Almost three years ago The Last Jedi came out, and the reactions were intense, to put it mildly. The Last Jedi challenged nostalgia, gave us new heroes, new villains, and new story-lines. The Last Jedi didn’t feel complete which is understandable since the story is not finished yet. The epic culmination was supposed to be in The Rise of Skywalker, however, that didn’t happen. The Rise of Skywalker is not a bad movie, it has the typical over-the-top CGI heavy materials and epic fight scenes. Kylo and Rey’s lightsaber fights throughout the film were the best in Star Wars history, every fight was better than the previous one. I loved the bits where Chris Terrio’s script shines through and I wished it was used more. Star Wars have always been about good story-telling, and that’s why it can have all the right elements of a good blockbuster and it wouldn’t matter if the story is not good. The film felt like someone read a Reddit thread of everything wrong in The Last Jedi and filmed it. They introduced an old/new villain without explaining the how, why and where. Efforts were made to oppose the criticism of Mary-Sue Rey but instead, it ignored her entire arc and build a new flimsy one instead. Great characters with unlimited potential like Finn, Rose, and Hux were sidelined and barley used in any meaningful way, while the one character that was given more depth like Poe made me wish they didn’t go through that effort. Adam Driver, as usual, delivered a powerful performance fitting for the greatest Star Wars character since Darth Vader. Driver’s character, Kylo, just like Rose, Finn, and Hux had a lot of potential but unfortunately, it ended up being more hopeless than his character in Marriage Story. The only hopeful thing about this film is Rey’s relationship with Leia and Leia’s scenes with Luke. Leia and Luke’s scenes were very well done even though they ended up being meaningless after the completion of Kylo’s arc. You’re not going to have a bad time watching this film, but from a personal point of view of a dedicated fan like me, it felt like Disney used nostalgia in The Rise of Skywalker to destroy every bit of hope left in the Star Wars saga.
