Nicolas Lamy

“The Rise of Skywalker” has some incredibly spectacular feats: the acting, the battles, the sound design, the visual effects. But it forgets to put utmost effort into the most important part of any piece of work: the storytelling. In context of the fact that it’s part of a 9 episode series, the movie is almost nonsensical. It rips apart stories and characters that have already been built on (i.e. Leia training as a Jedi. While it explains her ability to use the force in “The Last Jedi”, it was never touched on in the original series: so why add it for the sake of an explanation?). Furthermore, some things stop making sense at all with NO explanation. Finn all of a sudden has a connection to Rey and the force for no reason at all, and is able to sense when Rey has died. The plot was incredibly predictable at most points. From the moment Rey used Force Lightning accidentally to blow up the transport ship, I knew she had some family connection with Palpatine. I knew that Kylo Ren would heal Rey in sacrifice of his own life. The only true twist for me was Kylo choosing to give up his Sith ways. There was no need (and I repeat, NO NEED) for Kylo and Rey to kiss. It was purely to satisfy the “romantic relations” quota in a typical film. Rey making her own lightsaber at the very end was something I had to look up after watching the film. While it was an incredibly impressive scene cinematographically, WHERE would she have found a Kyber crystal to make the saber? Essentially, if this were the first Star Wars film to have come out, I would have been absolutely amazed. But because there is already character and plot that has been built over a saga that has lasted 40 years, it almost feels like a movie based on a potential parallel universe.