Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Review (SPOILERS)

It’s been quite the two-year journey for the world of Star Wars since the release of “The Last Jedi” in December 2017. While it’s true that “The Force Awakens” had its fair share of controversy, I would say it was mostly muted as, generally speaking, critics and audiences were both pleased with Disney’s new introduction to the world of Star Wars. People complaining that it was a terrible movie due to it being a carbon copy of “A New Hope” were more in the minority and, comparatively speaking, they weren’t loud and toxic. With “The Last Jedi,” on the other hand, that was a completely different story that, quite frankly, caught me off guard. The critics loved the movie. I loved the movie. All of my friends that I saw it with loved the movie. All was well with Rian Johnson’s second chapter in the trilogy. But then the firestorm hit as suddenly there appeared an angry mob of Star Wars fans whose lives had just been miserably ruined and torn to shreds because of a silly, fictional, two-hour story. Honestly, I’d still contend that said fans were still in the minority as “The Last Jedi” was not only in the 90 percent range on Rotten Tomatoes, but also received an A on Cinemascore and, to this day, still has a 7.1 on IMDb after over 500,000 votes. But man was that crowd loud.

If you’ve been anywhere on the planet Earth in the last two years, you are well aware of all of this. But nevertheless, a brief recounting is necessary to provide context for me talking about the final chapter in the new trilogy, “The Rise of Skywalker.” Following the emergence of this angry, loud minority of fans storming the internet in a ruthless rage, it rather quickly became exhausting to discuss this movie, especially since there was no calm reasoning with these people. They were so hurt and offended that suddenly talking about Star Wars became as frustrating as talking politics. I personally stood my ground and will still defend “The Last Jedi,” but it quickly became trendy to hate “The Last Jedi.” This is an interesting, psychological phenomenon wherein once someone starts giving a negative criticism, other people start feeling justified in also giving negative criticism. If this starts spiraling out of control, the people who didn’t see the movie in the initial wave will go into the movie with the idea in mind that they will disappointed instead of being excited, meaning they’ll spend the movie looking for all the negative things about it instead of trying to enjoy the movie. This causes complaints to arise like people being upset that the movie doesn’t follow the laws of physics.

Can you understand how two years of this nonsense can get exhausting? I mean, I can nitpick the movie, too. But I can also nitpick EVERY Star Wars movie. In fact, I even made one Facebook post recently wherein I destroyed every Star Wars movie that has been made, as if I had hated all 10 movies in the saga. I did that to prove a point. If people are being extra nitpicky about “The Last Jedi,” yet they easily overlook all the other flaws in the series, that’s a double standard. My favorite example is calling people out on them hating this new trilogy for not having a planned out direction from day one. Yes, that can be frustrating. But if that is cause for hatred of the new movies, then what’s the justification of Luke and Leia making out in one movie, then being revealed as siblings in the next with Leia saying she’s always known? Or what about the biggest cop-out in movie history with Obi-Wan telling Luke that what he told him regarding his father was true… from a certain point of view? If you’re going to tell me that every detail was planned out with the original trilogy from day one, I’m calling you out on that because that’s just simply not true. The beloved original trilogy has many flaws. It’s just too old for some people to criticize. And it came out before social media was a thing.

The result of all of this personally was that I was done. My opinion of the movie wasn’t changed, but I was done talking Star Wars. At least on the internet. And on my personal Facebook, I began to delete any negative comments about “The Last Jedi” because I simply didn’t want to deal with it. With “The Rise of Skywalker,” I honestly didn’t even want to review this movie. I wanted to go watch it on my own terms and enjoy it without even thinking about all of the noise that I knew was going to follow since people still won’t shut up about “The Last Jedi.” Given that this is Star Wars, I’m confident that there was going to be a large crowd of people that will hate watch the movie just so that they could bash it into the ground and argue relentlessly about how horrible of a movie this is. And I have no desire to go through all of that again. But nevertheless I am here. I am typing up my review of “The Rise of Skywalker.” Mostly because I am a completionist and I have reviewed every other Star Wars movie worth reviewing (no Ewok movies or Holiday Special will be talked about on this blog). Just know that I have no desire to get into another firestorm with this movie. I want to get my thoughts out and move on with life. And yes, there will be spoilers ahead.

