Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

A wonderful friend gifted my boy and I some passes at the last minute to go see Star Wars on opening night, and we ended up arriving just as previews began (which went an agonizing full half hour). It's amazing the nostalgia and memories that those first few notes of the theme music kick up in the brain and heart, bittersweet and anticipatory all at once.

I tried not to overthink it but simply enjoy what was the last movie of this storyline. And enjoyable it was. Without giving away any spoilers, I will say it tied up the story nicely, was satisfying, and had more than a few emotional moments. The "shockers" weren't truly mind-twisting, but fit the story well.

Do NOT read this if you don't want to know any spoilers before you go see it yourself.
The 12 most shocking moments in 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'
By Alexis Nedd and Proma Khosla
10 hours ago
This post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Big ones.

One thing I would like to address, and can't go into too much detail on just yet because, again, of spoilers, is this tone-deaf, "Woke" review on the movie by Star Wars Shadow Council:
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Glorifies Abuse and Assault Against Women.

No, it does not, and this kind of take on it frustrates me - it's one-sided and finding only fault in order to push a narrative instead of considering the movie as a whole, what the other female characters did, and all of the relationships portrayed in the series in the context of the storyline and setting (hello, Luke and Leia, Luke and Anakin, Han and Leia, Anakin and Padme, Vice Admiral Holdo and Poe, Jannah and her crew). I was heartened to see so much pushback on their Twitter post of this review, but disappointed in seeing it twisted by what I can best describe as social justice warriors. The person who wrote this review is taking a beloved canon and using select scenes in a sloppy, poorly backed essay to justify their outrage at real life (or simply to get clicks).

Should we have conversations about the depiction of women in film and how it influences society's perception of women, and vice versa? Yes, absolutely. But let's include every character in all of the films, the challenges they face and actions they take, and what those scenes represent in the big picture, not just one female character.

I give it 4 light-saber duels out of 5.

I've seen some people saying that, but I don't think it does. There are certainly actions taken in this film directly because of events in the previous two films; I'd think that anyone going in to see this one without seeing The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi would miss out on quite a bit of back story.

I do agree with the complaint in your second paragraph and I'm not sure why it is that Star Wars has suffered so. The MCU has had multiple directors all bringing their own perspective and influence, as did Harry Potter, but both of those benefited from having one over-arching person/source (Kevin Fiege and JK Rowling, respectively) that oversaw production and helped keep continuity. Perhaps that is what Star Wars is in need of? Star Trek has certainly suffered the same issue, but it's not based on an enormous volume of written works from which to pull either.

Homeagain, I think it did a good job on providing closure, but that's just me.

I went back and saw it again with the rest of the family and enjoyed a little more than the first time. I definitely caught some more nuanced lines and scenes, especially in regards to Finn and his Force sensitivity.