Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Film Review!
Hi all!
I've never done a movie review before, but I wanted to share my thoughts on STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, the final film in the Skywalker Saga. I saw it on opening day.
I LOVE Star Wars, as I'm sure many of you know, so I have a lot of passionate feelings toward the characters. I had high expectations going in for each of the films because I wanted them to do well. No doubt other people feel as strongly as I do, and this movie WILL garner a lot of conversation.
FAIR WARNING: There WILL be spoilers. So you haven't seen the film yet and want to be surprised, stop reading. But if you're already seen the movie or don't care about spoilers, then please continue!
I'll just start off by saying I didn't care for The Last Jedi. It wasn't Rose or Holdo's characters or Luke's death that bothered me, but the pacing issues and the unnecessary side plot on Canto Bight of Rose and Finn's mission to find the Codebreaker. That entire film felt disjointed and too different from The Force Awakens.
Both The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker -- which J.J. Abrams wrote and directed -- feel too similar to the original series. Yes, it's a good thing to provide fan service, but it's another to just rip off the originals frame by frame. It felt very derivative and predictable.
Therefore, I thought The Rise of Skywalker was just okay. Was it a WOW movie? No, absolutely not. Visually stunning? Yes. (Nothing will ever be as good as the originals in terms of storytelling.) But J.J. Abrams tried to pull it all together after The Last Jedi. Which brings me to my main point...
1. I don't think they thought out this entire trilogy. If you watch all three films in a row, they're almost like puzzle pieces that don't fit. If I'm sitting down to write a trilogy, I need to know where the story is going, how the characters will progress, and what the overall tone of the series is.
There was none of that in The Rise of Skywalker. Finn and Poe have ZERO character development. Finn was one of my favorite characters after he defected. It would've been so interesting to see his progression, but they reduced him to a side character. If you removed him from the movies, I don't think much would change. Apparently, what he was trying to tell Rey throughout the last film was that he was Force-sensitive. Why was that left out? It would've been SO cool to see him at the end learning the Force and getting a lightsaber.
2. Secondly, Rey's family. They made her out to be Palpatine's granddaughter who he wanted to have kill him so she could become the new Empress and gain the power of the Sith combined. Again, I feel like this was thrown together last minute. There were no clues throughout TFA and TLJ -- no foreshadowing of her family. Kylo Ren tells her that her parents were filthy junk traders in the second film which doesn't add up.
-Also similar to Finn and Poe's lack of character development was Rey. She started out alone on Jakku. How did the trilogy end? With her alone on Tatooine. (She had BB-8, but where was everybody else? It felt like she learned nothing through this whole journey and had no real friends at all.)
-And killing off Captain Phasma in TLJ was irresponsible, too. She had such potential. And Hux getting blasted into nothing in TROS was a wasted opportunity for him, too. These poor characters. Which brings me to another character I feel pity for...
3. Ben and his death scene. I had a feeling Kylo Ren would get redeemed, but I think it was a great disservice to kill him off. With Luke, Han, and now General Leia dead, all the Skywalker's are gone. Yes, technically Rey declares herself to be a Skywalker at the end of the movie, but it's not the same. Chewie was devastated when he heard Leia had died. It would've been a lot better if Ben returned and him and Chewie could've worked to repair their relationship. Maybe one day, Chewie could've learned to forgive Kylo/Ben for killing Han. A sad Wookie makes me sad :(
4. The Issue of Snoke. I actually liked Snoke's character and was interested in seeing more of him. It was disappointing when Kylo Ren killed him during The Last Jedi. Then Emperor Palpatine revealed Snoke was just a clone of his, which was also disappointing. Not that I don't like the Emperor, but why can't we have new villains? I think including Palpatine was a desperate attempt to garner respect and admiration from the fans and try to tie up loose ends. It ended up feeling very disorienting.
5. J.J changed EVERYTHING Rian Johnson set up during The Last Jedi. Rose's character was diminished (and no more romance with her and Finn), DJ (played by Benicio del Toro) completely disappeared, Canto Bight was never mentioned again, and Luke admits staying on the island was a mistake. Everything was retconned and changed. As I said before, I didn't care for TLJ, but the lack of consistency is really off-putting. Don't make a film going in one direction and then pull a complete 180 for the next. It wasn't creative or imaginative, it was just confusing.
I don't hate The Rise of Skywalker -- I just think more could've been done in the way of Rey's parents, her relationship with Ben, and Finn and Poe's character development. Had they taken their time with the trilogy and planned it out from start to finish in the beginning -- and hadn't changed directors and screenwriters multiple times -- it would've been a lot more satisfying.
Anyhow, I'm excited to see where they take future Star Wars films. Personally, I think they should've left the original characters alone after Return of the Jedi. I'm ready for new stories with different characters and unknown planets. Perhaps they could do something set during the time period of The Old Republic.
Star Wars has such a vast extended universe. Anything is possible. And there's less fan outcry if you screw up new characters than old, beloved ones. I think also a droid-centric film -- either an uprising or a droid heist movie -- would be cool and different. The droids could take center stage instead of being background characters.
Anyhow, thanks for reading my film review! This is my last post of 2019. See you in the next decade!
