The biggest and most awaited movie of 2019 has finally made its way into our galaxy and we’re a little torn about it. Read our review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to find out why.
Action-Packed
Director JJ Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) returns to helm the finale to this decades-long saga and right from the get-go, “TROS” takes you right into the action. No non-sense. From ground fights, desert fights, ocean fights, space battles, and of course, lightsaber battles, Abrams gives episode IX “lightspeed” pacing.
And for us, the pacing was a little too fast for its own good. It was hard to keep up and basically a lot to take in. The film moves so fast we see characters moving and key plot points changing in blinding speed (lightspeed, as we said). One minute, you wonder who that new character was or what that critical plot point was about, and before you get to know or understand anything you get another character introduced and a new plot point to process.
“Fan Service” Galore
A lot of unhappy fans criticized Star Wars: The Last Jedi and its director Rian Johnson (Knives Out) for not going the way fans would have hoped. Director JJ Abrams made sure that this does not happen to The Rise of Skywalker.
Fan service is the name of the game for Episode IX. Tons of cheesy callbacks from previous films, some surprise cameos, everything is there for Star Wars fans. The film basically gave everything that the fans wanted to the point where even if you spoil anything to fan, they won’t mind because that’s what they want to happen anyway. It sure feels like this film is too afraid of its fandom it lets them dictate everything to a point where they had to retcon and essentially ignore a lot of the major events in Episode VIII.
That’s too bad, considering, TLJ made way for a lot of opportunities to explore for Episode IX. On the bright side, there won’t be hordes of angry fans anymore contrary to all the (unnecessary) backlash that The Last Jedi received.
Guess it’s a win-win, after all.
Fitting Ending, But…
It’s been 42 years since the first Star Wars (1977) made its way into our galaxy. Episode IX has finally wrapped everything up. Well, for now, at least. Who know what will happen in the next few years? Franchises as lucrative such as this has a history of coming back (however unwanted), after all, but we’ll take Disney’s word for it, for now.
Episode IX had a lot of good stuff. Action is great and in fact, does not stop, like at all. Visual effects are pretty good. That ocean lightsaber fight scene is something that has not been seen in the previous films yet. Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) performed better than he should have.
Overall, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker gives a fitting ending to this galaxy-encompassing saga, but it’s not without its faults. The pacing was just too fast. The stories did not really connect with the first two films in the trilogy (more so on the second film). New characters were introduced and ended up underused. Finn’s character is basically negligible. Overall, it just feels wrong.
Skip or Watch?
There’s a lot of stuff that happens in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Twists, action, new characters, surprising cameos. Episode IX gives the fans what they want at the expense of sound story-telling. Moving at a crazy fast pace, you can barely keep up, this film is all about pleasing its fan base. And sadly, for us, it feels like it’s contented with just that. The decades long closure to the epic saga turns out to be not-so epic.
Still, for fans especially the hardcore ones, this is a must-watch. Otherwise, might as well skip it.
Here is our rating for the movie.
Was this Star Wars finale satisfying for you? Give it your own rating or comment below.
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