In the final installment of the sequel trilogy, J.J. Abrams wraps up the nine-episode Skywalker Saga as the Resistance faces the First Order one last time
Quick review: A series of poor story and character decisions take away any emotional impact The Rise of Skywalker could have, which ends the Skywalker Saga on a sour note.
There’s something very off about The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth and final film in the Skywalker Saga. It feels at equal times too big and too small, too overwrought and too emotionless, too fast and too slow. The movie, more than any other blockbuster this year and in the franchise, feels completely contrived. Like it was stitched together from disparate arguing ideas and landed on all of them and none of them at the same time.
From the opening scroll, it’s already apparent that the movie is trying to do too much. I’ll spare you the specific plot details, but one I can reveal off the bat since it’s the first thing on the screen, is that Emporer Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is alive and planning to (surprise surprise) take over the entire galaxy with his massive fleet of star destroyers.
Through a breezy montage, a perfect demonstration of how the movie is too fast in some parts and too slow in others, we learn that Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) has been looking for Palpatine to destroy any threat to his hold on the First Order. However, when he does find him, Palpatine promises him his entire fleet as long as Ren finds and kills Rey (Daisy Ridley). There, one plot thread set.
The second involves our new central trio of Rey, Fin (John Boyega), and Poe (Oscar Isaac), with the help of C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), BB-8, and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), chasing several items around the galaxy to find the hidden planet where Palpatine’s fleet is preparing to attack. A timeline of 16 hours is set, but unlike The Last Jedi, which made us feel the urgency of the time crunch, The Rise of Skywalker feels meandering.
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The main problem is the script by director J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio. It spends so much time setting new story directions, redefining characters and their relationships, and squeezing in an overstuffed plot that it doesn’t spend time being effective at telling a coherent story.
You can talk about nostalgia and fan service all you want — there is a good way to do that — but at its core The Rise of Skywalker is flawed. There’s no way to dismiss it as “for the fans” or “critic-proof.” Avengers: Endgame was certainly for the fans, but managed to be a compelling movie at the same time by carefully structuring its script for maximum emotional payoff. All the moments of fan service here feel contrived and unearned.
There is more than one twist — some that should have truly been shocking — but the movie is never able to land them effectively because the build-up just isn’t there. Rian Johnson beautifully sets up the stakes for the third movie, but Abrams clearly wanted to go a different direction and instead wasted his time pulling emotion out of thin air.
If I sound overly critical it’s probably because I was really pulling for The Rise of Skywalker. I enjoy the Star Wars movies. I wanted to be satisfied at the end. But I couldn’t connect with anything. There’s a moment that should be as awe-inspiring as the Portals moment in Avengers: Endgame. Instead, it inspired a rolling groan from my audience. There was no build-up, no suspense, it just kind of happened. That’s the best way to describe the movie, it just happens. There’s nothing to experience and I want my star war to be an experience.
Random thoughts ?
- The late Carrie Fisher appears in the film as General Leia Organa through scenes she filmed for The Force Awakens that were composited in. The effect is a bit off-putting. It’s clear her dialogue doesn’t completely fit the context of the scene and comes off as clunky. That being said, it’s probably the best we’d get.
- Kelly Marie Tran‘s Rose Tico was largely relegated to the background in this film, which is really upsetting following her breakout in The Last Jedi. The character deserved more. She was the heart of the film.
- There’s a brief kiss between two women, which marks the first queer characters in the franchise. And while it’s far too brief, it’s better than other publicized gay moments in other blockbusters. I’ll just continue with my assumption that Poe is gay.
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.