Movie Review: Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker

“This will be the final word, in the story of Skywalker.” –Emperor Palpatine

Forty-two years ago, George Lucas brought a vision to the big screen that fascinated audiences for generations to follow. Out came movies, television shows, games, novels, and comics. With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, director JJ Abrams finally closes out the long and bumpy epic of the Skywalkers — and sets it a galaxy apart from the competition these past six days with $259 million domestically and $516 million internationally at the box office. The Rise of Skywalker overall to me is a good film. Despite the negative reviews it has been getting, it feels like a Star Wars film. I didn’t love it. But I didn’t hate it. I had to see it twice to finally understand the storyline and I finally became a fan of Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) in this movie. 

What’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker About:

Picking up a year after the events of The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker continues the battle between the Jedi and the Sith. Rey (Daisy Ridley) and the remaining members of the Resistance face the First Order and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).

What Works:

As Rey further develops her powers by training under Leia (Carrie Fisher), Kylo becomes an equally matched opponent. The two of them share a bond through which Kylo tries to bring Rey to the Dark Side. The lightsaber battles between Kylo and Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker are amazing to watch. They use the Force in new ways, opening up possibilities that didn’t exist before.

Poe (Oscar Issac), Finn (John Boyega), Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and BB-8 work together to face their enemies. There’s even a new droid named D-O in the picture and an adorable new alien called Babu Frik (which he’s is super funny). Poe, Finn, Chewie, and C-3PO get their own stories that contribute to the main plot.

The film also answers many of the questions that were raised in A Force Awakens through some surprising reveals. The action scenes are balanced with the emotional ones. The cinematography is stunning and we get to see new and familiar planets as the film takes frequent stops along the journey. Without giving any spoilers, there’s also plenty in the film to make you nostalgic. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker builds up the events to a big fight at the end. 

The actors all do a great job embodying the characters they’ve now been playing for three films and their comfort with themselves and each other leads to some nice interaction between them.  Daisy Ridley again gives a standout performance as the troubled Rey who is continually seeking answers to unfortunate questions.  She gives a physicality to Rey that makes her continual Jedi acrobatics look effortless and believable. My favorites are usually the droids however, and this film is no exception.  Anthony Daniels is, as always, pitch-perfect as C-3PO and gives the unappreciated droid a wonderful send-off.  The new D-O droid is both adorable and hilarious and one of his lines, made me laugh.

Speaking of Fisher, it’s hard not to comment on the highly publicized use of old footage spliced together to give her a presence in the film.  I don’t think there’s any way they could have done it without giving viewers some hint of awkwardness in staging and cinematography, but I actually thought it was pulled off reasonably well. 

What Could’ve Been Better:

The Force Awakens was celebrated and The Last Jedi was divisive. The Rise of Skywalker attempts to balance the fans of both the films by making safe choices, which might not work for all. As it’s the conclusive chapter, the story is also bigger than ever – there’s a lot of ground covered and not enough time to process it (hence, why I had to watch it for the second time). It’s unfortunate that the nearest movie to compare it to is this year’s Avengers: Endgame. Which to me was an epic closing to the longevity of our favorite Marvel characters. 

Why You Should Watch:

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might not be the end of Star Wars but it might be the last time you see some of your favorite characters. Catch the epic finale on the biggest screen possible before you come across spoilers on the internet.

At the end of the day, The Rise of Skywalker is a fun movie: I enjoyed it when I watched it, but although I have seen all the Star Wars films I am a fan base on the storyline and pure entertainment and is not heavily invested in any particular iteration of the Star Wars mythology. The Rise of Skywalker entertains but expends so much time and energy trying to tie up loose ends left to it by other films, it doesn’t end up with much to distinguish itself in the audience’s memory.  The Force may be with you always, as I give The Rise of Skywalker I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Rating: PG-13. Running time: 2 hours, 22 minutes.