THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Some would think that Star Wars would have a finale to right all the wrongs. In this case with Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, only some problems were fixed and many more were made.
PLOT
The film opens up revealing that Sheev Palpatine aka Darth Sidious has returned from the dead. Supreme Leader Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren goes to Exegol to confront the newly cloned Sith. He keeps Ren lured to the dark side, offering him a new army, ‘The Final Order’, and orders him to kill the Jedi Rey. When word spread that the Emperor had returned, Rey learns that a Sith way finder can find him. She goes to Pasaana to begin her search, with the company of Finn, Poe, BB8, C3PO (Anthony Daniels) and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) to investigate a clue of the way finder. With the help of General Lando Calrissian, they find a blade once owned by Jedi hunter Ochi (Liam Cook), but are found after Rey has another Force communication with Ren. They discover that is has engraved Sith language; C3PO can translate it but his programming forbids it. Chewie is abducted by the Knights of Ren and when Rey tries to save him with the Force, Ren intervenes. As they fight over the transport, Rey accidentally summons Force electricity and Chewie is presumed dead. However, the Wookiee was taken to another transport. The group goes to Kijimi to get access to the Sith translation, but the hacker Babu Frik had to wipe C3PO’s memory to get it. When Rey senses that Chewie is alive, she and the group go rescue him at the Star Destroyer he’s captive in. She makes contact with Ren again, in which he catches up again and explains the truth of her parents, before she escapes. He tells her that Palpatine is her grandfather and her parents left her on Jakku to be safe, while they were killed by Ochi. The group trace the way finder on a moon in the Endor system. She finds it in the remains of the second Death Star, but encounters Ren again. This time, General Leia Organa calls her son with the Force. The use of it was so strong it took her life. This distraction gives Rey to stab him with his own lightsaber. When she senses that Leia died, she heals Ben and leaves. When her group heads back to base, they learn of the general’s passing as well. While Ren is confronted by the memory of his father Han Solo to return to the light, he does so by tossing his lightsaber. The ghost of Luke Skywalker encourages Rey to confront her grandfather. As a show of force, Palpatine summons a Star Destroyer to destroy Kijimi. Rey than sends her Exegol coordinates to R2D2, who also restored C3PO’s memories. The remaining Resistance along with Lando’s reinforcements battle against the Star Destroyers. When she arrives, Palpatine demands for her to kill him in order for his spirit to pass into her. She refuses and passes one of her lightsabers to Ben, who overpowers the Knights of Ren. Together, both are drained by the Emperor in order for himself to be rejuvenated. After incapacitating both Jedi, he attacks the Resistance fleet. Rey gets back up after given the strength of the past Jedi, deflecting Palpatine’s lightning, which kills him. This drains her, but Ben gets up again and gives her all of his power to revive her, which takes his life. The war seems to be over after a hard fought victory. After celebrating, Rey goes to Tattooine to bury the lightsabers of Luke and Leia, now that she’s made one of her own. When a passerby asks her name, the film ends with Rey calling herself a Skywalker, as the ghosts of both Skywalker siblings are in a distance.
THOUGHTS
The best way to express my soft spot over this solid finale is through Pros and Cons.
PROS: J.J. Abrams is able to provide what was one of the last movie experiences of 2019 with the finale of Star Wars’ ‘Skywalker Saga’. It was a difficult decision to replace Colin Trevorrow considering that his script heavily involved Leia and things had to change due to Carrie Fisher’s passing. Abrams did the best he could to combine his own image with Trevorrow’s and Rian Johnson’s, in order to satisfy most fans. Dan Mindel’s cinematography holds up along with more great visuals. John Williams’ last score to the franchise was just as epic as the scores to the previous films. Without exaggeration, his cameo in this film as a Kijimi bartender is a tribute to what he’s done for the franchise since the beginning. The one thing from Colin Trevorrow’s vision that definitely stayed was the flashback of Leia training as a Jedi, as he pitched seeing Leia in action before Carrie Fisher had died. What I appreciate the most from it was that her daughter Billie Lourd was a stand in for the role. While Lourd’s character Kaydel Ko Connix did not drive the plot like other characters, it was awesome seeing her play the role that made her mother famous. Speaking of her mother, it was not easy seeing Leia go because of the known death of Fisher. It becomes heartbreaking as the last thing she did was call for her son. The presence of R2D2 as her hand drops is traumatizing, as the droid was there when she was born in Revenge of the Sith. Chewie’s reaction of her passing is understanding because now he is alone, as all of his friends (except Lando) are gone. However, seeing her in ghost form with her brother Luke (Mark Hamill) was able to resolve her anticlimactic fate. For Luke, it was already resolved when encouraging Rey to face her grandfather, giving her his X Wing. While I would’ve preferred to see Hayden Christensen again as Anakin, having Harrison Ford return as Han to convince Ben to return to the light was a clever choice, because it represents how his death was what made the character have second thoughts. I would’ve not minded if Ren had stayed evil, but this transition of returning to the light was a good choice, since it had been foreshadowed from the beginning. Adam Driver succeeded in handling this character’s arc, embracing every mixed emotion he had, becoming the unsung hero in the end. He had