Let me start by simply saying that what you’re about to read is only my own opinion. It should not colour your view of whether or not to see this movie, assuming you haven’t already. It is merely my own thoughts on the movie and my personal reaction to it. Let’s jump in. Oh and adult language ahead.
We had the original trilogy. Then we had the prequels and now here we are, at the end of the sequels. A trilogy that in all honesty, really didn’t need to have happened in the first place and why it did seems to point purely to the money tree for Disney to make a few bob on top of the mountains of money they already have. That’s not to say that ‘The Rise Of Skywalker’ or in fact it’s two predecessors in this trilogy are bad movies, they’re not. They just didn’t really need to happen and TROS rams that point home I think. The Force Awakens was for the most part a lesser copy of A New Hope, The Last Jedi had slightly more subtle parallels with Empire Strikes Back and The Rise Of Skywalker feels like it’s trying to emulate Return Of The Jedi but manages to distance itself where it’s important for it to do so even if....it shares the main story point.
This is where my biggest problem with this movie comes in. While Rian Johnson went in a rather unexpected direction with TLJ after the events of TFA, it’s safe to say that TROS really does take a very, very hard turn from the former two instalments of this trilogy meaning the big bad (Palpatine) literally has to be re-introduced in the opening crawl and then his on screen introduction in the very first scene of the movie because who cares about the fact that there’s been absolutely no build up for the return of this character up to now. Fuck continuity said J.J. Abrams. Of course this is immediately explained as a basic retcon by revealing that Snoke was one of many clones that Palpatine essentially used as sock puppets to manipulate Kylo Ren whilst he and the remnants of the empire rebuilt and prepared for a comeback in the unknown regions.
We had the original trilogy. Then we had the prequels and now here we are, at the end of the sequels. A trilogy that in all honesty, really didn’t need to have happened in the first place and why it did seems to point purely to the money tree for Disney to make a few bob on top of the mountains of money they already have. That’s not to say that ‘The Rise Of Skywalker’ or in fact it’s two predecessors in this trilogy are bad movies, they’re not. They just didn’t really need to happen and TROS rams that point home I think. The Force Awakens was for the most part a lesser copy of A New Hope, The Last Jedi had slightly more subtle parallels with Empire Strikes Back and The Rise Of Skywalker feels like it’s trying to emulate Return Of The Jedi but manages to distance itself where it’s important for it to do so even if....it shares the main story point.
This is where my biggest problem with this movie comes in. While Rian Johnson went in a rather unexpected direction with TLJ after the events of TFA, it’s safe to say that TROS really does take a very, very hard turn from the former two instalments of this trilogy meaning the big bad (Palpatine) literally has to be re-introduced in the opening crawl and then his on screen introduction in the very first scene of the movie because who cares about the fact that there’s been absolutely no build up for the return of this character up to now. Fuck continuity said J.J. Abrams. Of course this is immediately explained as a basic retcon by revealing that Snoke was one of many clones that Palpatine essentially used as sock puppets to manipulate Kylo Ren whilst he and the remnants of the empire rebuilt and prepared for a comeback in the unknown regions.
What the fuck J.J?
So if it’s not bad enough that Palpatine is shoe horned into this story from the get go, the reaction from the resistance is “hey guess what Palpy is back despite the fact that we’ve never mentioned this guy before now surprise”. Seriously, it’s very, very obvious that Palpatine was not the original big bad of this movie and according to recent leaks on Reddit, the original antagonist was supposed to be The Son of Mortis who would’ve been played by Matt Smith and this seems to be corroborated by the knowledge that script re-writes took place and a lot of stuff was reshot. I mean, at least these forced plot points manage to connect enough to the arcs of both TFA and TLJ, happily making the latter a better movie overall and they explain away the whole Snoke mystery but it still feels like a cop out.
Lots of exposition later we get to the important stuff, J.J properly explaining the force bond (dyad) between Kylo and Rey which I guess is a plus because it builds on stuff established by Rian, the audience finally learning what Rey’s entire arc has been about with the audience learning that she is the granddaughter of Palpatine and her parents really were nobodies (her mother being played by Jodie Comer was unexpected) that left her on Jakku to keep her safe from the emperor was a satisfying enough answer to that question set back all the way back in TFA. It’s lazy and not quite worthy reveal but it does the job.
