After 42 years of films we have made it to the final chapter in the saga. The Skywalker saga has touched the lives of millions of fans around the world and I have personally been lucky enough to be one. It has been a fun, epic, sometimes bumpy and memorable ride that makes me so thankful more than anything else.
I was fortunate enough to cover the Disney Springs Red Carpet Premiere of this film along with specific fans, media members, and The Disney Parks Blog. It was a major event with character photo opportunities, interviews and more all designed to make Star Wars fans feel right at home.
We we’re seating for the Five PM showing and it was not long before the final chapter in the Skywalker Saga began. As mentioned in the title, I will not be spoiling this film for anybody in this review. You would be hard pressed to find someone who hates spoilers as much as I do and with that being said, let us jump right into the review.
This film is epic. The stakes have truly never been higher in a Star Wars feature and I do commend J.J Abrams and the LucasFilm team for going all out with this movie. The final battle is one of the biggest we have ever seen on film and it brings out some incredible moments. It feels as if they truly pushed the envelope in regards to stakes in this film and while I very much enjoyed a lot of it, some of it felt out of place.
In a Galaxy filled with space wizards and planet destroyers, it had always felt impossible to make things seem unrealistic. Yet they pulled that off in this film which made the bigger moments feel disappointing in a way. I know what they were trying to go for but it felt as if I was watching Fast and Furious in the sci-fi universe and that was an unusual feeling.
The characters are what makes this film. We truly got to see the evolution of several characters which made me wish we got more of the three main characters together. For a trilogy focused on bringing us a new generation of beloved characters, it upset me that Poe Dameron did not meet Rey until the very end of the second film. The original trilogy brought the main characters together until the final film felt incredibly natural. This film made it seem natural without us ever feeling natural about it ourselves.
Regardless, they did a phenomenal job incorporating Leia and sending her off properly in this final film and honoring the original trilogy characters as well. This film did the best job of the three sequels at honoring our beloved characters. Chewie and Lando stole the show in nearly every scene they were in together and C3PO had a full character arc. I also very much enjoyed watching Kylo Ren in this film. He has been the most fascinating character from this trilogy and I loved his arc in the final film. Finn, Poe, and Rey had great chemistry regardless of the natural feelings of it all and they do take us on a constantly fun adventure.
The main issues I have with the film involve my confusion from both a critical standpoint and a fan standpoint. It felt like a film that tried to fit four hours of content into a two hour and 22 minute film. They could have made it longer like Avengers Endgame but did not and it felt rushed. As exhilarating of a film it was, you jump into the film expected to understand this rush of a journey. Even the crawl mentions a few things that made me go, “alright that is apparently a thing now.”
The issues do not stem from this film but from the overarching plot of the trilogy as a whole. It becomes very evident that they did not have a full plan for all three films from the beginning and tried to introduce certain plot points to us and simply expect us to go along with it. Not to say they changed certain elements of Star Wars but some of it almost felt like fan fiction in a way. Despite a year passing between The Last Jedi and this film, it seemed more like a lot more time had passed. It almost felt as if they did not know how to fully progress the story and simply filled the film with as much epic Star Wars material without considering the fact that it might have been a bit unrealistic.
Overall, I am okay with The Rise of Skywalker being the finale of a nine film saga. As far fetched as some of it was, it was beyond epic and made me truly think about all nine films. I will always have certain problems with the film but if you go into it simply looking to enjoy an epic Star Wars adventure this film is for you. It is a wild ride and a bumpy one that never truly felt on course. Yet at the end of the day, it was Star Wars and brought us some amazing character moments and honored the original trilogy in more than a few ways.
Final ranking: 7.0 out of 10.
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It’s a shame to hear about the jumbled story but after the last two it seems impossible that they would have been able to pull off a story that is actually cohesive. I’m going to watch it now mostly bc I’m curious how they made Star Wars feel u realistic!
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