Mario's Musings: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Author’s Note: Sorry I haven’t mused in a while, the holidays followed by a rough bout of bronchitis really take it out of you. Also, not turning on my computer since December 23rd was kind of liberating. And now on to the show…
This is it. The last Star Wars movie (until the next one), the one that’s going to finally end the entire Skywalker saga that started back in 1977. And it was… just okay.
Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie, and I got some chills watching it, but honestly, it moved at a break neck speed without giving the viewer any time to breathe. And with Star Wars, you always need room to breathe. The Palpatine return made no sense whatsoever and ruined the build of Kylo Ren as the big bad of the new Star Wars trilogy. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t exactly clamoring for a return of the villain from the last TWO trilogies. Palpatine was the past, and Kylo Ren is the future.
I know what you’re saying: “Well, The Last Jedi had Kylo Ren kill off Snoke, who was supposed to be the big bad of the new trilogy.” Sorry pal, that doesn’t fly with me, because that scene where Kylo kills off Snoke was brilliant. It was the basically the final nail in the coffin of Ben Solo. And then his behavior in the rest of the film, where he’s basically ready to wipe the Resistance out completely before Luke Skywalker intervenes. Kylo Ren was always intended to be the big bad from the moment he killed Han Solo.
So back to the current film, which honestly suffers because for some reason people hated The Last Jedi and Disney felt that J.J. Abrams needed to do some course correcting that wasn’t needed. So now, Abrams was trying to please everyone. It’s nothing but chase scenes, filled with the occasional exposition, followed by more chase scenes, continued ad nasuem. And I already mentioned my dislike of the Palpatine return. This should have been the movie focusing on the new characters, but the movie primarily focuses on Rey and leaves Finn and Poe on the back burner. Then there’s poor Rose, who’s in it for a brief cup of coffee and that’s it, because for some reason fans complained that she was somehow worse than Jar Jar Binks. She wasn’t. Those fans were wrong.
Are there good moments? Of course! Kylo Ren redeeming himself as Ben Solo was a great moment, especially when Adam Driver does the Harrison Ford shrug during his showdown with the Knights of Ren (another criminal case of background window dressing). In closing, this was two movies worth of content crammed into one movie, with no room to breathe while trying to please everyone all at once, which is not something that’s possible. This movie needed another year in production. Also, Rise of Skywalker as a title makes NO SENSE.
But hey, we got to see Lando again, that was cool. I guess.
