Alejandro Macias

A definite improvement over The Last Jedi, which gave us the Galaxy’s dullest car chase, took us on a side-quest so pointless that you wonder whether another movie’s script was accidentally cut-and-pasted in, and unceremoniously dismissed many great questions and plot lines laid out by The Force Awakens in the name of “subverting expectations” (Hollywood lingo for “disguising terrible writing as edgy writing”). However, Rise of Skywalker is emblematic of what happens when epic stories are stretched beyond their natural climax. The writers cannot raise the stakes any higher than what we’ve already seen in the original trilogy with the planet-killing Death Star, so they must provide pale imitations like Star Killer Base and now (SPOILER ALERT) a fleet of planet-killing Star Destroyers. It makes the story feel stale and underwhelming. Likewise, they admit defeat in their quest to create strong original characters by bringing Emperor Palpatine back from the dead as the main villain. They might have even brought back Darth Vader if Kylo Ren wasn’t already redoing his entire redemption arch from Return of the Jedi, right down to a confrontation with the Emperor. All in all, ROS brings a disjointed trilogy to a sloppy but bearable conclusion. It’s neither admirable nor memorable, but it at least brings closure to the fanbase. At least until Disney decides it can still squeeze another penny out of the the franchise.