Rise of Skywalker comes out in a couple days and it seems to be pretty hyped up. I must admit, I’m entering with some reservations after the last couple installments of the beloved franchise.
I know I’ve shared my opinions of certain aspects of the varying movies and trilogies throughout the story-arc, but as this is the crowning point of the story I need to share some thoughts on the matter. As to the background, I assume I am among the majority of people who have and still do love the overall Star Wars universe.
Whether or not you believe portions of the newest installments have been politicized, I will refrain from that line of thinking.
Star Wars, as a story, is wonderful. It’s expansive. It contains all the elements that movie-goers seek and love. Adventure, romance, action, mystery, and with the original trilogy a compelling story-line that viewers relate to.
I feel that The Force Awakens set us up for a potentially wonderful concluding trilogy to our beloved franchise, but that fell flat with The Last Jedi. I wanted to like the movie, I really did, but I just struggled through the whole charade. I wanted more from Rey, but not in an exponential growth way. I wanted Rey to stumble and overcome. I wanted to see that Rey had vulnerabilities and the ability to grow through. Seeing her continually dominating made me not care.
The attempts at humor seemed forced, unnecessary, and actually took me out of the movie. Poe’s ‘tooling’ with General Hux or Finn wandering around squirting liquid just didn’t make sense to me.
Then there were pieces of the plot that didn’t make sense in a logistical sense. Why did the Imperials, excuse me First Order, who had fuel content themselves to trail along behind the rebel convoy? Why did Holdo not tell anyone her plan, thereby forcing Poe, who never follows orders, to strike out on his own and screw everything up? Why are there bombers in space? Last I checked, bombs fall down, but there is no gravity in space to define down.
And last gripe, how does The New Order fit into anything. Somehow the screenwriters made a massive jump from the triumph of the rebels of the Imperials in Return of the Jedi to the collapse of the New Republic. Seriously, why are there still rebels floating around? What are they rebelling against? Shouldn’t the New Order be the rebels? Aren’t they rebelling against the New Republic? Does that make Leia and her band, squared rebels?
So many plot-holes that just send my mind reeling.
All that to say, I walked out of The Last Jedi shaking my head. I went home and watched the original trilogy with my kids so they could see what Star Wars was supposed to be.
Then came Solo. From what I understand people liked it even less than The Last Jedi. All I have to say about that movie is it would have been better without Han Solo. The story itself was fun and could have been more if I wasn’t constantly reminded that Alden Ehrenreich is no Harrison Ford. Had this movie been an unrelated story set in the Star Wars universe (like The Mandelorian) it could have been a good movie.
So, now we sit, two days out from the release of Rise of Skywalker. I have purposefully avoided any early reviews. I don’t want to be tainted by other’s opinions. Unfortunately, the predecessors do not fill me with confidence.
At this point in the story I’m not sure there is room for Rey to naturally grow as a character. Realistically, the only character I even remotely care about is Ben-Ren. Maybe this story isn’t really about all the others. Perhaps Kylo Ren is the true protagonist. I find it strange to get three movies into the new trilogy and still not care about any of the MC’s.
Am I jaded?
Am I spoiled because the original trilogy hit me at the most formative years of my creative life?
Possibly. But I’ll just have to hope that this movie redeems the previous movies. I will see this movie with reservations. I will see the movie because of what George Lucas created 42 years ago.
I will see Rise of Skywalker because I love Star Wars.
The Literary Busker 
Star Wars started out for me as the penultimate story of my youth. I loved the original trilogy, and even cheered when they announced the next set of movies. While in college I went to the reissues of the original three, and really enjoyed them. They truly stoked my anticipation of the prequels. The prequels were interesting and fun, but they did not live up to my expectations. Overall story line was awesome, but the characters and actors were unpleasant to say the least. (Does anyone besides a 5 year old really like JarJar Binks?)
Side note, George Lucas wrote the first six episodes then sold the whole kit and caboodle to Disney. J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson (Who?) were tapped the write and direct the sequels.
My disappointment was profound. Whereas I disliked the prequels because of the acting and characters, I loved the story. Here it was just the opposite The characters were engaging and well done, but the story line of “The Force Awakens” was a complete rehash of “A New Hope”. Lone hero starts out on a desert planet, Joins a resistance and leads a crew of pilots to blow up the Death Star(?). Complete crap out on the story line. Nothing original there, even down to the new jedi being trained by the “Last” jedi. Truth be told I never even bothered watching “The Last Jedi” I have no desire to see Abrams and Johnson (Who?) destroy my childhood joy. With “The Rise of Skywalker coming out I may watch “Last Jedi” and wait for “Skywalker” to show up on Disney+. I am just not that excited about it though. I would rather have seen Lucas’ take on the final three films. But Lucas is laughing all the way to the bank.
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