MOVIE REVIEW: STAR WARS - THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

MOVIE REVIEW:  STAR WARS - THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Star Wars:  The Rise of Skywalker is the final installment of a story in a galaxy far, far away that began roughly 42 years ago.  We have been on this long journey, and through 11 movies (if you throw in Rogue One and Solo), we have seen the downfall of the Old Republic, the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire, the dawn of the New Republic, and now the overwhelming threat of the First Order...with what is now a ragtag group of Resistance fighters trying to restore freedom to the galaxy.  This movie bring us pretty much full circle in a lot of ways, and wraps up the story of the Skywalker clan in epic fashion.  This movie had a rather uptempo pace to me, with very little down time.  Also, I noticed that the familiar wipes and fades into other scenes had been all but dissipated in this movie...something that had honestly been a Star Wars trope, so it had a different feel from the editorial standpoint as to how the movie was put together.  Nonetheless, there was nary little to no real drag time in the film.  It really couldn't afford to have one.  With this being the 9th and final chapter of the saga, director JJ Abrams had A LOT of story to cram into a little over 2 hours.  

Many had hoped that when Abrams came aboard to direct the final film, in the wake of the massive controversy over Riann Johnson's work on The Last Jedi, he would find a way to either explain away some things fans felt were screwed up with The Last Jedi, or completely retcon the movie entirely as a vision of Rey's or whatever plot device he could muster up in order to give the detractors of Episode VIII some reprieve and quasi-satisfaction.  I think Abrams did an amazing job given the backlash of the previous film, and found a way to wrap this saga up in about as pretty as a bow as he could make.  These movies aren't easy to make, aren't easy to write, and it's certainly a guarantee that SOMETHING will be missed, overlooked, or not as easily explained away...continuity errors can and most likely will arise, and you are NEVER going to please EVERYONE.  While, I may not have felt that EVERY Star Wars movie has worked, I certainly didn't go batshit crazy over it, either.  The end of the day, while I DO want a story that makes sense, I will also try to see it from the vision of the creators as to WHERE they were looking to go.  In the case of the last 3 films---while we DID get new characters, there was also a lot of fan service given.  It was the final time we got our favorite heroes (and villains, in a sense), to have their curtain call...and pass the torch to the next generation.  When you look at these 3 movies...they're really just the final acts of 3 of our biggest stars of the series:  The Force Awakens was Han Solo's final smuggling run, if you will---his run to get Rey, Finn, and BB-8 to the Resistance under the First Order's noses.  Once again, he becomes the reluctant hero...and sacrifices himself in the end to not only save the day, but to save his lost son, Ben.  The Last Jedi was Luke's curtain call...as we see him a crestfallen Jedi Master who wallows in his failure with his nephew, afraid to teach Rey to use HER Jedi powers, only to finally step up when things seemed lost to put the spark back into the Resistance...even at the cost of his own life.  The Rise of Skywalker sees Leia providing her final burst of inspiration to lead what is left of the Resistance against the First Order, while preparing Rey to face her biggest challenge yet...facing Kylo Ren.  

This movie doesn't take long setting the tone, as we we see Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren decimating a race of people who resist the First Order.  Afterwards, we see that Kylo Ren, finding a Sith Wayfinder, to a planet called Exegol. He finds that he has been called upon by the now revived Emperor Palpatine, who admits that he created Snoke as a way to lure Ben Solo to the Dark Side.  Palpatine has plotted his final revenge, and has a massive armada of Star Destroyers ready to destroy anything and everything in their wake.  He wants Ren to destroy Rey, who has continued her training under Leia.  I figured that Palpatine might've been a bit of a later reveal in the film, but since he has been putting everything in place from the beginning, it seemed only fitting that we get to the reason why Snoke was dead---because Palpatine created him as a ruse.  And he needs to be able to push Kylo Ren just a bit further to end Rey's existence.  It sets up the story, and even though we know what his ultimate goal is, we wonder just how he will accomplish his goal, and when he will have to actually deal with Rey and the Resistance first hand.

Rey has been training with Leia to better hone her Jedi powers.  This is a newly added dimension to Leia.  Not that it wasn't out of the realm of possibility, but to know that she had been well versed enough to be considered a Jedi Master enough to teach Rey how to use her powers is a new twist, but a welcome one.  It's even nice that Rey even refers to her as "master".  While she is honing her skills, Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, and BB-8 are looking for intel from a spy within the First Order that Palpatine is alive, and that he's on Exegol.  They barely make their escape in the Millenium Falcon, and Poe pretty much messes up the ship, much to Rey's dismay.  Rey had a vision about the Emperor, and she used the Jedi texts to find out where Exegol is, but they need a wayfinder to get there.  She, along with Poe, Finn, Chewie, BB-8, and C-3PO head to Luke's last known point of his search to a planet called Pasaana, where he thought the wayfinder would be.  Rose stays behind to help with technical support against the oncoming attack they know is coming.

