My impression was that there was a push from some fans to make Finn and Poe a gay couple (which also didn't happen). I hadn't heard any rumors about gay Rey.

Yeah, pretty much. If they were 14, we'd already be talking about these things.

I didn't hear any rumors either way. I just got a bad feeling at the end of the first movie, where Finn was injured and Rey went off to do whatever. I forget how it ended. But the point is, it seemed clear that Finn was pretty keen on Rey, and that Rey was not keen on him--she referred to him as 'my friend' or something totally not girlfriendy. It felt like foreshadowing. Then when they gave Finn a different girlfriend in the second movie (which, of course, I repent of ever watching) it felt like confirmation. I'm glad I was wrong.

Finn and Poe would have been such a ridiculous move that it never occurred to me. You can't turn a bromance into a gay love story. Even in contemporary hollywood, stupid and evil as it is, nobody could possibly think that would hold up.

Oscar Issac aggressively lobbied the make Poe and Finn gay, but Disney shot that idea down by but bringing in an old girlfriend for Poe and pairing Finn off with a female ex Stormtrooper.

The Rise of Skywalker is now ahead of the pace of The Last Jedi, thus continuing the Star Wars tradition that the first film in a trilogy makes the most money and the second film earns the least. I'm actually an old enough fan to remember the stories about how Star Wars had lost its magic in 1980.

It's rather amazing to me that over 42 years and 9 movies, 8 of them were hated by fans when first released, but then over time, the opinion changes. Even the hated prequels are now remembered much more fondly in retrospect. It's a weird dynamic.

I still think little of Phantom.

I was far more tolerant of the prequels initially than I have become. I now see them as pure trash, whereas when they first arrived, I viewed them as mostly trash. I think Anakin in the middle movie is the worst. Darth Vader as petulant teen. Please. At first, I liked the fight in the 3rd movie, but after watching it a few times I can't stomach it. Not just because of the idiocy of the "I have the high ground" thing, but because of the whole overdone, moronic, silliness of it. It's not quite as horrible as the Yoda fight scenes in the prequels, but it is almost as horrible. That's saying something!

Watch The Phantom Edit, a fan edit that eliminates all the "humor" and replaces Jar Jar's voice with an alien language with subtitles and a handful of other minor excissions, and suddenly it's a much better movie.

The fact that it took such minor changes to significantly improve the movie proves that there was always a good story there, but Lucas wasn't able to bring it out.

I've always thought Attack of the Clones was pretty good, the only really bad parts are the awkward "love scenes" between Anakin and Padme. A similar phantom edit of that movie would transform it from a two and a half star movie to a 4 star movie easily.


And I'm not wrong about people looking back more fondly today on the prequels than they did 10 years ago, just look at how happy everyone is about the many prequel references in TFA and in The Mandalorian. If they had done a show like The Mandalorian in 2005 everyone would have complained about the prequel references rather than relishing them.

Well .... domestically, Rise of Skywalker's opening weekend was more than $40 million behind TLJ. But it is beating TLJ during the week. Its Christmas day gross was $5 million ahead of TLJ, and second all-time on Christmas behind only TFA.

As word gets out that it's not as bad as people feared, I think its box office will hold up reasonably well for awhile.

Do they expect to make another one after this?

Two more movies are in the planning stages. Kathleen Kennedy and Kevin Feige will be working together. As far as this movie, I will try to get the Singapore version.


P.S.

Jar-Jar Stinks

I was around in 1980 and -83, and I don't remember anyone hating Empire or Jedi when they were first released, or even years after. I still remember the lines just to get into the theater to see Jedi (we went on opening night - everyone in line already had a ticket).

I suspect the prequels are remembered more fondly now because they are not as horrifically bad as The Last Jedi.

Go back and read the original reviews published in 1980 and 1983 they were overwhelmingly negative in both cases.

As we see with RoS, reviews can be quite divergent from what fans think.

Some movie reviewers seem to live in a different... uh... universe.

I was about 9 and 12 when Empire and Jedi came out. They were big hits with me! I remember being a little bit surprised when Empire ended without really ending, but my Mom explained that to me on the ride home and I was OK with it. Nobody that I knew in my little world was anything but totally in love with those movies. Darth Vader is Luke's father? Ha! No way! I don't even remember people especially hating the Ewoks.

I was disappointed that Ep. IX didn't end with an Ewok song.

I liked the Ewoks. After seeing a lot of scary aliens in the past, seeing the Ewoks was fun.

I just looked at some original reviews of Empire and they seem to run the gamut, so I think you're exaggerating just a tad. But you also attributed hate to the fans which is 100% not the case.