Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, movie (2019) - Film review by Kadmon

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, movie (2019) - Watch the trailer on YouTube
video © Lucasfilm (Disney)

Article updated: 2021.06.29

The Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker is a futuristic fantasy adventure film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.

Product: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, movie (2019)

Original title: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Series: Star Wars

Setting: Star Wars universe

Previous entries in the series: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, movie (2015), Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, movie (2017)

Product type: Film, Genre: Futuristic fantasy adventure, Style: action, adventure

Release: 2019.12.16

Watched: very recent (2019.12), first time

Rating: Average (2 out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Weak (2- out of 3 points)

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This is my review of Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie, a futuristic fantasy adventure movie from 2019. It's about the Resistance rebels trying to protect the galaxy from the superweapon of the First Order. The film is visually astounding, the action scenes look good, though lack any kind of tension. The storytelling is also lacking, but you might enjoy it if you can sit back and don't want to think. I did not enjoy the The Rise of Skywalker film, but I can imagine some could find it interesting.

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, movie (2019)
image © Lucasfilm (Disney)

Review (spoiler-free) - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

I tend to watch movies later after the release, so I get a better chance of evaluating them, by reading reviews and talking with people, but as I know I'd watch Star Wars movies anyway, I watched The Rise of Skywalker film as soon as I can, otherwise media channels would spoil any surprise out of the movie. I've seen the trailer before I've watched the movie.

The Rise of Skywalker film is about the Resistance rebels trying to protect the galaxy from the superweapon of the First Order.

The story is rushed, and it was hard for me to follow, I had to read the Wookiepedia to find out some of the details. There are often scenes that are fun or visually interesting, but the The Rise of Skywalker film rushes to the next scene, instead of taking its time. There are some plot points that would be easily overcome, if not for the will of the screenwriters.

The The Rise of Skywalker film doesn't wastes time on introductions. None of the characters are introduced (only Rey gets some introduction time), so the first time viewer wouldn't know who are these people - who are the antagonists, or the protagonists. The Return of the Jedi also cut these introductions short, but it still won't save this film. None of the locations get introduction either, and that's a problem even for those who have watched every previous installment, as every location is brand new to this film. Some locations aren't even named in the story. (Edit: As several reviewers mentioned, all of the spaceship landings are gone from this film. They were used previously to establish a scene, to give us time to digest the introduction to a new location, and gave us a size comparison to the surroundings. Now, the ships are shown already landed, with the characters outside of them, starting some action scenes, and this deprives us these comparisons.)

There are no build-up scenes before the action scenes - we don't know what the characters think about the situation, we are not told their plans, se we don't know when an action scene happens that we should be happy that things go the right way, or we should be worried, because things don't go according to plan. We get a vague direction in the beginning of the The Rise of Skywalker film about what the characters want to achieve, but we don't get any more specifics. Because of this, the tension in The Rise of Skywalker is very low, and there's almost no emotional impact after the action scenes due to the lack of tension.

Several elements and characters of the story are unnecessary, probably only there in the The Rise of Skywalker film to sell some more Star Wars toys.

Visually it's nice, the scenes look great, and it feels like it's a proper Star Wars film. One of my problems was that they didn't spend enough time for me to enjoy the vistas. The festival was nice and looked interesting, I could have watched it as a background for a lot more time. Most of the The Rise of Skywalker movie looks good, the only scene that CGI shows is when they show a flash-back of young Luke and Leia, and that is just awful, their faces look like it comes from a 1990s video game.

The camera work and the direction is mostly fine in the The Rise of Skywalker film, it's the script that could have been a lot better. A great problem with this film is that there is no tension in the story, there is no uncertainity in the scenes, we know the heroes are never in danger, and even when the movie manages to create some sense of dread by making it look they might be in danger, it immediately informs us that no, don't worry, everybody is fine. There is a space battle that involves thousands of ships fighting, but the lack of immersion makes it boring, because you can't see or understand what is happening.

The music is okay.

The trailers for The Rise of Skywalker film are misleading (just like they were for The Last Jedi movie), but I think they are okay. The trailers don't try to force one interpretation of the events, they just show scenes that happen out of context.

One of the problems of the The Rise of Skywalker movie is that it retcons The Last Jedi movie, but at the same time makes not only the original trilogy pointless, but the prequel trilogy useless. That makes 7 of 9 movies unnecessary.

The The Rise of Skywalker movie is weak in every aspect. As a stand-alone story, it's just a mess of action scenes, without introducing the characters and the plot. As a sequel to The Last Jedi movie, it basically retcons everything that happened in that movie. Actually, this is more like a sequel to The Force Awakens movie, with some slight changes due to the plot of The Last Jedi movie.

My experience

As with the previous installments, although I liked the adventure elements of The Rise of Skywalker, overall I felt disappointed by the loose plot points and the illogical decisions of the characters (and the scriptwriters).

Rating: Average (2 out of 3 points)

Enjoyment: Weak (2- out of 3 points)

Rewatchability: High. I think if you liked watching the film for the first time, you liked it because of the atmosphere, not because of the plot.

Chance of watching it again: Very low. I don't think I'd watch the The Rise of Skywalker movie again intentionally, but I can imagine watching it if it would run on a tv channel when I don't have anything better to do.

Chance of watching a sequel: As I'm still a fan of the Star Wars stories, I probably won't be able to resist it.

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, movie (2019)
image © Lucasfilm (Disney)

Will you enjoy this?

If you don't mind illogical elements in your movies, you can enjoy this.

If you haven't seen a single Star Wars movie, you might be a little lost with this one, as it doesn't introduce anything, but it might be a fun ride for the visuals.

If you enjoyed The Force Awakens movie or The Last Jedi movie, you might be interested in the conclusion of Rey's story.

If you liked The Last Jedi movie, you might not be satisfied with this sequel, as it's not just totally different from that, but it negates the effects of every action that happened in that movie. It's like the makers continued The Force Awakens movie, and tried to retcon the events of The Last Jedi movie.

If you are a fan of the Rebels cartoon series, you won't be disappointed in this movie. The visuals are incredible, the The Rise of Skywalker film is just as much of a childish fun as the Rebels episodes are.

If you enjoyed the original trilogy, or even the prequel trilogy, but didn't like The Force Awakens movie, you should probably avoid this movie, because it's very similar to that, but it's not as good as that one.

If you loved the original trilogy, watching The Rise of Skywalker can spoil your memory of the original characters, as Luke and Leia uncharacteristically stupid things, and the acting by Carrie Fisher is not really strong.

If you get through the first 20 minutes of The Rise of Skywalker film still interested, you might enjoy the whole film, as the next two hours will be very similar action scenes one after the other.

If you like dumb action movies, you might enjoy the The Rise of Skywalker movie immensely. Just sit back, switch off your brain, and have a good time!

Do you need to see the previous films to enjoy this?

Yes. To understand what is the The Rise of Skywalker movie about, you'll need to watch The Force Awakens movie. The Rise of Skywalker doesn't waste time with introducing the characters or the plot, it jumps right into the action. If you are a completist, you might also watch The Last Jedi, although that is really not necessary. Watching the whole original trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, The Return of the Jedi) might be useful to understand the background of the whole conflict. Watching the prequel trilogy (The Phantom Menace, The Attack of the Clones, The Revenge of the Sith) may be useful to get to know the antagonist better.

Beyond The Force Awakens movie, you don't need to know more about the Star Wars universe to understand the main point of this movie. However, just like the other films in this trilogy, this one also needs you to read the prequel comics, the novellisation and the background books to fully understand what is happening. Many elements are left to be explained in the supplemental materials.

Watching for plot points

If you are only watching The Rise of Skywalker because you are curious whether it has some interesting background story or twist - there is not only one, but two twists in the The Rise of Skywalker film. If you don't want to watch the movie, I'll list those plot points that might be interesting in the Spoilers section.

Should you download a pirated camcorder copy of this film?

