The Rise of Skywalker Is a Convoluted but Fun Mess

Re-hashed Battle of Endor

At the climax of the film, as Rey goes to confront her evil grandpa, the Resistance launches a last-ditch attack on Sidious’ Sith fleet. Once again, it’s a trap, and the Resistance starts losing what few people it has left. It looks like only a miracle can save it. So the Galaxy pulls one off.

Chewie and Lando send out a call to arms asking anyone who’s willing to fight to help them. Then, just when things are at their bleakest, the Millenium Falcon shows up with an armada of thousands of ships. The real kicker’s that most of them are simply ordinary starships, not military vessels.

I’ve always been a big fan of these “cavalry arrives” scenes in stories, and while it’s not as epic as the portal scene in Avengers: Endgame, I thought it was still pretty cool. Mainly due to me interpreting it as the Galaxy saying they’re done with Darth Sidious’ BS. It’s an inspiring moment and full of fanservice. If only it was as epic as the portal scene in Endgame.

The Final Battle

Long story short, Sidious ultimately decides to simply drain the energy out of Kylo Ren and Rey to restore him to full power. He then proceeds to thrash the two with little effort before turning his full power on the Resistance and begins to annihilate them. However, before he can finish the job, Rey, spurred on by the voices of all the past Jedi, gets back up to fight and faces down her grandfather in one final clash.

As cool as it may sound, I don’t The Rise of Skywalker made this final clash as epic as it should have been. This was the culmination of nine movies worth of story, a fight against one of the greatest villains ever. Despite the spectacle, though, I think JJ Abrams could have done better with it. In fact, I’m going to write another post after this about how I would have done this final clash. The end result would still be the same, though, as Darth Sidious’ finally destroyed.