Movie Review: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

It's the FINAL DAY of 2019 - and I should end it with a long overdue review of one of the most anticipated films of the soon to be past year!

It's been over a week since Disney and Lucasfilm finally released the long awaited final movie of the "Sequel Trilogy" to theaters worldwide - also billed as the final chapter of the "Skywalker Saga" that began with the very first "Star Wars" film released in 1977 that introduced us to Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo, Darth Vader, and the rest of the wide fictional universe filmmaker George Lucas created from a galaxy far, far away. In this saga, we are introduced to new players and heroes - such as Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, and BB-8 who make up the key members of "The Resistance". That new rebel faction faces off against the dark forces of Kylo Ren and The First Order - who will stop at nothing to take over the galaxy and finish what the Empire and Sith started long ago.

Well, I finally got to see "The Rise of Skywalker" - three times in fact and for the most part it is a DECENT Star Wars film. I've said that in two of my video reviews which you can find at my YouTube page here (Non-Spoiler) and here (SPOILER), and I've delved into non-spoiler and SPOILER reactions for the film. Since enough time has passed and revelations are out in the wild, I'll give my honest thoughts in this post about Episode IX - and why I think its serviceable yet a movie that needed much more to make it a perfect conclusion.

Again, SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW after the jump, so read at your own risk.

So Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in a nutshell - it's the final battle between the good guys and the returning Emperor Palpatine - who's revealed to be the puppet master behind Snoke, The First Order, and Kylo Ren. He seeks out Rey, who happens to be his own flesh and blood - and from there it becomes a hunt to find out where the Sith homeworld is as well as confronting all these sudden revelations dropped to us since the beginning of the Sequel Trilogy.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | Final Trailer Except there is still A LOT of unanswered questions that still linger in the horizon, and the pacing and editing of this film make it clear that the developers of the movie were trying to compress and finish a story that had no clear structure or game plan to begin with. Many have complained about director Rian Johnson and the previous film "The Last Jedi", and while that has had its share of faults (including Canto Bight), there were still several elements that carried over to "The Rise Of Skywalker" that continued the progression of the tale - such as the relationship of Rey and Kylo Ren through their Force Bond. That was interesting and it kept a lot of us looking forward to what would happen towards the end - but that ended being a mixed bag and if you saw the film you'll know what I mean about that.

Putting the Reylo concern aside, The Rise of Skywalker did have its moments. The chemistry between the protagonists are still there - and everyone wants to see more Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo Ren interact and battle with one another. There's also the nostalgia and sight for sore eyes feeling of seeing old familiar faces like the returning Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon, C-3P0, R2-D2, and of course the late great Carrie Fisher in her last featured performance as General Leia Organa through the use of unused footage. Director J.J. Abrams did his best to weave together a cohesive plot for Leia that almost seems like she did film those scenes for the movie, and for the most part it was done well and is a good respectful sendoff for the character.

Overall, I personally think "The Rise Of Skywalker" would have benefitted from being split into two films  - a fact one of the writers of the movie, Chris Terrio, even confirmed in an article by Cinema Blend. It's by no means a terrible film - any Star Wars fan like myself would still go to see it and again I did say it was Decent. However after three viewings and finally weighing my thoughts out - I would have wanted more exposition and exploration if they gave this more room to play with instead of compressing it into one final film. I did enjoy seeing Ian McDiarmid back as Palpatine... But, again, too short and convenient. Still - if you want to see the conclusion to the saga - you still need to see this film in theaters. We won't be getting a Star Wars film in a good long while despite having things like "The Mandalorian" to tide us over.

That being said... HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will have its proper theatrical run in The Philippines on January 8, 2020 courtesy of Disney PH.

Rating - 3.5/5