While on Pasaana, the team bumps into Lando Calrissian, who says he and Luke had been on the trail of the wayfinder, and points them towards and old ship where they thought it was.  They find a dagger with an inscription on it, but it can't be read except by C-3PO, who says it goes against his programming.  They have to act fast, because Kylo Ren has found them, and looks to destroy them.  Rey tells them to take off as she goes to confront him.  during the attack on the team, Chewbacca gets captured, and Rey attempts to stop the First Order transport ship from leaving using her powers.  Kylo Ren also tries to use his powers to help it escape, but Rey ends up using Force Lightning to cause the ship to explode, thus thinking she had killed Chewbacca in the process.  The group, however, DOES manage to escape on the abandoned ship.  

They next land on a planet called Kajimi to decipher the dagger.  In order for Threepio to do such, they must disconnect his memory circuits, thus causing his memory to be erased.  Rey senses that Chewie is still alive, and aboard Kylo Ren's ship.  They decide to mount a rescue mission with the help of an old friend of Poe's, a woman named Zorii Bliss.  Once aboard, Rey discovers the dagger in Kylo's quarters, and upon touching it, has a vision of the death of her parents.  She then has another Force interaction with Kylo...who had been on the planet searching for her.  He reveals to her the truth about her family.  That she is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine.  Palpatine had ordered the pilot who's ship the team found, Ochi, to retrieve her, but her parents hid her on Jakku.  Poe, Chewie, Threepio, and Finn are captured, and are about to be killed, when General Hux shows up, and kills the Stormtroopers.  It turns out HE is the spy, saying that he didn't so much want the Resistance to win, as it was he wanted Kylo Ren to lose.  Finn shoots Hux in the leg to cover his alibi, and the team escapes.  However, it's all for naught, as he is discovered as the spy, and is promptly killed.

The team arrives on Kef Bir, where they meet a tribe that turns out to be people like Finn...captured as youths and brainwashed into service of the First Order.  They are going to help them get the wayfinder, which is on the remains of the second Death Star that landed there.  Rey, however, is already on her way to retrieve it.  When she arrives, she has a vision of herself as a Sith.  The vision telling her to give into the Dark Side.  The team is on their way to help, but Kylo Ren finds Rey, destroys her wayfinder, and they face off.  Finn tries to help Rey, but she uses the Force to push him away.  Her and Kylo continue to battle.  While knowing she is dying, Leia uses her powers to distract her son, so that the team can make their escape, and keeps him at bay long enough for Rey to impale him.  Leia ends up dying, and both Kylo and Rey feel her essence go.  Rey uses her Force powers to heal him.  She then leaves him, takes his ship, and heads to Ahch-To, where Luke exiled himself.  She ends up burning Kylo's ship to the ground.  

Luke's Force Spirit shows up to convince Rey to face her grandfather, saying that facing fear is part of a Jedi's destiny.  He gives her Leia's lightsaber, and she uses Kylo's wayfinder and Luke's X-Wing Fighter to Exegol.  While back on Kef Bir, Kylo converses with the memory of his father, Han Solo.  He has doubts he can be the man he used to be, and Han says he can.  Kylo throws away his lightsaber, and reclaims his identity as Ben Solo.  Meanwhile, Palpatine has one of his Super Star Destroyers obliterate the planet of Kajimi. 

Upon the team's return to the Resistance, R2-D2 gets a signal from Rey, to inform them how to get to Exegol.  Lando and Chewie are sent to gather as many forces as they can to get support in this battle.  The rest of the Resistance head to Exegol for the final battle.  Rey arrives, and she meets up with her grandfather, who wants her to kill him, so that his essence can flow into her, and he can continue ruling the galaxy through her.  Meanwhile, Ben has followed her, and battles the Knights of Ren to get to her and assist her.  The Resistance arrives and starts doing battle with the Emperor's armada.  Finn leads an attack to take out a satellite transceiver that will have the ships leave the planet and begin attacking every planet in the galaxy.  Ben arrives to help Rey with the Emperor, but he ends up draining their powers to rejuvinate himself.  He then uses his Fore powers to attack the Resistance, causing their ships to fail, and begin to fall.  Rey then hears the voices of all the past Jedi, lending their power to her.  She gets up, and with both Luke and Leia's sabres, she blocks Palpatine's lighting powers, and forces them back upon himself, thus killing him.  However, the battle is also fatal to Rey, as she dies.  As the Resistance ships get back up and running, Lando and Chewie arrive with reinforcements, and the fight is on.  Ben eventually gets up, and holds Rey in his arms, trying to revive her.  He uses what's left of his Force powers to revive her.  She awakens, and she sees that Ben has sacrificed himself for her.  The two share a kiss, and Ben dies, his body vanishing and becoming one with the Force...the same as his mother.  The Resistance then finishes off what's left of the Emperor's armada, and the battle is won.  The First Order has fallen.

