Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Review

"People keep telling me they know me.  I'm afraid no one does."

-Rey

When Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) returns from the shadows with a massive star-fleet, it's a race against time for the Resistance to find a way to stop him.  In the midst of it all, Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) are both convinced they can turn the other to their side.

Spoilers ahead!  The Rise of Skywalker was a major disappointment and I can't recommend it.

What Works:

The characters of Rey and Kylo Ren have always been the best parts of the sequel trilogy.  They are both very interesting characters and I love their dynamic.  They have great chemistry even when they face the other down.  Their story and scenes together are by far the best parts of The Rise of Skywalker.

The action sequences are solid all around.  I really enjoyed the chase in the desert it felt like classic Star Wars and it even gave me an Indiana Jones vibe.

The other great action sequence is the lightsaber duel between Rey and Kylo where they aren't even in the same location.  It's an excellent and well crafted sequence.  It's a great payoff for the telepathic conversations they've had since The Last Jedi and is stunning to watch.

A small detail I enjoyed is that when we first meet Rey, she is a scavenger.  In this movie, we get to see her return to her roots as she searches the crashed Death Star.  It's a nice tie-in to The Force Awakens.

Finally, I want to give props to Joonas Suotamo, who plays Chewbacca.  He has the most emotional moment in the film when he learns of Leia's (Carrie Fisher) death.  Chewbacca can only growl, but it's still a heartbreaking moment.

What Sucks:

The problem with Rise of Skywalker comes from the writing.  It's well known by now that they wrote The Force Awakens without a plan of where to go with the second and third films.  The entire movie feels thrown together and not well thought out.  The gaps in logic are astounding.  Worst of all is the inclusion of Palpatine.  It comes out of nowhere and was never set up in the previous films.  How did he get such a massive fleet of ships and who were all those people in his lair?  Where did they come from and since when do the Sith have their own planet?  Movies need to have their own internal logic and that was solely missing from this one.

It's very obvious that this movie is trying to undo The Last Jedi.  It's a cowardly move.  They needed to own what came before and improve it, not try and brush it away.  It comes off as insulting.  For example, Beaumont Kin (Dominic Monaghan) brings up the idea of using the light-speed kamikaze move from the previous movie to take down the Final Order.  Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) dismisses this plan saying it's a one-in-a-million chance.  Bulls**t.  You saying that it's a one-in-a-million chance doesn't make it true.  How hard can it be?  Point your ship in the right direction and activate the hyperdrive.  Give me an actual reason why we can't use that plan.  This is some lazy writing.

I hate that Rey turns out to be Palpatine's granddaughter.  I loved that Rey was a nobody who's parents abandoned her.  That's a great character!  Not every character in the series needs to come from these powerful force-sensitive families.  Greatness can come from nowhere!  That's a great message that this movie ruins.

What a letdown the Knights of Ren were.  They've been setup since The Force Awakens and they don't even do anything cool and we never learn anything about them.  Just another wasted opportunity.

The ending of the movie was incredibly cringe-worthy.  The scene between Lando (Billy Dee Williams) and Jannah (Naomi Ackie) came off as forced and awkward.  The kiss between two lesbian background characters was just patronizing.  Speaking as a member of the LGBT community, this was insulting.  Don't just thrown in random crap like this to make your movie seem progressive.  Make one of the main characters gay!  This was a cop-out.

Finally, we get a bunch of new supporting characters here.  They should have been introduced in the second movie to give us a chance to care about them.  It's too late in the story for this.  We don't get any real emotional connection with them and I didn't give a crap when they showed up in the final battle.

Verdict:

The Rise of Skywalker is an incredibly disappointing movie.  It has great visuals, some fun action sequences, and awesome characters in Rey and Kylo Ren, but the script is a mess with little setup for major components, extreme gaps in logic, and unnecessary supporting characters.  The story sucks and this ends up being one of only two Star Wars movies I don't like.

 5/10: Meh