Star Wars Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker feels like a letdown in the saga of Rey’s quest of finding her Jedi path. Even though we have an okayish story to bolster ourselves on, there are so many similarities it carries with the previous installments, that it does not feel like an ending we deserve for one of the most popular movie franchise of all times.

The film-making quality suddenly seems to have dipped down from the previous one where we had seen some really genuine craft. There are so many bizarre moments herein, that you are left with a sour taste on your palate.

Embarrassing bathos lurk in different corners and you feel the pointlessness of putting such scenes in the movie. So many times you are made to see the apparent plot holes just hanging there, unaddressed.

But looking at the brighter side, Star Wars IX – The Rise of Skywalker isn’t a complete disaster, as you might be feeling by now. It is still quite good, since it carries many pretty dope moments to remember, and most importantly it does what every third installment story has ever done for the franchise – shuts down another story.

A thousand generations live in you now.

What went wrong with Star Wars IX – The Rise of Skywalker (Spoilers)?

If you take a look at the story of Rey Skywalker’s quest, it boils down to the same old tale wherein the character is trying to find their origin. So even the slightest mention about Rey’s parents and boom, all the quest goes down to waste. You wonder why does it have to be so much similar in taste. Are we running out of original ideas?

Star Wars IX – The Rise of Skywalker feels very similar to the older episodes. It tries to even wield the Lando (Billy Dee Williams) card this time, as if trying really hard, a way too hard, to make sure anything works, but even that feels completely superfluous instead of subtle.

Only a few moments in the movie, where you genuinely feel that the director, J. J. Abrams, took a pitstop for a breather. Otherwise everything feels like a hullabaloo created for the sake of the finish line. Everything is so fast and moving, that you suddenly miss the calm of the prequels.

They fly now!

Simple sinking feelings like the possible death of one of the most beloved characters – Chewie fail to burst you open. I mean, if you didn’t want to build up on it, why put it in the plot in the first place?

That being said, the movie fails to leverage on emotions, creates new characters which is a bad card to play for a final part (exception – Babu Frik), and even so misses out on so many bulls-eyes it was trying to hit.

Babu Frik in Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie

Introducing New Things in Rise of Skywalker

You get bothered by how the movie tries too hard to look for new things, instead of exploring the same universe they had so carefully built in the past two parts. You know, if this one had only scrounged for bits that weren’t covered properly in the previous two, we would have still a lot of content to toy around with, for everything was right there!

Come to think of it, what happened to Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran)? Why wasn’t she important again all of a sudden, you seemed to have building her for something bigger? She got sidelined owing to trolls? Or creations like porg that we had seen in the Last Jedi? Not even one scene, huh!

So many things that look contrived, how Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) given a love interest and normalized as if he wasn’t initially a hero to begin with. Talk about patronizing characters! You know if you were aiming for a similar story, wasn’t he supposed to be a Han Solo similitude? And why does it have to be the final part, wherein the audience barely cares about this new whole character?

Where’s the Focus?

Star Wars Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker messes big time with the calmness quotient that the prequel had so effortlessly brought home. I remember it to be very serene and peaceful. It was visually very appealing. This on the other hand feels very different.

The gravitas that the series used to carry, the solemnity seems out of place. Don’t even get me started on the screenplay! Such a downward tumble. The whole movie seems as if they were rushing towards an ending, and at what cost?

Out of the Blue Chemistry in Star Wars Episode IX

Negating all the above points, I would say, the positives would be how Star Wars Episode IX balances itself on the pedestal of hope. One of the exemplary instances would be how Kylo gets pulled towards the light. Goes on to show how there is hope even for a man who is chewed up completely by the dark.

Watching him help Rey in the end was great, however too much Jedi stuff going on there. Bringing each other back to life in the movie as if they were playing – my turn.

The relationship strands that had seemed absent all this time between Kylo and Rey seems quite forced in the end as they kiss concluding the climax.

For me, I had never wanted them to, for there was zero chemistry, even though the story toyed with the idea of how they are able to understand each other so well by reading each other inside out, you know, since they were like yin and yang. But it was never insinuated anywhere how there was the slightest possibility of Rey having feelings for Kylo.

I had been okay with a mere admiration, a hug would have sufficed but that felt very deliberate given how things were going. There was zero love story in all the three parts, and yet they try to create one in the final seconds as if now it should matter.

The Final Verdict

Star Wars Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker is one of those movies that is aiming for the finish line, without bothering about the collateral in its wake.

I think The Last Jedi set a benchmark and that’s why this one feels like more of a degradation. Despite so many plotholes and wtf moments, the movie remains okayish and concludes the story of Rey which had frankly become hard to keep tabs on, with so many other Star Wars spinoffs messing with your brain. An unworthy end I would say, but a much needed one.

Check out the trailer of Star Wars Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker here: