CousinPaddy

An absolute blast to play and no “modern messaging.”

The best metaphor I can make for The Rise of Skywalker is this: it’s like watching a WWII era bomber make a belly landing in a rocky field while only one prop is still functioning. Then, as the survivors stagger from the burning wreckage, we discover that they failed to hit the right target meaning that their efforts and the loss of their comrades were all in vain. As irritating as the Disney sequel trilogy has been to endure, the random revival of Emperor Palpatine without any relevant explanation already retcons Return of the Jedi. However, this is only where the retconning begins. The unfortunate part of being forced to fix the failures of the previous two films in a rushed panic during the third one is that it makes the former completely irrelevant. Whatever “plan” Disney and Kathleen Kennedy had for this trilogy seemed to have only one singular goal: to make Rey overwhelmingly powerful and adored by every character in the franchise, thereby removing the need for the Skywalker saga. Therefore, any attempt on the behalf of The Rise of Skywalker to make it seem like there was any other goal in mind comes off as confusing and deceptive, as if they realized in the end that everyone had them figured but had to pretend as though they were being clever the whole time. The final nail in the coffin for The Rise of Skywalker has to be the train-wreck presentation. Characters have nonsensical dialogue so often that after a while, you stop looking for sense and just try to watch until the end. And then there’s the end. The only reason this movie gets anything other than a turkey is because of John Williams and his typically epic score. Good riddance, Disney sequel trilogy.

Borderline B production quality is saved by a decent (albeit poorly scripted) performance from R. Lee Ermey and Wings Houser, along with a steady stream intense action scenes. Plenty of gore and some thinly veiled 80s style political soapboxing make this one a perfect dude night flick.