If The Last Jedi was good but full of weird bits, The Rise of Skywalker is bad but full of good bits. And when I mean full, I mean crammed. This story moves at a ridiculous pace, spending the first half hour or so leaping between at least three threads, multiple planets, and a plethora of conflicting tones. Scenes end before they've barely started, and long before we have chance for you to get into them. This movie is like a taster menu at a terrifyingly dysfunctional restaurant, where even if you enjoy an individual morsel, the next one is being rammed down your mouth by an impatient waiter.
I won't spoil story, but on that front, there is one big element I can talk about as it is revealed in the trailers. Palpatine is back in some shape or form. But not in the most sensible or economic way you might expect, and the movie has to waste a lot of time explaining how he works, how to find him, what he's after etc. It feels like a 90s comic book retcon. Abrams evidently had a specific vision of how the new trilogy was going to go, and he wasn't going to let the drastic plot twists of The Last Jedi stop him realising it. Thus it damages a lot of the novel ideas from the previous movie to awkwardly put things back on track, and for our heroes to once again face down a big evil wizard.
Putting aside the lack of imagination or originality, the movie majorly bungles its story telling with an absence of streamlining, and with the inescapable plot holes that become apparent the second a new twist or element is introduced to the viewer. Some parts of the film also look plain stupid, for instance, we are shown a plastic, dollar store toy dagger early on - one of several ultimately unimportant Mcguffins - and I'm amazed that a movie that cost $300 million would include something so plainly crap.
I mentioned good moments, and there are a plenty that you might get a fleeting opportunity to enjoy. C-3PO (my favourite character as a kid) ends up getting a nice heroic moment, there's a couple of new locales I liked the look of including a hilarious Bollywood dance planet, and I liked enough of some of the new vehicles that I started googling for their lego sets straight after. Kylo and Rey's relationship ends up being the most interesting thing about the movie, even if they waste a little too much time sword fighting one another. I want to end on a positive, because I'd have liked Star Wars to end on a positive too. I suppose the best thing you can say is that on completion, you feel like the unspoken obligation to watch any more of these has been lifted forever.
It's Not Fine.
If The Last Jedi was good but full of weird bits, The Rise of Skywalker is bad but full of good bits. And when I mean full, I mean crammed. This story moves at a ridiculous pace, spending the first half hour or so leaping between at least three threads, multiple planets, and a plethora of conflicting tones. Scenes end before they've barely started, and long before we have chance for you to get into them. This movie is like a taster menu at a terrifyingly dysfunctional restaurant, where even if you enjoy an individual morsel, the next one is being rammed down your mouth by an impatient waiter.
I won't spoil story, but on that front, there is one big element I can talk about as it is revealed in the trailers. Palpatine is back in some shape or form. But not in the most sensible or economic way you might expect, and the movie has to waste a lot of time explaining how he works, how to find him, what he's after etc. It feels like a 90s comic book retcon. Abrams evidently had a specific vision of how the new trilogy was going to go, and he wasn't going to let the drastic plot twists of The Last Jedi stop him realising it. Thus it damages a lot of the novel ideas from the previous movie to awkwardly put things back on track, and for our heroes to once again face down a big evil wizard.
Putting aside the lack of imagination or originality, the movie majorly bungles its story telling with an absence of streamlining, and with the inescapable plot holes that become apparent the second a new twist or element is introduced to the viewer. Some parts of the film also look plain stupid, for instance, we are shown a plastic, dollar store toy dagger early on - one of several ultimately unimportant Mcguffins - and I'm amazed that a movie that cost $300 million would include something so plainly crap.
I mentioned good moments, and there are a plenty that you might get a fleeting opportunity to enjoy. C-3PO (my favourite character as a kid) ends up getting a nice heroic moment, there's a couple of new locales I liked the look of including a hilarious Bollywood dance planet, and I liked enough of some of the new vehicles that I started googling for their lego sets straight after. Kylo and Rey's relationship ends up being the most interesting thing about the movie, even if they waste a little too much time sword fighting one another. I want to end on a positive, because I'd have liked Star Wars to end on a positive too. I suppose the best thing you can say is that on completion, you feel like the unspoken obligation to watch any more of these has been lifted forever.