Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker

And so, everyone, we've reached the end of this new sequel trilogy for Star Wars, The Rise Of Skywalker. And people's reactions to these new movies have been really crazy these past few years. And I find a lot of it ridiculous with what people are saying. I've liked a lot of things about the last two episodic movies and I found them really enjoyable. And this movie had a lot of things stacked up against it. For one, it's the last of these new movies, it's being directed by J.J Abrams again with The Last Jedi previously being directed by Rian Johnson and it's having to work out a lot in so little time. And so, did I find it super enjoyable and think it lived up to the hype? Well... no, not really. I didn't hate the film and there were some aspects to it that I thought were cool and some of it was some of the coolest Star Wars moments I think I've ever seen. The rest however is just a really huge mess that really doesn't work for what they're trying to tell. A lot of this film is either boring, doesn't amount to much or is kinda ridiculous, even by Star Wars standards. And a lot of the choices they make are so bizarre that they just don't work at all and feel like they're going out on a limb. But, before we go into all that, let's get the story out of the way. And yes, like I always do, I'm gonna do a non-spoiler section first and then I'll do all the spoilers after. So, what's the story? So after the events of The Last Jedi, Rey is being trained by Leia while Finn and Poe are busy trying to get information about the First Order in an attempt to defeat them. All the while, Kylo is looking for Rey and is now the leader of the First Order after killing Snoke in the last film. And Rey herself is feeling a pull to the Dark Side and is experiencing feelings of new powers and everything. And I'm gonna stop there. I know that didn't sound like much, but I feel like saying anymore would give away too much. So, before I get into the problems, I'll talk about the positives. So, like any of the new Star Wars movies, the main essentials are still there. The effects and performances are still great. The movies from this sequel trilogy always get those right, and out of everything in the film, Kylo Ren is by far the best part. He's always been a highlight for these movies and he's still great. Every time he's on screen, he makes up for a lot for some of the problems. The rest of the cast and characters are good, but some of them don't get a lot to do. Anyway, back to the positives, there are one or two scenes with him that don't work and are kinda weird, but everything else with him are awesome. I also liked how they had Leia in this. Obviously Carrie Fisher unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago, but what they do to have her in this, I thought they did a good job and it was nice to see her. And there were some other moments that're spread out that I really liked. The action is also cool and there are some pretty cool settings for them. However, besides all that good stuff, there are a lot of bad stuff. For one, the pacing's not good. The film can feel really fast at points and really slow which can it feel boring at points. And, I think my biggest issue with the film is the course it had to take due to the direction The Last Jedi took for it. I do still like The Last Jedi, despite a lot of people's opinions on it, but because of what they did in it, it created a lot of problems for this film because they're trying to work out how to make a story, but a lot of it doesn't make much sense because of it. I'm clearly trying to avoid going too deep into it, but there's so much in this film that doesn't work and it feels really contrived. It feels a little like another movie that came out this year already and that aspect to it was really distracting, especially towards the end. Though, I feel like I should say this, people's opinions on these movies is just totally hurtful. Obviously not to me, but I mean to the people who make them. People have been saying really horrible things about the filmmakers behind these films and it's just nonsense. I get other people have more of a connection to these Star Wars movies, but given how a lot of people work really hard on these movies, and while I am currently talking about the problems of this film, I don't consider the people who worked on it bad people, they're just filmmakers doing their job and just trying to make a bit of entertainment. I find it so crazy when people talk about how these new filmmakers for Star Wars are the worst because of it. I find it cruel when people talk about these people nowadays. Yes, they can make good or bad movies, but that's not deserving of all this ridicule. I feel I should bring that up due to me hearing so many people's opinions about these things. But back to the film itself, I feel like there was definitely a lot of great ideas and talent behind this, but because of some of the limits that were set with the last few films, they couldn't go through with a lot of it. And, like I said, there's a lot of things in the plot that feel really contrived and as some scenes went, I kept thinking that some of these ideas just didn't work at all. Especially with one character who returns who I don't think should have. Some other characters feel like a bit like a shoe-in or just completely irreverent and eventually resolution at the end when everything is wrapping, it doesn't feel very satisfying and there's one thing that a character says that just feels out of nowhere. The film also has some scenes that they'll have in scene and then never bring up again, so that made me think why did they put it in in the first place. So to wrap up the spoiler free section here, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker is definitely a disappointing conclusion to these new episodic Star Wars movies and it does have a seriously messy story, but it's not like this is an a horrible movie. There's good stuff in it, but just doesn't work as a story and I was really expecting more and better. So, really I guess I would recommend it, but it's very disappointing and I hope something comes up some time in the future that everyone can agree on and it can be considered good. There's a lot I'm looking forward to in terms of Disney and Star Wars, like The Mandalorian on Disney+ when it's available where I am. And so, everyone, that's my review for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker. Thank you all for reading and please comment to tell me what you think.
