Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Reviewed (Spoilers)

By: Jackson Dino, Editor-In-Chief

"They fly now!"

"They fly now?"

"They flow now!"

Following the recent release of Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, it is now safe to say that the Star Wars franchise is officially on life support - kept afloat only through the brilliance of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni and Baby Yoda memes. 

     The riveting dialogue highlighted above is a mere example of the poor writing exhibited by this mess of a film. 

    I’ve seen The Rise of Skywalker 3 times now (all in the span of 5 days). Every time I have watched it, I have increasingly noticed a plethora of canon-breaking plot holes. Director J.J. Abrams, much like the preceding Director of Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, elected to ignore basic Star Wars lore in his film. The aforementioned plot holes and narrative inconsistencies are far too numerous to count, although I will try my best to list some of the most glaring. 

• Near the end of the film, the “redeemed” Ben Solo is left stranded on the Death Star II wreckage without a ship. His next scene is on Exogol, where he lands an Imperial TIE fighter on the planet’s surface. There are several flaws with this, however. Imperial TIEs did not have hyperdrives. Also, what are the chances that a 30-year old TIE fighter strewn about the Death Star’s wreckage could still function?
• In the opening crawl, it is revealed that Emperor Palpatine broadcast a message to the galaxy, revealing his return and intention to re-assume galactic dominance. What logic was behind this? Had Palpatine not broadcasted this message, the Sith Fleet easily could have deployed from Exogol and eliminate the Resistance. 
• Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, C-3PO and BB-8 have encounter several plot conveniences on Passana. They happen to encounter Lando, who still is on the planet for some unexplained reason. Additionally, they happen to fall into the very quicksand pit that contains the Sith Dagger that they had been searching for all along. How convenient! 
• Zorii Bliss gifts Poe Dameron the First Order Token that allows for the Resistance members to enter the First Order Star Destroyer above Kimji. Later, Kimji is destroyed, and Zorii is seemingly dead. However, Zorii shows up during the final battle, with no explanation. How did she evade the First Order blockade without the token?
• In speaking of the final battle, Lando Calrissian is able to rally the largest fleet every assembled in galactic history in under an hour of flying in the Millenium Falcon, after the Resistance struggled for YEARS to receive any sort of military support. 
• Lando’s fleet somehow was able to fit through the red, turbulent section of space around Exogol seen throughout the film. This is never explained.
• Force Healing entirely breaks the Star Wars continuity. There is no excuse for it - it could have been used for so much in previous films. Luke could have kept Anakin alive. Obi-Wan could have healed Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan and Yoda could have resurrected dead Jedi after Order 66. The can of worms has been opened, and it can never be shut again. 
• Nobody in the group of Finn, Poe, Rey, BB-8 or C-3PO see Chewie being captured by the Knights of Ren in broad daylight on Passana. 
• On Ach-To, Luke Skywalker’s Force Ghost lifts his submerged X-Wing from underwater using the Force. The X-Wing is still functioning, somehow, despite being submerged for years. This also contradicts The Last Jedi: in that film, one of the X-wing’s s-foils was used as the door to Luke’s hut, yet it is fully intact in The Rise of Skywalker. Furthermore, at the end of The Last Jedi, Luke effectively committed suicide by force projecting himself to Crait. Why couldn’t he have traveled to Crait himself on the X-Wing, if it is still functioning? 
• The Sith Dagger is able to directly indicate the location of the Wayfinder device among the Death Star wreckage through a ruler extension on the knife. This, however, can only reveal the location of the Wayfinder from a specific height, angle and perspective (a vantage point that Rey, unsurprisingly, easily has in the film). Furthermore, the age of the dagger isn’t clarified. If it is over 31 years old, how would it be able to lead to the Wayfinder (through its inscription), considering that the Death Star II was in orbit at the time?
• Why can’t C-3PO translate Sith language? Who could’ve (or would’ve) programmed him not to be able to do this?
• This film’s revelation that Leia did train as a Jedi and that Poe was a spice runner before joining the Resistance contradicts other cannon material. 

Finn, Poe and Chewie on Ajan Kloss in ​The Rise of Skywalker

From a technical standpoint, the film isn’t particularly impressive as a Star Wars movie. The visual style is largely bland, particularly in the Exogol scenes, where dark lighting obscures too much of the scene. The visual effects are decent - but then again, anything beneath “decent” would not pass as a film in this franchise. The editing and pacing, however, are atrocious, particularly during the movie’s first act. Too much happens too quickly for the audience to adequately digest what is happening in the film. 

I should note, however, that John William’s score is as brilliant as always, and he certainly deserves an Oscar nomination (though I am partial to the award going to Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score for Joker). 

    Likewise, the film’s acting is sufficient at best. The film is carried by Adam Driver and his attempt at a  layered performance of Kylo Ren (though the script, unfortunately, works against him). John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Ian McDiarmid and Oscar Isaac are solid in their respective sequences, though nobody stands out.

    Perhaps the most compelling aspect of the film from an acting perspective, however, is the portrayal of General Leia through deleted footage of the late Carrie Fisher. Leia’s scenes, unfortunately, are rather awkward, and clearly written around the dialogue from Fisher that they had available. The scenes are heavily manipulated and edited, but they still leave a stiff impression on the audience. I understand that the filmmakers had limited options and wanted to play adequate tribute to Fisher, but the scenes are poor irregardless. (Disclaimer: I am not attacking Fisher’s acting, just the portrayal of the character in Episode IX). 

    All told, Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker is a disappointing, convoluted, confused and surprisingly poor end to the Star Wars saga. This Sequel Trilogy clearly lacked the vision of George Lucas’ prequels, and will academically be used as an example of poor management by Disney and Kathleen Kennedy in the future. We can only hope that Star Wars continues in the path of The Mandalorian, and not The Rise of Skywalker.