The Rise Of Skywalker Delivers A Profoundly Dissappointing Finish To The Skywalker Saga

WARNING: Minor Spoilers revealed in this review. For those who haven't seen the movie yet, it would be wise to turn away. 

      The 2019 year of cinema draws to a close and with it comes the 9th and final episode in the Star Wars Skywalker Saga titled The Rise Of Skywalker. Beginning with a thunderous reboot of the franchise in 2015 with J.J. Abrams The Force Awakens, the Disney era of Star Wars moviemaking has experienced its share of ups and downs since then. While The Force Awakens proved to be a solid beginning of a sequel trilogy to the classic originals, it also suffered from relying too much on the past for comfort with the movie being criticized for largely resembling A New Hope with newer characters. With the announcement of Rian Johnson at the helm to direct the second installment of the sequel trilogy titled The Last Jedi, fans were excited and expecting the director of Looper to take the series out further while expanding on the characters and concepts introduced in The Force Awakens. Instead, the end result proved to be the most divisive Star Wars film ever made as it not only divided the fan base right down the middle, but subverted audiences expectations in ways that have since proven to be highly controversial among fans. Examples range from the character persona of Luke Skywalker feeling off compared to what audiences witnessed in the original trilogy, to the killing of Snoke, the questionable existence of Rose's character, the decreasing of the importance of Finn's character, the revealing of Rey's parents to be of little significance, and the killing of Luke Skywalker in the story. Regardless of the intentions behind these choices that Johnson took with the story, the film started a backlash among the fanbase which became so severe, it played a direct role in the underperformance of Solo: A Star Wars Story. With The Rise Of Skywalker, Disney opted for a safer route with the final installment of the sequel trilogy by bringing back J.J. Abrams in the director chair after the original director Colin Trevorrow left the project due to disagreements with Disney over the direction of the film. With Abrams back at the trilogies helm, he faced a near impossible task of having to not only course correct the direction Rian Johnson took the story while providing a strong finish to the Skywalker Saga, which spawns a total of nine films. No matter what direction J.J. Abrams took the story or tried to retcon Johnson's storymaking decisions, he was destined to take flak from a percentage of the fanbase whether its those who feel the damage has been done by the story decisions of The Last Jedi, or those who loved Rian Johnson's work and hated that Abrams walked back much of the key events of that film. Regardless of the end result, the new film was destined to receive criticism regardless of which direction it went. Having seen The Rise Of Skywalker, it is with both sadness and genuine disappointment to report that the final installment in the Skywalker Saga is a huge letdown. Whereas Abrams works hard to walk back on much of the decision making of The Last Jedi, doing so unintentionally creates more problems for the sequel trilogy as the latter two films feel like inconsistent pieces of storytelling, that have both directors essentially delivering the middle finger to the other persons work, creating one of the most unusual trilogy of films in recent memory with none of them matching up together very well.

