Movie Review: Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (PG13 – 142 minutes)

I’ve been waiting to post this for a bit, just to avoid any spoiler issues.  So, yes, big Spoiler Warning here at the top – This is going to be long - I’m talking about all of it!  Also – did you like the movie? Great! Did you not like the movie? Great!  Below is just my opinion - we're all entitled to our own!

Short version – I really enjoyed this movie. Star Wars has always meant a lot to me and I am beyond grateful that we are getting new Star Wars movies. This movie is supposed to be the final entry in the ‘Skywalker Saga’ numbered episodes.  That included the original trilogy of episodes 4 through 6 that covered twins Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, their discovery, growth, and triumph over the Galactic Empire lead by Emperor Palpatine and his apprentice Darth Vader.  It also includes the prequel trilogy of episodes 1 through 3 in which we grow with Anakin Skywalker as he becomes a Jedi Padawan (student), Jedi Apprentice, and finally a Jedi Knight while studying with QuiGon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi. Over the course of the movies, he falls in love with Padme Amidala and what with one thing or another falls into the dark side and becomes Darth Vader, the apprentice of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious – who is Emperor Palpatine in disguise - barely.

This new trilogy picks up years later and follows the adventures of Rey, Finn, and Poe as they lead the Resistance in battle against the First Order.  In prepping for this movie, I plotted out a flowchart to cover the high points of the previous 8 movies, and realized that most of it is Palpatine as he starts as a senator from Naboo then uses Sith wiles, apprentices, evil genius, and good old-fashioned politics to go from senator to chancellor, orchestrate the clone wars, promote himself to emperor and change the Republic to the Empire.  He legally works through the system to totally and completely rule the galaxy. Yikes. And his first name is Sheev.

So here we are at Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.  A broadcast of Palpatine has been heard across the galaxy – according to the opening crawl. This is odd, considering Vader threw him down a pit in the Death Star II about 40 years ago. Rey is continuing her Jedi training under General Leia Organa as Finn and Poe are working with the resistance to build additional forces to hopefully defeat the First Order.  Meanwhile, Kylo Ren has become Supreme Leader of the First Order and is throwing evil temper tantrums all over the place attempting to find a way to whoever is pretending to be the emperor.  He finds a Sith Wayfinder (apparently not a holocron, even though it looks a lot like a holocron) on Mustafar which leads him to a planet called Exegol.  In a large upside-down pyramid thing he does find the Emperor, or what’s left of him, claiming to have created Snoke and been guiding Ren from afar. He demands that Ren kill Rey and in return he’ll give him the ‘Final Order’ – which seems to be a giant fleet of Star Destroyers that are all controlled with one antenna tower. Hey – he’s not a tech guy, he’s a politician.

Rey, Finn, and Poe take C3P0, BB8, and Chewbacca to head off after the other Sith Wayfinder (because there are only two!) to get to the Emperor and stop him before Ren helps him succeed.  On one planet they run into Lando Calrissian who is just hanging out being awesome and on another some old friends of Poe’s.  Ren and Rey keep up their mind to mind combat while the group meets some other former stormtroopers like Finn, who begins to realize he’s force-sensitive.  Leia does what she can to save Ren, and eventually, everybody meets up on Exegol, for a final showdown.

This movie, like Episode VII, was directed by J.J. Abrams. I am happy to acknowledge that there are no unnecessary lens flares, so he is making progress.  I loved the pacing of the movie – it starts fast and does not slow down.  I enjoyed the framing, VII was Han’s movie, VIII was Luke’s movie, and this one would have been Leia’s if not for Carrie Fisher’s untimely passing. Even as such, she’s still a focal point, but I do wish it could have even more finally been Leia’s showcase. The new characters were fun but with the movie setting out to tie up as many storylines as possible, not everybody got enough time. That’s unfortunate but we are in a time where those characters can get spin-offs or Disney+ shows, so I’m okay with that too.  The core cast was great and seemed to enjoy their last outing.

• Carrie Fisher finally gets top billing, and they did a great job using leftover footage to make sure she still had a part in this.  I love the idea of Leia training Rey, and I was thrilled we got a bit of a flashback to Luke training Leia just after episode 6. That bit was wonderful and I wanted so much more of it.  I’m not all that thrilled with her end in the movie but I don’t think they could have done it any other way.  Chances are had Fisher still been here, Leia would have lived through the movie and been the one to have the bridge-talk with her son.  But here, she gives herself to save/redeem her son, and that’s certainly a noble end.

• Mark Hamill returns as Force Ghost Luke who shows up to give Rey some advice and catch the lightsaber he previously threw away.  He helps her find focus, and, in a moment that brought me to tears, lifts his X-wing out of the water and gives the most perfect little smile.  He’s finally learned to do the impossible.  Hamill was the heart and soul of the original trilogy and I have enjoyed his growth in these new movies. Also bonus fun that he does the voice of the guy who give the message to Finn and Poe at the beginning – who then gets his head cut off by Ren.

• Daisey Ridley plays Rey, who finally learns why she’s so inherently powerful.  She’s Palpatine’s granddaughter. Quite honestly, this makes a ton of sense to me. That dude was so obsessed with power and progeny that it wouldn’t surprised me if he has random offspring all over the galaxy.  Ridley manages to give Rey panic about her power, but never-wavering dedication to doing the right thing at the right time. Old Palps may try to get her to slide to the dark side, but she never wavers.  Also –  she does better at her ‘cave’ test than Luke did.

• John Boyega’s Finn has started to realize the Force is stronger in him that in your average person.  Back in the prequel days, the Jedi would have snatched him away and raised him in their temple.  I love the genuine friendship between he and Rey, as well as between he and Poe. He continues to give Finn a dedication to helping others and is thrilled when he finally meets someone who stepped away from the First Order like he did. Yes, I wish he could have had a little more to do, but hey, we’re trying to get a lot in this flick.

