The Rise of Skywalker thoughts

(WARNING:  This is discussing "Star Wars:  The Rise of Skywalker".  Leave now if you don't want to be spoiled)


My initial thought, after watching the movie, "A well-made movie that did everything I didn't want them to do."

It's spectacular.  The imagery is incredible, and if you are watching this casually, it's incredibly fun.

As a story, it has problems:

• No bad consequences for any of the main heroes.  Chewbacca appears to be killed- but that is handwaved away a minute later.  C-3PO has his memory wiped- but it's restored ten minutes later.  A planet is destroyed- but the few characters we actually spoke to escaped.  
• There are no important enemies but the Emporer.  Everyone else is a nameless, faceless cog.  General Hux goes from impotent face of the First Order to a spy to dead in a short period of time, and without any real explanation.
• I know Redemption is a major theme of Star Wars (see Vader, Darth)- but man, Kylo Ren's redemption arc happened way too quickly
• We go from "Anyone can use the Force" to "The Force is family-based.  Getting Force Powers is winning the genetic lottery"
• JJ Abrams went out of his way to kill off every question Rian Johnson brought up in the "The Last Jedi"
• So many open questions- if the Emporer was always the ultimate bad guy, where were the clues beforehand?  How did he build such a massive fleet of ships without anyone noticing?  

But you know what?  I can deal with all of these things.  The movie isn't for me- but my friend's kids loved it, and if it gives them a love for Science Fiction and the magic of moviemaking.... that's a great thing.

JJ Abrams has shown, both on the TV show Lost and on "The Rise of Skywalker", that he will sacrifice the plot and story to develop feel-good moments for his characters.  That's how he writes.  It's not my preferred style, but I can't complain about that.

So while those points disappoint me, it doesn't make me angry.

Here's what makes me angry:  The Ghosting of Rose Tico.

"The Last Jedi" was a controversial film.  Some people loved it, some people hated it.  It shook up a lot of conventions of the Star Wars Universe.  There were parts of it I loved, and parts of it I hated.  (The gambling planet)

Rose Tico was a major character in "The Last Jedi".  Kelly Marie Tran was the first significant Asian character in the "Star Wars" Universe.  

That people didn't like "The Last Jedi"- but a lot of the venom fell on Tran.  She even left social media because of online harassment.  She deserved none of that- her acting was fine, and I liked her chemistry with Finn.

And in the "Rise of Skywalker", she did... nothing.  

Literally, she wasn't onscreen for two minutes In a movie that was over two and a half hours.  Her only scenes were her saying why she wasn't going on the adventures with the other characters.

Don't say that there wasn't time.  They built other characters.  It's Star Wars- the film could have gone to three hours and Disney wouldn't have blinked an eye. 

They could have given her a storyarc to make her the equal of Finn and Poe.  They chose not to.  They went out of their way to make sure she was off screen.

Tran deserves better.  And the more I think about it, the more it pisses me off.