With that large preamble out of the way, “The Rise of Skywalker” is a movie that I had concerns with going in. As I have said, I was and still am a major fan of “The Last Jedi.” I liked what Rian Johnson did with that movie and I didn’t want JJ Abrams to come in and retcon everything. I wanted a fitting conclusion to this trilogy that respected both chapters in the trilogy. And I wasn’t 100 percent confident in JJ’s ability to pull that off. I say that, not because of any disrespect towards “The Force Awakens,” but because JJ is a filmmaker who, historically speaking, doesn’t often finish what he starts. He loves setting up his mystery box scenarios, then letting others come up with the endings. “LOST” was the best example of this, but not the only one. And this is exactly what he was initially planning with Star Wars, which is why he let Rian Johnson do whatever he wanted. Colin Trevorrow was the one who was initially going to finish things. But when that marriage didn’t work out (thank heavens), JJ stepped in last second to take this to the finish line. In doing so, he made statements that sounded like he wanted this to be a tribute to all previous Star Wars movies. That was unsettling because I didn’t want this to just be a nostalgic-based ride. 

Despite this, I decided to practice what I preached with the last movie and go in without specific expectations or demands that needed to be met in order for me to be pleased. If JJ was going to retcon “The Last Jedi” or simply deliver a nostalgia-fueled ride, I would wait to see how it played before giving a final judgment. And I’m glad I did because this movie did not meet my expectations. If I had labeled some of my thoughts as absolute dealbreakers, I would’ve walked out upset. But because I let the movie play out, a lot of it ended up working for me. I still have a fair share of concerns to go over, but ultimately I would label it as a satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga. No, this isn’t the end of Star Wars by any means. Disney and Lucasfilm still have Disney+ to play around with, providing the likes of “The Mandalorian,” “The Clone Wars” and the upcoming untitled Obi-Wan series. Plus they do have a new trilogy of movies starting in 2022 that they’ve said pretty much nothing about. But I do believe that this specific nine-movie arc in the main saga is complete. As one of my friends always says, never believe Hollywood when they say something is the final chapter. Episode X could still happen. But if not, we do have a satisfying conclusion currently in place.

The first thing that I will say about this is that this is a very Star Warsy movie. That’s what I initially said on my Facebook page about the movie and is also the first thing that I tell my friends when they ask what I thought. I think JJ went to great lengths to make this feel like a Star Wars movie. He didn’t do this by regurgitating plot points or repeating character arcs, despite what some people might claim. Rather, he went back to the basics of what makes a Star Wars movie and applied that to our current characters in their current situation. Because of this, this felt very much like “The Force Awakens,” which is certainly not a coincidence since JJ directed that one, too. With “The Force Awakens,” the major complaint was that it was too similar to “A New Hope.” That I don’t think is fair. That movie has different characters and different plot points than “A New Hope.” JJ just did a good job of knowing what makes a Star Wars movie, which is why it felt very similar. In my viewpoint, that’s not a negative thing. That was a positive thing. Applying that to “The Rise of Skywalker,” this felt like JJ’s direct follow-up to “The Force Awakens” rather than being a direct sequel to “The Last Jedi.” That said, JJ also found a way to be respectful to “The Last Jedi” as well.

As much as I like “The Last Jedi,” the difficult thing about doing a follow-up to that movie is that Rian Johnson didn’t do anything to set up a sequel. Unlike what JJ did with “The Force Awakens,” Rian didn’t leave any dangling plot points for someone to immediately pick up on and run with. “The Last Jedi” is a bit of a stand alone movie. With JJ taking on the task of directing “The Rise of Skywalker,” he essentially had to start over and come up with a brand new story arc for the finale, which makes sense as to why this feels like a follow-up to “The Force Awakens.” JJ had a lot of plot points that he set up in that movie that Rian didn’t necessarily touch on. So JJ went back to those to wrap those up. On this note, I’m glad that JJ wound up doing “The Rise of Skywalker” because it allowed him to finish the trilogy the way he wanted instead of continuing to play this game of telephone with the trilogy. From what I hear, Colin Trevorrow had significantly different ideas as to what he wanted to do with the finale. Given that Trevorrow is also responsible for the disaster that is the “Jurassic World” movies, as well this thing called “The Book of Henry.” So I’m scared as to what ideas he had in mind to send Star Wars to its death. It’s better to have JJ finish things off.

