Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Review

6.5/10

Just a heads up, if you loved the new movie, that is great! I don't have any feelings about you liking it or not, this is just my opinion and observation. Please don't come in here trying to fight me, this is just my view.

MAJOR SPOILERS

I want to start off by stating I enjoyed the movie overall, but it really took great lengths to "course correct" the last movie which in my opinion was a great movie. I am a mega Star Wars nerd and have been since before I can even remember. I've learned for the most part to just let things go in Star Wars since it's a sci-fi fantasy film. But some of the decisions in this movie really irked me. I'll start off with the stuff I liked.  

I'm a major Kylo Ren fan. I think he is one of the best new characters to the franchise. I also very much enjoy Rey. I think the dynamic between the two is great. In this film, in particular, they do a really good job of playing the two characters off each other. You can really feel their conflicted feelings for each other. A lot of the dialogue in this movie is also very well written aside from a line from Lando at the end of the film.

Now it's time to break down the things I felt were off for this movie. A lot of the issues I have with this movie stem from either the fact that they tried way too hard to undo The Last Jedi and that they rushed everything. They could have benefited from a longer film or even another film altogether. It's also clear now with all 3 movies out that they did not have a rough draft of how this saga would play out.

— Rey being a Palpatine. This was the biggest thing that bothered me for the movie. It basically took the big reveal away from the last movie and made her journey moot. She was, in my opinion, a much stronger character finding her own place in this story as a nobody who became a somebody. Now it's like saying she is only important because her grandfather was famous. I would have taken her just being a force-sensitive kid that the empire was hunting down versus what they gave us. It really felt forced to make her his granddaughter. It also re-enforces that you need famous blood to be important. It also diminishes her being a Skywalker at the end of the movie. If you were related to Hitler you would probably say any other name too. 

— I think they did Rose dirty in this movie. There are articles of JJ Abrahams stating how much he loved the character of Rose, but once you watch this film that feels like a blatant lie. There are new characters that get more lines than her. She was a great character in the last film. She gave us a chance to see the movies from a bystander's point of view. I will argue her and Finn's plot was the slowest part of the last movie but this was a chance to build on her character, instead, it feels like they gave in to the trolls and ditched her.

— The "Holdo" maneuver is another thing that irked me. Dominic Monaghan's character says they should use this maneuver to fight the Final Order and another character quickly dismisses him by saying "That's a 1 in a million maneuver!". It felt like a jab at the last movie for using it. It could be argued that it was to state how cool it was, but with all the other things done in this movie to "fix" the last movie, it felt like a jab.

— Luke said he was wrong. Rey at one point in the movie returns to Ahch-To to live in exile after finding out she was a Palpatine. Luke shows up at as force ghost and Rey tells him she is doing what he did and he quickly dismisses it as "I was wrong". Yes, on one hand, it makes sense since he figured that out in the last movie, but the way they handled it made it seem like another jab. 

— Snoke was another thing this movie quickly goes over and assumes you got enough information. A lot of people thought it was pretty neat he was killed in the last one, but others thought it was a bad idea since they never explain who he was. This movie tries to fix it by saying Palpatine "created" him and it does so very messily. They literally give you no other explanation. In my opinion, they should have just moved on and not said anything. This is another case of JJ giving you yet another question and no answers, which was my biggest problem with how Lost ended.

— The Knights of Ren yet again got an overhyped marketing effort for nothing. The whole movie they mainly act as trackers and are never seen fighting until the end when they confront a now converted Kylo Ren as Ben Solo. The fight doesn't take long to resolve and you aren't shown a whole lot of their abilities. 

— The bromance between Poe and Finn was great but it was a major missed opportunity to have these characters not have feelings for each other. The movie goes through GREAT lengths to show you Poe is not gay by having him hit on Zorii Bliss. It very much felt like there could have been more between them, but the movie didn't want to take that chance in fear of alienating fans, but at the same time the director told everyone he could about how he had a gay couple in the film who ends up being in it for a whole 1-2 seconds. 

— General Hux was wasted in this film too. Showing more of how he was trying to undermine Kylo Ren would have gone a long way. But instead, we get a very quick "I'm the mole" followed by him being killed. 