I advise against this (beyond of course it's being illegal). Most of the joy of the The Rise of Skywalker movie comes from the visuals. If you get an inferior copy, you'll lose even that. If you can't wait for the DVD release (so you can pirate that), just go and watch this in a movie theatre. (Even though I fear that would mean you vote with your money that the Star Wars franchise is in the right direction.)

What should you do if you really want to watch this movie, because you are a Star Wars fan, but you are afraid of the consequences?

Wait until the The Rise of Skywalker DVD is released. Find a foreign language release (Urdu works great for me), and watch that. This will help you enjoy the The Rise of Skywalker movie more, as you won't understand all the stupid things they say, and you can fill the holes with your own imagination, that is almost guaranteed to be better than the original.

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, movie (2019)
image © Lucasfilm (Disney)

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Review with spoilers - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

The only thing I like in the The Rise of Skywalker film are the visual elements. I didn't like any of the plot developments of the story.

For future readers: I don't have The Rise of Skywalker on DVD, I only remember what I've seen on the screen on the premiere week, and what I've read on the WikiPedia and WookiePedia about the story. There might be some points of this movie I don't remember correctly.

Promise of the first scene

According to the opening crawl, Palpatine is the bad guy again, and Rey trains to defeat him. I assume that Rey will defeat him, especially as this is the last movie in the trilogy. Kylo Ren also wants to defeat Palpatine, so they will probably do it together, like they did with Snoke.

Then the first scene shows Kylo Ren murdering some people to get to a mysterious planet, and immediately meets Palpatine. Instead of killing him, he joins him, so my first expectation about Kylo is already subverted. So, probably it will be like the Return of the Jedi, and Kylo will try to protect Palpatine, while Rey will try to kill him.

Execution: Well, in the end, Rey really allied herself with Kylo Ren to kill Palpatine. So the first promise was fulfilled.

Plot summary / Synopsis

Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is alive and this frightens everyone. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is looking for Palpatine, and when he finds him, Palpatine asks Kylo to kill Rey.

Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) is on a mission aboard the Falcon to meet with a spy who confirms that Palpatine is alive, and they only have 16 hours to save the world. Rey (Daisy Ridley) is training to be a Jedi with Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and she receives Luke's old lightsaber that has been repaired since the last episode. They know that the Sith fleet emerge from Exogol to dominate the galaxy, but they don't know where that planet is, so they start searching for it. Poe, Finn, Rey and Chewie go to a festival planet (Pasaana), and get some clues but to decypher them, they have to go to a cold planet (Kijimi). Chewie gets captured. On the cold planet, they have to rescue Chewie from the prison of a Star Destroyer, while Rey is having a duel with Kylo. Kylo tells Rey she is the granddaughter of Palpatine. When they escape with the Falcon, the First Order destroys the cold planet with their new weapon.

The Falcon arrives at the ocean moon of Endor, where they find the fallen Death Star 2. Rey goes alone into the ruins, where she is confronted by Kylo. Leia sacrifices herself to distract Kylo through the Force. Using this advantage, Rey wounds Kylo, but then she heals him. Rey takes Kylo's TIE-Fighter, stranding him on the ocean moon. Rey goes to Ach'to, where Luke dwellt, and destroys Kylo's TIE-Fighter, but after Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) changes her mind, she leaves with Luke's unusable X-Wing. She uses her transponder to send the location of Exogol to the Resistance.

Rey arrives on Exogol to visit Palpatine. He asks Rey to kill him, so he could possess her. Then Kylo also arrives somehow, and they start to fight Palpatine. Then the Resistance fleet also arrives, and a space battle starts. Rey is defeated, but Kylo helps her with the Force, but that kills Kylo. Rey kills Palpatine, just like he asked her. The Sith fleet is defeated, everybody go home, and they start to celebrate. Rey goes to Tatooine, and introduces herself to a passer-by that she is called Rey Skywalker.

The setting

By the time The Rise of Skywalker starts, the Resistance managed to get back to full force since the end of The Last Jedi movie, when it was on the verge of complete destruction. The First Order seems to have completed the conquering of the galaxy, and now they have the Sith fleet to help them in solidifying their grasp on it.

Plot points of interests

Palpatine is alive: He survived the explosion of the Death Star. No explanation given.

Rey is the grandchild of Palpatine: This was a surprise for me, but apparently it was already hinted in The Force Awakens movie. (Here's a video about The Stupendous Wave theory from 2016 January, and a very thorough video about NerdSoup's evidence from 2017 December.)

Factions

The First Order: They are now ruling the galaxy.

The Resistance: Even though in the previous film the whole Resistance got destroyed, now they are back to being a force to be reckoned with. They have plenty of people and resources to use.

The Sith: They look like the First Order, and use First Order technology, yet they are different in a way that is not explained in the The Rise of Skywalker movie.

Changes to characters:

• Leia becomes a teacher to Rey.
• Rey constantly grows in power through the story. In the end she basically controls unlimited power.
• General Hux gets demoted (no explanation given in the The Rise of Skywalker movie), changes his mind about the First Order (without any explanation, as up to this point all he wanted to be is the leader of the First Order), but he gets quickly killed in retaliation.
• Threepio starts to care about people, and shows affection. This is just there to feel sorry for him when his memory gets deleted. Showing his human side is basically a version of a soldier showing family photos to the others.
• Luke starts to care about his old lightsaber (without explanation).
• Kylo Ren returns to the light side (no explanation why), and kills the Knights of Ren.

Characters killed:

• Resistance: Leia decided to become one with the Force (probably due to real life reasons). A couple of newly introduced characters are also killed.
• First Order: The Knights of Ren were killed by Kylo Ren. Palpatine was killed by Rey. Kylo Ren just sort of died, probably out of embarrassment. Hux was shot by the new First Order leader, than that leader got killed in an explosion. The cult of Palpatine was killed by Rey.

Technology:

• The Sith fleet now has guns on Star Destroyers that can destroy planets: They lack any kind of protection, however, as they are easily destroyed by a couple of rag-tag pirate and smuggler ships.
• You can use hyperspace jumps any time to create shortcuts when they chase the ship: This raises the question why didn't they do this in previous films.
• First Order TIE-fighters seem to instantly jump after a starship that tries to shake them off by entering hyperspace: This shows they are capable of hyperspace jumps, and they also have some kind of device that calculates where do their targets jump.
• You can use hyperspace jump even while in the atmosphere of a planet: Previously it seemd like they have to get away from planets to initiate a hyperjump.

New Jedi abilities:

• Interstellar teleportation: Kylo could teleport the necklace of Rey, then get the materials identified to travel there. The Repulic Jedi could have used it for investigation work. Rey also uses it for short-distance teleportation to send Kylo a lightsaber when he needs it.
• Healing: They can cause regeneration of internal organs, not just flesh wounds. This could have been useful before.
• Life drain: Palpatine is able to syphon the life energy of people to heal himself.
• Mass destruction: Although it's not entirely clear whether Rey just killed the people in a blast, or also damaged the area, but she got rid of thousands of people with one blast.

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, movie (2019)
image © Lucasfilm (Disney)

Fan-service

The fan-service aspect is visible in The Rise of Skywalker, but it's not as bad as it was in Solo. You get a lot of elements of the original trilogy (with enough tinkering that they get design protection).

• We get stars from the original trilogy - Wedge Antilles, Lando Calrissian, and Palpatine, beyond the original group of Luke, Leia, Solo, Chewbacca and Threepio.
• We also get to see old tech - X-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings, B-Wings, a Corellian Corvette (that background sources confirm that it's the Tantive IV), a Jawa sandcrawler, a desert skiff, Star Destroyer type from The New Hope, and even the 2nd Death Star.
• At the end, we get a glimpse of Ewoks, showing us that some of them survived the Endor holocaust, or maybe they were moved to another forest planet by the kind rebels.