• Oscar Isaac plays Poe, and he’s been my least favorite of the new characters. I did like him better in this movie than in the previous two. He’s suddenly in charge of the Resistance and realizes (with Lando’s help) that it’s the strength of their friendship and cohesive group-work that will get things done.

• Adam Driver plays Kylo Ren and/or Ben Solo, depending on when you start watching.  This movie gave me a better appreciation of what he’s been bringing to the table as Ren. I found him to be a weak and whiny villain for the other two movies.  Here he manages to slide between horrific evil and terrified child, and there is something really compelling about that performance.  I did not think he deserved to be redeemed, but the way they pulled it off was great. His final fight with the knights of Ren was epic. Now, the end – I would have hated that he and Rey kissed if he had lived. Because he died, I am fine with it.  It acknowledges the bond between them, the fact that they saved each other, and the love they share, but doesn’t leave them in a romantic relationship. Also – I’m fine with him being redeemed because he died. Had he lived, I’m not sure I would have accepted his ‘redemption’. 

• Domhnall Gleeson’s General Hux returns to continue to be the absolute worst, in the best possible way.  He's been demoted but that won't stop him from being petty.

• Richard E. Grant steps in as the military leader of the First Order while Kylo and the Knights of Ren are off searching for wayfinders and Rey.  He looks like he is having the time of his life and I enjoyed every minute of him on screen.

• Lupita Nyong’o returns as Maz Kanata who was important here to essentially fill in exposition between scenes they had of Leia leftover from other movies. It’s a little awkward but does a decent job of smoothing out gaps.

• I really enjoyed Keri Russell’s Zorii Bliss and would happily watch a Disney+ show in which she does random jobs across the galaxy. She’s tough and interesting, and I’d like to learn more.  I mean, the Americans is over now, right?

• Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico gets almost nothing to do. Now, whether that’s a cop out based on earlier backlash or not, it’s a shame. I love Rose’s character as a beacon of hope and I would have liked her to have a bigger role here, but again – would love a Disney+ Rose the galactic mechanic show.

• I adored the addition of Naomi Ackie as Jannah – a former stormtrooper like Finn who suddenly ‘had a feeling’ and walked away from the First Order.  She was great in a fight and I would love a spin-off movie for her where she collects former stormtroopers and finds where they came from while dismantling any system that steals children to raise as weapons.

• Anthony Daniels has always been annoying as C3P0 – but that was the point of that character. This is the best he has ever been, so funny, so entertaining, and a plot point. 

• Joonas Suotamo played Chewbacca and I loved so much of what he did. Peter Mayhew was fantastic, but his knees were never good even when he was young. Watching Chewie run, jump, and really get into action sequences is very satisfying.  His performance when he learns of Leia’s death brought me to full out tears, which returned when he finally – finally!! – was handed the medal that he should have gotten in episode IV.

• Billy Dee Williams returns as Lando and honestly, feels exactly like he used to.  He acknowledges that he is the past, but that the strength of the friendship between he and Han, Luke, and Leia is what helped them defeat the Empire the first go-round. I loved seeing him fly the Falcon with Chewie, and I would love even more to see that spin-off with he and Jannah searching the galaxy for her family.

• Ian McDiarmid is the best part of this movie for me. He’s been playing Palpatine since 1983, and honestly, he’s perfection in the role.  As the guy who orchestrated the legal takeover of the galaxy, he giddily oozed evil through the prequels. He joyfully shot lightning at Luke for far too long (take your time, Vader, seriously) in episode VI.  Here, he chortles his way through dangling at the end of a robot arm while demanding both Ren and Rey do what he wants. No one has more fun in these movies than McDiarmid and I loved watching him exert his UNLIMITED POOOOWWWEEERRRRR again.  Also – outfit upgrade when he got those fancy read robes!

Overall, I loved it. I didn’t expect to, and I certainly had to let go of some things I had been holding on to from previous Star Wars movies.  Yes, there are bits that are nonsense, and things that don’t make sense, but it’s a fun movie, it has some great action, and it does a good job of tying a lot of things together.  For me, the central theme is about the destiny that is written for us versus the destiny we choose for ourselves.  The movie ends with Rey visiting Tatooine to bury Luke and Leia’s lightsabers because she has built her own.  A local asks her name, and she responds that her name is Rey Skywalker. I love this – she chose the name of those who trained her and helped her become the woman she is in order to honor their legacy as opposed to the evil master who created her and attempted to hold her to a predestined path.  She creates her own future and prepares to write her own story. 

9 out of 10.  Babu Frik is fantastic, that colorful celebration is fantastic, that weird alien on the Falcon is fun, and I love the voices of the past Jedis that Rey hears (someone please give me some live-action Ahsoka Tano). 

A side note on lightsabers – as we all know, the final step in a Jedi’s training (or a Sith’s for that matter) is building their own lightsaber.  Jedi find a natural kyber crystal that calls to them and assemble it into the hilt that fits them best.  The color depends on the crystal and the Jedi, which is why Rey’s is yellow and they can end up being any color (ANY COLOR, GEORGE).  Sith tend to create the crystals artificially which is why theirs are most often red.  In any case, building your saber is your final step of training and beginning of the next phase of life. This scene in the movie really hit me in the heart because in 2011, I moved on from a position I had that was a job and began a career that I love, I bought a condo, got contacts, and slowly began to heal from my youngest brother’s suicide in 2007.  As such, I designed my own lightsaber hilt to have tattooed on my back (the blade is purple).  It’s a reminder of who I was, who I am, and who I continue to be.  So that scene of Rey igniting her own saber, made from bits of her staff, really got to me and I love that it was included as one of the final sequences in the movie.