So I’m just going to get out in front with my general consensus; The Rise of Skywalker met my expectations and was enjoyable to watch. I had fun throughout, and there were a few moments that managed to get me to genuinely smile and even tear up a little.
It’s worth noting that all of that can also be said about the seventh Fast and Furious movie. So this is not necessarily indicative of any inherent quality, but rather a proper settling of my expectations.
So how was the movie? Well, in terms of “it’s a Star Wars movie” I’d say pretty good! I found it to be of roughly similar quality to The Last Jedi and Solo in terms of character development, script, and overall story quality. The story is simple, straightforward, and still manages to have some plot holes that while mostly innocuous are definitely still there. The script is quick, light, and punchy, with some good interactions and some genuine humor. The character development is mostly pretty meh, with exceptions surrounding Kylo Ren and Rey, both of whom did have fundamentally-basic-but-reasonably-structural character arcs that ended, for the most part, satisfactorily.
Overall I’d put it at about the same level as Return of the Jedi and a bit above Star Wars and The Force Awakens, but still quite a ways below Rogue One and The Empire Strikes Back.
My take-away, then, is mostly positive, but much like all of the movies I’ve directly compared it to, The Rise of Skywalker definitely has some... issues. Suffice it to say I’m not going to be particularly reserved about spoilers from here on in, so if you haven’t actually seen it yet, now would be a great time for you to leave.
Still here? Good. Then let’s start with that kiss.
And yes, I am in fact starting at the very end. Because Kylo’s redemption arc was going so well, and I was actually super impressed. They managed to make it feel even more natural than Vader’s redemption arc in Return of the Jedi, and the self-sacrifice/death ending to that arc, while maybe feeling a little predictable, was still totally fine.
(Personally I was hoping for something along the lines of, as Rey was facing down old Palpy with her light-saber, Kylo to suddenly leap in from behind with Leia’s lightsaber and cross it with Rey’s so they could stand shoulder-to-shoulder and defeat Palps together. And then Kylo wouldn’t die. And then the kiss would have made more sense, and the ending wouldn’t have felt exactly like the end of Return of the Jedi...)
Anyway, the point is that the kiss didn’t feel earned in the ending we got. I cringed in theaters when I saw that. So... that’s not great.
Also not great was Rey’s whole “I’m a Skywalker now” thing, which like, I get that there needed to be a Skywalker rising in The Rise of Skywalker, but throughout the whole movie that felt like it was going to be Ben. In fact, even after his death I was still completely satisfied with him becoming Ben again being the “rise” that the title was referring to. Rey’s entire scene on Tatooine felt a little dumb, and the name thing... again, didn’t feel earned, it felt contrived.
But of course its so easy to throw stones, so what would I have done differently? The whole thing could have been concluded much more satisfactorily with really minor changes. Like, maybe don’t bury Leia’s saber on Tatooine? And maybe don’t bury Luke’s there either considering he spent the vast majority of his life... not there? But even if nothing else about that scene changed, Rey’s final line should have been “It’s just Rey.”
Like yeah, the old lady just showing up in the middle of the desert next to an abandoned homestead is super bizarre, but assuming that Rey did go there to bury the lightsabers and the weird creepy lady shows up anyway and asks what her name is, just repeat the exchange from the bizarre festival planet!
“It’s Rey.”
“Rey what?”
Smile, confident tone, “Just Rey.”
And what a satisfying conclusion to her character arc! We find out early in the film that she’s self-conscious about her past in a mirrored interaction, and then when she does find out about her past she’s ashamed by it. And then by simply repeating the exchange but giving her confidence in her answer now we learn that she’s learned that her past shouldn’t define her, and she’s gained confidence in her own self regardless of where she came from!
Simple, but still satisfying. What we got instead made little actual sense and seemed to suggest that Rey learned nothing, and is now trying to adopt someone else’s past simply because she didn’t like her own.
I also felt like I was watching the movie from the back of a bullet train. Everything whizzed past so quickly, with so many tiny side-characters barely getting any screen time and so many callbacks and references to little things from other movies that I never cared about. It was rushed and frequently difficult to follow, which I guess is fine considering we didn’t actually NEED to follow any of that stuff, but... I mean, c’mon. Half of that stuff could have been cut. The whole quest line that ran through like three locations really should have been limited to a single location and ideally should have involved the adventurers suffering at least one setback that actually felt significant from the audience’s point of view.
Oh, wait, the destroyer in orbit around that one planet. They ran through four locations on that quest. Which doesn’t count the planet they started from, so five locations. Plus the Falcon transitioning from location to location, which is six, and that other random transport ship, because reasons. So seven primary locations in this film. You ever wonder why the newer Star Wars movies all feel super rushed? This is why. Because all three of the original trilogy had, tops, four locations.
(And yes, I have counted. Tatooine, Falcon, Death Star, Yavin. Hoth, Falcon, Degoba, Cloud City. Tatooine, rebel fleet, Endor, Death Star. Four primary locations. Every. Single. Time)
And I can go on like this for quite some time, but I won’t. These are the primary issues with the film, but honestly they’re similar if not exactly the same as issues endemic with all the Star Wars movies. It’s a franchise that has two actually good movies in it, one extremely terrible movie in it, and a wash of utterly mediocre movies that are kinda just stupid fun to watch and make you feel good like a fairytale might.