Scenes and elements from previous films:

• A New Hope:

  • The galaxy is threatened by a planet destroying weapon: Death Star in ANH, in The Rise of Skywalker film it's the Sith fleet.
  • Message carried by R2-D2: The Resistance spy sends his message this way.
  • Jawas and a sandcrawler
  • The moisture farm of Owen and Beru: Rey returns to this place.
  • Jedi mind trick used on Stormtroopers: Used by Rey on the Star Destroyer.
  • Stormtroopers going on a door to door search: On the cold planet.
  • The Millenium Falcon with a circular radar dish: It had rectangular dish in the previous films, now it's changed back to the original look.
  • People playing holochess with Chewbacca: Finn plays with him.
  • Spice smuggler: Poe was a spice smuggler, just like Han Solo.
  • Jedi training drone: Rey is shown training with one.
  • Chewbacca in shackles, lead by stormtroopers: Solo and Luke pretended to have Chewie is a prisoner. The First Order catches Chewie, this time for real. (As My Sunday Movies mentions, Chewbacca has a habit of being caught and getting tied up.)
  • Rescue from Imperial prison: In ANH, it was rescue from the Death Star, here it's rescue from a Star Destroyer.
  • Jedi becoming one with the force: Leia, and also Kylo/Ben.
  • Deadly weakness of the planet destroying weapon: If you destroy the main gun, it destroys the whole ship, just like the Death Star had a weakness like this.
  • Blowing up the planet destroying weapon: Every ship of the Sith fleet seems to be destroyed, even the ones not on Exogol.
  • Crowd waiting for the returning spaceships: The Resistance crowd waiting for the attack fleet, just like the Rebels are waiting for the survivors of the fleet that attacked the Death Star.
  • Heroes getting a medal: Chewbacca also gets his medal he didn't get at the rebel ceremony (although he already gets it in the AdyOne edition).
  • "I've got a bad feeling about this"

• The Empire Strikes Back:

  • Blowing up an Imperial vehicle with grenades: Blowing up the Star Destroyer with grenades is possibly a reference to blowing up the Imperial walker with a grenade.
  • Starship starts up to chase the heroes in an asteroid field: Just like Boba Fett chased the Falcon.
  • Jedi master raises Luke's X-Wing: Luke's ghost raising his X-Wing, like Yoda raised the same X-Wing on Dagobah.
  • Jedi training with floating rocks: Rey's training starts with that.
  • Jedi in training confronting their evil counterpart in a vision: Luke met Vader on Dagobah, Rey met sexy goth Rey on the ocean moon.
  • Mysterious warrior in a helmet: Zori Bliss here, similar to Boba Fett.
  • Giant space-worm trying to eat the Millenium Falcon: In the asteroid field in TESB. During the beginning chase in The Rise of Skywalker.
  • Bespin: Shown during the celebration.
  • Chewbacca in shackles, lead by stormtroopers: The First Order catches Chewie, just like they did on Bespine.
  • The antagonist is a relative of the protagonist: As Luke's father was Vader ("I am your father"), Rey's granddaddy is Palpatine ("He is your grandfather").
  • "I love you." "I know": Here it happens between Kylo and Han, as mentioned by Emergency Awesome in this video.

• Return of the Jedi:

  • Lando wearing a disguise: Just like in Jabba's palace.
  • Chewbacca in shackles: Leia pretends to have Chewie as a prisoner. The First Order catches Chewie, for real.
  • Endor: Shown during the celebration.
  • Chewbacca is caught as a prisoner: The ewoks catch Chewie, and tie him up. The First Order catches Chewie.
  • Dead Star 2: The wreckage is shown on the ocean moon.
  • The Emperor's Throne Room: Shown on the ocean moon, in the ruins of Death Star 2.
  • Force lightning: Used by the Emperor, and also by Rey.
  • The final space battle at Endor: The setup is similar, with multiple capital ships.
  • The end celebration: It is reminescent of the celebration in the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi.

• The Force Awakens movie:

  • Jakku: Shown during the celebration.
  • Rey slides down on a sandy slope: She does this on Tatooine, just like she did it in the beginning of The Force Awakens movie, as mentioned by Emergency Awesome in this video.
  • The knights of Ren: They appear in the beginning, and in the end.
  • Black person who was a former stormtrooper who got fed up with the First Order in their first combat mission: Jannah in The Rise of Skywalker, same as Finn in The Force Awakens movie.
  • Searching for the hidden map: As pointed out by Screen Crush in this video, the whole plot of The Force Awakens movie was that they were looking for the map to find the secret planet where Luke Skywalker hides. In The Rise of Skywalker movie, they are looking for the map to find the secret planet where Palpatine hides.
  • The ship Rey sees in her vision: It's found on the desert planet.

• The Last Jedi movie:

  • Holdo maneuver: Reversed - someone advises to do it, but he is quickly silenced.
  • Luke chucking the lightsaber: Reversed - Luke's ghost catches the lightsaber.
  • Jedi tries to strand themselves on Ach'to: Just like Luke got rid of his X-Wing, so did Rey destroyed her possible getaway vehicle by setting it on fire.

• Holiday Special

  • Life Day celebration: The red robes of the people on the festival planet is similar to what they wear on the Life Day celebration at the end of Holiday Special.

• The Phantom Menace:

  • Double bladed red lightsaber: Here it's wielded by dark side goth Rey.

• Revenge of the Sith:

  • Palpatine talking about unnatural forces
  • Palpatine is defeated by his own force lightning reflected back on him: This time it's Rey who holds that saber, and it looks like Palpatine is not learning from his mistakes.
  • Wiping the memory of C3-PO

• Flash Gordon (1980):

  • "You have only 14 hours to save the Earth!": It's 16 hours in The Rise of Skywalker film, and the whole galaxy.

• The Ring of the Niebelungs:

  • Alberich, the dwarf smith: Kylo has his helmet repaired by Albrekh, the dwarf smith.

• Bad Robot studios:

  • There is a droid, similar to the Bad Robot at the droid repair shop.

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Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, movie (2019)
image © Lucasfilm (Disney)

Analysis of the story - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

The message of the story

It's hard to say. I'm not sure there's any.

The structure of the story

The scenes are played in sequence, following a single plotline, with one flashback scene. It skips the introduction part of the dramatic structure, there are many action parts, then a climax (defeating Palpatine) near the end, and then a weak resolution. The climax and the resolution might feel weak because there was no build-up in an introduction, we are just thrown right into the action. Many acts happen off-screen, making the story harder to follow.

Things I liked

• Rey looks good on the screen. If you are a girl, you might not appreciate it that much.
• The celebration on the desert planet was interesting. I would have watched that a little longer than it was in the The Rise of Skywalker movie.
• The duel between Rey and Kylo on the frosty planet was visually interesting.
• The new First Order leader looks more believable as a military leader than the previous First Order staff.
• Although the makers couldn't keep a reference for the Ewoks, at least they didn't show us gungans as fanservice.

Problematic elements

The title - The Rise of Skywalker: The title of the The Rise of Skywalker movie is not clear. Which Skywalker are we talking about? Is this a hint that the first 9 movies were just the prequels to the proper story of Rey Skywalker? There are no more living Skywalkers left by the end of the movie, only Rey who takes the name to herself, although we don't get any explanation why would she do that.

You might also consider Leia - she was a Skywalker, and she did "rose" to be one with the Force. But I still don't think it makes sense.

List of problematic elements

I list things that are illogical, or breaking the previously established rules. If something seems stupid at first, but there might be some convoluted logic behind it, I list it in the unanswered questions.