      The plot for The Rise Of Skywalker picks up after the events The Last Jedi with Emperor Palpatine (Played once again by Ian McDiarmid) mysteriously surviving being killed at the end of Return Of The Jedi, with him working behind the curtain to construct an immense fleet of Star Destroyers while planning to threaten the universe once again. As Palpatine mounts his forces, Rey (Played once again by Daisy Ridley) completes her Jedi training while Kylo Ren (Played once again by Adam Driver), pursues his campaign of terrorizing the galaxy and killing his way to more power with the rest of the rebel forces regrouping for one final battle. Rather than completely erase The Last Jedi from canon, Abrams distances The Rise Of Skywalker's storyline from that film while acknowledging that those events did happen before he's shown to course correct much of Johnson's creative decisions regarding that film. It can best be said that The Rise Of Skywalker is both Disney's form (As well as Abrams) of doing damage control to the fan divide caused by The Last Jedi. While bringing back Abrams was a smart choice on the studios end, the problem is that the plot for the new film doesn't feel consistent with the sequel trilogy as a whole. Abrams attempts to rectify Johnson's decision to kill Snoke by replacing him with Palpatine in the film not only makes the story feel padded, but feels as if he's desperate for a way to fix a critical mistake that Johnson made in regards to killing off what should've been the new Palpatine of the sequel trilogy. Palpatine's role in the film feels not only awkward, but makes little to no sense as it's never explained how he survived the end of Return Of The Jedi as well as his connection to the main characters. Whereas Abrams is attempting to fix a critical error that The Last Jedi made, he also manages to lessen the impact of the moment in Return Of The Jedi by doing so with Vader siding with Luke when Palpatine was electrocuting him, and chooses to return to the light by killing (temporarily) Palpatine. The Palpatine subplot serves as being one of the major issues with the movie, as the story often feels like it's all over the place with an unfocused narrative. Abrams provides a great deal of fan service and nostalgia from the previous films in hopes of satisfying as many as those who were disappointed by the previous film as possible, while not being able to tell a new story with these characters nor bring more originality with the table. The film is often so preoccupied with correcting the mistakes of the previous film that it feels like it never takes a life of its own nor dares to go in a new direction with the story (Maybe one of the reasons the film is overstuffed with numerous callbacks to the original trilogy along with constant references and similar scenarios, is that both Disney and Abrams are hiding the fact that they never intended on delivering anything new, and are aiming to play it safe in hopes of satisfying audiences this time). The Rise Of Skywalker looks and feels like a film that's so focused on cleaning up the mess before it, that it never really has the chance to present it's own story. This can be attributed to the fact that Disney didn't have a soundproof plan on how to approach this trilogy of films, along with not deciding on maintaining the same filmmaker for each film, which would've certainly been a better (And more wiser) move if Abrams was allowed to conduct the entire sequel trilogy from start to finish. Perhaps if that was the case, the fanbase wouldn't be so divided and furious, with both Abrams and Disney not rushing to try and please those fans while abandoning storytelling in the process.

      Whereas the writing comes across as feeling messy and serving as a checklist for correcting every bad thing that The Last Jedi did, the film thrives in the acting department with the cast once again demonstrating strong chemistry, as well as working great together as an ensemble team. Daisy Ridley once again shines as Rey, automatically delivering her strongest performance of the sequel trilogy with this film. She conveys all the right emotions and makes her character likable, sympathetic, and appealing. The same is said about John Boyega as Finn, he does well as usual though his character once again feels underused and undervalued, much like how he was handled in The Last Jedi. Adam Driver proves to be one of the strongest aspects of the sequel trilogy with his performance of Kylo Ren/Ben being top notch once again. The dude continues to make the case that he's the Anakin Skywalker the prequel trilogy always desired but never received (Sorry Hayden Christensen). Driver is terrific here and makes the most of his character arc with fans unquestionably being happy at the fact that he dons the mask, and performs Rens voice much more in this movie compared to the previous film. Oscar Isaac shines once again as Poe with his character feeling much more in line with the way he was presented in The Force Awakens compared to The Last Jedi. It's a shame that Poe's character was written the way he was in the sequel trilogy as he could've been the Han Solo of the new trilogy. Despite his characters misgivings, Isaac makes the part work and ultimately creates a likable character in the end. As far as the side characters go, Kelly Marie Tran as Rose is completely sidelined in this film, most likely due to the strong criticism her character received in the previous film. While Tran plays the part well, her character serves no real purpose in either movie with her character separating Finn away from Rey in The Last Jedi as an uninteresting love interest, along with her being sidelined in this film with no real purpose other than to just be there to meet both the fans and haters of her character halfway, making her situation come across as feeling awkward in the story. Carrie Fisher is brought back through archive footage recorded from the previous two movies as General Leia, with her character having no real point in the story other than just be there to help conclude Abrams storyline in the most consistent and satisfying way possible. While it's nice to see Fisher return in her final role as Leia, one wonders why Rian Johnson didn't just simply have her character take Laura Dern's place on the bridge of the Rebel ship when it fled into The First Orders fleet. Surely that would've been a more fitting sound off for her character given Fisher's untimely passing as her characters resolution here doesn't completely work (Though it's cool seeing her character train Rey in becoming a Jedi, as well as a flashback of a young Leia being trained by Luke in the ways of the force as well). Billy Dee Williams reprises his role as Lando Calrissian from the original trilogy with his character being more than a welcomed addition to the newer trilogy, despite the fact that his character doesn't really serve much of a purpose in this film other than to fill the void of killing off Han Solo in The Force Awakens. Wouldn't it have been more convenient for Disney and Rian Johnson to place Lando in The Last Jedi in the place of Benicio Del Toro's character with him "helping" Finn and Rose. It would've been a terrific callback to his role in The Empire Strikes Back, and he would've had more time to be explored as a character in this film (The audience doesn't get to see him effectively mourn Han's death, though he acknowledges Leia). Anthony Daniels is great once again as C-3P0 with his character getting more sufficient screen time in this film compared to the last two Star Wars movies. Lupita Nyong'o impresses once again as Maz Kanata with her character getting more time in this film as well compared to a brief cameo in The Last Jedi. Domhnall Gleeson reprises his role as General Hux from the previous two films with an added subplot involving his character, that feel's both contrived and unrealistic given how his character acted in the previous two films. As for the films newer characters, Richard E. Grant and Keri Russell deliver strong and likable performances despite their characters feeling one-dimensional due to being rushed into the story. Although his character comes across as feeling pointless and an unnecessary add to the story, Ian McDiarmid steals the show once again as Palpatine with him bringing class and energy to his role. He takes what he's given and does the most he can with it. Mark Hamill's return as Luke Skywalker is both appreciated and welcomed with it feeling like another major course correction of what was done by the previous film. It's ironic that Abrams gets the character of Luke Skywalker right after Johnson kills him off in the previous movie. Hamill's role in this film runs parallel to that of Alec Guinness Obi Wan in Empire and Jedi, it's just a shame his role isn't significant enough for audiences to be fully satisfied with his return. Whereas the film struggles in terms of wrapping up the sequel trilogy as well as the Skywalker Saga, one thing that audiences can agree on is the cast. Whether audiences approve or disapprove of them, the entire ensemble succeeds in working together both as an excellent and charismatic group, that all deliver fantastic performances while demonstrating strong chemistry as a whole. Despite the multiple directions these actors and actresses received with their parts, they all appeared to enjoy playing their roles and attempted to leave their own mark on the legendary Saga.

