Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been a fan of Star Wars. I emerged from the womb knowing and loving the movies. This was, of course, because my parents love the films and were alive when they first came to theaters, stunning audiences with their brilliance. Through childhood osmosis, transferred that love to me and my brother.
You, dear reader, might be wondering why I am prefacing a movie series retrospective with my childhood. Because it’s where my adoration for this property, as with many, lies. I have wondered if my love of the new Star Wars movies was solely based on my childhood love of the property. That the movies were, emotionally, overshadowed by the lightsaber fights I had with my brother in the densely wooded area of our backyard.
Seven, to me, was perfect. Another Star Wars movie that felt like it belonged—unlike the prequels of which my parents so graciously sheltered me from until I was in high school. And at the time, that thought still lingered in my mind. Do I only love this new series because of childhood nostalgia?
Then eight happened. The Last Jedi. A movie I truly didn’t like. It didn’t have the same plot cohesion as seven and most of the original series. The B plot didn’t make a lot of sense and in places it felt weirdly preachy, but not in a competent way. I was told what to feel instead of being shown.
I left the theater after The Last Jedi frustrated. My ex-boyfriend couldn’t understand why I was so livid. To him it was “just another Star Wars movie” but to me it was something pretending to be Star Wars. It didn’t make sense, it didn’t work, and it wasn’t a well-executed movie.
In the interim of The Last Jedi to now I had a bit of a journey in regard to how I felt about Star Wars. I went to California and saw the new Star Wars land at Disneyland. I have watched more than my fair share of movie reviews and by the time trailers started dropping for The Rise of Skywalker I decide to try and walk into this movie with as open a mind as I could.
The Rise of Skywalker was initially what I wanted in a Star Wars film. I’ve missed J. J. Abram’s writing and what made this film work was the focus on the character dynamics between our main squad, instead of separating them like what happened in The Last Jedi.
The fight scenes were plentiful and beautifully choreographed. I love that you can see where each character is, head space wise, by how they fight. When Rey is in control it is obvious. She is one with the force. She fights like a Jedi. But when emotion takes control, she reverts back to her old style of fighting seen in seven.
And then there is the plot.
Now, this new series of films as a whole is all about stepping out of the original series’ shadow. The first movie was the exposition, setting up the world and the characters we would follow. Setting up the stakes and honoring the first film while also saying “hey, let’s see what the new kids on the block are up to.”
The eighth movie was about failure. Sometimes the good side doesn’t win and in order to step up to the challenges of the future, there will be failures and sacrifices made along the way.
The ninth film is all about acceptance. Accepting your place in the universe. Accepting the truth of where your heart lies. Accepting that the past is not who you are. Which is suppressing since J. J. Abrams was the one who couldn’t accept The Last Jedi as his jumping off point. And so, he inundated the film where the whole point was to pretend the eighth movie never happened.
When I initially walked out of the theater, I was on a Star Wars high. I cried during the movie, I got excited with each action scene. But with a few weeks clarity, I’ve just been a little bit boggled with the movie as a whole. I feel like the Palpatine twist, while set up in The Force Awakens, should have been dropped from this movie considering The Last Jedi.
We got a lot of good characters out of this series, but I’ve always been annoyed that Fin never really got to mature as a character. He’s been left static, and—hot take—but I feel like if Rise of Skywalker had been all about Finn being a force user it would have been better. I mean think about it, the potential of all the other stormtrooper deserters like Fin being force users and helping to break the bonds of the Empire’s army, it would have been such a switch to the usual good vs evil fight that we see in most Star Wars films.
But that’s just me.
All feelings for this movie aside, I still kind of enjoyed it, but more in a “turn off your brain, it’s Star Wars” kind of way. Which isn’t the worst thing. I have always loved, and, hopefully, will always love Star Wars because of the way it spoke to me as a child.
This new series gave us Rey, a genuinely good person who is a Jedi and a wonderful role model for kids like me. It’s so exciting to have new stories coming out of the Star Wars world, and I can’t even describe to you what it was like the first time I stepped foot onto Star Wars land in California.
Childhood nostalgia aside, The Rise of Skywalker was an okay blockbuster that should have spent more time developing its characters from the last movie but didn’t. I still kind of liked it anyway and am looking forward to the next chapter of Star Wars.
