Movie

Star Wars IX The Rise of Skywalker is a frankenstein's monster of a movie. I did enjoy this movie but overall it’s a bloated stapled together narrative mess. This is one of the hardest movies to review without spoilers but I will try my best to tell you what I liked and didn’t like about this movie without ruining it.

Rise of Skywalker takes place some time after the events of The Last Jedi. This movie serves as a third movie in this Star Wars sequel trilogy and it concludes the stories of Rey, Finn, Poe & BB8. In many ways this film feels like a massive course correction from Last Jedi. The plot of revolves around Rey, Fin, Poe and the resistance who is trying to find a way to defeat the first order and restore peace to the galaxy. The first half of this movie feels like a game of find the macguffin. The main characters keep visiting different planets to find different things they need and it becomes annoying. The movie reintroduces a classic villain from the Star Wars lore. I won’t mention his name for the sake of spoilers but I will say this addition didn’t feel organically input into this narrative. I feel like the reintroduction of this villain feels too convenient for this story. The make it work but it’s not pretty and its far from ideal. This is kinda like making square peg fit into the circular hole, yeah it’s possible but it’s far from a natural fit. Does the resistance find a way to save the galaxy ? Does Rey find the truth about her ancestry ? You will have to watch the movie to find out.

My biggest problem with this movie are the huge amount of plot contrivances. I can suspend my disbelief to a point, but this movie is ridicilous. The plot contrivances also bleed over to issues that I have with certain characters. Rey will often space out and abandon her comrades. The movie finds flimsy excuses to separate Rey from the rest of the group. I found Rey to be annoying in this movie. I liked her character in the previous two Star Wars movies The Last Jedi and The Force Awakens but I didn’t like her in this movie. Moving on from Rey on three different occasions three different characters are essentially used as plot devices and it feels off-putting. It’s hard to describe but many story beats feel pointless. Too many times things fell too perfectly into place.

The action, special effects, comedy and the conclusion are really enjoyable aspects of this movie. Action scenes are thrilling to watch and feel well choreographed. The special effects are well done and compliment the action scenes well. The comedic aspects of this movie work perfectly. I had many hearty laughs as I watched this movie. Poe is given more screen time in this movie and I love it. The movie concludes in a satisfying way even it feels too convenient. The movie has many touching scenes that truly resonate and are well done. This is a very entertaining fun action packed movie.

Regarding the filmmaking I didn’t like many aspects of this movie. The strobe effect is over used in this movie. The movie has too many choppy quick cuts. Many shots are too zoomed in to the characters. Some of the movie looks blurry. Somehow it feels both too long and rushed at the same time. I also feel like this movie could have been called episode 10 instead of 9 because I feel like they skipped over many large aspects of the plot. This movie feels sloppily put together to try to please everyone.

Overall I did enjoy my time with Star Wars IX The Rise of Skywalker. It is a very flawed movie but I did have fun with it.

Final Verdict: 7/10