After we saw an epic appearance of Luke Skywalker in the ending of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the franchise seems left a question regarding Kylo Ren’s and Rey’s fate. Since the unexpected lightsaber battle scene of the two on the same movie, I wonder who will attract the another to his/her side. That’s what make me to not skip this movie over, even though I’m not a fan of Star Wars franchise. Then, here’s my review of the ninth episode of Star Wars, as a neutral fan.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is started with the revelation of the mastermind of the First Order who is the old antagonist. After that, we’d see Kylo Ren kept killing his threats then follow the Sith wayfinder to find “the mastermind”, who wanted him to kill Rey as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Rey was continuing her Jedi training under Leia. When the Rebellion got an information about Palpatine’s return from a First Order spy, it distracted Rey who also found a way to encounter Palpatine. Hence Rey, Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, BB-8, and C-3PO made a trip to find the Sith wayfinder, which is similar with Kylo’s. They do it with a hope to destroy Palpatine soon.
Basically the main story of the movie is about Rey finding her identity. We could expect that the movie will reveal Rey’s family line, and it is. Later, the movie will be concluded with the identity she chose herself, instead of accepting her fate. The “choosing path” plot is also given to Kylo. After we saw the two could communicate through telepathy at the previous episode, now we’d see them can do more than talking via their force.
Drama part in this movie is delivered not strong enough, and doesn’t exploit well the character development invested from the previous episode. There is a character who we expected to die at the previous episode, but his/her fate is ended by a sudden, anticlimax sacrificial (it’s easy to guess who is it, right?). Hence, we couldn’t really sad when seeing that scene. The movie also deliver a will-be-touching moment about friendship with a droid, but later it’s given a simple solution, then cancel our sympathy. Try to make a surprising plot, the movie inserted an unexpected character twist, but has shallow background, and is concluded shortly. Maybe the script writer was more focused on the story of Rey’s and co’s adventure that takes quite many setting instead of the drama part from interaction of the characters.
The movie delivers many surprises indeed for their fans. However the surprise such as bringing the characters from the previous episodes is considered as normal since Star Wars is a big franchise. Beside of old characters, the movie also introduces new woman character who has similar background with Finn and will cooperate with him in the movie. I could agree if people say that the movie delivers too many fan services referenced from previous episodes. However the fan services are delivered with less impressive way. There are only regular lightsaber battles and spaceship encounter, the mandatory element from the current trilogy, which is not special anymore.
In the end, I still like The Last Jedi than this movie. After watching this movie, I also learned that “ended happily” isn’t criteria of a good movie if the storyline isn’t strong enough. However I still enjoy the galaxy trip from Rey and co. and appreciate the fan service the director gave. Hence, I give 7 of 10 score for this movie.
Notes of Hobbies 