I walked out of the theater feeling good about the final installment in the new Star Wars trilogy, and came home to a bombardment of bad reviews, people whining about how awful it is on every media platform I follow, and saying how it has ruined Star Wars. I can’t accuse people of being unfair in how they feel about something, because… how you feel is how you feel. But I have seen far worse cinematic dumpster fires (Fantastic Beasts 2 comes to mind). I had fun and applauded during the credits along with everyone else in my screening. But then, I didn’t expect the most mind-blowing cinematic experience of the decade, either. This is Star Wars, after all. Not Oscar-bait.
Obviously, there will be spoilers below the cut.
Could The Rise of Skywalker have been better? Yes. Do I wish it had been better? Yes, in some ways. Do I hate the movie as it is now? No, I don’t, because it delivered what I wanted, and a whole lot more.
We got Force battles in which Rey shot lightening from her fingertips and Force-controlled ships! She and Kylo Ren Force-duelled in two separate places, at the same time! We got an epic light saber duel in the middle of a freaking hurricane. She discovered she can heal people with the Force. We saw her face down Emperor Palpatine on what is possibly the coolest planet in the galaxy (all the lightning and darkness and the creep factor due to the tanks of Snoke clones all over the place). We got to see her find out the truth about her past, face it, and own it, before she chose her OWN family name.

And she won. She, and Leia and Han’s ghost, broke through to Ben. Kylo Ren died. Ben Solo woke up. She healed him. She was kind, and good, and pure enough to heal the man she had just run through with a light saber, and it changed his life. And then he went on to make the ultimate sacrifice. He loved her so much, he gave his life so SHE could live. He turned back to the Light. He fought Palpatine at her side. He fulfilled his vision, when he predicted that one day, she would be at his side. He woke her from death, kissed her, smiled for the first time in the trilogy… and passed into the Force alongside his mother. I shed a single tear in the theater, but had a proper cry in the car, because that’s all I ever wanted for Ben Solo. For his father’s death not to have been for nothing. For the Skywalker legend not to end with him un-redeemed.
Narrative-wise, Ben had to die. No amount of atonement can amend for his genocides, his mass murder of hundreds of people, or his abuses of power. Because this is Star Wars, and meant to engage and entertain and not to be realistic, there was no time to devote to his full-on redemption. If Ben had lived, he would have faced a trial for his role in war crimes. He would have spent the rest of his life, if they for some reason pardoned him, attempting to make up for it, and being negatively recognized. Choosing to save Rey does not erase his crimes out in the real world. Had he lived, he would have had to pay for them. Possibly with his life. They would not just go away. He redeemed himself, by allowing Rey to live.
Rey… the girl who inherited the Dark Side of the Force… and chose to not fear it, but fight it. Even ignore it. Rey… the girl who from the start has been pure, and good, and kind, despite the lousy life handed to her on a desert planet. Rey… the girl who has fought for Ben to come to the light side, for two movies now. Who “wanted to take his hand,” but chose not to, because of what he represented. Rey. The heroine of the new Star Wars.

Did I find the plot needlessly complicated? Yes. As a writer who edits her books down to the essentials, I think they could have tightened this massive project considerably. Do I think they needed Rey’s back story explained? Eh… yes and no. It made no difference to me, whether she was a nobody or a Palpatine. In my mind, the “but it’s important she be a nobody” arguments fall flat, because Rey is still Rey, regardless of who her grandfather was – she still CHOOSES to be good. Life is full of conscious choices, after all. My mother likes to say, “You can CHOOSE to have joy. Or not.” Each time Rey faced down something that tempted her to the Dark Side, she said no. Even when she wanted to say yes.
Did I feel some of it was forced just to use the Fisher footage? Yes. I think a second or third viewing might smooth that over a bit, but for awhile I was preoccupied thinking about Carrie’s death, and being surprised they had as much footage as they did, and wondering what the original context of the scenes were, and I think that hurt the film a little bit. But I really loved the idea of Leia as a strong Force user, as someone who trained with Luke (that flashback was beautiful, and made me tear up), and who waited just for the right moment, to reach out to her son, and have him stay his hand. To tell him that he could find his way back, that it is never too late.
My biggest complaint is… it was too much. It overloaded me, because it felt like this was two movies crammed into one. I walked out with my head spinning, since there was so much to unpack, from Rey’s training sessions to the return of the Emperor to the final few minutes. (I love Rey’s new light saber. I was rooting for purple, but the gold is so, so pretty and so… Rey. It’s cheerful, and pure, and powerful, just like she is. It is Rey, personified.)
And it’s nice that Rey ends the films as she started – alone. Not lonely, because she has a “family” to return to, but not romantically entangled, either. It suits her.
I agree with Hamlette that it felt wrong that they didn’t join hands at the end and kill Palpatine together, although, somehow still have Ben give his life for Rey. I do think stylistically/story-wise its best Rey would live and Ben die. I thought the ending was excellent apart from that. Rey choosing to be a skywalker, being alone. I’m not a long die hard Star Wars fan. I think the people who are angry are those who have read and grown up with it more (think of a childhood fandom or even early young adult fandom and what happens when non-canon stuff becomes canon or someone ruins a favorite book in movie form, I think that is why people are mad). I asked my brother, he thought it was awful but entertaining, he said what people are disgusted with is that the filmmakers chose a really obscure Lucas storyline to go with (and one that simply repeats the older movies) when there were far better ones to go with. Also, the oh look suddenly out of nowhere are masses of bad guys no one knew about. I think these fans don’t like the “new” reiteration (repetition) overall from Disney.
