The Rise of Skywalker: a Review

Seven days after its release in theaters, I went to see Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker with my dad and my younger sister. Now, I’d heard that its box office totals were exceedingly awful: not expected to top even Rogue One, despite being the finale to one of the most epic movie franchises of all time. So, I went into the theater with dirt-low expectations. 

I came out very, very torn.

You see, it was awful in some respects, but terribly clever in others. The film centers around Rey’s journey to kill Palpatine, and the Resistance’s final (successful) battle against the Final Order (which, according to Emperor Palpatine, is the new First Order). Along the way, Kylo Ren finally turns to the Light Side, while Rey finally discovers her ancestry: she is the granddaughter of Palpatine himself. It was a plot with a mix of typical Disney-like happy endings and more well-thought-out twists. So, in my opinion, it was the delivery of the plot, not the general plot itself, that was the problem. And yes, I do believe there were several major problems with the film. A lot of negative fan reaction has arisen due to three main aspects of the film: 

1) Rose Tico’s meager 11 minutes on screen 

2) the overall lack of emotion, and 

3) Ben Solo’s death (I saw it coming, but I’ve got to say, it still stung.)

First, I really do think it’s ridiculous that Rose, a member of the Resistance support crew, showed up on screen only to make a few comments on the Resistance’s plan to restore the Republic. Not only did her lines sound automated and void of the emotion and characterization that was present in The Last Jedi, but her relationship with Finn has been vaporized. Their relationship had a good amount of buildup in the previous film, considering that the two of them journeyed around the universe for some time, trying to find a way to help the Resistance forces escape the First Order. At the end of the last film, Rose makes a proclamation of radical love to Finn, claiming that they will win the war “not by fighting what [they] hate, but saving what [they] love”. A noble idea—at least, I thought so. The directors obviously thought that Rose’s ideals didn’t align with what they wanted to see in Rise of Skywalker. So Rose was reduced in this film to a generic Resistance member, and besides her few robotic lines, faded into the background. Her relationship with Finn was diminished to a solemn, stiff line or two.

The reason for this, I think, was that Lucasfilm wanted the core cast—Poe, Finn, Rey—to work together more in this finale, rather than apart. The problem with that is, in the last film they did split the cast. If they had planned on focusing entirely on the core cast in Rise of Skywalker, they shouldn’t have brought Rose Tico into the last film with such an enormous part because it made her absence in this film seem like a push-aside, a wave away, and disappointed the fans she had gained through The Last Jedi. 

The second disappointment of the film was how truly rushed it was. I agree; it left almost no time for dramatic reaction, for surprise, or even tears (I didn’t have time to cry when Leia died—I didn’t understand why she died, by the way—when Ben Solo died, or when I thought Chewie died). There was little emotional buildup and that made for little emotional rising or falling of any sort. To give one example of this blandness, after Palpatine is destroyed by Rey, she falls to the ground, dead. Okay, I thought, that’s to be expected. She can’t be just fine after that, it wouldn’t make sense—and it was an interesting, gut-wrenching way to end the story. But then Ben Solo, who had just gotten thrown by Palpatine into an abyss, climbs out of the abyss. He runs to Rey, heals her, shares a kiss, and then falls over and dies (or rather, “becomes one with the force”). Cut away to the fleet of the Final Order battling the Resistance. This cut-off was so abrupt, emotionless, and puzzling that it made my head hurt. The emotions between the two scenes were awkwardly contrasting: Ben’s tragic death, next to the triumph of the Resistance being joined by other forces and succeeding in defeating the Final Order. It was simply ridiculous! There I was, gasping at Ben Solo’s death (poor him—he’d just gone over to the Light Side too), and I didn’t even get to mourn with Rey before we returned to the shooting starships and explosions and pilots swerving around each other in a frenzy. The quiet shock juxtaposed with the loud madness destroyed any emotion I could have experienced on either side. 

And this is not to mention the fact that even the idea—and this goes into the third complaint of fans—of Ben Solo healing dead Rey, then dying himself, is simply ridiculous. Not at first glance of course. As the we left the theater, feeling quite bedraggled and shocked, my Dad said, “What they should’ve done is have Rey die, then Ben revive her and die, then Rey revive him and die and so on until one of them gives up or they both are revived halfway and get to live.” And I thought about it; he was absolutely right! The whole idea of revival followed by death is silly. If Rey cares about Ben half as much as he did for her, then she would have revived him, and died, and then back the other way, and so on. Well, there’s a problem with that, you say. Ben Solo disappears after his death and becomes one with the force. Well, yes, I suppose. But that’s an enormous plot hole in the story: why didn’t Rey disappear after her death and become one with the force? Because she was a Jedi? If she was really dead, she would have disappeared. So then maybe she wasn’t really dead? Maybe Ben died for nothing? 

See, it really just goes in circles. The other thing is, Ben’s death was even more abrupt than the cutaway after it. They kiss, and they stare into each other’s eyes for a moment, amazed that they made it through it all, they’re both on the Light Side, they proved their visions wrong, and Palpatine wrong—and then, snap! Ben falls backwards and dies. He disappears. Rey stares. Cutaway. Absolutely NO EMOTION in the death scene! Or, if the audience did have any, if anyone had gotten around to mourning for Ben yet, the cutaway sucked every bit of emotion from the thing. To add to it all, his death was pathetically and hastily filmed.

On a different note, the thing which I did really enjoy about the film was the general, central plot of the movie: Kylo Ren giving in to the Light Side, Palpatine’s return and defeat by Rey, Ben and Rey’s uniting, Ben’s death afterwards. If they had plotted it out differently, left more time for tragedy to sink in and more time for joy, perhaps it might’ve turned out well—marvellously, even. But they didn’t. Another thing: I enjoyed the ending of the film. It was very reminiscent of the first few Star Wars films. In it, Rey returns to Luke’s childhood home, buries Luke and Leia’s lightsabers, and sheds her name Palpatine; she decides that she is now Rey Skywalker. There was something nostalgic about this ending, a reminder of the old films, which tied it all together nicely, and left questions out in the open air: is this truly the end of the galactic saga? Is the rise of Skywalker over—or has it just begun? We know that Rey has come to terms with herself and has decided to be not who her ancestry pushes her to be, but who she believes she is. And there’s one other thing: when Rey is asked what her full name is, she looks to the sky and sees Luke and Leia’s force ghosts nodding back at her. But she does not see Ben Solo’s—the Skywalker she probably became closest to. Was that on purpose? Is he still out there? I don’t know. I suppose we’ll simply have to wait a few years to find out.

*added note: a note of appreciation for John Williams, who composed the music for the Star Wars saga, much of Harry Potter, and also E.T., Jaws, Jurassic Park—so basically every mega-franchise (besides Marvel!) that I hold dear. He retired after composing for this movie. Kudos to him for a mind-blowing career!

by HALEY CREIGHTON