REVIEW: Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker (spoiler-free)

While this review will not contain outright spoilers [CLICK HERE for my spoiler-filled thoughts], I will be discussing the movie in broad, general ways, and that might be too much for someone who hasn’t seen it and who wants to go in totally blind. If you’ve seen the trailers and a few commercials for the movie then there won’t be anything said here that will be new.

With that said…

I want to be fair. Really, I want to be more than fair; I want to be magnanimous. Star Wars is such an important part of my childhood and experiencing them as a father of a Star Wars fan has been so wonderful these past several years. I want to like this movie, just as I wanted to like The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi on their respective opening nights (I love them both).

I did not like this movie.

To be fair, JJ Abrams had a very difficult task in front of him. He had three things to accomplish all within the same film:

He had to make a good movie.
He had to make a good third-part of a trilogy.
He had to make a good final installment of a nine-part saga.

With that three-pronged task ahead of him, the director famous for “starting” many great projects (Alias, Lost, Star Trek 09, The Force Awakens) now had to finish one.

Sadly, I think he wilted under the enormity of the pressure.

It’s very clear while watching the movie that, of the three tasks previously mentioned, JJ mostly concerned himself with the latter two, and especially focused on the middle one. The movie tries very hard to tie up the loose ends (as he sees them) of this Sequel Trilogy. Along the way it gives plenty of nods to the whole saga.

Where the ball is dropped is in making the actual movie itself any good.

There’s simply no way to sugarcoat it: The Rise of Skywalker is a bad movie. It fails the reason most movies fail and because of the same problems most failed movies have: Bad editing, bad plotting, too much going on with nothing of any weight happening, etc.

Obviously, I have some serious issues with the story (what little “story” there actually was) but I’ll save those for the spoiler-filled comments. In the meantime here are some spoiler-free thoughts:

It’s a mess.

It’s the worst edited Star Wars movie by a country mile. Every scene has a wildly different tone from the one before it. It’s like the movie had two different editors, each tasked with cutting together half the movie, one who wanted there to be tension and angst while the other wanted a light-hearted romp. Then they threw both of their halves into a blender and released this.

There are like fifty things going on but only three of them matter and those three should have been what the movie was about. Instead, it’s not about anything.

The movie is not about anything.

What in the world is this movie supposed to be about? Everything the characters do is motivated by something they discovered three seconds before. The “plot” of the movie is basically this:

We have to do X to stop Y: Let’s go!
Action scene on the way to X.
We did X…it says here we now have to do X2 to stop Y2: Let’s go!
Action scene on the way to X2.
We did X2…and now it seems we have to do X3 to stop Y3: Let’s go!

For two hours it’s like this.

After about thirty minutes I thought to myself: “Hmm. Is JJ trying to audition to direct an Indiana Jones movie? Is that what he’s going for?” I soon decided no, he’s not trying for the “thrill ride, every ten minutes is an action scene” route. He’s going for the “we don’t have a plot or anything to say so let’s just go loud and crazy for two hours and hope no one notices.”

The climax of the film is good as an idea and some of the moments are good but writers JJ Abrams/Chris Tierro had no idea how to get to that climax in any way that made any sense.

I don’t want to harp too much on the way it tried to bridge the disparity between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. I’m maybe the only person on planet earth that loved both of those movies. I know they’re not the same movie; they had different goals and different approaches but they did their jobs really well, in my opinion. I love the way JJ weaved nostalgia into the story of a new trio of heroes in TFA. I love the way Rian Johnson gave Finn, Poe, Kylo, and Luke strong and discernible character arcs that moved them from point A to point B to point C in a logical fashion.

So there are two wildly different movies from two directors with very different ways of making their movies, and I loved them both.

And then there’s this mess of a movie.

Again, I’ll get into the characters and where they all end up in the spoiler-filled review, but just to summarize: There was no commitment by JJ Abrams (as co-writer or director) to give anyone anything close to a character arc. People do things but it feels more like box-checking to service the needs of the thin plot, as opposed to a character slowly evolving over the course of a story.