     On the directing front, J.J. Abrams proves once again that he is a visionary filmmaker that can create visually stunning worlds, while making his films move at both a fast and efficient pace. As both his newer Star Trek films and The Force Awakens prove, Abrams is great with setting up characters and establishing a narrative, that's strong enough to rejuvenate old and dying franchises while leaving plenty of room for the stories and characters to be built on. On the directing side, Abrams brings his A game and shines through on both a technical and visual front. Unlike George Lucas handling of CGI in the prequels, Abrams is much more effective in terms of balancing out realistic sets with CGI, which not only brings realism to the story but gives the actors more room to breathe. On a technological front, this film feels very much like a Star Wars movie with the film re-establishing the desert scenery that was prevalent in The Force Awakens as well as A New Hope and  Return of The Jedi. The films art-set decoration, costume design, and cinematography are once again top notch with John Williams delivering another masterful score, that manages to combine some of the most iconic musical pieces from the saga and weave them all together in what generally feels like a celebration of the Skywalker Saga as a whole. The films visual and sound effects are immensely impressive with the sound being thunderous in terms of making both the action as well as the music appear larger than life. The films editing is relatively steady, keeping the film moving without it feeling slow. The pacing of the film marks a marginal improvement over The Last Jedi's, with the story choices of this film being as equally frustrating. One area where the film lets down is the make up effects regarding the character of Palpatine, as his look comes across as feeling rather underwhelming and doesn't appear to make much sense given that his character looks nothing like the Palpatine from Return Of The Jedi, but resembles the look of Palpatine from Revenge Of The Sith. In terms of the films directorial style, Abrams does just about what the fans were expecting him to do when it was announced he was returning to finish the story. He attempts to clean up Johnson's work by providing massive fan service such as throwing endless amounts of nostalgia at the screen and giving fans what they like and want to see, though he doesn't take the characters or story in any new directions. Given the massive scope and potential that the sequel trilogy had with the opportunity presented to Abrams and Disney, the end result is disappointing.