• Why does Palpatine announce that he is going to take over the Galaxy? This is the reason the Resistance started to move against him that lead to his demise. If he had just do it silently, he probably would have succeeded.
• As Thor Skywalker points it out - what was Palpatine's plan with the First Order? If they were just sitting in the Outer Rim, and waiting for the Sith Fleet to be completed on Exogol, Palpatine would have won. The Resistance started because of the attrocities done by the First Order, and the Resistance fleet was assembled because they wanted to stop the First Order after they've destroyed a star system. Also, why do they spend money on building a Starkiller Base and dreadnoughts when they already have a fleet of better destroyers?
• The First Order uses bikes on tracks to chase levitating speeders. Don't they have their own speeders? It's clearly made for being used as a toy. When the stormtroopers found out that Rey's gang took a couple of skiffs, they should have confiscated a couple of speeders from the locals.
• The heroes fall into a rocky version of quicksand. Then they just fall out of it. If it is anything like real quicksand, there's no way they could just fall out of it, and we aren't given any explanation.
• While they slowly sunk into that rocky quicksand, I expected Rey to lift the whole team out of it, as we have seen her do similar feats. While she might have been surprised and forgot to do that, I still find it strange she would just let it happen.
• Rey uses healing of the giant critter. This seems to be the solution to their problem, as healing the creature reveals the exit. This seems like some stupid video game puzzle.
• Threepio refuses to translate Sith, so they have to go to a droid engineer, to be able to overcome this. It looks to me it would have been more efficient to get a Sith dictionary to translate it themselves, or get some rogue protocol droid, who could just do the translation.
• Threepio's eye changes into red when translating the Sith script. Does the use of language change his hardware too? Is the red eye some kind of built-in warning signal that the droid is translating Sith?
• Our heroes find an abandoned spaceship that was left there dozens of years ago, and it happens to have fuel, it doesn't have any problems, and nobody bothered to steal it, yet it doesn't stop them from entering.
• When Kylo flies in a TIE-fighter, he finds Rey in the desert. Kylo immediately tries to fly at ground level, while Rey starts to run to meet the ship. What do they want? Kylo wants to ram Rey? Rey tries to get into melee with a starfighter? We see just a little bit later that she is capable of wrecking a transport ship in the air, she could have done the same with the TIE. Luckily, Kylo doesn't start shooting, so she survives long enough to be able to cut the spaceship apart with her lightsaber. And also, while the cockpit of the TIE falls a long way before exploding, Kylo just gets out of it, like nothing happened.
• When Kylo and Rey starts to have a duel, neither Rey's friends, nor the Knights of Ren try to help. They just stand back, and watch the duel, as if it's unimportant to them.
• Rey's group manages to fly into the deck of a Star Destroyer, they they run out guns blazing, and they manage to get as far as the prison. Even if they get permission to land, I'm pretty sure they won't let it land without sending out a couple of Stormtroopers to investigate.
• The First Order just put the confiscated items they got from Chewie on a table, so Rey could just grab them at once.
• The whole "escape from the prison" plot looks similar to its predecessor in The New Hope, and Stormtroopers conveniently jump out just to get shot down by our heroes, the First Order troopers act like they want to commit suicide by enemy blaster shots.
• It's not clear how are they able to get to the Falcon, and how can they enter it, even though the First Order probably locked it, and how can they leave the docking bay without being shot down by the Star Destroyer. In The New Hope they were let go because the Empire wanted to track them. Here they just go to find the Falcon, and next time we see them flying free.
• Hux kills the guard, while probably in the view of a camera. Then he just lets them board the Falcon. He must have known that the First Order will execute him for this, so his best chance would have been to join the Resistance group. Yet, he remains there to be executed.
• Hux asks for getting shot in the arm. A blaster most likely tears off his arm, leaving him dead. The same is true to a leg-shot. He must be extremely stupid to ask for this.
• Rey uses Luke's old X-Wing that has been submerged in the water for dozens of years, while Luke used parts he salvaged from the ship. I think it would take a couple of days at least to make the ship space-worthy.
• The whole "Sith-dagger map" is stupid, as it works from only one physical point of view - did they imagine the user will just walk all over the planet, trying to match every piece of terrain to the edge of the dagger?
• At this point it's probably no surprise, but Rey is a more skilled sailor than the sailors of the ocean moon of Endor.
• The Death Star 2 is not only intact, it has working lights and doors, and conveniently it fell just at an angle that the floor of the Throne Room is horizontal, yet the outside of the Death Star 2 is also horizontal. That's quite an achievement.
• When Rey is having a duel again with Kylo, she again tries to prevent her friends from helping her.
• During their duels they are doing pretty stupid things, but as it was choreographed to look cool, it's something I can forgive.
• Zori Bliss and Buba Frik remain on their planet when Poe leaves. A few hours later the planet is destroyed. Yet, it seems they survive somehow.
• When Rey gets out of hyperspace at Exegol, the Sith just let her fly there, instead of catching her in a tractor beam.
• Attacking the Star Destroyer in a close combat is stupid and it shouldn't work, yet the Resistance manages to destroy it with a cavalry charge. Also, where did they get the First Order transport ships they use to haul the cavalry to the Star Destroyer? Why didn't they tilt the ship, so the attackers fall off? The Star Destroyer's surface looks metal, and horses have a pretty hard time running on metal, and also, the surface is not horizontal, it looks like a 30 degree angle, that is not an ideal ground for a charge. And also, as KingEmperorPenguin mentions in this video, we were told that the skies of Exogol have so strong storms that it causes problems for the spaceships. One would assume winds like that would also hinder the animals.
• When Finn hijacks one of the turrets of the Star Destroyer, it basically destroys the whole bridge of the Star Destroyer in a single salvo. Why don't they use turrets like everywhere? Why don't the Star Destroyer has defenses against its own weapons?
• The ex-stormtrooper girl uses a bow against flyers - they were probably jet-troopers, but still, they should have protection against a bow.
• Calling the Holdo Maneuver just like that in universe sounds stupid. In the past couple of thousand years there must have been some people who previously run into other starships while trying to do a hyperspace jump, either intentionally or unintentionally.
• The reveal that Rey's parents left her on the junk planet so she'd be safe goes against logic. The planet itself was hostile, it was inhabited by primitives and mobsters. She could have just died due to dehidration, heat stroke or famine.
• The Sith Star Destroyers have an inbuilt self-destruct mechanics - blowing up their main cannon destroys the whole ship. Why were they designed this way?
• Why were the Sith Star Destroyers designed in a way that they are unable to leave Exogol without outside help? When they move the signal to one of these ships, and this ship was destroyed, why didn't they moved the signal to yet another ship?
• Although having starships that have weapons that destroy planets is not entirely bad, I dislike it, because it starts a Lensmen Arms Race in the Star Wars universe, that is unnecessary.

Unanswered questions

Some of the questions have been answered by the crew and the supplemental books, I include those answers, but they were still missing from the movie release.