Spoilers:
Okay, so that one character who I was talking about who I felt shouldn't have been in this was The Emperor. Somehow he survived the explosion when Darth Vader threw him into that reactor and then he commands Kylo to find Rey. That part there doesn't work for me. I guess they could do that much with it considering Kylo killed Snoke in the last movie, but it didn't work for me and it's so weird when it's revealed that Snoke was just some clone that Sidious himself created and is the one who's been behind everything. And then he somehow raises a whole bunch of ships that just came out of nowhere. This is one of the things I was talking about when I said there were contrived moments in this. And then with Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, R2 and C-3PO, they're looking for something called a Sith Wayfinder to find Sidious. That was just so bizarre and weird that that's apparently a thing. And then they meet Lando and it was nice to see him. He was cool even if it did feel a little odd. The scene I was mentioning about what's put into the movie and then never brought up again is the fact that wen they're on the dessert planet, the five of them are sinking and as they are, it's obvious that Finn was gonna say that he loves Rey, but he gets cut off and then that's never mentioned again. And then we even see Rey's power of the Dark Side when she accidentally uses Force Lightning on the ship they thought Chewie was on and they even think he's dead. I do actually think that scene was well done. I felt the stakes there and it was pretty chilling when it happened. Then we meet an old friend of Poe's who manages to help them when C-3PO has information about that dagger they find and they encrypt it out of him but it causes him to lose all of him memories. And I thought that was good, but then they kinda recon it when R2 restores it. I guess that was supposed to be a joke. But then they find out that Chewie is still alive and they go to find him on the ship where Kylo finds Rey and they have a fight through the Force like how they were indicating in The Last Jedi. And I liked how they had that, a Lightsaber fight through the same Force ability they were showing in the last movie. But, what I don't like about that scene on the ship is the eventual reveal. So, apparently Rey is Sidious's granddaughter. That just doesn't work at all. I was watching the movie as that was revealed and I thought to myself "What?" Because that doesn't work for me. I guess it would explain how she's so powerful, but it still doesn't make much sense to me. And then Rey and the others go to this planet where the remains of the Death Star are and they discover that a Sith Wayfinder is on it, so Rey decides to go and get it by herself. Again, the fact that that's a thing is still weird, and the fact that it was in the Death Star is even weirder. But then Kylo arrives and destroys it which leads to a fight between the two of them. And that action scene was awesome. I loved everything that happens in this scene. The fight, the fact that Rey almost kills Kylo, but then Leia dies and she senses it too, the fact that she heals him and saves him, her taking his ship and then, easily, the best part of this movie is with Han. Because Kylo, or Ben at this point, sees him and it's like the talk they had on the bridge in The Force Awakens. I loved that and I love how you feel for Ben because he tries to say "I love you" to him, and I was really sympathising with him there. And it was really cool the way he threw his old Lightsaber away and he turns good. And Rey even takes his ship and flies to the planet where Luke was and plans on staying there because of the pull she was feeling to the Dark Side. But then Luke's Force Ghost arrives and even catches the Lightsaber she was about to throw into the ship fire. And it was nice that Luke admits that he was wrong and that he's changed. And she even gets Leia's Lightsaber and she uses Luke's ship to fly to Sidious and then begins the climax. And there's a lot I liked and disliked about the climax. For one, starting with the positives, the actual reveal about Rey's parents being people who were trying to protect her was nice and the ship to ship fights were cool. We even see Ben arrive and Rey uses the Force transfer to give him the Lightsaber. That was really cool. On the other side though, on the contrived parts again, this is where a lot of things don't make much sense. Because, somehow, a whole bunch of ships arrive, by shear coincidence and it doesn't make any sense at all. Poe just says they'll come and they do. And, with Rey, we get, what I consider, the big copy of this movie. As Sidious pushes her and Ben down, she hears all the previous Jedi rooting for her as she's getting up with Luke and Leia's Lightsabers and Sidious says "I am all the Sith" and then Rey says "I am all the Jedi." I can't be the only one who thought that was just like Endgame this year when Tony said "I am Iron Man." And then she uses his own Force Lightning against him and disintegrates him. That's also like when Tony dusted Thanos. Anyway, this also kinda causes her to die until Kylo saves her and then he dies. But before that, she kisses him. I so did not need that to happen. She should not have done that. But, anyway, then the movie ends with Rey going to Tatooine and burying Luke and Leia's Lightsabers and it's even revealed that her staff is a Lightsaber too. She also tells some person there that she's deciding to call herself Rey Skywalker. I thought that both kinda nice, but also really weird. And that's really it. The eventual resolution, as I said, is still kinda weird there and doesn't feel very satisfying. I'm not exactly sure what could have fixed it, but there's so much in this that doesn't work and I feel they had lot of opportunities with these films, but they didn't use them. So, overall, I didn't hate this film. I had fun with some scenes and there are some things here that're really well handled, but the rest of the film is very messy and it doesn't work as a climactic finale for these films. It's kinda hard to talk about how I'm feeling about this film exactly, but I feel like they should have at least thought about this trilogy more and knew what they were gonna do. So, really, everyone, that's my spoiler review for Star War Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.