Some more exposition later, we get THE moment with Rey finally besting Kylo on the wreckage of the Death Star II and Leia being given a heartbreaking send off as she uses what’s left of her life force to reach out to her son and passes away which is a hugely poignant character moment with it being the death of the final lead character from the original trilogy. The ‘death’ of Kylo sequence with Harrison Ford returning for a cameo as a vision in Ben’s head is equally as poignant and signifies the end of Ben’s journey from the dark and back to the light, metaphorically as well as literally with him throwing his crossguard lightsaber into the ocean.
The above meme is pretty ironic as Rey’s first instinct in this still bewildering script is to take Ben’s TIE ship of which I forget the actual model and travels to Ahch-To in an effort to exile herself only to be given a pep talk by the ghost of Luke Skywalker as well as an extra lightsaber that once belonged to Leia in her days training as a Jedi. Admittedly, we do get a very lovely flashback sequence with a CGI Mark Hamill and CGI Carrie Fisher as young Leia and Luke but the CGI isn’t subtle and not particularly believable. It’s not The Irishman. It’s nice to see Mark Hamill back as the Luke we all knew and loved from the original trilogy and not the butchered, angry character assassination Luke that Rian Johnson provided us. Look what they did to my boy.
Because Rey decided to torch the TIE ship that she arrived in, Luke obviously has to give her his old X-Wing fighter and Wayfinder to navigate her way to the unknown regions to defeat Palpatine once and for all.
Cue the flashy space battles that are part and parcel of pretty much every Star Wars movie in the final act. Yep, as Rey ends up in the arena of the Sith temple, the skies above are filled with yet another new version of the original Empire Star Destroyers and these ones have planet destroying weapons. Sound familiar?...it should. Its fair to say though that despite the blatant copy paste here from both A New Hope and Return Of The Jedi, The Rise Of Skywalker does manage to deliver a visually stunning big battle with thousands of resistance reinforcements and sympathisers showing up to take down the empire once and for all, led by Lando Calrissian and new character Zorri Bliss. We get very quick cameos from Greg Grunberg as Snap Wexley and original trilogy character Wedge Antilles reprised by Denis Lawson. While all of this is going down, Ben conveniently shows up to help Rey defeat the emperor because redemption right?
LOL, nope.
Because the corpse like Palpatine delivers a typical line about not knowing the power of the force and siphons the energy of their force dyad to restore himself fully to life before yeeting the new good Ben Solo into the pit for no other reason than him being a Skywalker. Yeah, Palpatine holds a four decade grudge apparently. But every bad choice made in this movie is made up for in the immediate aftermath here as Rey finds herself hearing the voices of multiple Jedi including Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Mace Windu, Ashoka Tano, Luminara Unduli, Adi Gallia and Kanan Jarrus to spur her on and give her the strength to make her final stand against Palpatine...which she does and obviously, she wins too easily to actually be believable but at this stage, that ship already sailed. Then Rey dies for no reason....but wait!
Yeah, this is where Ben miraculously climbs out of the pit and makes the ultimate sacrifice by passing his life force into Rey's lifeless corpse and voila, Rey is alive again. There's a random romantic moment when the two kiss (no seriously) before Ben slumps to the floor and his body disappears and we're switched back to the resistance base where Leia's body also fades from under the sheet. They've both become one with the force.
So yeah, Ben Solo's story really doesn't come to anything that is recognisable as an actual arc but there was probably no way to truly redeem him even after he came back to the light but its still a waste of Adam Driver's time and talent. Hell, even Rey who ends her story by going to Tatooine where she buries Luke and Leia's lightsabers before revealing her own newly constructed yellow bladed saber, doesn't really get a satisfying conclusion. She literally ended back in a parallel situation to where she started her journey. I get trying to bring it full circle but christ, its a bit on the nose. On top of that, when she's asked by a local who she is she literally answers "Rey Skywalker"
Anakin, Luke, Leia and Ben died for this. For it to become a story about the name and not the people. I have no words.
Admittedly, most of the horrible choices made in this movie are more on Chris Terrio but J.J played a part too. It seems like fan service really became the priority instead of an actual coherent story and i'm all for fan service but that alone won't make your movie a success. So yeah. I still think its the strongest of the sequel trilogy and its not horrendous in general but it leaves a lot to be desired ultimately. I am currently rewatching the Skywalker Saga and will be hitting the sequel trilogy part of my rewatch in the next few days so maybe my thoughts on The Rise Of Skywalker will alter somewhat.
Obviously, as i said both in my spoiler-free review and at the beginning of this, don't judge the movie off the back of my own opinion, go see it for yourself and make your own observations, form your own opinions and decide whether its a worthy conclusion for you!
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