The Rise of Skywalker: Before The Viewing

Today is December 20th the official day of the opening of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker or Episode IX. There are some people who, leading up to this day have devoured every bit of information on this film from fan theories to articles to every trailer, every television spot and sneak peak out there in order to get their Star Wars fix. I however, with the exception of the very first teaser trailer that dropped many months ago, have not seen or read anything. This is intentional. I don't do this for all the hot films coming out, but occasionally I will. For this one, I want to be genuinely surprised.

How does one do this when nearly everything done during the day, especially at the day job, requires the use of the internet, a dangerous tool around the release of anything big? Well, there are a lot of gymnastics to be done from shutting of movie news notifications, staying off of any and all social media accounts, immediately closing ads that might pop up when doing other things, etc. Much of this has been what I've been doing especially this week when the embargo lifted and reviews and reactions quickly became available.

Now here I am merely four or so hours before showtime and I have successfully managed to keep away from all the spoilers. I can appreciate how excited people are about sharing their thoughts on something they really enjoyed. Truly. It does bother me though, that there is this prevailing notion that one should jump on catching whatever the big movie is as soon as possible so they won't be bombarded with potential spoilers; that other people seeing the film before you should dictate when you should see the film. Seems silly to me. And yet, this is the world we live in. That said, depending on your circles, it could get exhausting to keep telling people you hadn't seen the movie and in essence destroy the momentum of whatever conversation you happen to be a part of.

At any rate, as I prepare myself to watch the final film in what has become a nine film series, I sat down and talked about what I wanted to be addressed in this movie. The video for which you can view here. In it, I talk a bit about my hope for Finn being handled better, how the Carrie Fischer situation will be addressed, and my hope that it is handled with a degree of sensitivity and care. Potential love triangle stuff, as well as the major thread of the this new trilogy, which is how Rey and Kylo Ren's trajectories resolve, just to name a few. While I'm there, I'd like to also express my hope that the world outside of that which the filmmakers occupy, which is to say, the internet, hasn't influenced any ounce of the story of this film. I know it's hard to not be affected on some level, large or small, by what happens online. Especially if you do anything online and there are tons and tons of conversations around anything you've worked on, especially if it's a massive success. I don't want there to be any "Reylo" things jumping off, you know?

Whatever though. Should #Reylo be confirmed by this film, it'll be one gripe I have because I don't believe, really there was intent for that until the online community started the conversation (and many, many fan fiction pieces around that, not to mention those to do with Finn and Poe, but we won't get into all that now.)

In any event, as a fan of Star Wars in general, I just hope that this is a satisfying conclusion to this new trilogy. At the very least, devoted followers of the series should get that. I'll be back later with a review. Check back then, Fusers and may the force be with you.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens Friday, December 20th.