Sean Marshall The final Star Wars film in this new trilogy has arrived & was met with some mixed reviews from longtime fans & casual moviegoers. The Rise of Skywalker had a lot of heat from fans coming out of the gate because of its predecessor The Last Jedi, which left two years of a bad taste in the mouth of fans. Can Rise of Skywalker bring a well-balanced conclusion to the Skywalker saga or will Disney solidify a curse to their first completed run with Star Wars?
The Rise of Skywalker takes place some time after The Last Jedi & follows Rey, Finn & Poe as they try to prevent the return of the empire & destruction of the universe.
This film was supposed to answer some valid questions we had since The Force Awakens & sadly it leaves moviegoers with more questions. The pacing is all over the place & it feels like two films stuffed into one. There’s way too much going on, Poe, Finn & Chewbacca are still useless, Lando & the new characters are useless, things that mattered in The Last Jedi no longer matter & things that didn’t matter in The Last Jedi now matter. However, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed Finn & Poe’s chemistry in the film & wouldn’t mind seeing these two in a future standalone somewhat buddy cop film down the line.
Daisy Ridley felt burnt out & dry at times. I wasn’t attached nor did I feel the need to be attached to her character at all. Even when the big reveal hit, it felt like we don’t know what to do with this character move that was wedged into this congested movie. Finn’s character was poorly treated since The Last Jedi & was pushed from having an interesting & deep story about a Stormtrooper defecting from the empire to being comedic relief in this trilogy. J. J. Abrams tried to give Finn some closure to his story but the revelation ended up being teased & not fully revealed. Naiomi Ackie’s Janna was a pointless character & brought nothing to the story outside of having a minor connection to Finn. Kerry Russell’s Zorii Bliss was also a wasted character, who could’ve been left out of the film & it wouldn’t have taken away from the story. It also hurts me to say this due to John Williams being my favorite composer but the music in this film is forgettable.
We spent years wanting to learn more about the Knights of Ren & just how powerful they were & we barely got any time with these characters. They didn’t speak, we didn’t get any kind of character development from them & they once again feel like an invisible force that holds no on-screen threat of presence. Ian McDiarmid was another pointless inclusion to this trilogy, especially with his treatment at the climax of the film. I did like the new story brought to the table for Palatine, as it added to the lore of his character but it wasn’t fleshed enough to be memorable.
It was good to see Carrie Fisher play Leia one last time but her dialogue didn’t fit the scenes she was in with Rey. Adam Driver did a solid job as Kylo Ren & honestly was a standout in this film. Although the conclusion to his story was predictable, I still enjoyed his character every time he was on the screen.
It’s fairly obvious that if Abrams had directed the whole trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker would’ve been a well-thought-out film. The fact that the second film in the trilogy is more filler than canon really makes this trilogy seem like a disaster. Abrams spent too much time trying to bottle up & bury what he saw as mistakes from The Last Jedi that he wasn’t able to bring a well-balanced story to the table. The ending alone is cheesy & leaves you with more questions than answers. Kathleen Kennedy & Abrams really dropped the ball here & sadly were not able to score one last shot for the home team.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Pros
- Adam Driver has consistently remained a standout in this trilogy
- Poe & Finn's chemistry
Cons
- The story had no clear direction
- Palatine's return was supposed to be grand but was watered down
- The ending didn't land well
- At times, the film felt like it followed too much in the steps of Return of the Jedi
- The film left us with more questions than answers