• How did Palpatine survive the destruction of the Death Star 2? Surviving the fall is one thing, but the explosion should have been devastating. (Although we see the wreckage of Death Star 2 that doesn't really got damaged, but that's still an inconsistency.) (Edit: According to The Rise of Skywalker novelisation, Palpatne didn't survive the fall. The Palpatine we see in The Rise of Skywalker film is a clone of the original that was created as a contingency plan.)
• Just Some Guy's question: Why did Palpatine build his fleet under the ice? Wouldn't it have been easier to use them if they weren't buried? Didn't the weight of the ice damage the sensors and guns?
• 19Cula87's question: How is it possible that during the end of The Return of the Jedi, the Force ghosts of Ben and Yoda didn't care enough about Palpatine and the deathmatch on the Death Star 2, that they would realise that Palpatine survived? If they knew this, why didn't they tell anyone?
• What was the point of cloning Snoke? Why didn't Palpatine ruled the First Order up front?
• When the Death Star exploded it was seemingly obliterated. The remaining parts should just burn up in the atmosphere, and even if there were intact parts remaining, they should be burnt chunks instead of slightly wrecked parts with working electricity. How did this happen?
• Jesse Howell (Bayou Jesse)'s question: Why did Kylo Ren wait a year after the death of Snoke to repair his helmet? He probably made it because he wanted to look like Darth Vader. Then he was ordered to take it off by Snoke. After Snoke died, why did it take this long to get the helmet back?
• What did Finn want to say to Rey when he got interrupted? (Edit: According to the creators, Finn wanted to tell Rey he is Force-sensitive, but that doesn't make much sense to me.)
• RetroBlasting's question: How did Leia become a Jedi expert so she was able to teach Rey?
• RetroBlasting's question: How are Rey and Kylo able to teleport themselves and other objects through the Force?
• How does Rey navigate Luke's X-Wing without an astromech droid?
• How did Kylo Ren get away from the moon of Endor, when there was no spaceship left, and Rey took his TIE-fighter? (Edit: According to The Rise of Skywalker novelisation, he found a starship in the hangar of the Death Star 2. That was previously blown to pieces and fell to a planet, yet it was still shipshape.)
• Robot Head's question: How did Kylo get to Exogol without the Wayfinder? Rey was able to reach the planet with the Wayfinder, but the whole point of their search was that they needed a Wayfinder to navigate the path.
• Why does Rey kiss Kylo? Kissing on the lips might be some kind of custom where she comes from, but it came from nowhere. (Edit: According to The Rise of Skywalker novelisation, it was a kiss of gratitude, as Rey wanted to thank him for saving her life, and wanted to acknowledge that they are finally on the same page.)
• WhatCulture Star Wars's question: Where do all those Force ghosts come from? The first Jedi who have learnt the trick was Qui-Gon, he have taught it to Yoda and Obi-Wan who have mastered it. It's questionable how Anakin have learnt it, but let's just say that Yoda and Obi-Wan helped him to become a Force ghost. But a lot of the Force ghosts we hear in this movie come from an earlier time. How did they become Force ghosts?
• How did Kylo become one with the Force? It's unlikely he would have learnt it from Luke at that point in his training, and only Jedi are capable of using this power.
• Why didn't the Sith fleet leave when the Resistance ships could?
• Why didn't the Sith ship just leave the atmosphere to kill the intruding cavalry?
• How and why did General Pryde go to Exogol?
• What happens to the Star Destroyers all over the galaxy? Do they just get destroyed because Palpatine died? Or are there further Resistance forces out there, battling those ships?
• Who is the character at the end wearing Zori Bliss's armour? Bliss declined to join Poe, so she was most likely killed when the planet destroyer Star Destroyer destroyed the planet she was on. (Edit: According to the visual dictionary, Bliss quickly left the planet, just before it got blown up. How convenient.)
• Why did Rey choose to be called Skywalker?

Empty leads

The Rise of Skywalker is very bad in creating a sense of mystery or dread, or sacrifice.

• The The Rise of Skywalker film starts with "there are rumors that Palpatine is alive", and states that the Resistance is trying to find out if these rumors are true. Then to ruin the whole setup, in very first scene, we are shown that yes, he is alive.
• Then Chewie is thought to be dead in an accident, and Rey blames herself for killing him. Then to ruin her self-doubting scene, the next scene shows Chewie to be alive, making the whole accident pointless.
• Then later in the The Rise of Skywalker movie, the Resistance can only achieve their goal if Threepio sacrifices his memory. They spend enough time on that to show the audience that erasing his memory is a big deal. Then, to make this whole sacrifice pointless, after they arrive at the Resistance base, they just reload his memory that got saved before the mission. What's worse, they not just make this empty, but a source of humour, the The Rise of Skywalker film tries to make fun of his lost memories multiple times.
• The First Order / Sith Empire creates a fleet of super star destroyers, each able to blow up a planet by itself. Then, to show how useless they are, this whole fleet of super capital ships are blown up in minutes by a rag-tag fleet of smugglers and pirates.

The problem with these false leads is they make those scenes pointless and unimportant, they could be left on cutting room floor.

Retconning losses

When the viewer is invested in characters of a good story, that is why they feel the need to continue to watch it. The movie makers create a tension when one of the characters get into danger, and this is a thrill of the action scenes. We feel grief when a character suffers a loss, because of this investment. This feeling is what you take away from the viewer when you show them they have been duped, there was no real danger, no real loss, you have been tricked to feel the thrill or grief for a brief moment.

• Chewie seemingly dies, he gets mourned. Then it is reveladed that he survived the crash on another spaceship. Also, as Just Some Guy points it out, if you have seen the trailer, you know there will be a shared scene of Chewie and Lando that you haven't seen yet, so Chewie will be saved.
• C3-PO's memory is wiped, but then he just loads a saved copy.
• Kylo gets a deadly wound, but gets healed by Rey.
• Rey gets a deadly shock, but gets healed by Kylo.
• Palpatine seemingly died previously, but he survived somehow.
• Snoke was killed in The Last Jedi movie, but here we see additional clones of him.
• Han Solo died, but he still has a conversation with Kylo.

This also sets up an expectation of anybody to come back when they look like they have died - however, Leia, Kylo and Palpatine looks like they stay dead for the moment.

The Last Jedi movie took away expectations, The Rise of Skywalker took away these emotions. That is why I feel it will be hard to take any further films seriously.

Retcon of The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi movie was not received well by the fans, so it seems to me they try to minimise the effect of that movie in The Rise of Skywalker.

• While Snoke was killed, he was replaced here by Palpatine.
• While Kylo removed and destroyed his mask, here he get the mask repaired, there's even a scene dedicated to this in the The Rise of Skywalker movie.
• Rose was a major character, here she's just one of the background characters. The implied romance between Finn and Rose doesn't get a mention.
• The whole Resistance was massacred, the whole fleet destroyed, with only 30 or so people on the Falcon, but now everything is back to the original power of the The Force Awakens movie.
• The infamous Holdo Maneuver gets a mention, but the Resistance leaders recommend against it, because it wouldn't work (there might have been some techno-babble behind it, I don't remember).
• The Holdo Maneuver is also shown to be not working the way it did in The Last Jedi movie, when in the beginning chase Poe jumps into hyperspace while facing several obstacles. That implies that Holdo was not a hero, just very stupid to believe that her maneuver might work.
• Luke threw away his lightsaber, now his ghost comes back to bring back that lightsaber to Rey, because he changed his mind, and that is the most important thing in the universe.
• Luke's old lightsaber gets torn in half, but it's repaired now.

Destroys the original and the prequel trilogy

The original movie trilogy was the story of rebels who try to defeat Palpatine, and the story of Darth Vader, who was the antagonist at first, but redeemed himself by seemingly killing Palpatine.

The prequel trilogy was the background story of Darth Vader, the anti-hero of the original trilogy, so we get to know him more, before he becomes a full fledged bad guy.

Now, in The Rise of Skywalker, as we get to realise, Palpatine is alive. That makes Darth Vader's sacrifice pointless. That makes the prequel trilogy pointless.

Truth to be told, as Nate Zoebl point out, it makes this very episode pointless, as if being killed by falling into the reactor, then getting exploded in the Death Star is not enough to destroy Palpatine, then some Force Lightning is unlikely to deal a finishing blow to him, so even if he is not possessing Rey, he's probably still fine. So there's nothing that would stop the creators to use him as the antagonist in further movies.

Edit: As this video points out, the whole Star Wars series now becomes the Palpatine Saga. The prequels are about how Palpatine rose to power, the original trilogy is about a rebellion against Palpatine that causes some delays in his plan, and the sequel trilogy is about how his granddaughter rose to power, and how Palpatine gave her his Sith powers by having himself killed by Rey.

Hard to understand plot elements

One of the problems with the movie is the rushing of the story. I think The Rise of Skywalker fails as a stand-alone movie, it builds on the previous stories, and probably on the background materials (comics, setting books). There were many things I didn't understand, even though I've seen the previous movies, and tried to keep up with the universe. Characters and places were thrown at us to digest in a minute, then the story just run past them. I'm almost sure we'll get a book on how Palpatine survived; a comic series on how Kylo Ren found Exegor, where the Sith hide; and in a background hardback we'll get to know more about the shared past of Zori Bliss and Poe Dameron. Yet, when I'm watching this movie, I don't have the informations I'd need, and even after finishing the story, it doesn't satisfy me. I feel the screenplay could have been a basis of a "Return of Palpatine" trilogy, as it had enough material in there to be used.

The ending of the The Rise of Skywalker film was kind of weird for me. Palpatine told Rey he expects her to kill him, so Palpatine's soul could possess Rey, so he could live in in Rey's body. I though this could create an interesting situation when Rey has to avoid killing Palpatine, and I waited for her to use her healing powers instead, as it would explain why they were introduced. But she just kills Palpatine, and moves on. Does this mean that Palpatine won, and she is living inside Rey?