With that, if we’re finally getting into plot specifics here, JJ decided to revolve this story around the return of Emperor Palpatine, which is a bit of a risky undertaking. Personally I liked the idea of the villain of this movie being Kylo Ren, having gone down a dark and disturbing path of no return. I think it would’ve been just fine with Rey having to stop him and his Knights of Ren once and for all. But it’s apparent that’s not what JJ wanted. He probably wanted the villain to be Snoke, while giving Kylo Ren a redemption arc as him and Rey stop Snoke for good. But Rian Johnson killed Snoke in “The Last Jedi,” a decision I really liked because it subverted expectations and made this a unique trilogy. Yet that painted JJ in a corner with what he wanted to do, so instead of going forward with Kylo Ren as the main villain, he went into his hat of tricks and pulled out Palpatine as the main villain. Despite this not being the path that I wanted, it worked well enough. It is kind of exhausting having Palpatine as the only villain in Star Wars, always the one pulling all the strings. But a cloned and/or resurrected version of Palpatine is something that has been done before in the books that are now referred to as Legends, so this plot line does feel like an ode to those stories, which I suppose is OK.

If the plan was to bring back Palpatine, I would’ve preferred that to be set up from the beginning instead of thrown into the final movie. Again, setting up a different villain or going forward with Kylo Ren would’ve been the best option, but all things considered, if we had to bring back Palpatine and squeeze him into the final movie, I think JJ did the best job he could. Right from the beginning he comes up in the opening crawl, with the opening sequences being Kylo Ren discovering this ugly, revived version of Palpatine, kept alive by this giant machine, on the secret Sith planet of Exegol. Palpatine then tells Ren to go kill Rey, promising that Ren will be the new emperor of this Final Order if he does. So then Ren is out to hunt down Rey while Rey and friends are out to find a Sith Wayfinder, which is the tool needed to locate Exegol. In terms of creepy Star Wars planets, Exegol is rather impressive. It’s dark and mysterious, with a large group of Sith Eternal, a cult group dedicated to the rebirth of the Sith. I really enjoyed the atmosphere on this planet, which helped me buy into the fact that these Sith Eternal would use Sith magic to revive Palpatine and set into place a plan where the Sith would take over. This backdrop made Palpatine an imposing villain.

Speaking of Palpatines, Rey apparently is one. In speaking of things that “The Last Jedi” set up, I liked the idea of Rey being declared a nobody who then rose to being the new savior of the Jedi. This was a beautiful story contrast to Ben Solo being the “chosen one,” then falling off and becoming Kylo Ren. I liked the message that your heritage doesn’t determine who you are. You, and you only, are in control of your destiny. Regardless of where you came from, you have the power to chose where you will go. Does Rey being declared a Palpatine change that? Is it a huge retcon that gives “The Last Jedi” the middle finger? I honestly don’t think so. I think JJ respectfully danced around that with the clarification that Rey’s parents were nobodies because they chose to be nobodies in order to protect her from her evil grandfather who wanted to kill her. That seems different than something like, “What I told you was true… from a certain point of view.” The latter seems to be a complete change in direction with where the story was initially going in “A New Hope,” whereas this change in “The Rise of Skywalker” seemed to be done in a way to take the story the direction JJ wanted it to go without disrespecting the decision that Rian Johnson made in “The Last Jedi” to make her a nobody.

The reason I say that is because her being a nobody who rose to being a somebody is a parallel arc to that of her being a descendant of an evil Sith Lord, yet ended up good despite that. It still holds in place the theme that a person is in control of his or her own path, despite what the upbringing is. And in this situation it does put in place a unique scenario where Kylo Ren is the grandson of Darth Vader while Rey is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. It does remove the idea of Rey being descended from someone who wasn’t a previously established character. Some people are tired of the idea that we have such a large universe, but all the main characters come from only a few different family lines. That personally was inconsequential to my enjoyment of the movies, but I can see that reveal being upsetting to some for that reason. Another thing that her being a Palpatine potentially changes is people’s complaints about her being a “Mary Sue.” I didn’t have that issue myself. And for those who did have that complaint, I’m not so sure this reveal is going to completely satisfy them. But her being a descendant of an all-powerful Sith Lord might explain why she’s inherently really good at everything or how she’s able to understand the force so easily. It’s in her genes.

