"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" Review - 9 Shades of the Past

There are moments in life that make you so annoyed and confused that you almost wonder what could’ve been. I walked out of “The Rise of Skywalker” thinking was this whole movie just one giant fan-fiction? Was I just watching a movie version of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” where the authors of Star Wars had no where else to go with the new trilogy except fan service? I’m going to be perfectly blunt, the new Star Wars is simply terrible, which sadly, I had a bad feeling was going to be the ultimate outcome. 

As soon as the trailer revealed the emperor was going to come back, I had felt a brief moment of excitement but also super uneasiness. Aside from the fact that Palpatine has been dead for 35 years, and aside from the fact even if he somehow survived that deadly fall, he hasn’t done anything revenge like in that period of time, there’s a bigger problem. The original trilogy gave a major redemption arc for Darth Vader by killing him. That all goes down the tubes with this reveal. What I had hoped for was maybe he would be a force ghost or a machine or a spirit of some sort giving guidance to a troubled Kylo Ren. That was the best case scenario for me. Instead, Palpatine got shoehorned into the last of the trilogy, all the way to the point where nothing made sense to me once that was revealed. I couldn’t care less what happened in the expanded universe or in the comic books, these are the movies. The emperor should’ve stayed out of the final installment.

As you probably guessed it, the writing and the story as a result is awful. There’s so much character development that feels so forced and many new characters that did nothing but add more potholes and confusions, so nothing feels authentic. You’re not handed that gut punch feeling you got in Empire, Return of the Jedi, or even dare I say The Last Jedi. Instead, you get what I call the Doctor Sleep feeling, where you get nostalgia, but only for fan service. With all this, all you witness is a story that feels like it’s doing nothing but tying up the series in a rushed fashion and correcting any mistakes the previous movie made. Sure there are some cool moments, the effects are fantastic, and the John Williams score rocks, but the film runs on the far far away past and does nothing to build upon it’s predecessors. Say what you want about Last Jedi. It may not be perfect, but at least it explored new territory and gave us some of the most memorable scenes of the entire saga (fight me).

There’s no singular person to blame, not even JJ Abrams. He’s a kick-ass director. The problem was too many hands had control in this trilogy. It should’ve been run by one person from the ground up. Disney thought the SW Universe could be like the MCU where you could have a series of adventures directed by various people and capitalize off of many characters and merchandising. That couldn’t be farther away from the right path. Because as bad as the prequels were, at least they had one coherent story. It was a three part saga developed by one man. The Mandalorian is run by one guy, Jon Faverou, and even though he has many different directors, the series is fantastic because it has a cinematic storytelling to it while exploring something new and separate from what audiences have grown to know. JJ Abrams started Force Awakens with a bang, but Rian Johnson threw a wrench into his plans by basically concluding the series, which now leaves JJ Abrams with nothing to continue off of. There was a lot of potential to make this new chapter of the Star Wars saga something special, but Disney blew it. 

I admit, I’m not as big of a fan of Star Wars as some of my other friends are, but I have always appreciated this franchise, and I still do. I will love episodes 3-6 and the Darth Maul fight from Phantom Menace until I die. This decade was the perfect time to utilize so much of what Hollywood had to offer to make Star Wars special again. I guess we’ll have to wait until another trilogy comes along…that is if Disney doesn’t over saturate this franchise… (bursts into laugher).

One Nebs Down!