You know, for a movie that walks back/undoes the best parts of my 2nd favorite Star Wars movie, I enjoyed Rise quite a bit. I have plans to see in next week with friends, but I snuck out to see it alone this morning.
The worst part about it is the first 30 or so minutes, where J.J. races through the main plot like a player determined to have the worst possible experience of a BioWare game. It's in these frantic opening sequences Abrams seems most unsure of himself. Like he's trying to distract us from where he's going - to nowhere new, but to the end of the Skywalker saga.
But once the movie slows down, to the extent that it does, and character moments drop on the audience like colonies filled with sentimentality & nostalgia, not always exactly on target, but with great impact... anyway, for a while up through the end it approaches greatness.
It's glorified B-movie moviemaking punctuated by operatic melodrama and untreated nostalgia. I had tears in my eyes at least twice and I'm not sure my brain was fully operational for 2.5 hours. It's Star Wars!
I'm seeing it again in a week. I'll probably be drinking steadily through that screening, which could only make it better!