Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker

You should probably disregard any review that gives this a 1/10 or a 10/10. It is not a terrible movie, nor is it legendary. For the average movie-goer I suspect it will fall somewhere between 6/10-8/10. Highly enjoyable in terms of visuals and plot twists, but not enough to stick around with you for years to come like the original trilogy.

For me Star wars have allways been about good storytelling.

The original trilogy had a simple but strong and surprising story.

The prequels had their faults but they still told a great story about how evil could rise to power under the nose of the good guys.

The story in the rise of skywalker, is not existing. It just chaos. People running around doing stuff in a pace which seems to be an attempt to hide an incredible high amount of plot holes and inconsistencies. Even the ideas which could have been awesome fall flat due to the lack of an overall structure in the story and what seems to be a fear of surprising the fans.

The use of the force and the depiction of the power structure in the galaxy, is so vague and not in line with what was established in the previous movies, that it almost break the logic of the franchise.

If you just want a movie with stunning visuals, high amount of fan service and where everything happens as you predicted, then the rise of skywalker may be a good star wars movie.

I liked the music and the visuals, but the lack of good storytelling and respect for ALL the previous movies mad me sad.

... which is that there was no overarching story to this trilogy planned.

Say what you will about the prequels -years later they aren't considered secretly great or misunderstood. But they did one thing right. They expanded the universe of Star Wars with more world building and more lore, some good, some bad. The prequel story, while stilted, was the product of a single vision. In the end you had bad execution with good building blocks.

The Sequel Trilogy doesn't expand anything, instead it makes everything smaller. Star Wars has never felt so small and tired as it does after The Rise of Skywalker. Each movie exists just to tear down and apologize for what came before it. Anakin/Vader's entire character arc is completely and unforgivably undermined after this film.

Overall the movie was so bloated and overstuffed with choppy pacing to course-correct from The Last Jedi. It's Flanderization in action. The original movies had so many little touches and so much atmosphere and craftsmanship beyond a few big reveals, neat action set pieces, and bizarre coincidences with the same ten people running into one another over and over. The original films built iconic imagery and characters in the context of them doing things and bonding and building. This was not always perfectly done, but it was done well enough to feel meaningful.

You can't just write a movie with the assumption you already have all of those things and skip the work it takes to get them. You can trick people for awhile by using the familiar imagery and beats and deconstructing the world with meta-humor (Abrams did that well for The Force Awakens if nothing else), but you just cash in that goodwill and cheapen all of that stuff by association.

Oh well, the big action movies these days are indeed made for children and China - I can't remember who recently said that, but it's true.

Where the Mandalorian feels like somebody taking their own beloved Star Wars fantasy and putting it on screen, this feels like a marketing product. While the direction is enjoyable, the actors are doing a great job, the writing and the story is just checking boxes.

Retcon what the fans hated in the last movie? Done. Callbacks to the originals? Done. Cute new animals and droid for toys to sell? Done. New stormtrooper looks for game skins? Done. Are we blowing up random planets? Sure...

Best to get your SW fix from the expanded universe stuff. Pehaps where the company didn't spend a billion dollars on marketing, there's still room for a kid to look over the setting alien suns of his planet and dream of something more.

Unfortunately, this movie somehow reflects the way society's been going on for the last 15-20 years - the ever growing trivilialization, consumerism and regurgitation of works of genius from past generations who paid blood, sweat and tears for their works to be seen, heard and fealt - all of this now to get a quick buck at the local mall. Shameful...shameful...