The rise, and fall, and rise again of Skywalker.

Rating: 8/10 (22 March 2020)

Here we are with the last episode of what is dubbed as the "Skywalker trilogy", The Rise of the Skywalker. In the past couple of days, reviews across all major social media platforms have been mixed, mostly negatives and well, we will try our best to add to the good noise. Why is that you ask? Primarily because in this trilogy, this is the one where Carrie Fisher or Princess Leia is at the forefront and it's been a long time coming. We would've seen more of her the same way we did with Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens and Harrison Ford as Han Solo in The Last Jedi, if not for her untimely demise in 2016. Thanks to technology, unused footages and permission from her family, we see Ms. Fisher gets the send-off she deserves, and hopefully in some other capacity in the future films as was said by one character in the movie: "No one's ever really gone."
Unfortunately, Ms. Fisher alone cannot save the movie when there have been so many changes that gave us what it is now. For casual moviegoers, it has been hard to keep up and we barely remember what happened in the last two episodes (it did not help that the spinoff Rogue One was also shown on a December which I hope they corrected when they showed Solo months away in May), as well as the change of directors and rewrites involved. The changing of guards from George Lucas to new directors initially was a welcome move, with Abrams and Johnson bringing in fresh perspective into the franchise, but TROS original director Trevorrow leaving due to creative differences and Abrams taking over at the last minute, having issues with the direction Johnson left him to work with showed the cons of such change-up.
You will still get your money's worth with this one, with Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver beautifully serving their purpose. Unfortunately due to rewrites, some characters suffered but seeing them on the screen should be enough to make your heart flutter. Abrams allowed impromptu acting which brought more life into characters than the story allowed them to. On a personal note, loved seeing actors Abrams worked with on his tv shows such as Lost, Alias, and Felicity on the big screen. Some of the scenes that screamed nostalgia was dead-on, while some were spotty. In the end, I'd love to see more Star Wars movies but not anytime soon. They'd need to map out a whole new universe (pun intended) if they want to keep the Star Wars mythology well and alive for the next generations to see.