Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was directed by J.J. Abrams, this was poised to be the epic finale to the Skywalker saga, and the end to this trilogy. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as epic as it looked, there are lot of misfires that were made, and decisions that were made with certain characters. It also didn’t help that the film felt rushed, and that it also felt like Disney ran out of ideas. For instance, when they introduce Emperor Palpatine you don’t get any background on how or why he is alive, and they don’t even wait a little bit to introduce the Emperor, which could’ve created a suspense around the Emperor. The Emperor’s plan even sucks, its just escalated style of the Death Star except they are Star Destroyers that destroy whole planets, and they get destroyed pretty easily.
Now onto the actual story which feels like a Indiana Jones story in space or any of the treasure hunting films, it really didn’t feel like Star Wars story until the end with Palpatine. The plotting felt like video game where each character they run into tells them exposition, and then onto the next place. What this type of plotting does to the movie is make certain characters that could have been cool like Keri Russell’s character feel like a plot device. Another character it made feel like a plot device was Lando Calirissian an iconic character from the original trilogy, and he is good with what he was given, but he kind of felt pushed in. The story should have been what Colin Treverrow wrote before when he was on as director, it felt like Star Wars story.
Where the biggest misfires happened are the character decisions that were made with Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren, Poe, and General Hux. First of all, Rey felt way too overpowered, and when we find out that she is a Palpaine it doesn’t feel right, because when did Palpatine have children. Another thing that really sucks about the whole Palpatine thing is that there could have been potential there by making her Dark Rey, but all we get is a little lightning, and a vision of Kylo Ren as Dark Rey. The biggest character that was handled the worst was Kylo Ren because he is basically a retread of what Darth Vader and that decision could have been good if they set it up better. He is just not as redeemable as Darth Vader because of what he did in The Force Awakens in killing Han Solo his father and The Last Jedi by messing with Rey’s head. He flips to the good side like that, and there is barely any struggle, then moments later he sacrifices himself, and top that off Rey kisses him, which isn’t earned at all. When looking through the entire trilogy clearly Rey and Finn were supposed to be together in the end, and that is just thrown away. This leads into the character of Finn, which is basically wasted through the entirety of the film, constantly having something to tell Rey. Which we never find that out until the director tells us that what Finn was trying to say was that he was force sensitive. Now this last character kind of connects to Finn in away, and that is Poe who just like Finn is wasted throughout the entirety of the film. They are also given one of the most cringe worthy scenes where they say they fly now when they see storm troopers with jet packs. The thing is Finn and Poe should know that because they have been flying since the clone wars, the only reason Disney showed this is to sell toys, and even the director cringed when the scene happened.
Now that the negative is out of the way onto the positives, in which the biggest things this film has going for it is nostalgia, spectacle, and great actors. The nostalgia really shows in this film, whether it be the return of Lando, Tattooine, or the voices of all the Jedi in the end. Another big moment is an appearance of Han Solo as a force projection, which is one of the best moments in the film. The biggest nostalgia factor is the fact that Emperor Palpatine returns in good but cheesy role. The coolest aspects of Palpatine are what he plans to do with Rey which is basically have her kill him to become the new Sith, and the overall eerie look of the Emperor. Some the best aspects of the film also include C3-PO who is given more to do, and the introduction of Babu Friek who steals all the scenes he was in. All the nostalgia heavily contributes to the overall spectacle of the film, and it is epic in some moments, planets, and battles.
Now this isn’t the worst Star Wars movie ever, but it definitely is towards the bottom, and this is a disappointing end to an otherwise great saga. If anything this film makes me appreciate The Last Jedi which I really do not like at all because of the same reasons as The Rise of Skywalker. This also really makes me feel like the future of Star Wars is TV with The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan, Cassian Andor all coming to Disney+ or are already on the service. Hopefully this review doesn’t cause a stir up the pot even more, and hopefully when the next Star Wars movie comes we can go back to the way Star Wars was when it first came back with The Force Awakens, and Rogue One.
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