— General Pryde is another random character added to the film that just felt unnecessary and cut into previous actors' film time. You are never really given an example of why we should be scared of him, or why he is important. He just says he served the Emperor before. The movie uses him as a red herring at one point and it feels like that is all he is there for. 

— Jannah was another new character with a cool backstory that was completely wasted. If they were going to have her just kind of show up and not go more into her backstory they could have had Rose be this character. Right now it just feels like a very small part to give Finn more depth. Her saying "I'm not leaving you" during the final battle didn't make sense to me since they just met and their only bonding moment was them saying "hey, we were both stormtroopers!".

— Lando's re-enforcements, wtf. I feel like that's really all I should say. They barely go into Lando's character in this movie and it feels like he was literally added just to say "hey look it's Lando". He then shows up at the end of the movie with a huge fleet of ships to fight the Final Order and you are given no explanation on how he managed to do this. The movie also did something I disliked about the Last Jedi where they give you a time limit. Like at one point they say "We only have 6 hours before the attack!" and somehow you are to believe Lando got that many people together in less time which again hurts the Last Jedi since no one responded to Leia needing help, but hey it's Lando so I guess we should help now. 

— Finn's last words to Rey. At one point Finn is about to tell Rey something important and before he can he sinks into the quicksand. This is never, ever resolved. The director has gone on record saying it was that he was force sensitive, but anyone not reading interviews is going to be left with the same thought of wtf was he going to say and why didn't he ever tell her. 

— Random new characters also distracted me. A lot of them showed up and it felt like they didn't even need to be there and that they stole lines other characters could have had. I know they need to sell toys, but damn.

— C-3PO losing his memory was vital to the story or was it? They go on and on about how C-3PO needed a memory wipe to read the Sith Language, then later in the movie has his memory restored. It takes away from his sacrifice and it felt like a copout. 

— Chewbacca not actually dying is something I'm also torn on. On one hand, I thought damn this really gives Rey more development and a possible way to turn to the darkside. On the other hand, I love Chewie so I don't know if I would have liked this or not. It was another thing I just felt JJ played too safe and is making Star Wars way too easy to predict. 

— Palpatine's return was something I thought I'd like since I love that character, but it completely undoes Anakin's arc. Anakin was supposed to be the chosen one, the prequel and original trilogy were about his journey and redemption. This movie undoes his sacrifice in my opinion by having Palpatine return. It was long thought that the First Order was created based on Palpatine's backup plan should he die, but to have him not actually be dead just takes away from everything Anakin went through, plus it undermines what the First Order is. You are lead to believe in the Last Jedi that the First Order is the strongest power in the galaxy now with the republic dead, but then suddenly there is another group stronger than them called the Final Order. What makes this even worse is the galaxy units to defeat the Final Order but if they had enough ships to do that they could have defeated the First Order long ago.

— I also don't like that Kylo/Ben died. It felt like it was to copy Anakin's sacrifice but it just seemed cheap. They gave us no indication that he had force healing powers, and now he somehow does but it kills him to use it. I feel like Rey turning knowing Kylo Ren would have defeated her would have been a better conclusion, but after the whole GOT debacle, they probably didn't want Rey to turn evil, even if it was her choice to save her friends. Heck, they didn't even have to kill her if they went that route, they could have had her bond with Kylo help her fight off Palpatine's influence and drive him out of her. Right now it just seems like Kylo was only meant to show up to heal her as he didn't really provide any help in the final battle.

— Lando being creepy at the end. He asks Jannah who she is and she says she doesn't know, and he says "Let's find out!". I took that as he probably banged her mom, others took that as him saying they should bang. I don't know, the whole line and delivery was just wrong. It's clear they meant that he wanted to help her find out, but it was done really badly.

Whelp that's it. I think it's a good movie, but it's not great and definitely a weaker Star Wars movie overall. I have problems with each of the movies but this one is pretty low on my favorite list. I love Star Wars, so I rather have this than nothing, but it feels like they tried way too hard to undo the last movie and seemed to be working off a checklist the whole time.

Babu Frik was dope though.

I may edit this and apologies for any grammar errors.