My Honest Review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
I would like to state, for the record, that I’ve always been unsure about the Star Wars Sequel films. I love the franchise to death, but I thought making new movies could end up backfiring. However, I buried by concerns and went to see the new movies anyway. I put up with the fact that The Force Awakens rehashed the original film; and I tried to accept what Rian Johnson did to Luke. Now here I am, having seen The Rise of Skywalker bring an apparent end to the Skywalker Saga. My ultimate verdict: meh. Here’s why.
The Folly of the Sequels
Going into this, The Rise of Skywalker had a lot of things working against it that the original films didn’t. Thanks to the Internet, fans could now be very vocal about what they liked or disliked, and Star Wars became no exception. As we saw with reactions to The Last Jedi, this could divide a franchise’s fanbase in two. As a result, Disney tried to reconcile both parties in the span of a single film and give everyone a satisfying ending. Truth be told, though, I think that making the perfect ending to the Skywalker story was impossible. We can’t please everyone, especially in regards to something as beloved as Star Wars.
Then there’s the effect of The Last Jedi. Despite what critics say, that movie was divisive among fans. Rian Johnson had good intentions, but him trying to subvert expectations split the fanbase in two. I didn’t like how Luke got handled, and I especially didn’t like how Holdo’s actions almost wiped out the Resistance. Needless to say, but The Last Jedi put things in a bind for The Rise of Skywalker.
Lastly, there’s the elephant in the room: the passing of Carrie Fisher. When I heard about Carrie Fisher’s death, I mourned for her like so many others. After that, my thoughts turned to the future of Star Wars. How could they finish the Trilogy without Leia, when The Rise of Skywalker was supposed to give her a prominent role? I think we all knew that this film would be the final chapter in Leia’s story, and the fact that Carrie didn’t live long enough to film it gave the movie a bittersweet tone. That said, I think they did the best with what they could.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Now that I’ve gone over all that, time to dive into the spoiler zone as I talk about five major plot threads that left the biggest impact on me. I wanted to do this without spoiling anything at first, but I realized that’s impossible for me.
Palps is Back!
This one’s so obvious I don’t even count it as a spoiler: Darth Sidious’ back. First off, the film does confirm that Palpatine did die in Return of the Jedi like we saw. However, what the film doesn’t confirm is how the Sith Lord came back from the dead. The closest we get to an answer is Palps quoting what he said at the Opera House in Revenge of the Sith about the Dark Side being a pathway to many abilities. So I’m just using the headcanon that he used the Dark Side and cloning to come back.
Fortunately for the Galaxy, the process brought him back more dead than alive; his body’s falling apart and kept alive by life support. However, while he’s as cunning and manipulative as ever, I think death damaged the Sith Lord’s mind. Whereas before he hid his true nature behind a facade, in TROS he drops all pretenses and openly proclaims himself a Sith Lord to the Galaxy. That would explain why his master plan sounds so convoluted, though:
- Lure Rey to Secret Base
- Transfer spirit into Rey’s Body
- Unleash massive armada of retro-looking Star Destroyers with mini-Death Star cannons to reconquer Galaxy
I’m going to have to devote another post to this, but my point is, I think they could have done a little better bringing Sidious back into the films. When you’re so evil that your actor considers you to be more evil than the Devil, you want to do this character justice
Knights of Ren Knights Of Uselessness
So, after being teased about them for two whole movies, we finally get our first on-screen appearance of the Knights of Ren. The dark and menacing order of Knights that Kylo Ren leads finally appears on screen in order to track down Rey. And they do absolutely nothing!
In the end, these wannabe dark-siders turn into cannon fodder for the heroes to take out at the climax at Sidious’ base. If you read my previous reaction post, then you’ll know what “the Ren” means. What a waste of characters.
Rey’s True Heritage
Ever since we met her, fans have been wondering just who Rey really is? Is she Han and Leia’s long-lost daughter? Luke’s daughter? Anakin Skywalker reincarnated? Rian Johnson seemed to shoot all those down in The Last Jedi by saying her parents were nobodies. However JJ Abrams turns that on its head. While it’s true Rey’s parents were nobodies, that’s because they wanted to hide her from her true heritage. She’s Darth Sidious’ Granddaughter.
As it turns out, Sidious had a son who wisely chose to have nothing to do with Daddy Darth and went on the run. He and his wife left Rey on Jakku to keep her out of his hands, which led to his assassin’s killing them both. Also, somehow Luke and Leia both knew about her Grandpa being Palpatine.
Did I react in shock to Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter? No, and for three reasons. Firstly, I read the leaks on Reddit a month ago but I didn’t think they were real. Secondly, I didn’t see it as a big deal. While it was earth-shattering for Luke to learn Vader was his father, he had at least some emotional connection to the image he had of him; Rey doesn’t. The story of Rey is that you shouldn’t let your past define who you are. While it does shake her up for a while, eventually Rey realizes that her real family’s the friends she’s made in the Resistance.
Third and finally, I actually found it ironic to the point of it being funny. The granddaughter of the Dark Lord of the Sith ends up rejecting the Sith and chooses to become the thing that he’s tried, and failed, to destroy. It’s like the ultimate act of rebellion.
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.
A Flawed Movie, But it’s Got Heart
In the end, The Rise of Skywalker’s a flawed movie that doesn’t fully live up to the hype we were promised. There’s more plot crammed into it than it can handle, the pacing can be a little wonky, and it seems like it’s trying too hard with the fan service at times.
At the same time, though, I can’t bring myself to truly hate it because it’s Star Wars. Even the worst of the Star Wars movies is capable of being very entertaining. For all its flaws and attempts to appeal to the entire fanbase, I can’t deny that The Rise of Skywalker’s got the heart and spirit of the franchise. Plus, to be honest, I think a franchise as big Star Wars would need a miracle to get a perfect ending.
If I seem too lenient for some people, though, my rationale’s simple: THIS ISN’T THE END OF STAR WARS, PEOPLE. The franchise survived in those years long gaps between the three trilogies. We got books, shows, video games, and loads and load of amazing characters and stories. If I were Disney, I’d be looking at the properties from the Expanded Universe that they can safely transition back into canon.
The fact that the film has an open ending means that there’s more stories to be told. With a new generation of characters to work with and a Galaxy rebuilding, all that Star Wars needs is someone to pick up the torch. That’s why I’m not as harsh as some of the critics are being: I know that others will come to make sense of the plot holes and come up with the next chapter. In other words, I refuse to let this film diminish my love for the franchise.
I Give “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” a 3/5. At least Michael Bay didn’t direct it.
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