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Review of The Rise Of Skywalker
After eight Star Wars films, the ninth film had heavy expectations. Everyone expected the ninth film in the saga to answer some major questions concerning lore and the newly introduced characters, and above all else, have some of the amazingly choreographed lightsaber duels that have become synonymous with the series. After watching all main line Star Wars films, I can say that this film did have some of the better lightsaber duels. Whether or not it answered all my questions, and more importantly, was a good film is something that I have trouble answering myself. A few things that I pondered while trying to determine the quality of this film were how satisfied I was with this as a conclusion, and whether or not the plot of the film actually made sense and fit with rules laid out in previous films.
The Rise of Skywalker can be considered a conclusion to the new Star Wars arc which began with The Force Awakens, but whether it is a good and satisfying conclusion is something that I am yet to decide. For a film to be a satisfying conclusion to an arc, the main goal must be addressed, and in my opinion the characters must have experienced some substantial change. So, what has happened between the start of the arc and now? The arc began with the jedi extinct, the first order rising from the ashes of the empire to destroy the new rebellion, and a girl abandoned on Jakku by her parents. I think that we can cover all the changes by looking at the main character, Rey Pal- I mean Skywalker(?).
Rey begins the arc with untamed force powers, and the need for a family. Rey ends the arc with the ability to heal people with her force powers that she learned from her newly dead Jedi master, and the big reveal of who her parents are. I have major problems with how both changes for Rey. Firstly, why is Leia a Jedi now? Aside from a brief mention of her having powers in episode six and her weird and out of place flying through space scene, this is something that is dropped on us at a random point. I was under the impression that part of the reason that they needed to find Luke in episode seven was because he was the last remaining Jedi. Where was mention of Leia’s powers? Why did Rey go through all the trouble in episode eight trying to get Luke to train her if Leia could have trained her? If anything, this development only leaves me with more questions.
Next up are Rey’s healing powers. For a science fiction film franchise like this to last this long and keep any tension in the story, there must be some rules that hold back the mystic power from being an “deus ex machina”. The only time that healing powers have been shown in any Star Wars media has been in the new series The Mandalorian. Spoiler alert for The Mandalorian, where these powers were introduced by Baby Yoda whose mysterious race is extremely force sensitive for those who don’t know the lore of this universe, and in The Mandalorian Baby Yoda cannot use this power without going unconscious immediately after. In this film Rey introduces this power to us by healing a snake, then explains it as her giving her life force to the snake. This seemingly isn’t massive, but later she uses this same power to heal a fatal wound in Kylo Ren, seemingly without any drawbacks, not to mention the finale of the movie where Ben Solo REVIVES A DEAD REY at the cost of his life. WHY IS THIS ALLOWED? Palpatine having a similar power but in reverse is something I will not question, as at this point he is an immortal character that has lived way past a natural lifetime, but Rey isn’t even a Jedi master, and Ben Solo has never been shown to have such a power until this point. This power has the potential to completely undermine any tension the series tries to build in the future, not that this hasn’t already happened in some instances (is there any tension anymore when the main characters board an enemy spaceship?). Main characters have become immortal. This is the worst thing you can do to a franchise that lives and dies by its action. Who cares if Finn gets stabbed or shot? Rey can just heal him right up for free.
Finally, is the answer to who Rey’s parents are. There were many theories floating around after episode seven and the trailer to episode nine that there was some connection between Rey and Sheev Palpatine. The theories around cloning or reincarnation made the most sense to me. Why is this the case? Let’s break down the facts. There was never any mention that Sheev Palpatine had any family, neither in the original trilogy, nor the prequels. Palpatine showed a keen interest in cloning and in immortality in the prequels. Kylo Ren in episode eight told Rey that her parents were nobodies. Rey has an incredible affinity for the force, one that rivals a fully trained Kylo Ren after no training. This tells me that Rey’s blood line must be even more attuned to the force than the Skywalkers. This narrows it down significantly as in the Star Wars expanded universe, I believe that Luke Skywalker is the most powerful Jedi to have ever lived. The only characters with similar levels of power are Yoda, Windu, and Palpatine. Since Rey isn’t green, nor black, the more obvious answer is that she is related to the latter. So far this makes sense. How she is related is where it falls apart. Given Palpatine’s interest in immortality, finding a way to be reincarnated or transfer his consciousness would make sense for his character, and given his interest in clones, creating clones for himself would also be completely plausible. What isn’t plausible, is randomly introducing Palpatine’s children to an unknown Mother who has never been mentioned and claiming that Palpatine sent a random bounty hunter to kill off his bloodline. Why was the mystery of Rey’s parents figured out in episode 8, only for this to be retconned in the following film? The message of episode 8 as I interpreted was meant to be that the force is always balanced, so even if all Jedi are killed off, one will arise to bring balance. Tell me why she needed to be Palpatine’s daughter. Palpatine has always been wary of the Skywalker bloodline and love, so why did he decide to not control where he puts his own children, and did this evil self-serving Sith lord fall in love? Speaking of love and Rey’s family, WHY DID REY KISS BEN SOLO? The romance in these films was setup to be between Finn and Rey or Rose, Ben never had a part to play. Why was he randomly inserted into the love story?
Moving onto the plotline, there’s a lot to be said. The most important thing that Star Wars has always done is present the typical light vs dark fight, but then introduce some intricacies that show the viewer that there may be some grey in there somewhere. Star Wars has also been very good about making sure that events matter. Did they do these things in The Rise of Skywalker? Somewhat, but for a ninth mainline film in a science fiction universe with such a deep and extensive lore, much more could have been done.
In reference to the grey that could have been included in this film, it did a good job of pulling Kylo Ren into a state of greyness, where he finally accepted that he could return home, while not fully ridding him of all guilt. I believe that Kylo Ren was undoubtedly the strongest case for greyness in all three of these films in the new arc. Kylo Ren’s character was presented as a jedi who had been led down the wrong path, mirroring Darth Vader, except with even more self-reflection, being much more sympathetic after the audience learns of his connection with Luke and having motivations that, as a whole, make sense. I struggle to see these character traits in Rey, the most important character to have these traits. If Kylo Ren and Rey are meant to be equal opposites, then Rey must go through similar change and self-reflection, but instead she only makes decisions protect her friends, and whenever a moment for her to hear out Kylo Ren who is her opposite, she runs from it, in her mind turning it into a light vs dark conversation. The finale of this movie reinforced this idea even more. I expected Rey to become a grey Jedi after Kylo Ren died. This would make perfect sense to me as it would mean that she would become the balance in the force, and she wouldn’t have to suppress her dark side powers, nor cave and accept her dark side blood line. Instead she ends it as a Jedi, what has she learned? Only that the Jedi are good and Sith are evil. This is incredibly BORING, ONE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTER BUILDING AND PLOT STRUCTURE.
Making things matter in is important in these films, as the finale of a finale trilogy of trilogies this film has the job of not only making its own events matter, but events in previous films as well. This film did the former adequately, but the latter not so much. Rey’s parent’s being revealed by Kylo Ren? Retconned. Luke burning down the Jedi temple? Rey has all the books somehow so who cares. Snoke being killed? He wasn’t a real character anyway, just Palpatine’s vessel. Finn and Rose’s romance? Not a mention of it. The list goes on.
In the end, I did enjoy this film despite its flaws. Maybe I’m just a sucker for Star Wars, or maybe the intricacies of the universe and extended lore itself make me more lenient. Either way, if you are a fan of the franchise, watch it. If you aren’t, watch it. This film is the end of a new era of Star Wars, you’d be a fool to miss it.
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