Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars has been a franchise with its own consistency issues even before Disney has purchased the property from George Lucas. The original trilogy has been tinkered with after its release for odd special edition changes while the prequels had no one behind the scenes questioning Lucas on the writing/directing weirdness. As for this current main arc with Disney, it has been made more apparent as time went on that they put themselves creatively in a corner by not having a proper outline of a plan for their trilogy. It was mentioned JJ Abrams (director of Force Awakens) had drafts of a plan but filmmaker Rian Johnson (The Last Jedi director) threw them away (with approval of LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy), which ended up causing a hard to ignore ripple effect. This brings us to the final entry to not only this sequel arc but also the Skywalker saga, The Rise of Skywalker. With the mainstream popularity of the Disney+ Star Wars show The Mandalorian overshadowing the excitement over this movie, the marketing campaign didn't seem to show much intrigue. I entered the auditorium excited to be done with the trilogy and left it happy that it's finally over, even though the quality left much to be desired.

Behind the scenes: The original director for Episode 9 was actually Colin Trevorrow, who was also one of the original screen writers along with Derek Connolly. However, in 2017 they left the film over creative differences with one of the producers Kathleen Kennedy (though both of them would receive story credits in the final product). It was also originally intended for Carrie Fishers' Leia Organa to have a big role for this feature (much like Harrison Ford in Episode 7 and Mark Hamill in Episode 8) but her unfortunate passing in 2017 ended up preventing that from happening (or at least how they must have envisioned it). They ended up using unused archived footage of her in an effort for her role to be maintained in this finale.

What's it about? The story follows our gang of surviving protagonists who strive to overcome the unexpected return of a longtime veteran villain. There are some aspects that are worth praise in this entry to note before diving into the main meat of things. It's actually refreshing to see a movie in this current arc to feature the trio of new heroes together in an adventure instead of separated yet again in almost the entire runtime. Some moments of the humor feels like a small improvement that wants to lean into a classic adventure with levity for the heavier parts to come. There are also a few decent lightsaber fights that deliver in terms of spectacle (though choreography needed refinement).

However, it can't hide the pile of writing issues that not affect the pacing but also the investment in the conflict at hand. The introduction of a returning antagonist reveals new information that kinda takes away from the intimidation factor and his motivations are weirdly changing (insert I have altered the deal joke here). The main goal of the script here is course correction to try and satisfy many points that were set-up in The Force Awakens while making little connections to The Last Jedi. As a result, the amount of exposition dialogue presented here gives Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald a run for its money (not in a good way) and feels unnatural being delivered from the characters. The climax of the finale is a culmination of how rushed and messy everything really is with battles/confrontations being all over the place trying to compensate with spectacle of special effects alongside last minute plot actions. As a conclusion to a trilogy and the Skywalker saga, it's not only underwhelming to the legacy as a whole but proves how disjointed and unplanned the studio was in their treatment of the former. At the end of the day trying to satisfy audiences with fan service lacking investment and attempting to answer everything laid out in this manner ends up sacrificing the cohesiveness of the movie itself.*

*: I won't bother listing spoiler details of what events and parts that ended up being nothing in the grand scheme of things/mishandled since I don't want to drag this review out and it's best left for outside discussions in other groups

How are the actors? In regards to the main cast, the actors to focus on in regards to talent and importance are Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley. Adam has proven yet again to be the best actor in this story with a strong performance and the only individual whose arc is actually complete and competent (which is saying something). Daisy is solid with her acting that shines better than some of the other actors but is held back by not being that much of an interesting protagonist (her role depends on the chemistry with Adam). An honorable mention goes to the voice acting of Shirley Henderson for helping with the existence of Babu Frik. Dishonorable mentions go the mishandling of Oscar Isaac, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, and Domhnall Gleeson with their respective roles being diminished and the writing for them showing wasted potential (not the actors faults).

Overall Consensus: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a messy conclusion with incoherent storytelling, weak emotional weight, and spectacle over substance, even though there are a few nice scenes. ⭑⭑💻 Runtime: 2 hours 32 minutes PG-13

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director JJ Abrams. You enjoy the current Disney line of movies in this franchise. You want to see Episode 8 retconned from the plot. You don't mind ineffective fan service and uninteresting main heroes. You are curious about Carrie Fisher's unused footage is utilized. You may have heard about rumored plot leaks in the time before the worldwide release and want to see how much of it is true. You want to see how this saga ends.

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director JJ Abrams. You dislike the current Disney line of movies in this franchise. You don't want to see Episode 8 retconned from the plot. You hate ineffective fan service and uninteresting main heroes. You don't want to see how Carrie Fisher's unused footage is utilized. You may have heard about rumored plot leaks in the time before the worldwide release and don't want to see how much of it is true. You want to avoid eye rolling cringeworthy moments.