Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

“Long have I waited.”

Emperor Palpatine

Ever since Star Wars blasted its way into theaters around the world in 1977, it’s been a cultural phenomenon that’s captured the hearts and imagination of generations. Unfortunately, nothing can last forever and everything that has a beginning also has an end, and Episode IX brings us to that conclusion. Like many, I’ve been exposed to Star Wars my entire life, it’s all my brother ever seemed to watch so I almost found it annoying when I was younger. I didn’t fully start to embrace the fandom until about a year before The Force Awakens released, and the gorgeous final trailer for that film sealed the deal and a new Star Wars fan was born. I enjoy all the Star Wars films to an extent, even though I do like less than others, I don’t fully hate any of them. Even though The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are the hardest for me to get through, I still have a deep appreciation for the prequels, and Return of the Jedi sits as my favorite film in the saga followed closely by The Empire Strikes Back. I’ve been fully enjoying the sequel trilogy, it’s not perfect but I don’t believe any of the trilogies are. I think I’m one of the small handful of people who enjoy The Last Jedi, it’s got a slower pace and I can see where some people could react negatively to it, but other than the extensive Canto Bight sequence I’ve watched it several times and enjoyed it each time I view it. The Rise of Skywalker marks the end of the 9-film saga, and I think it could’ve stuck the landing a little better, but it’s by no means fell flat on it’s face.

Just like Avengers: Endgame, this review is going to be extensively and painfully vague as to not give away any spoilers to the plot itself. Most of the things I would’ve changed about this film are pretty spoiler heavy, so I’ll save those points for the future if I ever get around to doing a spoiler review on it. There will, however, be some spoilers for both the original and prequel trilogies in this review, but if you’re worried about those than you probably shouldn’t even be seeing this movie in the first place.

A movie of this magnitude is hard to pull off, because not only are they wrapping up the story arcs of our new list of hero’s and villains, they’re also wrapping up a story that began 42 years ago. My main issue with this trilogy is it’s lack of a coherent story arc with several of the characters, it feels like they’re making it up as they go along episode by episode because it’s exactly what they’re doing. The original trilogy also suffers from the same issue, but not as severely as Episodes V and VI tie together very nicely. There’s a few points in the original trilogy where it stands out, one example is (spoiler for the original trilogy) Luke and Leia being twins, upon re-watching them you can tell that wasn’t something planned out from the beginning. The prequel trilogy does it best I believe as far as having a solid overarching arc that each film is building to, even if the execution of the arc wasn’t the greatest. There are a few moments in this film (again they’re spoilers so I won’t say what) where I can point at them and tell, even upon my first viewing, that what happened wasn’t planned out from the start. I think communication between the two directors of this trilogy would’ve helped tremendously, or even having mapped out a main arc before making these films would’ve shown in the final product.

Director J.J. Abrams returns after having directed The Force Awakens in 2015. Episode VII is my favorite film in the new trilogy, my only issue with it being it pulls too much from the original 1977 film, especially with Starkiller base. I had worries about this film potentially doing the same thing since it’s a returning director, and even though there are a few similar beats, it was different enough that I couldn’t always predict what was going to happen next. I really loved that aspect, especially going in with next to zero spoilers, I had almost no idea how said-characters were going to get themselves out of certain situations. The lightsaber action in this movie is absolutely phenomenal as well, one of the fights ranking high on my list of favorite fights from the franchise. The story arc with a certain character in this film in particular I thought was extremely well done, I loved watching said-character struggle through the movie (worded this way it sounds awful but I’m trying to be as vague as possible) and felt a lot of empathy for said-character.

There were I think maybe too many side characters in this movie, some of them get introduced fairly late in the film, but C-3PO is phenomenal in this film. He’s always been a favorite of mine and I think this is potentially Anthony Daniels’ best performance in the saga. He gets some of the best laughs in the movie, and never once thought any of the humor was too much or forced. Chewbacca gets some really great moments as well, both the parts that I thought he was best in I cannot say because potential spoilers, but you’ll know them when they happen. D-O (voiced by J.J. Abrams) is a brand new character to the series that I really enjoyed, but I can see some people potentially finding him annoying at times.