As the Resistance celebrates, we see various places across the galaxy also in celebration, including on Endor, where we see Wicket the Ewok looking on.  Everyone is joyus that the battle and war is over.

We later see Rey landing on Tatooine, and finding the old Lars residence where Luke's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were moisture farmers.  She takes Luke and Leia's lightsabers, and buries them deep into the sand.  She takes out her new lightsaber, much like Darth Maul's lightsaber staff, but this one with an orange light.  A nomadic woman who happen to pass by, and new the place to be abandoned, asks for Rey's name.  Rey replies "Rey.  Rey Skywalker."   She then looks off into the distance with BB-8, as she watches the two suns of Tatooine in the distance begin to set.  Beyond her, we see the Force spirits of Luke and Leia watch on.

This movie gave me quite a bit of nostalgia, and did--like the previous two of these final chapters of the saga, had a feel similar to it's original predecessors.  The Rise of Skywalker did have a Return of the Jedi feel to it, especially with the final battle, with the Emperor, and a redemption arc.  We also had a twist or two, and some nice cameos to help bring the Skywalker story to an end.  We also learned a couple things about a couple of more of the main characters we weren't privvy to in the previous two movies, which was interesting.  

Starting off...Rey's true lineage.  While it was true that her parents didn't seem like much, it turns out they were A LOT.  Her father was the son of Palpatine, but resisted his father, and hid Rey on Jakku to save her from being turned evil.  We always felt her parents were something MORE than what was let on, and many felt disappointed when Kylo Ren said that they were nothing in The Last Jedi.  This gave a new twist in the story, and explained the Sith clad Rey in the trailer we saw.  Rey's journey in this story was not one of redemption, but much like that of Luke---being the savoir against a great evil...one that happened to be her grandfather.  She was on a personal journey of self---to see how she fit into the world, and what her role in it was.  In this final chapter, we see that she has embraced the role of a leader and the last Jedi.  She is still weighted by her past, and it becomes a burden when she finds out who her grandfather is.  But, in the same way Obi-Wan had convinced Luke that he HAD to face Vader in order to become a Jedi, and save the galaxy, Luke had to pass that lesson down to Rey.  So, parallels were being used in this movie, and it helped make it easier to go down, so-to-speak.

Kylo Ren had been a tortured soul the entire segment of this story.  His desperate willingness to be as powerful and as strong as HIS grandfather drove him away from his family.  While we believed it was Snoke, it turns out that Snoke was just a creation of the Emperor...a puppet, in a sense.  One that was expendable once Kylo Ren had committed fully to the Dark Side.  Palpatine had ALWAYS had his sights on Ben Solo, knowing his lineage as well.  He manipulated Ben into destroying the Jedi temple that Luke had set up, killed his father, and nearly killed his mother.  But killed Snoke in order to take over the leadership of the First Order.  He'd always had conflict within him...much like his grandfather.  It took listening to the memory of Han Solo, his mother's death, and Rey saving him to realize that he could never truly give in to the Dark Side---he was never strong enough.  He and Rey's Force connection went beyond the Emperor I believe...I think it's part of the power they BOTH shared.  While Snoke says he manipulated it to happen, I kind of think that it was something they BOTH had the ability to do.  They were that connected to each other.  And when he kept offering his hand, to join him, she refused.  Only later on, when she had healed him before taking off to Exegol, she said she would've taken his hand...only Ben Solo's---NOT Kylo Ren's.  While I was kind of hoping for something more of an epic battle between the newly redeemed Ben and Rey against the power of the Emperor, we got what we got instead.  With so much going on in that movie, and the frantic pace the final act was moving, I guess I shouldn't complain.  The main part is that Ben embraced his true self, and committed one final act of good before dying---ensuring that Rey remains the last Jedi.  We get a tease of what could've been had they both lived when they kissed, but we also realized that ONE of them HAD to die in this movie---and it had to be Ben.  

We got to know more about the people on Bef Kir, who coincidentally share a common bond with Finn---having been former Stormtroopers who resisted killing innocents, and escaped.  It would've been fascinating to see Finn interact with them a little more, especially in a montage of some sort, as the galaxy returned to normal.  For what it was, it was nice to know Finn wasn't the only one.  Especially the leader of that group, the female known as Jannah.  It also would've been nice to see HER backstory---but instead, we get to see her interact with Lando, who's curious about her.  

