service, there is one moment I'd have loved to see that cranked to eleven, and that's the Jedi past moment. Hearing all those voices was extremely cool and satisfying, and it really worked for me. But why not go that extra step? Seeing Rey surrounded by dozens of Force ghost Jedi would have made that scene. It would be extremely difficult to do it while not feeling and looking ridiculous, but if it was done right, I'd have loved it.