Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker

So a small bit of fair warning before going forward. I am acasual normie consumer of Star Wars and most of my interaction with thefranchise is the nine core films and a handful of the Clone Wars episodes(notably the Tartakovsky run). Also I will being mentioning a few minorspoilers mostly to help with certain issues I have had with the sequel trilogy.Personally the Star Wars franchise has always been just fun popcorn flicks forme and that is honestly mostly what I wanted from the sequel trilogy. Would Ihave been happy if they tried to take the series forward and tried new thingseven at risk? Sure. It is one of the reasons why the Digimon anime series hasthat much value to me. Do I hate Disney not really pushing as much as they werecertainly capable of? Not really. In all fairness the sequels have given memixed feelings. Not exactly a love or hate relationship, but something justabove okay. You really gotta do something to make me hate it.
So moving on to the final film of the trilogy. It did feel abit rushed. Like they were trying to cram so much stuff in to get this thingcompleted. It was not exactly like say, Endgame or Deathly Hollows where youcould split the films in half to get more of a complete story. Even still, itis not the worst rushed final I have seen before. The basic idea is that theFirst Order has been granted a super powerful fleet by the Emperor that could decimatethe resistance and they only have a limited time before they are sent out. Thusthe mission is to locate the fleet and strike them before they have a chance tolaunch. Meanwhile the Emperor is sending Kylo to hunt down Rey and since thetwo are still Force-linked it becomes a game of cat and mouse between the two.And thank you for actually giving us some more lightsaber fights, sequeltrilogy! Seriously, there has been a real lack of it in the first two films.That being said I do kinda feel like the battles between Ray and Kylo were atad drawn out, but at least we almost saw Rey nearly get her ass kicked to thecurb for once.

Okay, I do not necessarily hate Rey. She is not the worstMary Sue character I have had to tolerate. I think what irks me the most isthat she had honest to gods potential of being a really good character on parwith Luke. A scavenger who desires above all anything else a sense ofbelonging, of purpose. Someone who is constantly looking to the past foranswers for that feeling but always coming up blank, even when the call keepstelling her to look forward. Her finally finding a family and place among the resistance.But because of her lineage of Palpetine, the dark side keeps coming around totempt her; to offer her greater purpose than these ragtag team she’s come tocare about. Every time she thinks she finally has a family the dark side ripsit away from her (Han and Luke) until she falls into despair and loss ofcontrol and towards the dark side-but her new family being that single threadof light that will guide her and eventually to the new future. Showing thatwhile the past may be a part of you, it does not define you. Except, we neverget that. From the onset she automatically capable of flying the MillenniumFalcon, force mind control, etc. We never really see her honestly struggle withthe dark side. She rushes into dangerous situations and doesn’t sufferconsequences for her recklessness or pride. She doesn’t really lose anything.Sure she occasionally feels doubt and fear but it’s glossed over and isn’temphasized. Oh and the whole “I am all the Jedi” thing did feel a bit forcedfor me. Girl, Tony Stark you aint. Plus she should have said her family namewas Palpatine showing that she has made peace with her past and is now lookingto the future. For all the whole “strong female character thing” and all that-whatis hilariously ironic is that it’s the other protagonist MALES that are mostinteresting. Even from Force Awakens I cared more about Finn, Poe, and Kylothan I ever did for Rey. And they actually had honest genuine arcs and werejust overall far more compelling characters to me. Also Kylo is best characterin the series, fight me.

So what was my thoughts on the final film itself? Honestlyit’s a mixed bag. Like I said, the last film does feel a bit rushed and thereare certainly notable plot holes-but it’s not the worst I have seen. It doesactually feel like an end. One of the biggest issues I had was the pacing. Ifeel some of it could be trimmed back a bit-not that it did not serve a purposeor anything but sometimes the wait for the payoff feels…dragging. Also, hey wemake these super big sacrifices, aka Chewie’s supposed death and C3P-O’s memorywipe, and boom “hey they okay now”. Like why? You put this big dramaticemphasis on how important these things are and you just flick them off as ifthey were nothing. I get people were mad how Han and Luke died, but come on! Ifyou’re going to commit to this big dramatic cost-stick with it! Have Chewie’sdeath by Rey’s force lighting question herself and give her a real reason to beterrified and tempted by the Dark Side. Have C3P-0’s memory wipe be a reminderthat there are hard costs in the fight for freedom. Also when did Rey get forcehealing powers? Was that even an actual thing? Okay I don’t have that much of agripe about that because it at least pays off where Kylo Ren/Ben is concerned.That is the most hilarious thing about the trilogy, all the pieces were thereto really make something and for whatever reason they don’t go full forward withit. I get it, there is this constant push and pull with fandoms and I rarelyever want anything to do with them because I know how toxic they can get (lookingat YOU Ninjago fandom). But much like the Force, there has to be a balance. Ithink some minor fan input would have helped here and yes I know fandomreactions and the way Disney has been handling things has not been looking for eitherside and social media has not helped things.

That is not to say that the film doesn’t have its awesomemoments as well in particular the final half of the movie-where Finn and Poeare planning the final assault on the Sith Fleet. Like Poe does from thishotshot flier who does reckless maneuvers to actually thinking and using strategy.Or Finn who once only wanted to run away from the First Order is now using hisknowledge of them to work out a viable plan of attack like using the horsethings instead of speeders because he knows they can disable them. Or the huge appearanceof various ships all around the galaxy coming in to the fight. The Kylo vs Reyfights are pretty interesting as well-using the idea they are fighting eachother but are physically in two places and the cinematography takes advantageof that-switching between the two environments and their strikes affecting thesurroundings. Also the conclusion of Kylo’s arc was pretty satisfying and hisdeath, in a way, felt a bit more impactful than Vader’s because we do actuallysee him struggle between the two sides thought the trilogy as opposed to Vaderthat in retrospect kinda felt more like a last minute heel turn to me. Plus thesymbolism between the Skywalker and Palpetine aka Light Side and Dark Sideswere a real nice touch such as Luke’s X Wing and Vader’s tie fighter landingtogether (Kylo’s star fighter’s design still kicks ass though). Oh andPalpetine really chews the scenery out and it is glorious. That being said, despitemy hang ups I still enjoyed myself and thank gods it was not Digimon Tri. I’mNoctina Noir, and I’m one Nox of a Nobody.