With all of that context, I simply found this movie to be a fun Star Wars adventure. In some ways I found it comparable to “Solo,” a Star Wars adventure I enjoyed. “Solo” didn’t feel grand or epic, but I didn’t need it. I just wanted a fun Star Wars movie and that’s exactly what I got. The biggest difference here with “The Rise of Skywalker” is that perhaps I would’ve wanted a movie that felt like an epic, grand finale, which is not the case with “The Rise of Skywalker.” But I hate having such a black and white perspective. Some people like saying that a Star Wars movie specifically has to be one of the best movies ever or else it sucks, as if there isn’t any room for some middle ground. I’m not going there. No, this is not the best Star Wars movie. Perhaps if they would’ve had a better master plan from day one, maybe this could’ve had an “Avengers: Endgame” sort of feel to it. But it doesn’t. As is, it’s more of a fun, villain-of-the-week adventure that just happens to involve a revived Palpatine, the Sith planet Exegol and the Sith Eternal. But with that, it’s a non-stop, exciting adventure with beautiful visuals, fun creatures, exciting space battles, an epic light saber fight and an intense final conflict with our villain and our protagonists. All of those things that make a good Star Wars movie are there.

Before I go, I want to talk about the ending here because there is a lot to digest. I could spend a paragraph or two on each of these following elements, but I’ll go through them more quickly. First, Kylo Ren. I’m a grinch and didn’t want a redemption arc. JJ apparently did. So that’s what we got. And I wanted to be upset at first, but the idea that his mother reached out to him and made that connection made it effective. Then he had one more conversation with his Dad in some sort of dream sequence. That was rewarding. Rey and Kylo Ren as a thing? Or, rather, Rey and Ben Solo? Nope. I’m sorry. I didn’t like that and I thought that kiss was rushed and out of place. It kinda made me, and most people in my theater, break out in laughter. Then Ben sacrificed himself to save Rey and disappeared and that was that. Rey summoning all of the energy from past Jedi to finally defeat Palpatine was quite epic, though. Hearing all of those quick statements from all of the Jedi throughout the whole saga was a great send off. Finishing the saga off, having Rey travel to Tatooine, bury Luke and Leia’s lightsabers, reveal that she has the yellow lightsaber of the Jedi Sentinal, then declare herself as a Skywalker in the backdrop of the double sunset was perhaps the perfect ending to this saga.

Honestly, the biggest concern I ended up having in this movie was not specifically the idea that Rey was a Palpatine, but that Emperor Palpatine had a child. My immediate thought was… when? Turns out I resolved that concern in my brain when I did some math. The internet told me that Rey was 19 in “The Force Awakens.” With there being 30 years between “Return of the Jedi” and “The Force Awakens,” that means Rey was born 11 years after the initial death of Palpatine. If Palpatine had a child after he became all gross and deformed in “Revenge of the Sith,” that would be weird, but it turns out that the timeline here works. There’s 65 years between “The Phantom Menace” and “The Force Awakens.” If Rey’s parents birthed her when they were 46, that means they in turn could’ve been born during the events of “The Phantom Menace,” wherein the internet tells me that Palpatine was between 45-50 years old. That eases my mind quite a bit. Now it’s still kinda weird that we went nine main-saga movies, a couple spin-offs, and several TV shows before learning that Palpatine had offspring. And I know the movie said that Rey’s parents became nobodies in order to protect her, but what were they doing in the years prior? That still bothers me a bit, but I can live with that.

If you’ve read through all of this, I hope that means that you’ve already seen the movie. Or perhaps you don’t care and just wanted to know my thoughts. Either way, you’re not going to necessarily need a recommendation from me. But if you haven’t yet seen this and you just happened to scroll to the end to get my score, then I will say that I’m not quite sure how to recommend this movie to others. If you’re like me and you actually enjoyed the two previous movies, I’m sure that you’ll also like this one. If you enjoyed “The Force Awakens,” but hated “The Last Jedi,” well I don’t know. I would say that this has more of a vibe like “The Force Awakens,” meaning you might like it, but that’s not a guarantee. What I will say for sure is that if you were disappointed with “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi” ruined your life, then just don’t bother with this finale, especially if you’re one who has dedicated their life to tearing apart everything Star Wars related. We don’t need people like you on the internet and thus I’d rather not have to deal with the toxicity that you’re going to bring. But I suppose it is what it is. You’ll probably hate watch the movie in spite of me. But I enjoyed this movie. Not as much as the last two, but that’s OK. My grade for “The Rise of Skywalker” is an 8/10.