I’m not deep in the Star Wars fandom, and I hated a lot of the “plot” of the second movie which as others have pointed out, this movie acted like it didn’t exist, and I am/was a Reylo fan (that is literally basically all I cared about at that point), and I don’t expect much in Star Wars and its not a precious long-term favorite to me. I bet if it was I’d be mad too.
The backlash against the prequel and sequel trilogies is almost like a religious fervor. I think, for some people, they worship the original Star Wars just like they would an actual religion, in a sense — and they will violently, angrily protect it.
Yay, I’m glad other people liked it too!! It definitely could have been better, but if I’d watched it when I was 14 it would have been my favorite movie, and for that reason, I loved it.
So far, everyone I have talked to has liked it, so maybe the widespread hatred for it is just a few angry folks on the internet trashing it?
It has its flaws, but it entertained me, it moved me, and it gave me the ending I wanted… I am all for it. 😉
Thank you. Yes. Exactly. Ben Solo could not live. It would have been morally unbalanced and emotionally wrong and simply awful storytelling for him to have waltzed off into the sunset. Or even survived to spend the rest of his life in some cozy jail. Spending his life to save Rey was the only way.
But to be honest, what I wish would have happened would be that, as they were sorta failing to kill Palpatine together, Rey had reached out HER hand to Ben, he had taken it, and that physical joining of their powers had zapped Palpatine into oblivion. And then they could’ve died side-by-side and the Force would have been in complete balance because there were no more Sith and no more Jedi.
Anyway. It was a good enough movie.
I understand people wanting him to live but… no. This was the best ending for him. To sacrifice himself so that the woman he loved could live.
I am not in favor of any ending where Rey dies permanently. lol
I just saw it with Dad, and I know we’ll email and stuff, but I just gotta say
I LOVED ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
It left me feeling happy and peaceful and satisfied. It was really everything I wanted.
My single biggest “happy thing” is that Ben ultimately didn’t change for Rey, he changed for HIS MOM, the one person he didn’t expect anything from, the one person he didn’t ever believe he could control or bend to his will. She reached out to him in love and he responded. That moment–that one moment–that is worth Everything. I just. Gahhhhh.
*has a lot of feelings*
Oh, I’m glad. I was feeling a little alone in having enjoyed it. 😛
Yes, Ben changed for his mom. Well, both his parents, really. Because he saw that his father had forgiven him, and it’s not too late to turn back. That his remorse was “enough.” I figured Leia would have something to do with it, after he couldn’t blow her up in TLJ — and I’m glad they had enough footage of Carrie to make it happen, though I’m sure they would have had a Force vision of her, had Carrie been around to film it.
Me too. I was so spent last night, I pretty much wrote this post and went to sleep. At 8pm. 😛
Nope, nope, you’re not alone! 😉
Exactly. Given that Rey had already tried to change him in TLJ and it hadn’t worked (because of his desire to possess her)–there needed to be something new in this movie, a “wild card,” a new reason, if he was gonna go back to the Light. And Leia provided that wild card.
It was a really beautiful representation of God’s grace, I thought . . . the shepherd who goes out to search for the one lost sheep. She wanted him to know he could still come home, and he did. *sniffles quietly*
I’m soooooooooooooo tired lol . . . but it was worth it!!
Yay! I am not alone! 😉
I’m glad they went that route, I really wanted Leia to be the one to reach him, and I felt like they set that up in the previous two films. He had a lot of hatred toward his father (probably for being mostly absent) but I never saw that same hatred toward his mother. He needed to know she still wanted him, loved him, had hope for him, and could forgive him.
And yes, there were a lot of Christian parallels in this film, both with Rey (being a pure soul, stabbing him and then healing him, and that changing his life) and with his mother’s unconditional love. His redemption was true and pure, because he threw away his old self — his saber, his helmet, his robes, and came to fight with Rey just as Ben. It was beautiful.
“They win by making us feel alone. But we’re not alone.” – Poe Dameron, 2019.
😉
Yes. He still loved Leia, but he didn’t realize that she loved him back and would welcome him home if given the chance. (Honestly, I saw a lot of Mary-symbolism there, although I may be reading into things with my Catholic mindset 😉 😉 )
REY IS THE PUREST RAY OF SUNSHINE THAT WE NEED BUT DON’T DESERVE.
Ahem.
Yes, it was such an amazing, “stripped down” moment–“I’ve thrown away all my false props and my false idols and now I’m here, starting over.” Goooooooooooood stuff.
It could be you reading into it, or it could be… because it was there and semi-intentional. Ben always had a redemptive arc, and Leia was always able to unconditionally love him, even when she took Han away from her. That takes a hell of a lot of forgiveness! I knew Leia was a bad-ass, but not the extent of her awesomeness. (Did seeing her and Luke training together make you squee?)
Rey is epic. AND SHE HAS A GOLDEN LIGHT SABER.
Yes. Did you notice that arrogant, almost Han Solo-esque sneer he gave them right before he gave them all an epic butt-kicking? LOL
Absolutely. She was truly a Christ-like / Mary-like figure there, reaching out to a lost sheep through pure love. I didn’t expect her to do it, but she DID, and I feel Inspired.
Yessssssssssssssssssss I loved the training scene!!! And so did my dad!!!
A GOLDEN LIGHT SABER, BABY
Hahaha I saw that and I was like, “oh yeah, the boys are back in town” 😀
Twas lovely.
I’d have to see it again to know for sure what my favorite parts were, but them fighting over the transport / Rey discovering her Force lightening was certainly one of them, along with the light saber duel on the sunken Death Star, and of course the ending. The last twenty minutes were dang EPIC.
Soooooooooooooo many good moments.
I think their fight in the middle of the ocean, interrupted by Leia reaching out, was the best part for me, although the competition is STIFF.