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

What was Finn Going To Say?

Like The Knights of Ren, The Rise of Skywalker has other plot strings that go nowhere. What Finn (John Boyega) is about to say to Rey while they are sinking in the sands of Pasaana is one of them. After being questioned twice about his possible statement, the plot string is dropped and never brought up again in the film.

What was Finn going to say to Rey? Was he going to tell Rey that he loved her?

We will never know but I believe the reason for this plot string being dropped is easy to discern. The strange Rey / Kylo ‘relationship’ (can it even be called that?) supplants the resolution of the lingering Finn statement.

J.J. Abrams, for some incomprehensible reason, did not want a love triangle in The Rise of Skywalker, so he drops the conclusion of the Finn and Rey story-line.

The problem is that if Abrams was going to drop the Finn statement plot string (and the resultant story arc that it will generate) in lieu of Rey / Kylo, why have its precursor in the film in the first place? Why have Finn say anything to Rey while sinking in the sands of Pasaana?

It makes no sense. It’s like the first draft of The Rise of Skywalker‘s script is on-screen during these parts of the film instead of the fourteenth draft.

Force Healing and Star Wars Canon Inconsistency

For all the retreading of trodden ground, The Rise of Skywalker does introduce new elements into Star Wars-lore. The most notable is Force Healing, a concept that the viewer is warmed up to by The Child in The Mandalorian. The problem with this new concept is the past. If a Force user can heal with the Force or bring back the dead through life energy transfer,

Why didn’t Obi-Wan Kenobi use the Force to heal Qui-Gon Jinn’s single lightsaber wound in The Phantom Menace?

Why didn’t Luke Skywalker use the Force to save Darth Vader from dying at the end of Return of the Jedi?

Why didn’t Luke Skywalker use the Force to save Yoda from his sickness and keep him alive in Return of the Jedi?

Why didn’t Palpatine use the Force to heal Darth Vader’s cut-off limbs and burnt body at the end of Revenge of the Sith?

Why didn’t these powerful Jedi and Sith use the Force to heal themselves when they were injured, mortally wound, and/or dying?

By introducing Force Healing in The Mandalorian and in The Rise of Skywalker, a portion of the Star Wars canon is broken. Some will cite The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis from Revenge of the Sith as an example of this ability being possible but the rejoinder to that is that Palpatine was manipulating Anakin Skywalker at the time, telling him exactly what he wanted to hear (i.e. that it was possible to conjure death with the Force) to subconsciously groom and eventually bend Anakin to his will. I have no doubt that Palpatine actually killed Plagueis but as to Plagueis’ touted death-cheating Force ability, that is dubious. Sith lie, especially to those they seek leverage over.