Everything comes full circle

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2019)

Star Wars has always been a ride worth enjoying. It's full of hope, redemption, family, embracing who you are and not letting your past dictate your future, what can occur when you allow the darkness in you to be control you and what happens when you embrace the light. There is just so much in Star Wars it's hard to put into words everything involved. Do all the episodes always measure up to their predecessors? Absolutely not. While I enjoy to an extent the prequels even I admit they are flawed bogged down with bad writing and too much cgi. But I still like to watch them because they are Star Wars and I was there for the ride.
Coming to this present movie The Rise of Skywalker let me first start out in saying I absolutely did not like The Last Jedi. This did not come right away I watched it once but I felt so off about it I didn't feel satisfied. Things implied in The Force Awakens never occurred and it was riddled in plot holes. I watched it a second time and realized it was copy of ESB and ROtJ. A really bad one at that which ignored the fundamentals of Star Wars and it's past movies. It wasn't at all original except for some stuff here and there. I was about to leave the Star Wars franchise for good.
And then this movie happened...
This movie took a jump in a new direction and headed back to the original course of The Force Awakens. It established a new and original story amongst the sequel trilogy. It takes you to the edge of your seat throughout a thrilling adventure filled with many surprises and exciting moments. It manages to also respect it's past and treat those from the original and even prequels with respect. This is definitely the story Abrams was trying to tell through The Force Awakens. Foreshadowing from that movie play into this one give a flowing narrative. It might be argued that it is to quick and has inconsistent but honestly it tells a more cohesive story than The Last Jedi did.
It takes the viewers an epic adventure and explores various places and new situations. While paying attention to it's roots and racing forwards towards the future.
This movie at heart contains a lot of self sacrifice, send offs and an implication of the new future. Who are you going to be? What is your legacy will you let your past heritage dictate who you will be? While this is a send off to the original crew and the end of Skywalker story it doesn't just spit in the face of that legacy but rather let's that legacy build the foundation of the future. Which is why Rey's last words in the movie honor the past in so many ways.
A lot of the movie focuses on the Resistance picking up the pieces of their remaining crew and continuing the fight against the first order and Rey struggling with her identity.
Rey isn't satisfied with Kylo Ren's words that she's a nobody and nothing special. It's almost like she shouldn't exist at all. And while people say it dismisses expectations and gives it's own roots. It's nice and all but we need to pay attention to the mythos of Star Wars. Rey is strong in the force and no one questions from that why? She had no training in the beginning and yet she could hold her own against a trained force user. It was impractical since Jedi and Sith alike are trained from a young age to use their abilities. The only way she could be this way is if she was connected to some one from the cannon who has strong force abilities. The fact remains that the foreshadowing is in The Force Awakens that implies more to her. I think Rey's reveal for a heritage makes sense. Let's be honest she was so powerful in the force and Kylo was so focused on her that there was definitely something happening there. Throwing that all away just takes away from the story as a whole. If you are telling a story you shouldn't ignore foreshadowing if it was implied.
The fact remains that despite her heritage she needed to move past it and make her own destiny. For me this was the overarching storyline of this movie. Recognizing where you came from and establishing who you choose to be in the end.
This movie is chockfull of emotional moments, heartfelt send offs and returns it was just a thrill to watch it felt like a Star Wars story and it played out beautifully. It felt like a Star Wars story it took the current sequel story and brought it full circle while honoring and respecting the past it came from. It had the adventure, the lightsaber duels, the struggled between the jedi and the sith, and a fight for the future of galaxy. It felt right and a great ride the entire way through.
At the theater every one in the audience cheered at the beginning and the ending of the film. It was packed theater and every one had their various moments to cheer and gasp at the scenes.
It was definitely everything you could want and nothing you'd expect.
Will I say it's perfect no it's not perfect and it's not the best Star Wars movie I've ever seen. However putting it against The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi it was the best of the group for me. It feels original in so many ways and that in itself is remarkable after Force Awakens makes me wonder if this was Abrams plan all along what he'd been leading too. It tells a story that moves away from the Skywalker legacy while at the same time establishing a new connection that honors it's past.
I realize some will say it pandered to Star Wars fans but I disagree. The story was always for it's viewers. It has a legacy that has been around for 42 years and to ignore that and end in a direction that merely is played out to divert expectations doesn't work.
Also Chewie getting the medal was never to me a fixed point. It's Han's medal which Leia had been holding onto. Now that both of them are gone it's the thing gives Chewie a memorial of sorts to their legacy specifically Han Solo his best friend and partner. It wasn't about Chewie getting a medal he deserves it was about getting something that will remind him always of his best friend.
I now look back on this initial review and I'll say I've changed my mind about The Last Jedi sure there were things I didn't like but it actually helped make this movie and built on its predecessor if you pay attention to the ending. I will never like where Luke was taken because there is no solid reason for his actions in there. But I did appreciate what they were trying to do between Rey and Kylo. And Poe did need to grow through the movie to be who he is now. So I'm okay with The Last Jedi now thanks to this movie.
Every one is entitled to their own opinion but for me I'm satisfied with the outcome.
Thank you J.J. Abrams for honoring Star Wars and keeping the legacy alive for this last movie.