It's probably a mistake to share any kind of thoughts on Star Wars on the Internet in this day and age. Oh well. The Rise of Skywalker revolves around.... *gasp* the return of Emperor Palpatine! Long thought to be dead after the events of Return of the Jedi, our main man Sheev is actually, in fact, not dead. I guess? Anyway, he's been scheming behind the shadows (again) for the past 30-something years, and it's up to the Resistance to stop him once and for all.
Logistics and unanswered questions aside, Palpatine's plans aren't all that new, and that's kind of clear early on. Overall, the plot isn't anything overly subversive, but it thankfully doesn't retread old ground as heavily as The Force Awakens does. No plot threads felt extraneous, either, which was something I felt during The Last Jedi (for the record, I did enjoy that B-plot with Rose and Finn; it just didn't mesh as well as it could have with the rest of the movie), but there were definitely certain things present in the movie where I went "what's the point of having that here?" That said, the story left more than enough room for a bunch of surprises. Some of these were really neat, and others were confusing or contrived. For some of the twists, the execution kind of fell flat, and all I could say was "oh, I guess that's a thing now." If I had to keep score, I feel like there were more pros than cons in this aspect, but I have to say, there were a couple of real head-scratchers in there. Rey is still the primary character, and she goes through an interesting arc that I enjoyed the concept of, but could've used some polishing here and there. She and Kylo Ren have always been the standouts to me, as they have a tad more nuance to them as characters compared to the usually dichotomous nature of the Jedi and Sith characters. The only things I'd say I didn't like about those two character-wise are certain things that happen toward the very end of the movie. Finn and Poe get a fair share of the spotlight, too, but I'm mostly glad that all three of them spend a lot of the movie as a proper trio (something I felt was amiss with the previous movies). Legacy characters like Chewie and Leia are less prominent, but still get to make their mark. There were also a few new characters introduced, but while they make a good first impression, they're ultimately pretty minor to the grand scheme. The only real miss for me is Rose, who I wanted to see more of, but she ended up getting the short end of the stick. The one thing I always give to the sequel trilogy is how much of a step up its action has been compared to the previous trilogies. The lightsaber duels had a visceral edge to them (while also retaining a bit of the flippy-dippy flair of the prequels), the dogfights look stellar, and there even a few particularly creative action sequences (one of which happened in the finale, but I can't talk about it). While the big blowoff at the final act (which I cannot give away) was pretty solid, I couldn't help but feel that there was a missed oppotunity in there. This wasn't as callback-heavy as The Force Awakens, but The Rise of Skywalker does have a good number of references to movies past, some of which were pretty surprising to me. In the interest of staying spoiler-free, I won't elaborate further. To boil it all down, I liked The Rise of Skywalker. Sure, I have my issues with it, like certain plot elements, the use (or disuse) of certain characters, missed opportunities to build lore, and whatnot, but those issues mostly didn't prevent me from enjoying the good the movie has, and this movie does plenty right. I still had a good time, but if my experience with The Last Jedi is any indication, some of the issues I encountered personally may slightly alter my outlook on a second viewing. As bumpy as a ride the sequel trilogy ended up being, and as flawed as its overarching story is, it has its truly standout moments. I'm sad to see it all end, but at the same time, I'm relieved that we're moving on from this saga for good (or at least, for the foreseeable future). The sooner they move on to telling stories that don't have to carry the burden of having to live up to a once-in-a-generation epic, the greater potential there is for all sorts of directors to push the Star Wars IP to new frontiers without fearing retribution from the vicious hyenas on the Internet. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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