the power and was never clear how to use it until it was almost too late, which makes his death sad as well. The same can be said of handling a character arc with Daisy Ridley as Rey. Seeing her in anger reflected how she should’ve been trained as a child, just as the prequels/Clone Wars saga explained. Also seeing her in conflict with herself when discovering the way finder was another clever reference to what Luke dealt with in The Empire Strikes Back. It was incredible to hear the voices of the past Jedi from every form of Star Wars media motivate Rey. Besides Luke, the other voices were: Frank Oz’s Yoda, Hayden Christensen’s Anakin, Obi Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor) Samuel L Jackson’s Mace Windu, Liam Neeson’s Qui Gon Jinn, Ashley Eckstein’s Ahsoka Tano, Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Kanan Jarrus, Olivia D’abo’s Luminara Unduli, Jennifer Hale’s Aayla Secura and Angelique Perrin’s Adi Gallia. Hearing all of those voices and recognizing them, felt like the movie’s biggest payoff for fan service. What makes Rey great here like before is that she overcomes her demons. The ending is what saves the movie, making it end on a high note. Rey deserves to be called a Skywalker because the said family took her in and treated her like so. In this case, the movie expresses how the past of your bloodline doesn’t define you, only you yourself can. And it may not always be your bloodline that is your true family, but the ones that love you dearly are so. All of that being said, it again cements her status as an icon to not just Star Wars, but to general cinema as well. Not much can be said with Oscar Isaac in this sequel but like in The Last Jedi, he keeps his attitude as Poe charming. He may still be snarky, but his bravery is what defines him since he lead the charge against the Final Order before Lando arrived with backup. Seeing him have the Millennium Falcon go through ‘light speed skipping’ was such a badass moment to go back to. John Boyega still makes Finn interesting for making him the most empathetic. I like the discovery that he is force sensitive, as that explains his actions from the beginning. It is definitely something that he wanted to tell Rey before things continued to progress, but I feel certain he does so offscreen. It is crazy that this is the first time our three leads have an adventure together. It felt short lived but I’m glad to see it play out between this trio. I was relieved seeing C3PO have a major plot point in this movie, because it reminds viewers how important the droid has been since the first film. I was so happy seeing Billy Dee return as Lando. He became beneficial in the end because he reminded viewers that you can overcome anything once you believe in yourself. He wasn't ready when he first fought with the rebellion, but believing in himself was what kept him going. It sounded unbelievable that he had an adventure with Luke offscreen, but it’s good to know that he wasn’t sitting things out. Last but not least, Ian McDiarmid’s return as Darth Sidious was something I didn’t think I’d see again onscreen, but I’m glad it happened. The actor succeeds in making him an intimidating figure with his given time, just like his previous appearances. Of all the shots I will go back to the most will be when the Emperor uses his powers and attacks the Resistance fleet from above. That shot alone is stunning to witness. It also makes sense that he created Snoke (Andy Serkis), as that implies from the beginning, he’s always been able to seduce Ben to the dark side. Considering that he caused so much trouble throughout the galaxy for generations, it was satisfying to see Rey destroy him for good.
CONS: Even though I really enjoyed this movie, it still had a similar amount of problems like The Last Jedi. The first example would be Dominic Monaghan. His role as Beaumont Kin provides nothing to the story, only after implying that the Emperor was resurrected through cloning. After that acknowledgement, he is just useless. I sadly feel the same with Naomi Ackie as Jannah. After talking to Finn of how they’re Force sensitive, there isn’t much of her to push the story. Also, her scene with Lando is so unnecessary because it feels clear that we won’t see them again. I wished that Zorii (Keri Rusell) would drive the story more than she already had because her connection with Poe. The biggest waste sadly goes to Billie Lourd. She has played Kaydel Ko Connix from the beginning of the trilogy to this end, but not once has she done anything to impact the story at all. For someone as talented as Lourd, daughter of Carrie Fisher, she deserves better. General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) was officially wasted in this movie. It was cool seeing that he was the spy but he should’ve went with the Resistance, if he wanted to live. And I was definitely confused with the presence of General Pryde (Richard E. Grant). He was smart to kill Hux but it’s his connection to the Emperor that isn’t truly explained. I want to be happy that Chewbacca gets a medal, but that should’ve happened in A New Hope, making the moment feel misplaced. While it was a surprise that Rey was related to Palpatine, it felt like they were reusing the infamous twist from The Empire Strikes Back. I want to be relieved that her parentage was finally revealed, but now it felt almost unnecessary on how it's done. I feel so confused of the kiss between her and Ben. The novelization confirmed it to be out of gratitude, but it oddly doesn’t look that way. Also, her saying she’s all the Jedi after Palpatine says he’s all the Sith, was way too similar to the ending of Avengers: Endgame. It also feels similar to the better blockbuster when seeing Lando arrive with the cavalry of Resistance fleet, as it reminded me of the iconic ‘Portals’ scene. To wrap up, The Rise of Skywalker is not the perfect finale, but not a bad one. If you can ignore the flaws, than as a moviegoer, you will likely enjoy this finale to Star Wars.
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