Film Review: STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (2019): A Hodge Podge Film with Lifeless Plot Twists, A Blind Eye Towards Canon, & A Tepid Ending

Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker Review

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Film Review, a movie directed by J.J. Abrams, and starring Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Keri Russell, Billie Lourd, Naomi Ackie, Matt Smith, Dominic Monaghan, Ian McDiarmid, and Richard E. Grant.

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker is the second weakest Skywalker Star Wars film, the first being Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a triage film that tries and fails to suture the plot-holes and bandage shut the canon-defying mistakes of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In point of fact, The Rise of Skywalker adds to those very mistakes throughout its narrative. The Rise of Skywalker‘s story-line would not exist in its current incarnation if Disney’s Star Wars trilogy had been planned out before production began on Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.

The sections of this review and analysis:

• Trying To Kill the Past Doesn’t Work
• The Palpatine Problems
• Rey’s Jedi Training
• Rey’s Character-defining Moment Reversed for No Good Reason
• The Failed Temptation of Rey
• Kylo Ren’s Arc
• The Knights of Ren Are Nothing
• What was Finn Going To Say?
• Force Healing and Star Wars Canon Inconsistency
• The Holdo Maneuver Not Utilized
• The Ending
• Final Thoughts

Trying To Kill the Past Doesn’t Work

In the wake of divisive Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the viewer’s expectations are low-to-moderate going into The Rise of Skywalker. Anticipation is weathered and cautious. Some people believe that from The Last Jedi‘s depths, there is only up. Others are more optimistic, thinking that Disney has learned from the mistakes of the former film and will do right by cognitive audiences this time around. Sadly, The Rise of Skywalker hydroplanes at the low level established by The Last Jedi throughout its run-time.

The Rise of Skywalker is a film that plays it safe, too safe, a possible over-reaction to the some of the more extreme plot-points in The Last Jedi, a decision that end up hurting rather than benefiting The Rise of Skywalker. A fine tightrope could have been walked between the conventional and envelope-pushing with The Rise of Skywalker. Abrams opts, instead, for the ordinary, creating a pliant movie with a soft, safe, nostalgia-laced ending.

Director J.J. Abrams does the best he can with The Rise of Skywalker. He is in a terrible situation for any director or screenwriter. The problem with Disney’s Star Wars trilogy is that there never seemed to be an overarching outline for it. Instead, everyone seemed to be making their own film and that crippled this trilogy. The results of that lack of clear vision reverberates down to the marrow of The Rise of Skywalker.

If The Rise of Skywalker didn’t carry the Star Wars brand name, this film would be a big-budget scifi film deemed weak on its most important element, narrative cohesion, and would be forgotten behind far better space fiction like Ad Astra, with people wondering “what if?” when they occasionally thought about this film.