Story elements that go nowhere

Some elements of The Rise of Skywalker movie were pointless:

• The Knights of Ren appear, walk ominously, then they get all killed by Kylo Ren.
• Threepio has to sacrifice his memory, but then he gets it back without any problem.
• Rey goes to Ach'to, to become a hermit, but then Luke just changes her mind, so she goes back to the Resistance.

If these would have been left out of the The Rise of Skywalker film, it wouldn't have changed the story, but that would have created a more compact story, getting us more time to spend on other scenes.

No character arcs

Character arcs are nonexistent:

• Every Resistance member just wants to further the goals of the Resistance. Kylo Ren is the only one that has his own agenda - he wishes to find Palpatine to get rid of him, at least the movie spends some time on his effort, but he dies trying. Palpatine wishes to die by the hands of Rey, and he gets exactly this, but he doesn't really work on this, it just happens.
• Finn could have been left out of the The Rise of Skywalker movie, he doesn't do anything.
• Chewie could have been also left out, there's only one plot element he was involved in, wheh he was captured by the First Order, but his part could have filled by any other character.
• A Rey & Kylo relationship was hinted in the previous films, but it didn't go anywhere in this, also, as Kylo is dead, it probably won't.
• A Finn & Rey relationship was also hinted, but that also didn't go anywhere.

Offscreen happenings

There are things that are not shown to us in the The Rise of Skywalker film. It might seem that they are not interesting, but these are creating voids in the story.

• How did they dock into the Star Destroyer with the captain's badge? When the Star Destroyer found out the captain is about to arrive, they must have sent someone to welcome him.
• How did they reach the Falcon on the Star Destroyer? How did they leave?
• How did Kylo get away from the ocean moon?
• How did Zori Bliss get out of the cold planet before it blew up?

Bad writing choices

The Resistance defeats the Sith fleet by sending in their ships, and blowing everything up. Rey defeats the Emperor by fighting him until he dies.

These are not ideal dramatic choices. The heroes are defined by their enemies, and how they overcome them.

The Resistance is supposed to be the underdog - a couple of people who are unsatisfied with the current status of the Galaxy, and who take up arms to change the world. The Sith fleet is supposed to be the most fearsome thing the Galaxy has ever seen. The heroes should be really crafty, clever and brave to be able to stop them. However, as we see, they just send their ships in, and not just stop their current action, but easily dispose of the whole Sith armada without even a plan. This makes the Sith look like an incompetent force, and if they are incompetent, then the people who defeat them, are not so heroic, they just have the right amount of weapons to do so. Also, this makes the Resistance look lazy and stupid that they didn't gather before to get rid of the whole First Order.

The same is true with Rey. All she do is trying to hit Palpatine, until he gives in and dies. This shows us that she would have been able to do so even in the beginning. She didn't become more powerful, she didn't come up with a clever plan, she didn't need to do some trick to best an overpowering foe. As the defeat happened after Palpatine sucked part of the power of Rey, this means that Rey would have defeated more easier, had she started the fight more determined a bit earlier, as even after all that, Palpatine was still weaker than Rey.

Also, the fact that Rey is basically all-powerful, makes many scenes empty. The only times there could be a little tension in the action scenes when she forgets to use the Force. For example, she could have dealt with the flyers by just pulling them into the ground, the same trick she could have used with Kylo's TIE-Fighter. It's cool to see Lando saving the heroes, but as we see later, dealing with the lone Stormtrooper wouldn't have been a problem to Rey. Her battle with Kylo is made empty by the fact that she defeated him in The Force Awakens easily, and that was before her Jedi training.

The use of Palpatine was not well prepared. While I don't mind the use of an old antagonist in a series, but the movie solely relied on the viewers knowing who he is, instead of introducing him properly. We should have seen Palpatine doing some vile and despicable acts of terror, so we knew what the stakes are. We don't get to see his motives, and what we see is contradictory, as he constantly changes his statements about his goals.

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Possibilities of improvement

A fan-edit of The Rise of Skywalker might improve the film, but even if you cut parts and rearrange shots, I feel there still won't be a story worth telling.

• Cutting the Mustafar scene: It didn't give anything to the story.
• Probably cutting the Palpatine scene: As we already get some foreshadowing in the opening crawl, we don't need confirmation.
• Cutting the Falcon jumping in and out of hyperspace: It defies the logic of the series.
• Cutting the Kylo repairing the helmet scene: We didn't need this in the The Rise of Skywalker movie, let him just war the mask, nobody cares anyway.
• Cutting the Rey training scene: We already know she is the best one there is, we need not spend a couple of minutes with this.
• Cut the "they fly now": They have been already flying before, they shouldn't be surprised.
• Cutting (changing?) the quicksand scene: Make it look like they just hide from the First Order in a cave, and they just find the dagger there. Then let them just find the exit, without completing the "heal the monster" puzzle. Get rid of the quicksand-like elements.
• Change the desert duel: Try to make it look like Rey tries to run away from Kylo, yet he (stupidly) flies after her, until she has to dodge the TIE-fighter, and decides to attack it.
• Cut the scene where they show Chewie is in First Order custody: It just kills the suspense.
• Probably cutting the Star Destroyer prisonbreak: The whole thing is so stupid, yet doesn't go anywhere, it shouldn't be part of the The Rise of Skywalker movie. Of course, then it would be probably better if the catching Chewie part would be also cut.
• Probably cutting the Rey on Ach'to scene: It doesn't really fit into the The Rise of Skywalker film, and doesn't really change anything.
• Changing the Threepio scenes: Instead of deleting his memory, it should be just about changing the directives to be able to translate Sith, although that's still stupid. So, he should just translate the part, and should retain the memory. For this, some dialogues must change. They probably wanted to be funny with the "newborn Threepio", but it's not interesting.
• Cutting the cavalry charge: Although it looks awesome, it has interesting shots, it's really out of place. Cutting it makes the film less stupid.
• Changing how Rey defeats Palpatine: Add some clever twist, some secret knowledge that helps her defeat him, instead of just using raw power.
• Changing how the Resistance defeats the Sith fleet: Make it something clever instead of just pummeling the ships with their weapons until they gave in. The large number of ships shouldn't be a match for the Sith in a face to face fight, and this should be clear for the viewers. For example, there could be a stargate that allows the fleet to leave the system. Destroying that gate would trap the whole fleet in the system, and it would take some time to rebuild it, allowing the Resistance to prepare for the next time. Of course this would mean that the Resistance is on a suicide run, and they would be wiped out by the much stronger Sith armada, even if they are succesful.
• Cut the "Rey Skywalker" scene at the end.

Probably using the scenes of The Last Jedi movie and The Rise of Skywalker movie to create one film, or exchange some of them could create a more enjoyable experience.

• Inserting parts of the space battle in the beginning of The Last Jedi movie into TROS, when Kylo shoots missiles to kill Leia: Kylo killing Leia was implied in the The Last Jedi movie trailer, and that would be a good way to send Leia off, while showing us the ruthlessness of Kylo. As Leia has a couple of scenes in TROS, the scene might be find a better place in the middle of TROS.

How it could have been better?

A better script, written by someone with a better logical aptitude, could have made the The Rise of Skywalker movie great, because I think otherwise the crew was competent. Even though the cast was a little bit wooden, they were not bad.

If the title crawl of the The Rise of Skywalker film opened with the rumors about Palpatine, the story could have been an investigation to find out the truth about that. Also, establish who Palpatine is, beyond the simple fact that he has returned.

They should have introduced the characters, as we didn't get any information on any of the established characters. Even if you don't introduce the protagonists, there should have been a scene showing why Palpatine is bad. He should have ordered the execution of people, or killed someone with Force lightning - anything to show us that he is evil and powerful.

Some of the missing information could have been included. How is Rey able to heal people? How did the Death Star pieces remain intact? It would have needed a sentence or two to establish these, so the viewers would have accepted it.

The The Rise of Skywalker movie was basically about how Palpatine raised himself to power again. "The Rise of Palpatine" title would have made sense.