The prequels had bad dialogue and too much reverse engineering. That being said, no one would ever (nor should they) argue against the “plot” of those three movies. There’s a story there and George told it, albeit poorly thanks to being a bad actor’s-director and a poor dialogue-writer.

The Rise of Skywalker, however, is just mired in terrible plotting. It’s a movie with nothing to say, with too much “going and doing” without any story or plot to ground it. The characters are largely wasted. The editing is horrendous. Not only does it fail as a sequel to The Last Jedi, but it also fails as the end of the whole Trilogy and as the end to the whole Skywalker saga.

It makes me sad.

5/10 – The Rise of Skywalker is a frustrating, poorly-written, edited, and executed movie. It’s an ignominious end to an important saga in film.

COMMENTS

Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

8 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Silver

10 months ago

It was a huge disappointment in my opinion. Parts if it were very good, especially the action scenes, but the plot jumped around and it was full of holes. So many questions were left unanswered. I hoped for a different ending as well, but I realize that’s my own issue rather than a true creative failure.

Arabella

I saw it Friday and my only issue with the film is that they left so many questions unanswered. Several things were referenced over and over throughout the franchise only to be surprisingly dropped. And I kept waiting for the answer. I think I need to see again without those expectations.

Snarky-Guru

I wanted to see this one, but the reviews have been so bad that I’m on the fence as to whether it’s worth getting out in the cold. Maybe it’s impossible to draw such a big franchise to a palatable conclusion.

KeeperofUnicorns

Reply to Snarky-Guru

I liked it, Snarky-Guru, and so did my husband and kids. Rey is a delightful character to watch as she learns more about herself. Movie goers seem to either really love it, or really hate it. It’s the last one though, so might as well see it if you’ve enjoyed the others.

Kkelie

9 months ago

I would say, go watch it. If you have seen the others, it is worth it. I thought it was good, not great. I wouldn’t have skipped it though. Go watch and let us know what you thought.

Thatcher

I rather enjoyed it. It’s true that the plot was sticky and felt rushed, but the action was good and the GCI effects made the whole movie. I know it was a controversial decision, but I think it was the right call to have Leia present. She has been a central character in the franchise and her story needed completion.

Gavin the Binge-Watcher

It just came out and I was looking forward to seeing it until I heard all the terrible reviews. I can’t find a soul who liked the film. They’re running the franchise into the ground. What a shame.

Shelbii

Reply to Gavin the Binge-Watcher

I didn’t think it was that bad. It certainly wasn’t as good as the other ones but it was good. I think that all movies kind of get worse as they keep making them.

Cookie	Description
_pxvid	This cookie is used for detection of the browser and distinguishing whether it is a real user or malicious bot.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Advertisement".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent WordPress Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	This cookie is used to keep track of which cookies the user have approved for this site.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-preferences	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Preferences".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-uncategorized	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Uncategorized".
CraftSessionId	This cookie name is associated with the Craft web content management system, where is functions as an anonymous session identifier.
csrftoken	This cookie is associated with Django web development platform for python. Used to help protect the website against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks
DSID	To note specific user identity. Contains hashed/encrypted unique ID.
JSESSIONID	Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests.
PHPSESSID	This cookie is native to PHP applications. The cookie is used to store and identify a users' unique session ID for the purpose of managing user session on the website. The cookie is a session cookies and is deleted when all the browser windows are closed.
viewed_cookie_policy	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Description
b30msc
btc
CMST
cref
d
gpl
i
icts
ig_did
mdata
na_rn
na_sc_e
na_sr
na_srp
session_depth
visitor-id

Cookie	Description
__gads	This cookie is set by Google and stored under the name dounleclick.com. This cookie is used to track how many times users see a particular advert which helps in measuring the success of the campaign and calculate the revenue generated by the campaign. These cookies can only be read from the domain that it is set on so it will not track any data while browsing through another sites.
__stid	The cookie is set by ShareThis. The cookie is used for site analytics to determine the pages visited, the amount of time spent, etc.
_ga	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_gtag_UA_60765351_1	Google uses this cookie to distinguish users.
_gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
ad-id	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content
demdex	This cookie is set under the domain demdex.net and is used by Adobe Audience Manager to help identify a unique visitor across domains.
DigiTrust.v1.identity	Registers data on visitors’ website-behaviour. This is used for internal analysis and website optimization.
dmvk	This cookie is set by DailyMotion who display videos, it registers statistical data of visitors' behaviour on the website.
gid	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
GPS	This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location
is_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
sc_is_visitor_unique	This cookie is set by StatCounter to determine how people are using the website
v1st	This is set by DailyMotion to display videos.