I was extremely excited for the return of Emperor Palpatine, but I was worried that his return might void the (another spoiler for the original trilogy) sacrifice made by Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi. I thought they handled his return very well, and his sacrifice being voided didn’t cross my mind once the movie started. Ian McDiarmid’s portrayal as Palpatine is iconic in both the original and prequel trilogies, and he didn’t at all disappoint in this film. He’s just as menacing as he was the first time he appeared on screen back in 1983, and I never once question his abilities (even if some consider them unnatural). McDiarmid’s chilling performance in this film will go down as probably my favorite character performance of 2019.

The cinematography in this movie I thought wasn’t nearly as good as The Last Jedi, but the use of old visual effects work really gave this movie an original trilogy feel that I loved. The visual effects as a whole were spectacular as I’ve come to expect from any Star Wars film, lots of practical effects and miniatures combined with stunning CGI really blended everything together to make each sequence believable. Story-wise, I do wish they had stuck to the consequences that certain actions invoke. They would set up a decision that characters had to make, and the decisions always had major consequences. However, right after they’d make the hard decision, the consequences would only last a few minutes and then things seemed to go back to normal several times. I think if they took at least one of those decisions, and made the consequences permanent, it would’ve given this plot a lot more weight than it had. By the time the third act starts to roll around, any decision the characters made I didn’t feel much weight or emotion from them because I knew the result would most likely not be permanent because of previous decisions made in the film.

John Williams returns one final time as he said this will be the last Star Wars score he composes for the series. The soundtrack is gorgeous, bringing back several of the Star Wars themes he’s written in the past and using them to elevate the scene. My only complaint about the soundtrack is I was so sure he was going to bring back Duel of the Fates, I was waiting the entire film for it to play and when it didn’t I was disappointed. That’s my own fault though, I don’t blame him for not using it, but there was at least two moments I thought would’ve been perfect to include it.

Carrie Fisher unfortunately passed away in late 2016, but they were still able to include the princess of Alderaan in this movie using archive footage from the previous two films. I’m glad they didn’t CGI her like many had thought they would, and I thought they handled her character well given the circumstances. Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver’s performances in this movie were done really well, probably their best performances in the trilogy in my opinion. Each character has their motives that drive the story forward, but like I mentioned before I wish this trilogy had a coherent story-arc they were aiming for since the beginning because it would’ve benefited hugely from that.

This movie is awesome, it’s got some lower moments to it and by no means is perfect, but I watch Star Wars movies for the world building, lightsaber fights, epic space battles, and adventure just as much as I watch them for the story. I had a lot of fun watching this movie, I laughed, I cheered, got goosebumps several times, and other parts had my jaw on the floor. If you’ve been critical of the sequel trilogy so far, I don’t think you’ll love this movie, it’s on par with The Force Awakens. But if you’re like me and have been enjoying the ride so far, your chances of having a good time at the theater are pretty high. I don’t think this is the greatest Star Wars film ever made, and unfortunately didn’t have that same Avengers: Endgame reaction that I was hoping for, but it’s a pretty solid movie and ties up the saga nicely. It ties into the original trilogy quite a bit, and I do wish they had been able to tie it into the prequels a little more than they did, but I’m satisfied with the story that we got. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker gets a 7.5/10 from me, and I’ll for sure be catching it a few more times before it leaves theaters. I’m excited to have been a part of this journey, even though I didn’t fully hop on board until near the end. I can’t wait to see what they do with this franchise now that they’ve completed the Skywalker saga, I’m hoping we get some Knights of the Old Republic films, or a series that fills in the gaps between episodes VI and VII. Did you think this was a fitting conclusion to the saga? Or do you wish they had done something different?