The Sith fleet that Palpatine created could have been a hidden Empire fleet that has been fitted with advanced weaponry. That would have explained why do they look like the old stlye Star Destroyers from The New Hope.

Instead of the talk with Han Solo, Kylo could speak with the Force Ghost of either Leia, who could have died by that time, or Luke, who was already dead.

An idea by Bobby Pop, is that Janna and her team of deserters could have been inspired by Finn.

An idea that Michael James Keating came up with is giving Finn a proper character arc, by freeing the brainwashed child soldiers the First Order used. As I've mentioned in the The Force Awakens movie (2015) article, both the fact that they didn't know what to do with Finn, and also, that they didn't use the plot point that First Order uses brainwashed people, is a problem. If, instead of having a fight with the Sith fleet, a third party to the previous conflicts, the final battle would be on a regular First Order base, where Finn would be able to hijack the First Order communications, and with a heartfelt speech he would incite the First Order soldiers to mutiny against their masters. He might need to destroy the mind scrambling machine first, that keeps the First Order troopers slaves to the system, or there could be other points that would keep the First Order to do the same thing again. This could be a great way to end the trilogy. It would parallel elements from the previous The Last Jedi, where slavery was brought up, and even the Prequel Trilogy, where Anakin promised he'll free all the slaves.

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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?

The Star Trek reboot from the co-writer and director (J. J. Abrams) was a lot better than what he did with the Star Wars movies. The Rise of Skywalker film is a disgrace to Star Wars.

The other writer (Chris Terrio) has written the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and then Justice League. Those movies were also weak. However, he also made Argo, and that was okay.

How does it compare to the other films in the series?

The Rise of Skywalker film is similar to The Force Awakens movie, but weaker movie due to structural issues. It's closer to Star Wars than The Last Jedi movie, but worse in plot. It's not as good as any of the original trilogy.

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, movie (2019)
image © Lucasfilm (Disney)

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Appendix - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie: In defense of the movie

There are some complaints about the The Rise of Skywalker movie in reviews I've read and watched, that are not really plot holes, so I'd like to defend those points.

In TLJ we get to know Luke's X-Wing is not working, so Rey couldn't use it: Although it was mentioned in TLJ that it's not working, stranding Luke on Ach'to, but we don't get to know whether or no it's the truth.

In TLJ it was said Rey's parents are nobodies, so she can't be now a Palpatine: Kylo said that for psychological effect, when he wanted to lower Rey's self esteem.

Force ghosts cannot interact with physical bodies: We have seen that happen with Ben's ghost when he pushed some bush away while walking on Dagobah.

In the past they didn't use Force healing, it's a plot hole that Rey can use it now: It's not a plot hole, it's just stupid writing. Also, having healing and resurrection in Star Wars really ruins any further suspense in later stories when a character gets any kind of damage.

There was no way Rey could have learnt Force healing, as her teachers were Luke and Leia, who have only learnt from Kenobi and Yoda, and those two couldn't use Force healing: Luke and Leia could have also learnt it from ancient Jedi text. Luke was shown to have plenty of those. Rey could have learnt it from Kylo Ren, when she was connected to him - although we learn about this only from the novellisation, and not from the movie.

Rey couldn't have learnt it from Kylo, as he was trained by Snoke, who only had the knowledge of Palpatine, and he didn't teach healing to Vader, even though that was the whole point why Vader joined the Sith: First, in the past 30 years after Vader's death, Palpatine could have learnt it from Sith holocrons, so he could pass it on to Kylo. Second, Palpatine may have been misleading Vader, and by withholding Force healing from him, he was able to torture him with the death of his loved ones.

If Force ghosts can interact with physical bodies, why don't they just fight the First Order instead of sitting back?: We cannot know how far their abilities work. It might be that they can interact in places of Force centers, like Ach'to and Dagobah. But that's true that it would be great if they had explained this in the movies.

It's impossible that Palpatine could create a fleet, get its crew, and have planet-killer weapons installed on them: I wouldn't say it's impossible, it's just very stupid.

We have seen the Death Star 2 being blown to smithreens in The Return of the Jedi, so it's impossible that such large parts of it remained intact: I'd say it's improbable. There might have been an extra force field, protecting the Throne Room, it would have been useful. It would have been great though, if they had establish this in the movie itself.

If Rey is the granddaughter of Palpatine, and has Dark Side powers, why would Luke train her in The Last Jedi?: We have seen in the prequel trilogy that Palpatine was able to hide the Dark Side from the Jedi during daily interactions. We don't know if this was an innate ability, if it is, Rey might also be able to hide it. In the canon Kylo Ren comics we see that Dark Side users are able to feel the presence of Dark Side in others, but we can't know if it's also true for the Jedi.

It's a plot hole that Palpatine wants Kylo to kill Rey, yet he says at the end that he wants Rey to kill her, so he could possess Rey's body: We don't get to know Palpatine's real intentions. While he says he wants Kylo to kill the girl, he might foresee that trying to kill her will get Rey on Exogol. Or he might have changed his mind later, and forgot to tell Kylo to stop trying to kill her.

It's impossible that Lando could recruit that many ships to join the fleet!: While it's true that none of those ships came in The Last Jedi movie, and it's improbably that their stance would change, if Lando could get a galaxy-wide transmission somehow, the number of ships is not impossible, just unlikely.

The Sith TIEs would have been disabled and destroyed by the force lightning of Palpatine: I'm almost sure that Palpatine was able to control the targets of his lightnings.

It's disgusting to show lesbians kissing in the end of the movie: We only see two women giving a kiss to each other, we don't get to know anything about their sexual preferences. Giving a kiss on the mouth can be just a greeting custom, just like it is in Middle-Eastern Europe. (see: WikiPedia: Kiss#Kiss on the lips) Rey also kisses Kylo in the film, so it's probably a local custom.

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Appendix 2 - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie: What the defenders of the movie get wrong

There are some other reviews and opinions out there about the film that I don't think are valid.

I liked the movie, therefore it can't be bad, so your arguements are invalid: Liking a piece of art doesn't improve its quality. You can like something because of taste. You can have emotional attachment, finding something attractive in the style, or something interesting in the themes. You might even like something because you like the creators. But that piece of art can still be objectively bad. It's totally okay to like bad art, but it's kind of a closed minded approach to refuse any kind of criticism of the subject.

Rey is not a Mary Sue, because we see that her powers come from being a Palpatine: No, that doesn't make that right. In the previous movies we learn that using the Force needs proper training. Anakin was the most powerful Jedi, but he couldn't use the Force before he got to Jedi school. Luke was the son of Anakin, yet he still needed a lot of training. And also, Rey happens to be more skilled in everything she does, than the ones working in that profession - she flies the Falcon better than Han does, she sails the skiff better than the locals do.

It's not that bad, it would have been worse if X would have made it: Yes, that's right, it could have been worse, but that still doesn't make this a good movie.

Star Wars fans don't understand the movies, they are the ones who are always complaining!: That's true. Star Wars has a legacy of many films and literature. Whenever a new film is made, the creators should take this background in consideration. This is a burden on the creators, but they take this burden in hopes of higher profit, because they build on this fanbase. If you'd prefer to make a film without this burden, create a brand new universe, so you'll be free to tell any kind of stories. In this case, the Star Wars fans are always complaining, because they are the ones who loved the original stories, and they feel cheated by the sequel films.

The sequels cannot ruin our memories of Star Wars, because what we like is already there in our heads: This might sound logical, but once our merry memories are contaminated with the awful memories that we would have wanted to avoid, they are already there. Once you have seen terrible or uncharacteristical things happen to your favourite characters, they will stuck in your memory.

There were worse things in the - now non-canon - Expanded Universe than the sequel trilogy, yet nobody cried about them: This might be true, but it was easy to avoid them. If you didn't want to have possibly inferior Star Wars experiences, you didn't read the comics, or all those novels. When you started to watch the Ewoks cartoons, you knew it after a minute or so whether you'll like them or not, so you could choose to continue them or just switch them off. But now we are talking about big budget official movies, created for a theatrical run, not just straigh-to-video releases. At the moment this - the sequel trilogy - is Star Wars. This is what you can visit if you go to a Star Wars theme park, this is what you can buy if you'd like to get some merchandise.

