The Rise of Skywalker
I’ll assume that anyone reading this who has the interest has already seen The Rise of Skywalker (TROS) and I won’t be giving away any spoilers. If you’re still saving yourself for that particular Star Wars experience, you have more self control than I do and feel free to skip this part.
I went into TROS with low expectations after my love-hate reaction to The Last Jedi, which made me think that there wasn’t any overall plan or story arc to these movies, more like each movie was expected to build off the story told previously. Combine this with director changes, Carrie Fisher’s death, Solo’s flop, and the usual studio exec meddling in moviemaking process and I was prepared for a pretty movie with nothing substantial, kinda like Aquaman. I put my childhood nostalgia aside and grabbed a box of popcorn.
It wasn’t terrible. I liked Rey and Kylo’s story ending and didn’t mind their kiss at the end even if it was cliche because not paying off that relationship would have been unsatisfying for many, especially with Kylo’s death. (And he did have to die, because redeeming a character guilty of genocide would take another movie or two). If the romantic angle hadn’t been played, I think the question would have been why Kylo would have sacrificed himself for Rey, which would have required him turning from the dark side much earlier in the movie to set up a relationship between them that could lead to a selfless act. We understand love as an intrinsic motivation for sacrifice, others require more work and there’s only so much screen time in a movie.
Speaking of, I believe that this wanted to be a much longer movie and there might be something to a JJ Abrams story that didn’t survive the editing process. The first half hour of the movie involves a lot of characters speaking exposition to each other rather than talking as real people so that the audience can be spoon-fed figure out what’s going on. I didn’t like it but I also know that the movie has to make sense to everyone, not just story nerds like me. It also reminds me that sometimes you just have to rip off the band-aid and get on with your story.
Once things got rolling, I had fun with the story. Plenty of action, force-power awesomeness, and spaceships going boom. Plot holes? Oh yes, big ones, enough to keep the internet spinning for years trying to explain story choices that were probably made in moments. I think Finn, Poe, General Hux, and especially Rose didn’t get enough story time given their respective importance in the previous films, but this was always going to be the Rey and Kylo show. I suspect that their tale will be told in upcoming books, comics, cartoons, and video games as Disney grows their trans-media empire. Who knows, I might even be interested enough to pick up one of those products someday.
What did you think of The Rise of Skywalker?
