If you’ve followed along since last semester, I wrote a very detailed piece about my opinions about the upcoming final movie in the sequel trilogy of Star Wars. Before reading this one, I encourage you to go back and catch up on my pre-viewing predictions and views, specifically regarding The Last Jedi and my hopes for the newest movie.
To recap, I believed that since Abrams directed both Episodes 7 and 9, he would be able to round off the sequel trilogy by using the ideas he planted in The Force Awakens and fully flesh them out in The Rise of Skywalker while backtracking over some plot inconsistencies that Johnson had in The Last Jedi. With me so far? Good, because this is just the beginning.
The Rise of Skywalker upon initial viewing was a great way to end the trilogy. Of course, the cinematography was beautiful since it’s Disney after all, and the actors did great with what they were given. The crew did what they could to give the late Carrie Fisher’s character a decent farewell while trying to round out all of Johnson’s crazy fan fiction-like ideas from Episode 8. Like I said, this was my first untainted thoughts while exiting the theater.
After having a lengthy dinner conversation with my friend after the showing and watching a few reviews on YouTube later that weekend, my views have shifted. I still think that the movie was shot well, however, there were some major plot issues despite Abrams’s severe retconning to recover from Johnson’s mistakes in Episode 8.
The biggest issue this movie poses is the idea that Emperor Palpatine is alive. The last time we saw the Sith was at the end of Return of the Jedi when he was thrown into a reactor and then the Death Star blew up, leaving the audience to easily assume he was dead. But now he was resurrected and the only explanation for it was referencing a singular line from Episode 3, about how the dark side of the force had access to force abilities that could be considered unnatural. As much as I love Rey being a Palpatine, and how that easily explained why she was so powerful with the force, I hated how he was alive in this movie. It left a lot of unanswered questions, especially revolving around the plot he was involved in for the film and where was he during the last 30 years of the timeline.
The one positive thing about this movie was that Abrams was successfully able to retcon a few ideas during this film that Johnson introduced in Episode 8. For example, the ‘Holdo Maneuver’ that was shown in The Last Jedi was written off as a one in a million chance of succeeding, thus not ruining the entire continuity of all space battles we’ve witnessed up to this point in the series. There were other moments like this as well, some smaller than others, but Abrams did what he could to repair the damage done in Episode 8. Part of me likes to believe that The Rise of Skywalker was successful in that avenue at least, even though the plot is rather screwy.
I think the last movie in the trilogy wouldn’t have had a sour taste in most people’s mouths if Abrams was allowed to direct all three films. Like I’ve mentioned in my prior article on this topic, Abrams is known to plant mystery boxes, and Johnson directing the middle movie ruined whatever Abrams was going to flesh out. The Rise of Skywalker’s plot felt rather rushed and convoluted, having some plot inconsistencies and coincidences along with generally not making sense. The last and final battle at the very end of the movie was definitely very beautiful to watch, but not written well. As an example, the star destroyers didn’t know which way was up due to the environment they were located in. Wouldn’t that mean that the Rebellion ships wouldn’t know that information either once in the planet’s atmosphere? It could’ve been written a lot better and part of me feels that it was scripted this way to allow for a grand finale. It was definitely grand, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Overall, the movie wasn’t as bad as I think some people were expecting. It’s definitely better than The Last Jedi in my eyes, however, all three movies have plot issues and could’ve been scripted a whole lot better. At least we get a few years off from Star Wars before the next batch of movies releases – maybe they’ll get their script writing act together by then.