      The greatest assault towards the fans comes directly from the films story choices with the writing. The films screenplay that's also written by J.J. Abrams, as well as co-writing by Chris Terrio and story credits from Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow, feels like a huge culmination of ideas and concepts that could've been explored two films prior, but is all meshed together in what was hoped to be a grand finish to the Skywalker arc, that came with both non-stop action and clever (Not quite) twists and turns. The film attempts to throw everything at the audience with the intention of blowing them away as well as shocking with examples such as the actual reveal of Rey's parents with the end result feeling like a huge letdown with the reaction destined to split and divide fans. Right from the beginning, the film attempts to throw revelations at the audience that feel absurd rather than convincing, and expects them to accept the new twists as fact (Abrams and Terrio's attempt to explain the buildup and fall of Snoke's character in the films first five minutes, is insulting to those who became intrigued and invested in such a mysterious figure from the previous two films). Many of the films plot points should've been revealed in the previous film instead of it all being crammed together into this script. There's plot elements introduced that start off as being promising but go nowhere such as the Knights Of Ren being reintroduced in the story from The Force Awakens after being ignored in The Last Jedi, that end up going nowhere in the story then are just dropped without hesitation to revert back to the main narrative which is Rey and Ben facing Palpatine. Kylo Ren's character arc feels unbalanced in this one with the films opening sequence feeling like Abrams trying to restore (Without much exposition regarding the lead up to the films opening shots) Ren's reputation of being a fearful Sith lord, that was undone by Rian Johnson's work on The Last Jedi. The rebuilding of Ren's mask and the character donning it once again, feels like Abrams throwing a middle finger back at Johnson. With the new script, Abrams and Terrio attempt to throw new characters into the mix that feel promising, but never receive the proper development to make the audience truly care. Examples are Keri Russell's character and her connection to Poe with the subplot feeling vague and thrown at the audience with the expectation that they will give a damn, but actually don't because there's no backstory or lead up prior to make that relationship exciting or engaging. Another character subplot introduced, that feels like it came out of left field is Naomi Ackie's character Jannah, whose implied to have relations to Calrissian's character, making the whole situation feel both awkward and forced. These are just examples of the many issues that plague the film and ultimately bring it down with issues stemming from an unfocused narrative to unnecessary introducing of newer characters, and far-fetched plot twists which feel like they're meant to undo the works of Johnson, rather than take the characters or the story in any kind of new direction. It's not so much the fault of Abrams for why the film feels as disappointing as it comes across, but moreso Disney's because they didn't have a precise and thorough plan on how to do the sequel trilogy with the new films as a whole lacking a consistent vision, that would've made the trilogy work much stronger together than it ultimately does. The films end reveal with Rey should've been a fitting and emotionally powerful moment for fans, who've grown up with the series as a whole or been there from the start when the originals first arrived into theaters, but instead feels underwhelming as it lacks the emotional punch needed to drive the revelation home.

      In the end, the fanbase to Star Wars will remain divided over how Disney handled the newer trilogy of films. For those who really despised the direction that Rian Johnson went with The Last Jedi, they will probably end up enjoying The Rise Of Skywalker significantly more because of how desperately it attempts to clean up the mess left behind by the previous film despite creating more issues of its own regarding the untying of loose ends (Whatever happened to those Knight's Of Ren?), and being stuffed with ideas and subplots that should've been further explored from the beginning or episode 8, had Abrams remained on board as director. J.J. Abrams has been stated as saying that he's much better at starting a story than he is at ending it with the end result of The Rise Of Skywalker proving this notion to be correct. At least he was being honest with everyone. What could've been an even greater sequel trilogy and a grand finish to the Skywalker Saga, that could've stood as tall as other great finishes such as Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King or Avengers: Endgame, instead feels like a profoundly disappointing finish to a trilogy, that essentially feels like one big missed opportunity. When one looks back on these movies in the future, it won't be with complete disdain but rather frustration at what these films could've been had Disney planned everything out more carefully in terms of making them. The Rise Of Skywalker is not the worst Star Wars movie (That title still remains with The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones), but it's one of the more disappointing ones when looking at the scope and potential it had to be a great finish to the story. A perfect comparison for this movie is DCEU's Justice League, a film that was so concerned with undoing the work of the previous film before it (Batman V. Superman) that it didn't have enough room to become it's own story with the end result being messy. The exact same situation applies to The Rise Of Skywalker, it means to make right what The Last Jedi did wrong but never really takes a life of it's own due to it being buried in course correction as well as endless nostalgia in hopes of making us leave the theater satisfied. For some fans, that will be enough as the film is well-intentioned, for others, they will find disappointment and reflect on the lost potential the new trilogy of Star Wars had. At least it doesn't end as horribly as the series finale of HBO's Game Of Thrones, but it's also not very far off.

Final Verdict: Despite the films many issues, fans of the series should still see it and judge for themselves how Abrams and Disney conclude the sequel trilogy. Be prepared to possibly be disappointed though.