Review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) by Thenell87 — 20 Dec 2019

This film by itself was a complete mess. And as the third film in a trilogy it's also a complete mess. There was too much story crammed into one film. Major events happen then get completely reversed a couple of scenes later.

The plot of the first half of the film involves a ridiculous mcguffin which makes no sense (why would anyone create a random dagger in the shape of the death star ruins with a weird device pointing at the throne room?).

The overall plot of the film (the Emperor returning) is introduced with no explanation, and the final battle resolves itself through shonen anime logic - Rey wins effectively through the "power of friendship" of having all the previous Jedi on her side.

It's never explained why "all the Jedi" beats "all the Sith" which are apparently in Palpatine. And that's not even mentioning the nonsense that is Ben resurrecting Rey with the force, which completely undermines the point of the prequel trilogy.

And it just flat out retcons major plot and character developments from the previous film! There were a few positives, however. C-3PO was consistently funny without getting stale. Babu Frik was hilarious.

The Ben and Rey scenes were very well acted (even though the story itself was crap). But ultimately, the vast majority of this film was just complete nonsense.