The Rise of Skywalker fits comfortably into that last group. And heck, they brought back Wedge! Making him the only flesh-and-blood rebel to officially survive from Episode 4 to Episode 9. It's hard not to just love that.
It’s worth noting that all of that can also be said about the seventh Fast and Furious movie. So this is not necessarily indicative of any inherent quality, but rather a proper settling of my expectations.
So how was the movie? Well, in terms of “it’s a Star Wars movie” I’d say pretty good! I found it to be of roughly similar quality to The Last Jedi and Solo in terms of character development, script, and overall story quality. The story is simple, straightforward, and still manages to have some plot holes that while mostly innocuous are definitely still there. The script is quick, light, and punchy, with some good interactions and some genuine humor. The character development is mostly pretty meh, with exceptions surrounding Kylo Ren and Rey, both of whom did have fundamentally-basic-but-reasonably-structural character arcs that ended, for the most part, satisfactorily.
Overall I’d put it at about the same level as Return of the Jedi and a bit above Star Wars and The Force Awakens, but still quite a ways below Rogue One and The Empire Strikes Back.
My take-away, then, is mostly positive, but much like all of the movies I’ve directly compared it to, The Rise of Skywalker definitely has some... issues. Suffice it to say I’m not going to be particularly reserved about spoilers from here on in, so if you haven’t actually seen it yet, now would be a great time for you to leave.
Still here? Good. Then let’s start with that kiss.
And yes, I am in fact starting at the very end. Because Kylo’s redemption arc was going so well, and I was actually super impressed. They managed to make it feel even more natural than Vader’s redemption arc in Return of the Jedi, and the self-sacrifice/death ending to that arc, while maybe feeling a little predictable, was still totally fine.
(Personally I was hoping for something along the lines of, as Rey was facing down old Palpy with her light-saber, Kylo to suddenly leap in from behind with Leia’s lightsaber and cross it with Rey’s so they could stand shoulder-to-shoulder and defeat Palps together. And then Kylo wouldn’t die. And then the kiss would have made more sense, and the ending wouldn’t have felt exactly like the end of Return of the Jedi...)
Anyway, the point is that the kiss didn’t feel earned in the ending we got. I cringed in theaters when I saw that. So... that’s not great.
Also not great was Rey’s whole “I’m a Skywalker now” thing, which like, I get that there needed to be a Skywalker rising in The Rise of Skywalker, but throughout the whole movie that felt like it was going to be Ben. In fact, even after his death I was still completely satisfied with him becoming Ben again being the “rise” that the title was referring to. Rey’s entire scene on Tatooine felt a little dumb, and the name thing... again, didn’t feel earned, it felt contrived.
But of course its so easy to throw stones, so what would I have done differently? The whole thing could have been concluded much more satisfactorily with really minor changes. Like, maybe don’t bury Leia’s saber on Tatooine? And maybe don’t bury Luke’s there either considering he spent the vast majority of his life... not there? But even if nothing else about that scene changed, Rey’s final line should have been “It’s just Rey.”
Like yeah, the old lady just showing up in the middle of the desert next to an abandoned homestead is super bizarre, but assuming that Rey did go there to bury the lightsabers and the weird creepy lady shows up anyway and asks what her name is, just repeat the exchange from the bizarre festival planet!
“It’s Rey.”
“Rey what?”
Smile, confident tone, “Just Rey.”
And what a satisfying conclusion to her character arc! We find out early in the film that she’s self-conscious about her past in a mirrored interaction, and then when she does find out about her past she’s ashamed by it. And then by simply repeating the exchange but giving her confidence in her answer now we learn that she’s learned that her past shouldn’t define her, and she’s gained confidence in her own self regardless of where she came from!
Simple, but still satisfying. What we got instead made little actual sense and seemed to suggest that Rey learned nothing, and is now trying to adopt someone else’s past simply because she didn’t like her own.
I also felt like I was watching the movie from the back of a bullet train. Everything whizzed past so quickly, with so many tiny side-characters barely getting any screen time and so many callbacks and references to little things from other movies that I never cared about. It was rushed and frequently difficult to follow, which I guess is fine considering we didn’t actually NEED to follow any of that stuff, but... I mean, c’mon. Half of that stuff could have been cut. The whole quest line that ran through like three locations really should have been limited to a single location and ideally should have involved the adventurers suffering at least one setback that actually felt significant from the audience’s point of view.
Oh, wait, the destroyer in orbit around that one planet. They ran through four locations on that quest. Which doesn’t count the planet they started from, so five locations. Plus the Falcon transitioning from location to location, which is six, and that other random transport ship, because reasons. So seven primary locations in this film. You ever wonder why the newer Star Wars movies all feel super rushed? This is why. Because all three of the original trilogy had, tops, four locations.
(And yes, I have counted. Tatooine, Falcon, Death Star, Yavin. Hoth, Falcon, Degoba, Cloud City. Tatooine, rebel fleet, Endor, Death Star. Four primary locations. Every. Single. Time)
And I can go on like this for quite some time, but I won’t. These are the primary issues with the film, but honestly they’re similar if not exactly the same as issues endemic with all the Star Wars movies. It’s a franchise that has two actually good movies in it, one extremely terrible movie in it, and a wash of utterly mediocre movies that are kinda just stupid fun to watch and make you feel good like a fairytale might.
The Rise of Skywalker fits comfortably into that last group. And heck, they brought back Wedge! Making him the only flesh-and-blood rebel to officially survive from Episode 4 to Episode 9. It's hard not to just love that.
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