I posted in one of the other threads, but I went to the theater on Friday with a feeling of bittersweetness in the pit of my gut. Star Wars has been a part of my life for 42 years, all but 10 of my years on this planet, and so clearly this has meant a lot to me. I was happy to see another Star Wars movie, as always, but I was sad that this is an ending to what they are now calling the Skywalker Saga.
These characters were a big part of my childhood. I was invested in them. While I did miss them in the PT, I found a new set of characters (or younger versions of existing characters) that came to mean much to me as an adult. To be honest, though, the new characters in the ST never really hit home for me until TROS. Clearly they had laid a good foundation for these characters throughout TFA and TLJ, but I just wasn't as invested in them as I always was with Luke/Leia/Han/Chewie et al. But this film managed to tie them (particularly Rey and Ben Solo) back to the OT, and suddenly I had a serious emotional investment in them.
I was an emotional wreck by the time the movie ended. It was mostly about the fact that the saga was ended, but damn if I was not super happy to see Rey on Tatooine, with that binary sunset and her yellow-bladed saber.
======================================================================================
Regarding Rey, I think she was one of the primary reasons that TLJ failed for me. You spend all this time in TFA building up a mysterious past for this character, and then along comes TLJ and she is ... a NO BODY? I get what Johnson wanted to do with that, but nope, that was wrong. But there was one clue that I could never get past, it was sticking with me when there were all these fan theories about who she was - she was a Skywalker, she was a Kenobi, etc. Her fighting style looked just like Palpatine's in ROTS. A flimsy clue, perhaps, but it seemed pretty obvious to me. I mentioned it after having analyzed the hell out of TFA to my wife and daughter, and pointed out that comparison. But then TLJ seemed to have closed the book on all of that, and I'd largely forgotten even making that prediction. Then here we get TROS, and when she learned of her roots, I blurted out just loud enough that my girls could hear, "I KNEW IT!" So from that moment on, I was micro-focused on her character (with the foreknowledge of that dark jedi Rey we saw in a brief shot in one of the trailers) - was she really going to turn, or was that an "always in motion is the future" kind of thing? Her arc was well done.
===================================================================================
I don't give a rip about "fan service". Or actually, I guess I do. If not for the fans, then who are these movies made for? Don't take a crap all over things the fans love or want to see, as Johnson did. Give them what they want.
In no particular order other than my #1 here ...
1. Luke lifting the X-Wing to the music from TESB. That was a huge emotional moment for me.
2. Lando. He didn't get a lot of screen time, but that was fine, and I loved when he came in to the room where Leia's body was, the dialogue in that scene hit me pretty hard (although now I don't recall what was said, gonna have to see it again).
3. Palpatine's statement to Rey about the dark side of the Force ... some find to be unnatural, or whatever it was, as a direct callback to ROTS.
4. Hi Kid. When he turned around and saw Han Solo ... yep, more feels.
5. Ben Solo's redemption. His mannerisms seemed to change when he was no longer Kylo Ren; he was more like his Dad. He was all bad-ass taking out the Knights of Ren.
6. Seeing Wedge albeit briefly.
7. C-3P0 and R2-D2. Handled well in this movie. From that trailer where Poe asks what he's doing, and 3P0 says taking one last look ... at my friends, I suspected that we might actually see his end. But what we got, instead, was some comedic gold (oldest friend I know statement, for instance). And having R2 bedside when Leia actually died was bringing the series right back to where it began.
8. Leia. I went in having no idea how they would handle her, as all of her shots would have been culled from previous footage that didn't make it into TFA/TLJ. But what JJ Abrams did with her character was brilliant. Her death was on-screen and was so very meaningful to her son and his arc. Never saw that coming given the circumstances of Carrie Fisher's passing.
9. Seeing Luke's X-Wing (Red 5) again, as well as his flight helmet.
10. A final John Williams score. I am actually getting ready to listen to it now, but my impression upon hearing it during the movie was that I didn't really hear anything new, necessarily, but it was still just damn good.
===================================================================================
I have seen TROS only once, but will get back to theater soon after Christmas to see it a second time. Will likely see it a time or two more after that.
My rankings for the entire saga plus the 2 stand-alone films:
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Rogue One
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. Return of the Jedi
6. The Rise of Skywalker
7. The Phantom Menace
8. The Force Awakens
9. Solo
10. Attack of the Clones
11. The Last Jedi
