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

The Holdo Maneuver Not Utilized

Many fans wondered after The Last Jedi how The Holdo Maneuver (or Lightspeed Ramming) would be handled in the immediate and subsequent films in the franchise since it introduced a major plot hole in all the films that came before it i.e. why has no one ever tried lightspeed ramming before? The answer given in The Rise of Skywalker is so simplistic and idiotic that it is laughable – because it’s a one in a million shot. Meaning that if you tried it a million times, it might only work once.

What are the chances an old space ship with engine issues can hold together and not catch fire after attempting lightspeed skipping to escape an enemy while carrying vital intelligence back to the Resistance? One in one hundred million?

Yet this is what the Rebels try and not The Holdo Maneuver.

What are the chances that The Final Order would not have significant ground forces, troops, and anti-craft guns to protect their single yet vital antenna array and that the rebels could successfully attack that antenna with the largest space fleet in the galaxy hovering over it? One in three hundred million?

Yet this is what the Rebels try and not The Holdo Maneuver.

What are the chances that a small group of rebels in ragtag ships could fight and survive combat with a hundred star destroyers and thousands of TIE fighters, all manned by a crew of 4,678,500* men and women loyal to the Palpatine? One in nine hundred million?

Yet this is what the Rebels try and not The Holdo Maneuver.

When Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) makes his one-in-a-million Holdo Maneuver comment in The Rise of Skywalker, it falls flat and contradicts his future actions. What he has already done in the film (lightspeed skipping) was far less likely to succeed than The Holdo Maneuver, as is what he is going to attempt to do on Exegol (the antenna and Final Order attacks).

* –  46,785 is the total crew and passengers of a Imperial I-class Star Destroyer. 4,678,500 was arrived at by multiplying 46,785 by 100.

The Ending

The ending to The Rise of Skywalker is a summation of the entire film in one nostaglia-ladden scene: absurd, weak, and like the inclusion of Palpatine in this film, insulting.

Appropriating someone else’s last name as your own, in this instance, the most famous last name in the galaxy, is poppycock. Rey has no right to that last name. Killing a regurgitated, non-threat enemy doesn’t get her that trophy for her fireplace.

With all that she has been through, “Rey” should be good enough. She has made a name for herself in the last two Star Wars films, irrespective of the Skywalkers and the Palpatines. “Rey” is good enough for the Rebels. It is good enough for her enemies. Why isn’t it good enough for Rey?

The last shot in the film with the twin suns is supposed to be iconic, bringing the franchise full circle. It isn’t iconic. It shows a direct lack of imagination by this film’s writers.

Final Thoughts

I am glad it is over. I never thought I would say that after a film franchise of this magnitude came to a close, especially one with such auspicious beginnings, but I am relieved.

Rating: 3/10

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