“The Rise of Skywalker” released by Disney is the ninth and final chapter in the Star Wars Saga that has been building for the last five years. While it tries hard to capture the feeling from 40 years ago created by George Lucas, it comes up short but J.J. Abrams delivers may come closer than any Star Wars movie since.
If you’re looking for answers you’ll find them in this movie. A big return that shocks fans with Emperor Palpatine returning via the Dark Side of the force, Kylo Ren and Rey having an epic lightsaber duel on the destroyed Death Star from Return of the Jedi, and closure for the fans that have wanted to see the movies since Disney’s acquisition of Marvel.
The film itself is good, there is plenty of action, hope, and feelings that you can only get from a Star Wars movie. However; on the other hand, the movie is flawed. Let’s start off with the biggest which is the return of Palpatine. To this critic this feels like a massive course correction after the fallout from “The Last Jedi” alienated many fans who felt the franchize had lost its way. To me it felt forced and was a desperate attempt to lure fans back in who had written off the sequel-trilogy as a failure. How did Palpatine return?! Well, as director J.J. Abrams said this movie would tie all nine movies together and we get a vintage line does that from the prequel-trilogy.
This return also ties together the biggest question of the sequel-trilogy: Who are Rey’s parents? You get that answer from Palpatine himself in a line of dialogue that was designed to tie everything together so fans would not question it and it works. While its not the way some would have liked for it to happen you need to remind yourself this is a Space Opera, and a twist in the final act makes sense.
We get to see Rey completing her training with her new Master Leia Organa who now has embraced her connection to the Force in order to help defeat Kylo Ren. We get the return to the franchize of Lando Calrissian who once again takes control of the Millennium Falcon along side Chewy.
One of the biggest highlights of the movie is the epic lightsaber duel that Kylo Ren and Rey get into on the debris of the second Death Star from Return of the Jedi. This helped to close some of the wounds from “The Last Jedi” which failed to deliver on an epic sword battle and gave us Rey and Kylo making easy work of Sith Guards in Snoke’s chambers.
In the end, this is a very enjoyable movie to close out a franchise that has been near and dear to so many fans around the world. Its not perfect by any means, but the things that make it Star Wars are there. Force users, lightsaber duels, ‘the all is lost’ moment that can only be saved by the return of ones friends? Yep, you’ll get it all here. As being a big Star Wars Nerd I felt the movie was Ok and certainly recommend everyone seeing it.
Grade: B-
JD is a sharp-tongued Republican from the Midwest who prefers DeSantis to Trump. He Was known as “the voice of reason” on ‘The Vegas Take’ radio show. JD is a debate specialist and proven sports bettor with a deep voice and a deeper love for America. JD is unapologetically conservative and makes that clear in his writing. He can be followed on Twitter @imjdsharp.
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