Geekatana Movie Review - Starwars: The Rise of Skywalker - Threading on familiar grounds

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a movie produced, co-written, and directed by J. J. Abrams. It is the third installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017). It is the final episode of the nine-part "Skywalker saga" and was produced by Lucasfilm and Abrams's production company Bad Robot Productions. Its distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Wanting to avoid spoilers I decided to go watch the advance screening of the film which will air in the Philippines from December 20 to 22 on selected theaters throughout the country due to the MMFF. The film has already gotten mixed reviews from critics. And I wanted to see if myself to give my own too cents on it.

The story of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker takes place nearly a year after the Battle of Crait, rey has undergone intensive jedi training in the hopes of one day using what she learned to take down the First Order and Kylo Ren. All the while the Resistance gather allies and info that will give them the edge against the First order.

Storywise there's nothing new to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that hasn't been done before in terms of theme A lot of the film narrative can be thrown of as a retelling of already beloved Starwars story given a more modern approach and it does tugs on the nostalgia feel for a lot of longtime Starwars fans. This is definitely mark the end of the "Skywalker Saga" at least in one form. Although personally I got a more emotional feel out of the Starwars Episode 6 than this one did.

The banter and chemistry between Poe, Finn and Rey worked for me as a character. Seeing these three interact was entertaining and I got a few chuckles here and there. Theres a certain new character Poe interacts with that feels right off a Solo A Starwars Movie. Whether you like the direction they did on these characters will definitely differ depending on how attached you are. I also think some of the  new characters didnt have enough time to shine.

The film did a lot better than Starwars The last Jedi in terms of story consistency I think although it does very little new in everything else. No matter how good a trailer they showed the final product doesn't live up to the hype of those trailers as the previous two films felt more grand and exciting. The two and a half hour runtime felt rushed that a lot of the good parts were left out.

The grand epic battles that was the usual for Starwars felt lacking in this one. Those ships you see at the trailer was barely given enough time to shine onscreen as most of the screen time was given to character dialogue and plot twist that could easily make two movies. The plot of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker feels like it could...and should have been two movies. This is like revealing Darth vader is Lukes father and doing the final battle of Return of the Jedi in one movie.

How underwhelming is this? They introduced a new character that looked like said character could be some bad ash Bounty Hunter and said character didn't pull off a single shot. They could have gone all Starwars gunkata right there but decided not to for some reason. The story went too fast and the chance to pull off some epic cinematic stuff felt like it took the backseat. Also the movie makes more sense if you watched the previous two films.  

Is the movie bad? Nope. But it could definitely been better. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker tried to do too much that it felt like J.J. Abrams is trying to pick up the pieces of the last film and somehow make an ending to a Saga that hasn't even fully developed yet. When they played the John Williams original score in the film kick things up a notch. Personally I feel the movie needed a longer space battle and lightsaber fights. The movie in general played it safe and didn't take any risks.

Overall Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a decent finally to the "Skywalker Saga" although it could definitely have done better. There are parts you will hate and parts you will love depending on what you like on a Starwars film. If you been following the sequel trilogy and want to see how it ends than go see the movie even as a simple reason as to see how the Skywalker Saga" ends.