The End Is Here- Not What We Expected, But Its What We Needed

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2019)

I am a fairly new Star Wars lover. I was first introduced to the galaxy far far away in 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which continues to be my favourite Star Wars film. Next, 2017's The Last Jedi came out and to be honest, I was thoroughly dissapointed with the end result. Now we have the final episode of the Skwalker saga: The Rise of Skywalker. Let me just say, it is a lot. A lot of it is ironically JJ Abrams trying to fix what Ryan Johnson did with Last Jedi. This is the ending that was concieved, but I dont think its the full thing that was concieved by JJ.
The film opens to Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) trying to follow a call coming from a forbidden planet. There he finds the revived Emperor Palpatine, who explains that Snoak was a minion to interfere with Ren and Rey's paths. Elsewhere, Finn (John Boyega) and Po (Oscar Isaac) escape from First Order soldiers by Lightspeed jumping. They recieve news that there is a rebel spy amongst the first order. Back at the Resistance Camp, Rey (Daisy Ridley) trains to be the final Jedi, since she knows Leia's (Carrie Fisher) days are numbered. Amongst learning of the emperors resurection, Rey, Finn, BB-8, C3PO, Po, and Chewbacca head to a planet called Pasaanna to seek one of Luke Skywalker's allies.
On pasaana, the troupe runs into Lando (Billy Dee Williams), but they are not safe for long as Kylo Ren and the first order arrive at Pasaana in order to kill Rey as orders from Palpatine. Rey finds a dagger engraved with sith language, and C3PO translates it but is forbidden to say it aloud. The Milennium Falcon as well as Chewbacca are taken by the first order, while Rey deals with Kylo Ren. Rey attempts to save Chewbacca with the force, but some power bursts out of her and the ship crashes, ensuing in Chewbacca's death. Po demands that they go to Kijimi to have the sith language translated and the group accepts.
At Kijimi, Po runs into an old friend named Zorii Bliss (Keri Russel) and she lets them translate the language with help from her inventor friend. In order to get the translation, C3PO's memory must be wiped, but Po demands the answer. The dagger reveals the directions to a Wavefinder, which will help them find the planet Exegol, where Palpatine is hiding. Ren reveals to Rey through the force that she is Palpatine's granddaughter and that he attempted to have her killed. As the group are captured by the first order and taken aboard their ship, they find a hostage very much alive Chewbacca as well as General Hux, who reveals himself to be the Resistence Spy. The group escapes on the Falcon, meanwhile Hux is killed for his treason.
On a planet named Endor, the group meets Jannah (Naomi Ackee) who leads them to the remains of the second death star, where Rey finds the wavefinder to Exegol. Kylo Ren has tracked Rey to the death star, as Leia senses unevenness of the Jedi. Leia, through the force, calls out to Kylo Ren. Rey stabs Ren as Leia takes her final breath. Rey runs off to Ach-too, where she encounters the force ghost of Luke (Mark Hamill), who warns her not to do the same mistakes as he did. Similarly, a shaken Kylo Ren encounters a memory of his father Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who encourages him to throw his lightsaber into the water and become Ben Solo once again. Rey heads to Exegol alone, while Finn, Po, BB-8, C3PO and Chewy follow.
Before heading to Exegol, Po and Finn head to camp, where they learn of Leia's death. Po confronts the reistance and encourages them to fight with him. R2-D2 restores C3PO's memory as they follow Rey to Exegol. Rey finds Palpatine, who reveals that if she were to kill him, his soul would be permanently implanted into her body. Suddenly, Ben rushes in to save Rey, but both are extracted of their powers by Palpatine as he grows stronger. With his new power, Palpatine enforces a war between the Resistence and his fleet, who are much larger and stronger. Rey hears voices of force ghosts and aid her by giving her both hers and Leia's lightsabers, killing Palpatine. Rey, unconcious, is resurected by Ben with Force healing powers. The two share a loving embrace before Ben dies from over-use of the force and becomes one with the force ghosts of the skywalkers. Rey visits tatooine and buries the skywalker's sabers at Lukes home, and she is given her gold Jedi lightsaber. A beggar woman asks of whom Rey is and she replies "Rey Skywalker".
Now, look I know it's a lot. This is why the film divides into three acts: Pasanna, Kijimi/Endor, and Exegol, the four planets that are visited through the film. Pasanna is the most boring. It does not make a lot of sense and it is 40 minutes of JJ abrams just trying to fix the events of Last Jedi. Next, Kijimi/Endor: otherwise known as too much action. There seems to be no story arch in the midst of the film, but it showcases how beautiful some sequences are. Finally, we reach Exegol: the saving grace of the film. This last hour is so good that it breaks all of the records and is truly the ending that was needed. In this trilogy, I'd rank it as second best: above Last Jedi, but below Force Awakens. Ironically, one thing that was missing from the end of the saga was the lack of main character death.
Overall: 1st act- 5, 2nd act- 7, 3rd act- 12. Divide those by 3 and you get a final scoring of 8.