We also got some back story on Poe, and it explains a lot about his character.  While on Kajimi, it turns out he was a former spice runner from his old partner Zorii Bliss---played by Keri Russell, who's face we never really see in the movie due to her wearing a mask the whole time.  But him being a former smuggler, it brings to light his ability as a pilot, his somewhat cynical attitude, but also the ability to be a natural leader.  I wonder where he might've learned THAT from?  Just curious.

Rose Tico---who had been such a firebrand of controversy from the last film, had a reduced role in this movie.  However, with what she was given, Kelly Marie Tran did a great job.  As well as Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd, who returned in her role as Kaydel Ko Connix, and Greg Gruenberg as well.

We got quite a few guest appearances in this film, both on screen and in voice.  Lando and Chewie...along with R2 and Threepio, were the only survivors of the main core of the original cast.  It was great to see Billy Dee Williams back on a movie screen.  This was a more hardened Lando, who had watched all his friends pass on.  Chewie and the droids are pretty much his only link left to Han, Luke, and Leia.  Nien Nub was also back, and glad he survived, and how about Denis Lawson making a return as Wedge Antillies?  That perked me up to see him back in a Star Wars movie, and good to know Wedge had survived and was alive and well, ready to battle again.  Also some props to Abrams for giving us Wicket the Ewok in a guest spot as well.  Warwick Davis is just as much a part of Star Wars lore as anyone.  And in the pivitol scene, where all the former Jedi talk to Rey, giving her their strength to rise and fight off Palpatine.  Was quite cool to hear the voices of Ewan McGregor, Sir Alec Guiness, Samuel L. Jackson, Ashley Eckstein, Hayden Christensen, Olivia D'Abo, Liam Neeson, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Frank Oz encouraging Rey to rise and fight.  It gave us that notion that while their bodies are gone, their spirits are there.  As Luke said in the trailer: "No one's ever really gone".  And they weren't.  We also got other guest spots like Ed Sheeran, Dhani Harrison, as Stormtroopers, and Kevin Smith and Jeff Garlin also make appearances as well.   Finally....some wonderful props to Ian McDarmind for his reprisal of Emperor Palpatine---a role which he excels in quite well.  And Anthony Daniels....the only cast member to be in all 9 chapters of this series.  

One more tidbit:  I was especially amazed at how Abrams was able to use footage he shot between Leia and Rey from The Force Awakens, and weave it into this part of the story, allowing us one more glance at our princess, before she passes on into the Force.  It was very well handled, and thought it brought a noble and respectful end to Leia's life.  The Force ghosts of her and Luke at the end also hit me in the feels.  Very tasteful, VERY well done.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie very much, and it checked off all the boxes for my Star Wars fill.  I know that the last film was a hot topic of criticism and controversy, I didn't feel the need to jump on that bandwagon.  While I absolutely have loved this saga, and have been emotionally invested in it, and wanted to see it through to the end....I also haven't been completely obsessed with it.  I don't have such a deep fanaticism with it like some do.  Have I wanted a good story?  Yes.  Has this saga failed that a time or two?  Yes. While many will never feel like they will ever get the so-called "bad taste" of The Last Jedi out of their mouths, I feel Abrams did what he could within a 2 1/2 hour span to finish this story on a high note.  Some might feel he played it safe, and just catered to the fanbase, in order to appease them, and give them something to hopefully satisfy their rancor.  For many, he may not have succeeded, as he may have incited more controversy with this movie.  But I have tried to be a little more diplomatic about my approach, and see things from the filmmaker's perspective.  They wanted to please the fans, and give them something epic.  Depending on who you are, they either succeeded for failed.  You can never please everyone, and they'll always complain about things.  It's human nature.  But at the end of the day---Star Wars fans will always come back for more---you can NEVER get enough.  

I feel I have completed a long journey---one that stems back to 1977.  I have enjoyed my stay and marveled at the adventures of some iconic characters in that galaxy far, far away.  But now the story is told...and new adventures await elsewhere.  

Your best bet is to view this movie with blinders on.   As you should every one of the moives in this serial.  Marvel  (ha ha...inside joke again), at where the story takes you.  The flights of fancy it has.  And for the hardcore audience---see it again from a different perspective.  But different eyes on it---you might surprise yourself at what you might find.  And to ALL of you...whether you liked all the movies or not---you'll buy the entire set when they release it sometime this year.  Trust me.

That's all I have to say about that galaxy far, far away....

Until next time, kiddies---May The Force Be With You....always.