Review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) by Alchemik — 20 Dec 2019

I honestly didn't expect anything from this movie after The Last Jedi – there was simply no way to really write the saga out of that corner with just one movie. However, I was still disappointed: while episode 8 was infuriating with its nonsensical plot twists and disrespect for its place in the new trilogy, this one was simply baffling: atrociously paced and stupid beyond belief. The number of narrative shortcuts and dumb plot points simply made me laugh bitterly, while decent character development for Ray, the first in the whole trilogy, felt mute in the wake of awful writing and J. J. Abrams' obsession with scale. The director shows Machel Bay-levels of equating large, loud events with epicness without understanding what makes such moments compelling. In the end, little in the film really has the emotional impact, or even dumb enjoyment factor it was aiming for.

There's also something more to it: as I expected this to be a bad movie and wasn't really moved by that, I'm incredibly sad about what it did with the Star Wars canon, already shaken by the Episodes 7 and 8. The force is treated in a completely careless way, being able to do whatever is convenient for the plot. The main intrigue makes everything that happened in the earlier movies pointless and kind of stupid. It's just a sad, sad ending to the mainline Star Wars and an awful point for any kind of continuation. People might've disliked the prequels as movies, but they built upon the Star Wars universe and made space for some really fun spin-offs. They disappointed, but ultimately kept the franchise fresh. This honestly killed much if my enthusiasm for Star Wars as a whole and it's heartbreaking. I give it a 3 as a movie experience, as it had a few meaningful moments and didn't irritate me as much as The Last Jedi, but as a Star Wars fan I could just as well give it a 1 for finishing the tragedy of Disney trilogy in an even worse way than it had to.