This review might be a bit overdue but you know what they say, 'better late than never'. Star Wars has now entered a new territory with the sequel trilogy and the 'Skywalker Saga' closed and with a new trilogy rumored to be based on the 'high republic' in the works, Stars Wars fans are interested to see what will happen next.
Last year had a lot to offer for Star Wars fans with the successful video came Jedi: Fallen Order and the release of the first season of The Mandalorian. The Rise of Skywalker had a lot to compete with especially with the divide of the fan base after The Last Jedi and the previous film Solo becoming the first Star Wars film to bomb at the box office. But did The Rise of Skywalker save what was considered to many a dying franchise, well here's what I thought as in this review I talk about the last entry in the Skywalker Saga.
The plot goes like this, Emperor Palpatine has mysteriously returned and Kylo Ren is in search for him, he finds the Emperor and he sends Kylo on a mission to find Rey and bring her to him. Meanwhile Rey is training at the resistance base with the help of Leia, until she is sent on a mission with the gang to fetch supplies that will help the resistance defeat the first order. Know this doesn't really sound like the plot of a grand finale especially to Star Wars. It doesn't fill like a finale to anything as it fills like we start half way through another smaller story so it takes a while to be invested what is happening in the movie.
The movies cast is the same as most with Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaacs as Rey, Finn and Poe. Some new faces such as General Pryde played by Richard E. Grant, Naomi Ackie as Jannah and Keri Russel as Zorii Bliss. Now its time to talk about what I liked about the movie and that isn't that much, some of the shots were good especially when they first showed the emperor as the lighting made it looked like something from a horror film and the fact he looked like a zombie made it all better, C-3PO has a much bigger arc in this movie in fact it might be the biggest we have seen for the character and Anthony Daniels does an amazing job portraying him as he has done for more than 40 years. The effects were great and was accompanied by a great score composed by John Williams.
Now on to the things I didn't like about the movie, the script for one thing was awful. Now I already said how the plot didn't feel like a finale to this sort of franchise (or any) but the dialogue was just awful. The movie was directed by and co- written by J.J Abrams who also directed and co- wrote the Force Awakens. I feel Abrams was a little forced to direct this movie since original director Colin Trevorrow was fired by Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy for creative differences. And it really shows in the film as no one on that side wanted to make the film, but it needed to be made to finish the story they started back in 2015.
Overall, The Rise of Skywalker is a mess of a film, it has a messy plot that felt like it was written at the lat minute, directed by a director who clearly didn't want make another Star Wars but was forced to do it as Disney couldn't find a replacement and overall feels like a bit of a let down, especially with all the good Star Wars media that was out this year.
I would give Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker a 5/10- for a messy plot, made by a team of actors and writers who were clearly done with the franchise and marginally has a satisfying conclusion to a 42 year old story.
