Star Wars: Rise of the Fan Service

The Rise of Skywalker is the conclusion to not only the sequel trilogy but the entire nine film Skywalker saga. So then why doesn’t it feel like the conclusion has as much emotional weight as it should? As a movie just on its own, Rise of Skywalker feels a little reminiscent of Return of the Jedi. It has similar themes about conflicting choices and light vs dark. Rey and Kylo Ren deal with this just as Luke did in Return of the Jedi. They setup Rey’s doubts in the previous movie but Kylo’s could have been way more developed. This movie throws a lot of plot at the audience which feels somewhat rushed. There are good ideas establishes but they weren’t developed over the trilogy so they don’t feel as important as the script is trying to make them. Rise of Skywalker feels like it’s trying to undo a lot of The Last Jedi plot points to make everything have weight, like famous bloodlines and Jedi legends.

A lot of characters in this movie have no purpose and nothing to do. They bring back Lando Calrissian and he served no purpose other then he’s another character from the original trilogy. They bring back an old villain as the true mastermind and it’s Emperor Palpatine. The scenes with him is pretty creepy and actor Ian Mcdiarmid reprises his role. He does a great job as always, giving a very theatrical performance. It was a nice idea to bring him back but it felt like they were trying to cancel out Snoke. He kinda comes out of nowhere and it feels tacked on that he’s back.

Finn and Poe really have nothing to do in this movie. Finn is still pining for Rey and has one or two other subplots set up that never go anywhere and Poe is this just there to fly his X-wing. They attempt to give C-3PO something to do with this movie and they set up some sort of consequences but it’s completely negated afterwards. C-3PO is a little sarcastic toward the whole situation and it is a little funny. However everyone kind of ignores and rags on him. He has had enough of their crap and it’s funny in a kind of tragic way.

Now something the the writers did well was continue using the mind connection between Rey and Kylo. It’s to the point we’re they can fight each other without being in the same room. There’s one scene where they fight and the camera keeps transitioning between both their locations seamlessly. Kylo even grabs something off of Rey’s neck. It’s very reminiscent of A Nightmare on Elm Street when Nancy pulls part of Freddy’s shirt out of her dream. This is a good example of an idea established in the previous movie and continuing to expand on the idea. A lot of things in The Rise of Skywalker should have been done this way instead of rushing plot points. With the amount of information this movie throws at the audience and how it tries to makeup for the unimportance of themes from the Last Jedi, this movie is a lot of fanservice and almost feels like fan fiction.

The sequel trilogy feels like it doesn't fully fit as fluently into the Skywalker saga as the rest of the movies. Even Rogue One and Solo feel more apart of the story. The sequel trilogy also makes a lot of sacrifices and other events from previous movies less important. One problem with this trilogy is that the story wasn’t planned from the beginning. The story should feel like one big movie broken up into three parts but it doesn’t. It feels like the writers and producers just made the story up on the spot without a clear endgame.

The Force Awakens is a rehash of A New Hope essentially. The Last Jedi brought up interesting ideas and felt like a real film on its own but got a lot of backlash from fans. The Rise of Skywalker was an attempt to please fans, trying to makeup for The Last Jedi and give an over forty year story a satisfying conclusion but can’t because of the lack of story planning. The original trilogy was unlike anything of its time and was a huge success. The prequels told the backstory like George Lucas always wanted to so the first six movies feel like a complete story. The sequel trilogy was trying to capture that spark and success of the original but it’s like trying to strike gold twice in the same spot. It’s really hard to do and can fail. The sequel trilogy feels like a repeat of the original because it’s hard to have big stories in the Star Wars universe without having certain things in it like Jedi, sith, stormtroopers, Star destroyers, etc, so ideas are kind of limited. Smaller stories that fill in gaps in the franchise are good but they have to be about things the fans want. Rogue One answered a question no one was asking and Solo was a story people wanted but suffered from behind the scenes problems.

So for the Rise of Skywalker trying to do so much, it has character stories wasted like Kylo Ren’s. The character had so much potential but was inconsistent. Rey has the most character development and her overall story is solid. The villains were lacking and too familiar. The acting is great from Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver. The fight scenes and set pieces were mostly impressive. There are some great cameos from the Star Wars universe but the story and writing are the biggest problem. The wasted potential and inconsistent plot will annoy hardcore fans but casual fans will probably enjoy it. Having scene the movie twice I do get some enjoyment out of it but there’s not enough here to be a satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga. 🍔🍔 and 1/2🍔