Star Wars Day 2020: Is 'Rise of Skywalker' worth the time spent watching it?
Spoilers for 'Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker'
Happy Star Wars Day, everyone. We've been counting down the movies all the way from 'Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope' in preparation for May 4 and now that the day is here, it's time to watch the last movie in the franchise.
There are two reasons why 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' is worth watching. Firstly, as the last movie in the Skywalker saga, you might want to watch it for closure. Secondly, the movie has some mindblowing visual effects that are a genuine aesthetic treat.
Now that we've got that out of the way here's everything wrong with the movie.
'Rise of Skywalker' is the worst movie of the sequel trilogy and that's saying a lot because the sequels, in general, are considered the worst part of the franchise. But this movie, in particular, is a study in all the things wrong with the sequels.
For one thing, it's so obviously a cash grab, they might as well have put "Give us all your money" in the title crawl. After the previous film, 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi', divided the fandom with its controversial narrative choices like revealing that Rey (Daisy Ridley) was special in her own merit and not because she belongs to some powerful family, 'Rise of Skywalker' was the franchise's attempt to erase everything done in 'The Last Jedi' and give fans what they want (or at least, what Disney thought they want)
It is fan service done as wrong as possible and the way it's been edited together, with a lot of scenes making no sense and vital scenes cut out from the final version, you'd almost think they hired Edward Scissorhands to edit the movie. There's unnecessary sexual tension throughout the movie culminating in the most awkward kiss ever in the franchise and so many cool things that are just mentioned off-hand instead of being shown on screen.
Remember that cardinal rule of storytelling, "show don't tell"? Well, 'Rise of Skywalker' takes that rule and shoots it right out of an iron cannon. So many things never get any explanation and our prayers are with the comic book writers and game designers who have to fill in the blanks because someone decided to make a movie that's incoherent at best.
Despite all that, 'Rise of Skywalker' isn't unwatchable. If you're fine with shutting off your brain for 2 hours and 22 mins just so you can see some cool visuals, then this is a great movie. But if you're expecting a work of cinematic brilliance, the entire final season of 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' is currently available on Disney+ and that would probably be more your style.
'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' is available for streaming on Disney+, in case you're up to watching it. And May the Force be with you.