Rise of Skywalker – Review
There is a lot of pressure on the third instalment of a trilogy. It has to pull together all the plot-lines from the previous movies. Rise of Skywalker is not only the conclusion of one trilogy, it is the conclusion of a trilogy of trilogies.
Some people have been critical of this Star Wars trilogy. I have mostly enjoyed it. There were some problems with The Last Jedi, but even it didn’t deserve the hate it got. Mostly what I didn’t like was the villain, Supreme Leader Snoke. I was good with his death in The Last Jedi.
At the end of the previous movie, Kylo Ren killed Snoke and took over as the Supreme Leader. It was also revealed that Emperor Palpatine was still around in some way, despite being killed in Return of the Jedi.
I was overall pleased with the Rise of Skywalker. The Emperor was great improvement for a villain. There was good development of both Rey and Kylo Ren, as each tried to bring the other to the other side of the force. It was also nice to see Lando Calrissian again. Plus there was a lot more Leia than I expected to see.
Minor Spoilers: I won’t give out the most important seekers.
The Emperor has major plans, both for Rey and for bringing back the Empire. In addition to his skill in the force, he has an immense fleet that the good guys have no hope against.
The only chance is to track the Emperor and his fleet down on the Sith home world. This leads to another last ditch battle that Star Wars is famous for. This even has an Avengers: Endgame kind of scene near the end that was very enjoyable.
This movie is actually be about hope, an interesting theme considering the first Star Wars movie was A New Hope. Where do we find hope? Is it in military might? In personal skill? Or in friends and community?
I see the Rise of Skywalker as a satisfying conclusion to this trilogy and to the Star Wars movies in general. I like what was done with both Rey and Kylo Ren. But who is the Skywalker that the movie named after? Is it Ben Solo? Is it Rey? Is it both? Neither? Watch the movie and figure it out for yourself.