Sincerely,
Dana
I've never done a movie review before, but I wanted to share my thoughts on STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, the final film in the Skywalker Saga. I saw it on opening day.
I LOVE Star Wars, as I'm sure many of you know, so I have a lot of passionate feelings toward the characters. I had high expectations going in for each of the films because I wanted them to do well. No doubt other people feel as strongly as I do, and this movie WILL garner a lot of conversation.
FAIR WARNING: There WILL be spoilers. So you haven't seen the film yet and want to be surprised, stop reading. But if you're already seen the movie or don't care about spoilers, then please continue!
I'll just start off by saying I didn't care for The Last Jedi. It wasn't Rose or Holdo's characters or Luke's death that bothered me, but the pacing issues and the unnecessary side plot on Canto Bight of Rose and Finn's mission to find the Codebreaker. That entire film felt disjointed and too different from The Force Awakens.
Both The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker -- which J.J. Abrams wrote and directed -- feel too similar to the original series. Yes, it's a good thing to provide fan service, but it's another to just rip off the originals frame by frame. It felt very derivative and predictable.
Therefore, I thought The Rise of Skywalker was just okay. Was it a WOW movie? No, absolutely not. Visually stunning? Yes. (Nothing will ever be as good as the originals in terms of storytelling.) But J.J. Abrams tried to pull it all together after The Last Jedi. Which brings me to my main point...
1. I don't think they thought out this entire trilogy. If you watch all three films in a row, they're almost like puzzle pieces that don't fit. If I'm sitting down to write a trilogy, I need to know where the story is going, how the characters will progress, and what the overall tone of the series is.
There was none of that in The Rise of Skywalker. Finn and Poe have ZERO character development. Finn was one of my favorite characters after he defected. It would've been so interesting to see his progression, but they reduced him to a side character. If you removed him from the movies, I don't think much would change. Apparently, what he was trying to tell Rey throughout the last film was that he was Force-sensitive. Why was that left out? It would've been SO cool to see him at the end learning the Force and getting a lightsaber.
2. Secondly, Rey's family. They made her out to be Palpatine's granddaughter who he wanted to have kill him so she could become the new Empress and gain the power of the Sith combined. Again, I feel like this was thrown together last minute. There were no clues throughout TFA and TLJ -- no foreshadowing of her family. Kylo Ren tells her that her parents were filthy junk traders in the second film which doesn't add up.
-Also similar to Finn and Poe's lack of character development was Rey. She started out alone on Jakku. How did the trilogy end? With her alone on Tatooine. (She had BB-8, but where was everybody else? It felt like she learned nothing through this whole journey and had no real friends at all.)
-And killing off Captain Phasma in TLJ was irresponsible, too. She had such potential. And Hux getting blasted into nothing in TROS was a wasted opportunity for him, too. These poor characters. Which brings me to another character I feel pity for...
3. Ben and his death scene. I had a feeling Kylo Ren would get redeemed, but I think it was a great disservice to kill him off. With Luke, Han, and now General Leia dead, all the Skywalker's are gone. Yes, technically Rey declares herself to be a Skywalker at the end of the movie, but it's not the same. Chewie was devastated when he heard Leia had died. It would've been a lot better if Ben returned and him and Chewie could've worked to repair their relationship. Maybe one day, Chewie could've learned to forgive Kylo/Ben for killing Han. A sad Wookie makes me sad :(
4. The Issue of Snoke. I actually liked Snoke's character and was interested in seeing more of him. It was disappointing when Kylo Ren killed him during The Last Jedi. Then Emperor Palpatine revealed Snoke was just a clone of his, which was also disappointing. Not that I don't like the Emperor, but why can't we have new villains? I think including Palpatine was a desperate attempt to garner respect and admiration from the fans and try to tie up loose ends. It ended up feeling very disorienting.
5. J.J changed EVERYTHING Rian Johnson set up during The Last Jedi. Rose's character was diminished (and no more romance with her and Finn), DJ (played by Benicio del Toro) completely disappeared, Canto Bight was never mentioned again, and Luke admits staying on the island was a mistake. Everything was retconned and changed. As I said before, I didn't care for TLJ, but the lack of consistency is really off-putting. Don't make a film going in one direction and then pull a complete 180 for the next. It wasn't creative or imaginative, it was just confusing.
I don't hate The Rise of Skywalker -- I just think more could've been done in the way of Rey's parents, her relationship with Ben, and Finn and Poe's character development. Had they taken their time with the trilogy and planned it out from start to finish in the beginning -- and hadn't changed directors and screenwriters multiple times -- it would've been a lot more satisfying.
Anyhow, I'm excited to see where they take future Star Wars films. Personally, I think they should've left the original characters alone after Return of the Jedi. I'm ready for new stories with different characters and unknown planets. Perhaps they could do something set during the time period of The Old Republic.
Star Wars has such a vast extended universe. Anything is possible. And there's less fan outcry if you screw up new characters than old, beloved ones. I think also a droid-centric film -- either an uprising or a droid heist movie -- would be cool and different. The droids could take center stage instead of being background characters.
Anyhow, thanks for reading my film review! This is my last post of 2019. See you in the next decade!
Sincerely,
Dana
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