Justin Hartline
Disclaimer: as far as Star Wars is concerned I am an eternal optimist. I was young when I first saw Star Wars, and I was immediately hooked. As a child I collected Star Wars action figures, I played Star Wars video games, and I probably read around 50% of the Expanded Universe novels that were released (which is kind of an impressive feet since there were a lot of them). In some ways, Star Wars is more then nostalgia to me. As such, while I will try my best, I’m afraid that this article will probably be less then objective. Also, spoilers follow.
I don’t think it’s possible to discuss The Rise of Skywalker without, at least briefly discussing what came before it. JJ Abram’s The Force Awakens was released in 2015 and was criticized by fans at release of being essentially a remake of A New Hope. Personally, despite understanding that particular criticism, I felt that it was different enough to stand on its own and that thematically, it felt more like a Star Wars movie then even the prequels did. This movie introduced Rey’s heritage as a major mystery of the film which led to much speculation.
This was followed in 2017 by Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, which wound up being even more divisive among fans. While many found Luke Skywalker’s bitter reluctance to train Rey to be a disappointment, I enjoyed the take on the character. I loved the dialog and how the movie changed the relationships between characters. While some were upset with the movie just discarding Snoke, I was never all that impressed with the character, and was thrilled to see Kylo Ren take up his dark mantle. The relationship between Kylo and Rey was especially strong and I appreciated that their growing bond continued into the new movie. I also appreciated the decision to reveal that Rey was a nobody, something which obviously plays into how I feel about Rise.
The movie begins with Kylo Ren finding an artifact which leads him to the reveal that Palpatine has returned to ally himself with the First Order. That Palpatine has returned was not exactly a secret going into the film’s release, and I was not exactly thrilled by the prospect of this. I still think that there are other directions that the series could have gone. That said, I thought that the way it was handled was well done. The whole thing had this creepy sort of Frankenstein vibe that worked well for the character.
I also enjoyed that Leia took over Rey’s training after Luke died. One of my greatest disappointments with The Force Awakens was that they didn’t do anything with Leia as a Jedi and I was thrilled with the bit of force power that she showed in The Last Jedi. The addition of a lightsaber that Leia gave up after her son fell is also a cool addition, even if its somewhat of a change in canon. I’d love to see a Jedi Leia show up later in other media.
My major complaint about The Rise of Skywalker was the retcon that Rey is Palpatine’s grandaughter. Going into The Last Jedi, there were not a lot of contenders for Rey’s parentage. The original trilogy really only had three main characters, and Han and Leia already have a son in Kylo Ren, which left Luke as the obvious choice. Two less likely options would have been Obi-Wan or Palpatine, but both of these characters were dead before Rey was born and would require the characters to have previously unknown offspring to make the connection work. On this front, at least Obi-Wan had a developed relationship with the Mandalorian Duchess Satine in the Clone Wars cartoon. Palpatine was elderly even in the prequel trilogy and single throughout the series.
Closing thoughts
As a whole, the sequel trilogy could have really benefited from being written by the same person and having a direction planned out from the start. The movies seem to actively be trying to contradict each other as the series goes on, which is not a good way to build canon. That said, I think all of the movies are solid as single films and Rise of Skywalker is no exception. I really enjoyed watching it despite its flaws.