Cookie	Description
__asc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__auc	This cookie is used to collect information on consumer behavior, which is sent to Alexa Analytics.
__qca	This cookie is associated with Quantcast and is used for collecting anonymized data to analyze log data from different websites to create reports that enables the website owners and advertisers provide ads for the appropriate audience segments.
_cc_aud	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_cc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_dc	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_cc_id	The cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for targeted advertising.
_kuid_	The cookie is set by Krux Digital under the domain krxd.net. The cookie stores a unique ID to identify a returning user for the purpose of targeted advertising.
_px2	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxff_tm	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
_pxhd	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
ab	This cookie is generally provided by agkn.com and is used for advertising purposes.
ad-privacy	Provided by amazon-adsystem.com for tracking user actions on other websites to provide targeted content to the users.
ayl_visitor	This cookie registers data on the visitor. The information is used to optimize advertisement relevance.
bafp	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bafp_t	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_pl	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rf_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_rt_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_t_8b2087b102c9e3e5ffed1c1478ed8b78	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bfp_sn_td_2d31c94105a0aa6d1ceaea0c86c6b656	This cookie is from Media.net and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
bito	This cookie is generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bitoIsSecure	This cookies are generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes.
bsc	The cookies is set by ownerIQ for the purpose of providing relevant advertisement
CMID	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPRO	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
CMPS	This cookie is linked to advertising and tracking the products users were looking at.
dc_id	This cookie is used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator's permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers.
did	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
didts	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
dpm	The cookie is set by demdex.net. This cookie assigns a unique ID to each visiting user that allows third-party advertisers target that users with relevant ads.
eud	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
euds	This cookie is from Rocket Fuel and is used to deliver targeted advertising across their network sites ensuring users see relevant advertising.
everest_g_v2	The cookie is set under eversttech.net domain. The purpose of the cookie is to map clicks to other events on the client's website.
evo5_popin_instance	Prevents an interaction from reoccurring for visitors not accepting 3rd party cookies.
id	This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to build a profile of the website visitor's interests and show relevant ads on other sites.
IDE	Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
io.narrative.guid.v2	This cookie is generally provided by io.narrative.io and is used for advertising purposes.
KADUSERCOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
KTPCACOOKIE	This cookie is generally provided by pubmatic.com and is used for advertising purposes.
matchliveramp	This cookie is provided by w55c.net and is used for advertising purposes.
mc	This cookie is associated with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the website.
mxpim	This cookie is generally provided by mxptint.net for advertising purposes.
na_tc	This is a Social Media sharing tracking cookie.
NID	This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users.
nnls	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxrc	The purpose of the cookie is to identify a visitor to serve relevant advertisement.
pxvid	This cookie is set by PerimeterX who provide security analyst oversight.
rlas3	The cookie is set by rlcdn.com. The cookie is used to serve relevant ads to the visitor as well as limit the time the visitor sees an and also measure the effectiveness of the campaign.

Cookie	Description
__jid	Cookies set on the website by the third-party commenting platform Disqus.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
disqus_unique	These cookies are set by Disqus so that users can comment on website/platform.
G_ENABLED_IDPS	The cookie is used by Google and is used for Google Single Sign On.
mid	The cookie is set by Instagram. The cookie is used to distinguish users and to show relevant content, for better user experience and security.
na_id	This cookie is set by Addthis.com to enable sharing of links on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
ouid	The cookie is set by Addthis which enables the content of the website to be shared across different networking and social sharing websites.
ov	This is a generic functional cookie that provides enhanced functionality and personalisation.
ts	This cookie is generally provided by PayPal and supports payment services in the website.
vuid	These cookies are used by the Vimeo video player on websites.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker

You might also like

FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

Recommended for you