Moving at Lightspeed.
While The Last Jedi wasn’t an absolute failure, it seemed to have caused a great deal of course-correcting when Rise of Skywalker, the finale of the trilogy and Skywalker Saga, had started pre-production. Even leading up to the release of the film, it was made very clear by even J.J. Abrams himself that Rian Johnson, the Director and writer of Last Jedi, made a few calls in his film that threatened the overall plot going into this ninth and final film. This is made even more clear as The Rise of Skywalker undoes much of what occurred in The Last Jedi and while it doesn’t always stick the landing, the film is nonetheless enjoyable. This review will deal with some light spoilers to detail some aspects of the film that either worked for me or didn’t. So be cautious.
Rise of Skywalker literally starts with an opening crawl detailing the return of Palpatine, discovered through a series of broadcasts across the galaxy. His appearance is such a looming presence that I am sure this was meant to be part of the second film, at least in the notion that he was back at least. I feel that way because it just seems to be weird having something that massive take place between then two films. What’s further strange about this is that during the Star Wars/Fortnite crossover, this very broadcast that is detailed during the crawl was released during this event. This causes The Rise of Skywalker to start with an incredibly fast-paced opening chapter that flies at you faster than lightspeed. Seriously, the pacing here is nonstop for almost forty minutes and while everything here is worth watching and taking in, there are times this movie needed to take a breather and just relax.
Much of this pacing has to do with the First Order planning one final strike, with Kylo Ren discovering a vast collective of ships that are mounted with pure destruction at the ready; a fleet that has been constructed in secret. This forces the Rebels to act quickly and to lead one final assault to end the long-gestating war. The climactic battle that is to end this war is enjoyable and is tied in an interesting way to the plight that Rey and Kylo Ren find themselves in. While this is the overall summary of certain events, there is so much plot here that moves very quickly and I feel it’s in large part to Last Jedi leaving Rise of Skywalker to do much of the heavy lifting.
The Rey and Kylo moments are woven into the plot in much the same way as it was in The Last Jedi, with a deep connection creating a galaxy reaching bond that sees some interesting force powers at play, one, in particular, that is a very cool visual trick during the final battle. There are countless new force powers shown off here and for those that are bothered with that, remember that new force powers were introduced all the time throughout the franchise’s deep and varied history, including one, in particular, that was featured in the Mandalorian tv series and the Extended Universe of novels. Hell, most of the story on display here is pulled from those beloved novels, especially that of the Dark Forces comic series.
The revelation about Rey’s true parentage is here, answered in a somewhat predictable way, especially considering her fighting style shown throughout much of the films, but that still didn’t ruin it or make it feel any the lesser for it. I liked the conclusion to the events that took place, but man, that final series of lines she delivered was just far too cheesy and painful to see delivered. I found that while Kylo was a huge focus of the first two films, that he in some ways took a back seat to what Rey was going through here, even if he did finally get that story arc he was trying to push into during The Force Awakens. I wasn’t sold on Adam Driver throughout the first two films, and this finale did nothing to change my mind. I think he is more than serviceable but lacked that “it needed to be him” moment for me. That said, John Boyega still annoyed me as Finn and is still the most “meh” aspect of these films.
The movie’s biggest failings, at least to me, is through too many “AHA!” moments or times when things are about to go south and then are immediately corrected to drop any real tension to the scene. There are also countless macguffin’s that are present almost all over the film, with one that is somewhat eye-rolling when it’s lined up to its destination. These collective moments don’t flat out ruin the film, they just highlight the problems that may have been caused by The Last Jedi not setting up certain things or that much of the plot relies too much on convenience.
While I fully understand why many flat-out hate it, I found this long-awaited finale very enjoyable despite the glaring problems I personally had with it. The new characters featured in the film were good, and the action was really impressive. Honestly, alongside Rogue One, this is one of the best looking Star Wars films to date. There are tons of lightsaber fights, fast-paced space battles, and just enjoyable moments littered throughout. I don’t think the film is perfect and it is filled with a few plot threads that are still left unanswered, but it was certainly better than the Last Jedi in nearly every single way. Again, feel free to downright hate the film, just don’t slam those that did enjoy it.
