Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker – Disney+ Talk

Last week, on May the 4^th, saw this year’s Star Wars Day occur. And Disney+ immediately grabbed the opportunity to put the latest film in the Skywalker Saga on the platform now that they’ve owned the property for 5 years.

‘Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker’ is the conclusion to the Skywalker Saga, the main story arc in the Star Wars universe. After hearing a transmission from the long-thought dead Emperor Palpatine, Fin, Poe and Rey journey to familiar lands to find the truth behind these transmissions.

Let’s get the first issue out of the way: this film summarizes a problem that Disney has with its Marvel and Star Wars films: characters in these films are never really dead, especially since ‘Rise of Skywalker’ brings back Emperor Palpatine. This was a character that died 40 years ago in ‘Return of the Jedi’ and has now been resurrected to once again try and rule the galaxy. 

Another classic character that returns is Lando Calrissian, with original actor Billy Dee Williams reprising the role. And, while his performance is a welcome sight, he’s given nothing to do. This film feels like it’s pandering on nostalgia and nothing else, purely because ‘The Last Jedi’ left nothing, plot-wise, for this film to do. While I hated ‘The Last Jedi’, I would’ve been happy if that film was the Saga’s conclusion and Rey had joined the Dark Side. If that had occurred, there would no need to scramble a plot together for ‘Rise of Skywalker’. It would’ve also made the new films different.

While I hated ‘The Last Jedi’, I will happily admit it’s the best-looking Star Wars film in the recent trilogy. So, I expected ‘Rise of Skywalker’ to have the same visual style, and was disappointed to see how dull it looked. Vibrant colours are replaced by murky browns and greys and even the lightsabers have lost their shine. Where ‘Rise of Skywalker’ does shine, however, is in its action sequences and sound design. The action scenes are fast-paced and exciting and, for some of the runtime, made me fall in love with the franchise again. The sound design is also fantastic, with some unique sound effects being introduced in this film. 

And lastly, ‘Rise of Skywalker’ really stretches what The Force can do. The Force has never been fully explained, making it mysterious. However, the downside to this is that the films can do anything they want and say it was The Force that was causing such actions. An example: ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ has sequences featuring ghosts of past characters, and hallucinations that can, somehow, pick up solid objects. This occurs numerous times, especially in the third act, and makes no sense the more this ‘ability’ is stretched. 

Overall, ‘Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker’ was enjoyable, but a waste of time. While the action scenes were exciting and the sound design was fantastic, it doesn’t cover up the fact that the Skywalker Saga should’ve ended with ‘The Last Jedi’. 

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