Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Overview

The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once again as the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron continues. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle begins.

Rating

16 Reviews

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  JPV852

  5 Mar 20, 2020

  Had its moments I guess, but the plot made very little sense and the blatant ways of trying to undo what Rian Johnson did, as bad as they were in The Last Jedi, just wreaked of desperation. Do have to chuckle at completely dropping the set up of a Finn/Rose/Rey love triangle, though in that case not such a bad thing. The one consistent thing from this mess of a trilogy is Adam Driver, too bad he didn't get the proper material to make the most of it. Beyond him, nothing else really works, even the direction from Abrams felt old, besides, not a big fan of CGI vs CGI battles (like in Transformers), lacks a certain weight and thus suspense. Further shame, now that the Skywalker Saga is done, as poorly made as the prequel trilogy was under the direction of George Lucas, even he wouldn't pass bringing Han (Ford), Leia (Fisher) and Luke (Hamill) together. **2.5/5**

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  Louisa Moore - Screen Zealots

  4 Mar 27, 2020

  When it comes to “Star Wars,” being a fan comes first and a film critic comes second. I was four years old when I saw the original, and I’ve been a huge devotee of all things in the galaxy for forty plus years. This isn’t a review written by a disgruntled fan, as I have grown to love Rey, Poe, and BB-8 almost as much as Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and R2-D2. But when a movie is so careless with its beloved characters both past and present, it’s something that can’t be ignored. The Skywalker saga comes to its disappointing end in this (supposedly) final chapter. The recycled story is basic and mostly predictable, as the surviving Resistance rallies together to face the First Order for one final battle. So much is shoved into this movie that it feels like a pressure cooker that’s being forced to tell a too-rushed story. It becomes frustrating early on. I realize “Star Wars” is a touchy subject and fans will always be debating the films until the end of time, but “The Rise of Skywalker” is one of the more mediocre entries in the series. From the reveal of Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) origins to the head-scratching actions of Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to the disappointing conclusions for Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe’s (Oscar Isaac) stories, this thing stinks to high heaven. Almost everyone does things that are totally out of character, events happen that make absolutely no sense within the Lucas-created universe, it seems like more questions are raised than are answered, and new rules of what the Jedi can and can’t do seem to be made up on the fly because they make for convenient story arcs. I’m not usually a literal filmgoer but this movie is so poorly plotted that its myriad problems are too abundant to ignore. Since this is a spoiler-free review I can’t divulge them here, but those who’ve seen the film will be able to name at least half of the dozen or so massive problems within seconds. Particularly shameful is the inexcusable way Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), who was a major character in “The Last Jedi,” is discarded like trash and relegated to a very minor background role in this film. Perhaps a defense could be constructed that she didn’t quite fit into this part of the journey, but I say hogwash. This is absolutely a decision that feels like it was done to appease angry internet fanboys who screamed and howled about Tran and her character behind the anonymity of their keyboards. Kowtowing to bullies is a colossal setback to the very themes that root the “Star Wars” franchise. Further aggravating to life-long fans is the sparse emotional connection that stems from the film’s many fakeouts. There are zero consequences to the movie’s most shocking moments. It’s a crappy thing to do because it assures a near-complete loss of trust from your audience. For every gasp-inducing jolt and hold-for-tears touching moment, a sense of betrayal almost always follows. Even worse is the quality of the filmmaking. This movie is so poorly shot it’s shocking, and director J.J. Abrams, who did a terrific job with “The Force Awakens,” is again in the driver’s seat. Only this time instead of keeping an unflappable composure behind the wheel, he’s swerving in and out of traffic at such a high speed that he spins out of control and careens off the nearest cliff. “Rise of the Skywalker” is broadly entertaining, but it’s not a good movie. It’s the year’s biggest letdown.

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  potus_af1

  1 May 11, 2020

  Bad. Everytime i watched Star Wars, i regret. So much hype.

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  Taduuuuum

  1 Jul 19, 2020

  This was painful to watch. Nothing works, it is almost like this movie was directed by someone who doesn't know the rules of this universe. Everybody is now force sensitive and random Jedi masters popping up here and there. A complete U turn from all the other movies and the direction they were taking and their logic. Lead by the most useless and lifeless cast ever, with a main character that contradict itself during the whole movie. Family isn't important but let me pick my family name because of my past... This movie finished to bury this franchise for me and I will now stick to The Mandalorian and stories like Rogue One or Solo. What a waste.

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  r96sk

  7 Feb 6, 2021

  Whilst still serviceable, 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' disappointed me - it makes for a relatively limp finish to the sequel trilogy. The plot is the biggest letdown. It's all over the place, it might have a good amount of action but the actual point of the film is uninteresting and feels like something we've seen before. The cast still do well amongst all that, but I can't say I'll remember a performance from this. With that said, Daisy Ridley is the best thing about it. Adam Driver is fine, but his character doesn't interest me much at this point. John Boyega and Oscar Isaac felt underused, while Kelly Marie Tran is discarded almost completely. Richard E. Grant is a slight upgrade on Domhnall Gleeson, but not by much. A shorter run time may have helped this, instead it feels kinda bloated and without much reasoning to be so. I don't dislike it, it's still just about what I'd describe as good, but given it's part of 'Star Wars' it should've been far greater - in my opinion, at least.

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  Murp

  1 May 29, 2024

  [MAJOR SPOILERS] I despise this movie with a passion. I still believed the sequel trilogy to be salvageable up until this point. Unfortunately, it ruined anything good the sequels had going for them. _The Force Awakens_ was full of trash to get you to feel nostalgic, but despite that, I thought it wasn’t awful. I still wasn’t a fan, but all hope was not lost. _The Last Jedi_ was worse. They completely butchered Luke Skywalker. Instead of being the Jedi warrior that ended the tyranny of the empire, he was reduced to a grumpy hermit drinking green titty juice. Pathetic. A whole lot of garbage happened in this one, although I did like Snoke as a villain and I thought he had potential. I had mildly enjoyed the First Order up until this point. Anything positive I said above no longer applies to this piece of hot dookie known as _The Rise of Skywalker_. Instead of actually going somewhere interesting with Snoke as a villain, they completely trash him and literally any ongoing story arcs from the previous two films because “somehow, Palpatine returned.” Yes, that’s right, they got rid of any building momentum to retcon Palpatine’s death with no explanation. And then Rey is a Palpatine I guess, but for some dumbass reason she takes on the Skywalker name and blah blah blah a bunch of bullshit. Rey and Kylo Ren’s love story is as unconvincing as ever. Oh also, they killed off Leia for some dumbass reason. One more thing: tell me, Disney, how tf does a literal LASER SWORD with the ability to cut through metal like butter, simply bounce off of someone, or doing anything BUT kill them on contact? On top of butchering the characters and plot, lightsabers were taken to the slaughterhouse as well with mechanics that make no sense. The one good thing about this movie is that it looked cool. And for that, I award this film one point. 1/10