It’s Finally Time to Review Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

SPOILERS AHEAD

First, let’s get this out of the way: The Last Jedi was the worst movie I’ve seen. Period. There are so many things wrong with that movie, I don’t even have time to write a blog about it. Luckily the Hangover.Network wasn’t around back when that garbage came out a few years ago. Now we’ve been blessed with a semi-decent Star Wars film, I feel like it’s been long enough since it’s December release date to finally break it down. I’ll start with the bad and end on a high note for the movie.
!!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!

THE BAD

The reason I even brought up episode 8 at the beginning of this blog was to remind everyone that The Rise of Skywalker was almost doomed from the start. The Last Jedi was such a shitshow that there were only so many directions for JJ Abrams and his team to take this film. They chose poorly on several things. As a Star Wars fan, I could go into detail about many more issues I have with this movie, but I’ll stick with my big 3:

The Knights of Ren

These guys were useless. There was so much hype around this crew. They showed up and did absolutely nothing. Kylo Ren says at one point early in the movie, “my Knights and I are going hunting.” Cool. Very cool, except they didn’t hunt. They scouted. The Knights of Ren showed up just in time to surprise Rey and her squad. They even got the drop on Chewie. So they… arrest him….? Weren’t they “hunting” them? They snuck up on the heroes and the slap cuffs on ONE guy. They went on to get their asses handed to them by Ben Solo in a pretty badass fight scene. But the Knights of Ren were a serious let down in this entire saga, especially episode 9. I would’ve liked to see more of them, but only if they were going to do something interesting (like we all wanted).

The Sith Fleet of Star Destroyers

I loved the idea that Palpatine perfected his planet-destroying technology to the point where it was attached to every ship in his fleet. That’s some serious firepower. But to have this massive fleet completely unavailable unless one communications/navigation tower active is ludicrous. When the Resistance took out the tower, why didn’t the Star Destroyers just fly up? You’re going into space, right? Just go up. Trust me, you’ll get to space. It’s literally everywhere up there.

Palpatine’s Plan

This guy sucks at keeping his mouth shut. If his plan is to have Rey strike him down and become the almighty Sith ruler of the galaxy (just like he wanted Luke to do in epi 6), why does he keep telling them his plan? Just keep it to yourself and let them kill you in a fight. Stop revealing your plan in time for them to come to their senses and do the right thing.

THE GOOD

Babu Frik

Babu Frik was the perfect addition to a movie that needed a lot of comedic relief. C-3PO had plenty of laughable moments, especially when it came to his relationship with Poe Dameron. Other than these two, the characters all had super serious roles, and even dark at times. Babu Frik was inserted to bring some “light-hearted” laughter. He nailed it and the little alien was an absolute delight to watch, with his little tools and squeaky voice.

The Dyad in the Force/Rey and Kylo Ren

The connection between Rey and Kylo Ren was easily the best thing about this entire trilogy. Their ability to physically connect and communicate with one another from actual lightyears apart was a superb feature, especially in Epi 9. Whether it was love, friendship, or hatred that created this “Dyad in the Force,” it was the most interesting aspect. The fact that both Kylo Ren and Rey struggled with both sides of the force made their storyline the only interesting one throughout the movie. All signs point to love between the two, but their connection was fascinating. It made for great character arcs, lightsaber duels, and eventually their conquering of the dark side. It was also an aspect of the force that had never been introduced before. Epi 9 explained it just enough to keep it interesting. Sometimes, Star Wars tries to explain too much about things that should be left to the imagination (like midichlorians….).

OVERALL

The movie had action. It had suspense. It had a touch of romance. However, it lacked certain things necessary to create a great Star Wars movie. I won’t hold this movie totally accountable for the atrocities that Episode 8 committed, but it still had room to be a great movie. I get that sci-fi movies will have plot-holes. I get that Star Wars movies will never keep each and every fan happy. I do commend many aspects of this movie, but it still just came up a bit short in my eyes. I’ll give this movie a C+, overall. It would be in the “B-range,” but the Knight’s of Ren was such a huge let down that I’ll never be able to look past.

Written By Andrew Silvers