Title: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Director: J.J. Abrams
Series? 3/3 (Third trilogy in the saga)
Genre: Fantasy
Triggers: Talk of dead parents, death, murder
Release Date: 19 December 2019 (Aus)
★★★☆☆
I recently saw The Rise of Skywalker with the rest of my family and oh boyyy, did we all have very different opinions on it. The oldest of my brothers (14) was very excited to see it but left disappointed, my youngest brother (13) thought it was “meh” & my mother really enjoyed it, so it’s really a mixed bag. And, from what I’ve seen online, there’s also generally a lot of mixed thoughts on this movie. I personally didn’t hate this but I also didn’t love it by any means.
What I liked:
- I really enjoyed the new trilogy characters – Rey is great and Poe and Finn are a very good duo and I hate to say it, but I would make a great Disney+ buddy-cop space show together!
- I also surprisingly semi-enjoyed Kylo Ren in this one too, which has never happened before.
- I think had the trilogy had enough time to properly flesh him out as a character he would have been a fantastic villain and his character arc could have been incredibly powerful. But, I think, he was really put on the backburner for this movie because there was too much else to focus on.
Characters:
Poe was very Han-like — His character was very inconsistent throughout the trilogy – like, he was a very disjointedly written character and I feel like the writers didn’t know what to do with him so they used him as a pseudo-plot device.
The trilogy still relies heavily on the original trilogy. — I really think that they should have made a solo movie prior to this trilogy to focus on the original trilogy OR left them alone/ only included them as a small cameo in the trilogy.
The Lost Potential!
It really bothers me how much potential and hype the trilogy had compared to what we actually got. So much time was spent trying to mimic the original trilogy ( – Jonson) and on including the originals in the plot, that we never fully got to focus on the new character and therefore so they were all left undeveloped and because of that the ending of this movie and the entire felt rushed.
Disney+
Should you wait for it on Disney+ or DVD? Honestly, I think that’s only a question you can answer. If you’re a Star Wars fan and you really want to see the ending in cinemas then go see it, but if you’re just a casual viewer and okay with probably getting spoiled then don’t bother!
The ‘Meh’
- The Lgbt rep is laughable! It’s the kind of rep that can easily be taken out for foreign audiences so I wouldn’t even call it rep tbh.
- EVERY character got short-changed
- A great poster!
- Needed a better outline for the trilogy
- You can tell #2 was directed by someone else because it really sticks out compared to the first and third movies. I wish they had made more of an effort to incorporate that content and those characters, instead of basically ignoring everything that happened. *cough* Rose!
- Rey masters her powers really quickly (and off-screen!) but so did Luke in Return of the Jedi, so I don’t wanna hear about it!
- Really cool effects & action shots
- I kind of want to cosplay Rey now???
- Rey is kind of base as a character, but I think that’s on writing not acting. She, like most of the characters, was underdeveloped.
- A lot of Reylo fanservice
- I actually lied Finn?? Like, I cared sort of?? This has never happened before so I’m kind of shocked.
- This movie felt like it was trying too hard? Too many plot lines, too many characters, not enough of this movie felt cohesive, it was a very shoddily put together story.
FINN & POE
- Finn and Poe are the duo we deserved from the beginning! Their scenes together definitely captured the heart of the original movies!
- Poe was very Han – but unlike he was in the first 2 movies
- Would you like to see a Disney+ series of these two? Do you think the trio will be in the next SW trilogy?
Random Thoughts
- The droids! As always they’re cute and that’s about it!
- Carrie Fisher did nothing for me, unfortunately.
- New female characters – not much screen time & honestly, it was kind of a waste of time to have them there, also one looked like a power ranger and that was incredibly distracting!
- A few big reveals! Try not to get spoiled!
- A disjointed movie that I couldn’t connect to emotionally. It was sloppy and badly written. Honestly, if I had to try and summarise this movie to you right now I don’t think I could.
- A disappointment as a conclusion to a 9 movie saga that has spanned generations and decades. Honesty, as a Star Wars fan this movie was kind of embarrassing
Okay, so this movie may not have been for me, and I think a lot of people are really disliking it BUT I do want to say that there is a whole generation of younger viewers who are going to love this movie (and the rest of the trilogy) so I really think that as bad as I think this movie is, there are still a whole lot of other people who will love it, so maybe keep the hate to a minimum?
HAVE YOU SEEN THE RISE OF SKYWALKER?
WILL YOU WATCH THE NEXT TRILOGY?
AN
allonsythornraxx 
I saw this on opening night and while I really enjoyed it, I hated the ending and basically all character arc. I wish we got to see Palpatine’s return on screen, and the ending really hurts in a way that losing the sense of hope usually accompanied each trilogy’s ending 😦 We need more Rose, I feel bad for Kelly after all she’s been through she’s like placed in a back burner 😦 Same with Jannah and Zori- I understand that we already have so many characters to focused on but the fact that they’re just there despite having such a great backstory kinda annoys me. Also there are so many plot holes haha but it will be spoiler
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I saw it on opening day too, the cinema was packed!
I didn’t love the ending either, and the movie felt so underdeveloped! I agree, but I feel like there’s always a lot of empty space between events in star wars movies and we almost never actually get to see the important stuff happen and then they just sum everything up at the start of each movie!
I agree, Rose deserved better and I hope we see more of Kelly in other roles, just not SW bc they did her so dirty!
I feel like if we had more time with each character the pay off could’ve been great but in the end, this movie tried to do too many things which I think is why it ultimately failed.
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I share a lot of your feelings about this movie. I also had a really hard time connecting to the movie, which was disappointing after loving the other two movies so much. SO MUCH WASTED POTENTIAL.
I really wish this trilogy could stand on its own! When The Force Awakens leaned really heavily on the OT, it made sense. After The Last Jedi, though, the reliance on the OT really detracted from the story!
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It was so hard to connect to because so much happened in between movies and was just summed up at the beginning with the credit things… I agree, there was so much wasted potential! SW always has the ability to be great but unfortunately, this movie was just too badly done! (the actors were great with what they were given though!)
I do too! I wish each trilogy could be as good as the first, and that’s where I think they went wrong with this one! They tried to incorporate too much Skywalker/OG trilogy stuff when they should have just focused on the new characters!
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Somehow I keep blocking out the a large part of the movie was exposition and summary. So much wasted time! The actors were really good – I can’t blame any of them, they all performed excellently. I feel that way about the prequels especially – lots of untapped potential still in those movies.
For real! I get that the OT is iconic and intimidating, but you HAVE TO BE BRAVE, JJ!
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