A review of “Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker”
Over 40 years after the “Star Wars” cinematic saga began, we have the ninth – and presumably last – episode in the three trilogies originally envisaged by George Lucas and I’ve enjoyed seeing each movie immediately it appeared on the big screen. The honour of closing the franchise goes to director and co-writer J J Abrams back from helming Episode VII.
Among the multitude of characters, this is essentially a story about Rey played by Daisy Ridley and, over the three films of the final trilogy, both the character and the actor have developed considerably so that she is now the eponymous Skywalker. She is well-balanced by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) with whom she has an ambiguous relationship.
However, this is a franchise where characters disappear but go on to reappear, where persons die but somehow return, and even where an actress (Carrie Fisher) can die but still have a role (unused footage from an earlier movie was fitted into the narrative).
It’s all immensely entertaining with lots of fight and battle sequences, some new developments (like stormtroopers that can fly), the occasional new personage (like the underused Zorii Bliss played by Keri Russell), and the tying up of many of the loose ends. But essentially this is a repeat of so many tropes and situations and the return of so many characters that, as with the previous episode, too much is going on and the whole thing runs rather too long (almost two and a half hours).
Also some of it – such as the role of a glass tetrahedron – doesn’t make much sense. Oh, if you don’t blink, at the very end you might catch the first lesbian kiss of the franchise.
You can read my reviews of all nine “Star Wars” films here.