My journey to The Rise of Skywalker

My wife and I went and had a nice date night last night. We went and had dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurant, did some quick shopping for Christmas, and ended with watching The Rise of Skywalker.

I feel I should point out before we get to the nitty gritty that I love both The Force Awakens (TFA) and The Last Jedi (TLJ). In fact, The Last Jedi is my favorite movie of all the Star Wars films. Please note, I said my favorite, not the best as the best is clearly Empire Strikes Back.

Before we get to The Rise of Skywalker (ROS), first let's travel back in time all the way to 1983's Return of the Jedi. Why are we going back there? Well, it was the first movie I attended. I was two years old. Star Wars has been in and a part of my life for thirty-six years.

Now let's jump to 1999. I was a senior in high school, and The Phantom Menace (TPM) was released in theaters, and it was bad. I saw that movie six times because it was Star Wars. TPM had some good pieces in there, but as Charles Barkley would say "It was turrible". Then came The Clone Wars which in my opinion was worse than TPM. Revenge of the Sith was actually pretty good.

Then 2012 comes along and Disney goes out, and purchases Lucasfilm. The house of mouse also promises more new Star Wars movies. That brings us all the way up to 2015 and TFA. I was excited, and apprehensive as millions of others were for the first new Star Wars in a decade.

And TFA was phenomenal! It felt like a Star Wars movie, it looked like a Star Wars movie, the cast, writing, cameos all hit the right buttons. It was nostalgic, and fresh. It reinvigorated the Star Wars fan base. The main criticism of TFA is it is too much like A New Hope (ANH), and it was similar but different enough that it felt like this trilogy was on the right track. I believe even if the next two films were shot-for-shot remakes of ESB, and RotJ that fans would approve.

Then we get to The Last Jedi in 2017. In my opinion this film is a masterpiece. Rian Johnson took Star Wars and went a direction no one expected. It turned the original trilogy's main hero into a grumpy hermit. A lot of people had issue with that, but I did not. This seemed like a natural progression for Luke considering the failures he had faced. We all feel that way sometimes, where we muck up something so bad, or several things in a row and just want to disappear. Myself, Luke, and most people eventually realize that running away and disappearing is not the answer. Luke then goes on to face Kylo in his own way, and it was beautiful and heroic, and everything I wanted.

POSSIBLE SPOLIERS AHEAD (DO NOT SCROLL IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ROS)

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S


This brings us to ROS. I don't know if I like it. I don't hate it, and think it can be good, and maybe even great, but I'll need at least one more viewing. The problems of this movie for me were the first thirty minutes of the film felt like J.J. Abrams was jumping around and retconning everything Rian Johnson did in TLJ, it felt disconnected from the meat of the movie. This caused a lot of pacing issues with the rest of the movie, and if I am honest this seemed like it should have been the second movie of a trilogy and not the last movie of a saga. There was one scene with Leia that just felt very out of place. Why Palpatine? WHY? I don't understand why he was needed at all or why Rey had to be his grandchild, as this raises many more questions to which we will likely not get answers. The story could have been so much more interesting without him too. The biggest overall problem with this trilogy seems like there was no overall story direction. J.J. Abrams started it off, and again TFA is wonderful, but there was no clear cut direction for Rian Johnson to go, so he did what he wanted. J.J. didn't like what Rian did and went back to change it the way he wanted to.

What I really enjoyed in this movie are things I have enjoyed throughout this trilogy, Rey, Kylo, and their connection. Leia's sacrifice to save her son was something any mother would do, but was still touching. Force-ghost Luke was awesome as well imparting some much needed wisdom to Rey. Choice matters in life and it matters in Star Wars, and that is why I like Rey's decision at the end of the movie to become a Skywalker.