[deep sigh] Alriiiight…let’s get this over with.
The Skywalker Saga comes to an end (for the second time, but who’s counting?) with this ninth chapter in which Rey, Finn, Poe, and whoever else is left of the Resistance battle the First Order for the last time. Oh, and Rey finally manages to figure out who she “is,” or something.
Suffice it to say, for as much as I’ve been only a casual fan of this series, I can totally understand the concerns of the more hardcore fanbase. I don’t like messing with films after they’ve been released to the degree this series has been (as anyone else who owns at least one pre-1997 VHS and/or LaserDisc release can tell you). I don’t like the way many of the classic characters which define this saga have been treated in the present trilogy thus far, nor am I really onboard with the way many of the new heroes and heroines have been written. Not to mention the numerous plotholes and lore inconsistencies I seem to be finding more and more of lately the more they happen to come to mind.
With all this in mind, THE RISE OF SKYWALKER only exacerbates the problems and flaws of the previous two films, effectively becoming a hollow mishmash that sacrifices characterization and pathos for poorly-timed and often chaotic action. There is no surprise in the story’s revelations, as there was especially in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI; they evoke only sheer confusion and numerous questions as to whether or not the Force is actually supposed to work the way it’s depicted to work here. And I didn’t have to see or read the leaks of the film’s ending to predict where it was going practically from the word “go”—something which, again, RETURN mastered wonderfully in its original release.
Overall, it’s a shame how much potential has been wasted and how much goodwill has actually been lost with this fandom over the last seven years (THE MANDALORIAN notwithstanding, but I still don’t have access to Disney+ so I can’t tell you either way yet), especially since I actually liked where this sequel trilogy started at first.
Episode IX fails to encapsulate what STAR WARS is really about (even its immediate predecessors managed to do that in at least some way), and comes off as a seriously disappointing ending to what ended up being a seriously disappointing back third.
If only we had just “Han shot first” to be concerned about!