The new Star Wars movies have had a ton of critics. Some fans hated The Force Awakens. Many fans disdained The Last Jedi.
I enjoyed both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Neither one were perfect movies but they were Star Wars movies. Would the Rise of Skywalker be an amazing end to the “Skywalker” nine movie arc or would it leave a disappointing taste in my mouth.
CAUTION: You may disagree with my review… and that is OKAY.
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Plot:
(There will be major spoilers– be warned)
Emperor Palpatine has returned. We see this from the initial scroll. He announced to the world he is back and gave them a warning to surrender to him.
This announcement spurs Kylo Ren into searching for the Palpatine. Palpatine could cause major issues for the New Order. Kylo finds a Sith Wayfinder to light the path to the Sith Home world of Exegol (different that previous known Sith home world of Korriban aka Moraband). Kylo confronts a badly hurt Palpatine and joins forces (at least on the surface). Palpatine also reveals to Kylo but not the audience, who Rey really is.
A spy in the First order gets a message to Fin, Poe, Chewy, and others about the First Order team up with the Palpatine. Palpatine has a new fleet of Star Destroyers and each one has a cannon that can destroy a planet. Rey, Poe, Fin, Chewy, C3po and BB8 go on a mission to find another Sith Wayfinder. If they don’t find the hidden planet and destroy the fleet before they can launch, all hope is lost.
The story leads to final confrontation of Rey and Kylo. During this fight, Leia gives up all of her energy from far away to reach her son. She successfully touches his heart and brings him back to being Ben. Leia’s sacrifice saves her son.
During the fight, Kylo shared Rey’s heritage with her. She is a Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter. Because of this, she heads back to Ahch-To (Planet Luke hid on in Last Jedi). Luke helps give her direction. She takes Luke’s X-Wing to Exegol to confront her evil grandfather. This leads to the Resistance following Rey to Exegol. This leads to a massive starship battle and Rey confronting the Emperor.
The Emperor has a twisted play to make Rey the next great Sith leader and Emperor by allowing his soul to enter her. They would rule the galaxy together. Rey resists and Ben shows up to help. It appears all is lost but Rey resists the Emperor’s lightning with two lightsabers (Luke’s and Leia’s) and Palpatine kills himself with the force. Ben is badly injured but find Rey not breathing. He uses the force to save her. They kiss for a moment before Ben dies from his injuries and draining himself to save Rey.
What I liked: (More Spoilers)
The story felt right. It was a well told Star Wars film. There was a lot of call back and mirror of what had happened in the previous two Trilogy. It felt like the right ending to this story.
I was surprised by Rey being a Palpatine but it worked. They weaved it into the story well with a good explanation. It reminded me of when they revealed Vader was Luke’s father and Leia was Luke’s sister. I am not sure she was originally created to be a Palpatine but I doubt if Leia and Luke were originally suppose to be brother and sister.
There was a ton of action in this movie. The action was there because of the plot and not to drive the plot. It felt natural to me. The fight scenes with Rey versus Kylo and later Rey and Ben versus the Emperor were amazing and epic.
I loved the explanation of Leia being a Jedi and the reflection back. She was fully train and had passed all of the tests. She gave it up because of the love for her son. She was able to finish Rey’s training. Leia has always been the hero.
What I Did Not Like: (Spoilers)
The pacing of this movie was full tilt go. There wasn’t much breathing time. Knowing that Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi deviated form the original outline from Abrams, it makes sense that Abrams had to push it to conclude the visit and make changes. There is talk of a longer release cut that will allow the movie to have better pacing and that would be interesting.
Review:
I really enjoyed this movie. I think it is the best of the new Trilogy. It felt like a Star Wars movie. It had flaws but so did every Star Wars movie including Empire. I understand some of the criticism of this movie but I don’t agree with it except the passing.
MONEY: $1 Billion Internationally and 478.2 million domestically so far.
My Grade: B+
Other Reviews
IMDB: 6.9
Rotten Tomatoes: Audience: 86%
Rotten Tomatoes: Critics: 53%
Common Sense: 3 out of 5 Stars
Roger Ebert: 2.5 of our 4
Stay Geeky my Friends!
