It goes without saying this review will be spoiler-free, but in order to do a proper review, I will indeed be talking about basic plot details. If you don’t want to know anything about this film in advance, I would recommend you see the film first and then come back to this review.
After the fantastic ride that was “The Force Awakens” and the unpredictable, masterful “The Last Jedi”, this latest trilogy in the Skywalker saga has come to a close. With all the goodwill leading up to the release of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” it brings me no pleasure to report that this is a disappointingly uneven journey that lacks the saga’s expected spark.
The basic plot is quite thin, but boils down to essentially this; Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega), Chewie (Joonas Suotamo), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and BB-8 are on a journey to retrieve an artifact that may hold the secret to destroying The First Order, run by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and may also involve the evil — and thought to be dead — Emperor Palpatine.
Returning to the Director’s chair is JJ Abrams. Abrams, known for his visual flair and old-school stylings, delivers a well-paced journey that doesn’t feel like 141 minutes, but ultimately suffers from a lack of cohesive vision. The script, co-written by Abrams and Chris Terrio, is void of any imagination. The plot is an endless series of hunting down a MacGuffin, finding it, then moving on to the next MacGuffin, finding it and repeat. This is lazy storytelling with no intrigue.
What’s all the more disappointing about “The Rise of Skywalker” is just how soulless it is. Whether you liked or disliked “The Force Awakens” or “The Last Jedi”, you can’t argue those films aren’t made with passion and creativity. Here, it seems Abrams is bored and consistently directs on autopilot with an occasion exception. Save for an intense duel on the waterfront, none of the action scenes are very memorable or thrilling. Abrams is clearly going for big, epic scale, but only manages to pull of the big.
The characters this time around are shockingly thin. So many characters are given little to nothing to do. New characters played by Keri Russell, Richard E. Grant and Naomi Ackie are left stranded with thin development and serve merely as figures to progress the plot forward. Even returning characters are relatively lost. Finn no longer has a purpose or identity after “The Force Awakens”, Poe is consistently one-note and even Billy Dee Williams, reprising his role as Lando Calrissian, has absolutely no purpose here and only shows up to further pluck at the nostalgic heartstrings of the fans. The only characters with some sort of an arc are Rey and Kylo. Ridley and Driver continue to be the stand-outs, but the acting is unsurprisingly great across the board. Although, I won’t share any details about the late, Carrie Fisher’s role in this, I will say her story line is given a respectable end.
Clearly affected by the divisive audience reaction to “The Last Jedi”, Abrams and co-writer Terrio, do their best to appease fans, but in the end it only makes “Rise of Skywalker” feel incredibly safe and generic. Every potential bold choice is almost immediately sidestepped, opting to take the safe route. The new character revelations and third act plot developments are simply brainless. The climactic showdown features many attempts at some sort of thematic potency, but there’s not much weight to be felt because everything just feels rushed. There’s a concerning lack of urgency needed for such a grand finale. The stakes are never felt and there is very little sense of finality here. Running at 141 minutes, “Rise of Skywalker” may have benefited from another 15 or 20 minutes.
The only time “Rise of Skywalker” succeeds in reaching for your heart — apart from the final scene — is in the moments spent with characters from the original trilogy, however, those moments are few and far between.
On its own merit, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” is an underdeveloped, safe and pedestrian Sci-Fi adventure. When thinking of it in terms as the finale to one of the largest, most epic onscreen sagas ever told, it’s a crushing disappointment.
After the second movie in the new trilogy there was no way this could ever end in any meaning full way. The second movie was so disjointed from the first one it essentially made closing the story impossible. The only proper ending would be a letter from Disney apologizing and saying there’s no reason to continue this story arc we will regroup and try again in a few years with different writers, producers, and directors.
Give JJ Abrams a break. He had to deal with the mess Rian Johnson left him and it’s harder to do damage control after that mess.
End this franchise by now
Best Star Wars since Return of the Jedi, forget the reviewers!
I very much enjoyed the film. I try my damndest to approach these films objectively, as I myself am I huge fan of the franchise. As with any film, there are “flaws”. But when wrapping up a saga of 9 total films, it’s hard to appease everyone. I applaud all of the people involved in the making of this trilogy.
I knew everything that was going to happen nothing was surprising or original, and yes that was the best scene especially the visuals, but George spoke on how he would of made it and it sounds way better than what Disney gave us
Holy Poodoo, what an emotional ride. It was such a great way to end the saga. We laughed, mostly cried and loved every bit of it. I was blown away by the revelations that I did not see coming. Please spare any spoilers online so that everyone gets a chance to be surprised.
I loved it . Way better than the last Jedi . Shame Rian Johnson ruined that one.
So saw it last night. Kinda along the same lines as Last Jedi. Huge let down.
It was better than The last Jedi. But at the same time it could of been better. They played it safe and did basically a remake of A new hope with the force awakens. The Last Jedi it was fresh and they blew it by sending message and realism to the story. I’m sorry the Star Wars universe there is sound in space. Anyways, that film to me hurt Rise at bit. Mainly to fix the mess Jedi made. Rise was good, but nowhere near episode I-III or VII
I really really wanted to love this, the Skywalker story will always be one of my favorites. But this 3 movie saga has been horrible from beginning to end and I’m honestly just glad it’s over. Disappointed doesn’t even touch it
I just watched it! Loved it! It’s a must see for Star Wars fans!
Critics are idiots …..the Last Jedi sucked and Rise if Skywalker was great. You guys got it so wrong. Aren’t you guys supposed to help us understand if we might like it before we go see it? Isn’t that the point of reviews to help us not waste our time and money. One of your criticisms is too much “fan service”. You’re literally criticizing them for making a movie that fans of the movie would like. Effing stupid
Had Carrie Fisher not died … I firmly believe the end product film would have been far superior…. an ending with a remorseful Ben embracing his mother for example that would have been an amazing scene
interesting thought, but the film had that without your alternate ending. I felt the completion of the Ben character was perfect.
I have seen all 9 films in the theater. I thought it was awesome. too much has been put on these films by Star Wars snobs that think the story shold have gone their way. all of these bad opinions have put pressure on the expectation of these films. The Last Jedi was awesome. Yes even episode 1 was awesome. I’m not sure what JJ could have done to make this film even better than it is. new characters were great, plot twists were great. what was unraveled in the film I already gathered from my own analysis of previous films. any real Star Wars fan should not be surprised from the key events. you can clearly see it in the force awakens. this is a must see and a great end to the best story ever told, out side of the actual greatest story ever told.
As someone who doesn’t take Star Wars seriously, I found Rise of Skywalker to be predictable and perfect. The movie they should’ve made before those 2 pieces of trash.
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