Star wars the rise of skywalker

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2019)

Star wars the rise of skywalker
2019
12A
director: J J abrams
starring: Daisy Ridley,Oscar Isaac,John Boyega,Adam Driver,Carrie Fisher,Mark Hamill,Anthony Daniels,Richard E Grant,domnhall Gleeson,Ian Mcdiamid,Billy Dee Williams etc
overall rating 61/100
Star wars the rise of skywalker brings the new trilogy to an end. Where Ray is finishing her jedi training. But as her bond with Kylo Ren grows stronger she must find out what kind of person he really is. With many unanswered questions about her family tree. Rey is about to make a discovery that will change her forever. The rise of skywalker was ok and entertaining for some parts. But for me extremely disappointing and the worst film in the new saga. Lets talk about why this is.
First of all the films visuals and action sequences were great to see. First of all the film looked fantastic. With breathtaking set locations and a wide variation of aliens and creature designs. It was a visual delight. And the action sequences were great. With the perfect blend of traditional fight scenes used in previous star wars movies and new and creative action sequences as well.
However for me the film had both pacing and tonal issues and inconsistencies. This film had a mixture of slow pacing that dragged and really rushed pacing because they crammed to much in. Having one of these issues is bad enough but to have an uneven blend of slow and fast pacing really makes for a poorly pit together and clunky movie. And the film had several tonal issues as well. It had scenes that weren't supposed to be funny but were and then when they were trying to be funny it didn't land for a large majority of the time.
Next the film had good uses of nostalgia and well executed plot twists. The film did have a lot of good fan service and uses of nostalgia to please all fans of the franchise both old and new. Having the return of characters like Lando and palpatine were admittedly fun to watch. And they had some great moments within the film especially Palpatine who was one of the few fantastic characters within the rise of skywalker. And next the film had surprisingly well executed plot twists that i didn't see happening. Having Palpatine be Reys grandfather was an interesting and well executed twist. And bought a very interesting conflict with Reys characters about what side she was really on which i thought was great.
My next two negatives would be the bland characters in the movie and the Carrie Fisher moments. For me sadly despite the nice intentions none of the Carrie Fisher moments worked for me. In order for her to be in the film they had to find previously unused footage and piece it all together and it was really obvious and clear that she was not actually on the screen the whole time. She almost looked like a hologram and she looked different in most of her scenes. So this for me made any scene with her in disjointed and made the narrative clunky whenever it was her character on screen. And for me aside from the characters of Rey,Kylo Ren and Palpatine all the characters in the film were bland and there charecter arcs were not bought to a satisfying ending and not even really an ending for them either. C3PO and R2D2 were there for pure nostalgia and a silly plot point about C3PO's memory being wiped. Poe and Finn were aweful in the film. They spent so much time focusing on,lets face it the only really entertaining characters the film had to offer. That they pretty much forgot about everyone else. And they just gave the characters no personality and there character arcs were practically non existent for the last film in the sage.
My next two positives would the films good use of character arcs for the main two characters and the performance of Daisy Ridley. Reys charecter arc throughout the rise of skywalker was great as time and attention was put into her character. To see her battle with herself about whether she is good or bad and choose to keep the legacy of the jedi going was a very satisfying development throughout the film. And for Adam Drivers charecter to make the slow transformation into an ally was very well executed as he realised his true potential. And i have to give credit here Daisy Ridley did an amazing performance in the film. Taking it very seriously and delivering well in her serious,funny and action scenes leading her to be a fun and likeable character that is easy to get behind. And i do also have to mention Adam drivers performance and the chemistry between Rey and Kylo ren/Ben solo was one of my key highlights. There connection made the film the most entertaining. Seeing there bond growing throughout the film was very interesting, and the fact that Rey was the cause of Ben going to the light was fantastic.
my next two negatives would be the new characters and the nights of Ren and the storm troopers. I honestly thought the new characters were chucked in the film for the sake of it.They had no real purpose,no back story,no arcs or development, they were just simply pointless to the movie. And contributed nothing towards the film. And the nights of Ren showed up like they were important characters, which had the opposite effect of me as they were pretty much not used before. So they lacked any form of threat or urgency. And they just went a step to far with how ridiculously easy it was to beat the storm troopers. They literally stood there and practically fell for the characters they were that useless. They did add a nice arc for the storm troopers adding that the people under the helmets were forced to do the bidding of the bad guys which was nice, but it still didn't take away from the fact that there action sequences were poor.
My final positive for me would be the entertaining final act.This saved the film for me. Reys and kylo Ren's arcs came full circle, the nostalgia was heavily and effectively used, and the action sequences were at there best. This improved my opinion on the film a fair amount as if the final battle underwhelmed then my score would be much lower. Its a shame they waited until the final act to pull out all the stops effectively but i still appreciated the effort.
However sadly my final two negatives are there poor execution of deaths, and the fact that they just crammed to much plot in to little screen time. The films deaths,especially with princess Leai were disappointing and rushed. They Wasted her character and the way she died was ridiculous. And they mourned for about 5 minutes and then moved on,taking away the emotional impact that these scenes should of had. And they just left themselves with to much to do for the final film. They had to much plot to cover, to many character arcs to finish which they only managed with two characters and this just led to the film feeling rushed and messy.
Overall despite its performances,good character arc for there main character and a fantastic final act. The rise of skywalker is the worst film in the new saga and sadly ends it on a very disappointing and messy conclusion.