I love this spot at Disney Springs… Last night my daughter and I got to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as part of a hosted media group. Seeing the movie was a bit hard for me, because Star Wars has been a constant in my life. That said, this is the third time that I’ve seen “the final” Star Wars movie, so I have been through this before. What is even harder than the saga ending is the thought of writing a review without giving anything away. I am going to try anyway.
For me, nothing will ever come close to the original Star Wars trilogy. I rewatched them recently, and they are just as exciting to me now as they were when I first saw them. I like the prequels, but I do not consider them in the same league as the original trilogy. I really like The Force Awakens, but The Last Jedi, not so much. There were things that I liked, but there were a few things that I can’t and still don’t accept as Star Wars. I simply like to think that they were a bad dream. There were times when I felt like I was watching the latest Harry Potter movie instead of Star Wars. I also thought that some of the characters acted out of character.
I am pleased to say that I really enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker. It is far from a perfect movie, but it is a vast improvement. Director J.J. Abrams fixed a lot of the problems, and he was able to make a movie that once again felt like Star Wars.
There is great character development in The Rise of Skywalker, especially with the main trio. Most notably is the character of Poe, who was just a jerk in The Last Jedi. He finally gets to show some real emotion, and he seems human for a change.
One of my favorite things was that Lando finally showed up. That’s not a spoiler, it’s a well known fact. He was really needed in this one, especially after the death of Carrie Fisher. I read that the original idea was that this was to be Leia’s movie, much as The Force Awakens was Han’s and The Last Jedi was Luke’s. Billy Dee Williams is a delightful actor to watch, and he brought some extra magic to the film.
I was also pleased with how the footage with Leia was handled. J.J. Abrams should be very proud of himself, he pulled it off flawlessly. There are scenes that she in that include actors who weren’t in The Force Awakens! If someone didn’t know that Carrie Fisher had passed, I am sure that they would think that her scenes were filmed for this movie.
The Rise of Skywalker is filled with humor, sadness, thrills, and surprises. There is one moment where they really got me, I literally gasped at what happened. There were times when I cheered, and times when I wiped away tears. I was never bored. When I walked out of The Last Jedi, a friend asked me what I thought. My immediately response was, “it was really long”. The Rise of Skywalker is also almost two and a half hours, but it didn’t feel like it. The time actually went by pretty quickly.
So without giving anything away, that is my review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. I really enjoyed it. The original trilogy will always be my favorite, but I think that this movie is a nice addition to The Skywalker Saga.