When you watch the film for the second or third time, it's easier to understand what is happening and what they say in the expositions: Sure, and I'm almost sure it would be even easier if I read the novellisation. However, when I'm watching a film, I'd like to enjoy it even for the first time. Especially as the The Rise of Skywalker film is not as good as I'd like to watch it a second nor third time. A good movie is easy to understand for the first watch.

The sequel trilogy doesn't ruin the original Star Wars, it just takes it into another take of the story: I get that, but they didn't need the background of Star Wars. If they had a good story to tell in their own take of a heroic fantasy story, they could have created their own universe to be a basis of movies. They intentionally chosen Star Wars to create something that will resonate with the fans, and that didn't work.

The sequel movies were made for the new generation of kids, not for the grownup old neckbeards who are grumbling about them!: This is partially true. Disney targets a generation that still asks for toys to play with, and not the generation that only watches the movies. So there is that. Yet, if they really wanted to do a new Star Wars-like story for this new generation, they could have just created a brand new brand, instead of trying to milk those old grumbling people. They say that the young people like these sequels as much as we liked the originals when we were kids. This could be true, yet, the original trilogy is still a masterpiece of cinema, and they were liked by every generation of that time, not just the children. Interestingly, at the time of writing (2020.01.28) on the IMDB rating, it's the males that are younger then 18 and the 18-29 generation who rate The Rise of Skywalker the lowest, and the 45+ year old females who rate it the highest. It makes me think that the new generation who this movie was made for doesn't really appreciate what they've got.

The film introduces new technology and Jedi powers to the universe, but that can't be a problem, because the episodes of the original trilogy also introduced something new in every film: It's true that there were some additional elements, but they were not game-changers. The introduction of Force jump in TESB didn't make you think why didn't Kenobi or Vader used this in ANH. The introduction of Force lightning didn't make you think why didn't they use it earlier, I assumed it's a dark Jedi power only the Emperor knows. However, teleportation and healing is something that would have come up, because those really change how the universe would work if there are people with these powers.

This film is not for stupid people who need being spoon-fed every explanation: Okay, but don't make jumps in logic and leave us in the dark. Don't expect us to accept every seemingly illogical decision of the characters, and believe that they had a very good reason for their actions.

The film just sticks to the original treatment of Lucas, back in the early 1980s, where he planned to end the saga with the defeat of Palpatine: Yeah, sure, but that treatment was overwritten, when he truncated the story, and put the defeat of Palpatine in The Return of the Jedi. So there was no need to stick to the original plan after that.

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Uses for the film - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

Plot

• An evil power built a fleet of super-weapons.
• The evil wizard can possess the body of his killer.

Scenes

• The festival planet scenes look interesting. It could be used to depict an alien festival.

Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas

 

Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas

 

Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)

Although I don't know about miniatures at this scale for the sequel trilogy, Wizards of the Coast made models at this scale for the Star Wars Miniature Game, and Fantasy Flight Games did the same for Imperial Assault. You might substitute Imperial Stormtroopers for First Order Stormtroopers if you don't mind the differences.

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Similar stories - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

Movies

Star Wars: Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi (1983): Rebels trying to defeat the evil Emperor Palpatine.

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Frequently asked questions - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

What do you need to know before watching The Rise of Skywalker?

If you haven't seen any Star Wars stories before this, just sit back, and try to enjoy the action. If you have seen The Force Awakens, you know enough, you can skip The Last Jedi. If you have some time, you could probably watch the original trilogy, then The Force Awakens, before watching The Rise of Skywalker. Otherwise, you could read the plot summary for those to understand the background, because it won't be explained in the movie.

Is there a post credit scene in The Rise of Skywalker?

No, there's no post credit scene in The Rise of Skywalker.

Where can I watch The Rise of Skywalker online? Is The Rise of Skywalker available on Netflix? Is The Rise of Skywalker on Amazon?

Currently (2021.05.01), The Rise of Skywalker can only be watched on Disney+.

Is The Rise of Skywalker on Disney+?

Yes, as of 2021.06.23, The Rise of Skywalker is available on Disney+5.

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Resources - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

Information

IMDB: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019): Database article.

WikiPedia: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Database article.

WookiePedia: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker: Database article.

Letterboxd: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Database article.

Rotten Tomatoes: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Database article.

Metacritic: Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker 2019: Database article.

Creation - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

ILMVFX: ILM Behind the Magic: The Visual Effects of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Video about the visual effects in The Rise of Skywalker film.

Nick: The Rise of Skywalker: Behind the Scenes: Video about the creation of The Rise of Skywalker film.

Creation - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie: The Colin Trevorrow script: Duel of the Fates

Mr Sunday Movies: The Cancelled STAR WARS Episode 9 Animated: Animation video telling the story of the script.

Mr Sunday Movies: The Original Star Wars Episode 9: Duel Of The Fates: Short review video.

Parental advisory information - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

Raising Children Network: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Parental advisory information article about The Rise of Skywalker film.

Sandie Angulo Chen (for Common Sense Media ): Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker: Parental advisory information article about The Rise of Skywalker film.

Reviews with no spoilers by someone who liked the film - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

MileZee Movies: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Non Spoiler Movie Review: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with no spoilers, by someone who liked this film.

Travelers Warden: STAR WARS: The Rise of Skywalker Review: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with minor spoilers, by someone who liked this film.

Reviews with no spoilers - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

A.O. Scott (The New York Times): ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Review: Revolution No. 9: Review article of The Rise of Skywalker film, with no spoilers.

AngryJoeShow: Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker - Angry Review!: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with slight spoilers.

Channel Awesome: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Sibling Rivalry: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with no spoilers.

Durbania: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Movie Review | NO SPOILERS: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with no spoilers.

Emergency Awesome: Star Wars Episode 9 Rise of Skywalker Review - NO SPOILERS: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with no spoilers.

Erin McCann (for The New York Times): ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’: A Spoiler-Free Review Roundup: Summary of review articles of The Rise of Skywalker movie, with no spoilers.

KingEmperorPenguin: An Off-The-Cuff Review of The Rise of Skywalker: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, it starts with a no spoilers part.

Mr Sunday Movies: The Rise Of Skywalker (Is A Mess) - Star Wars Review: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with minor spoilers. It has clips from the movie trailers.

Thor Skywalker: The Rise of Skywalker: Spoiler Free Review (So this is how the saga ends...): Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with minor spoilers.

Tony (for Reel Time Flicks): Star Wars: Rise of The Skywalker (2019): Review article with no spoilers.

Vito: Rise of Skywalker is Worse Than The Last Jedi? (No Spoilers Review): Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with no spoilers.

WardWorks (for Cross the Netflix Stream): Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker Movie Review: Review article with spoilers. Includes a non-spoiler part in the beginning.

Reviews with spoilers by someone who liked the film - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

MagicOfBooks: Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker Review: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with spoilers.

MileZee Movies: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Spoiler Movie Review: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film,, with spoilers, by a guy who liked this film.

Star Wars Theory: The Rise of Skywalker review

• Star Wars Theory: I Just Saw The Rise of Skywalker - FULL REVIEW: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film,, with spoilers, by a guy who liked this film.
• Star Wars Theory: Rise of Skywalker - My Live Review: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with spoilers, by a guy who liked this film. It's 2,5 hours long.

Reviews with spoilers - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019) - Turkish

Gökhan Cılam (for Science Fiction Club): Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (in Turkish): Review article about the film with minor spoilers, in Turkish.

English version by Google Translate

Reviews with spoilers - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

Armoured Media: How Bad is: Star Wars Rise of Skywalker: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker movie, with spoilers.

Ben Shapiro (for The Daily Wire): Ben Shapiro Reviews 'Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker': Review video about The Rise of Skywalker, and a summary of the sequel trilogy.

Black Nerd Comedy: WHO @#$%&* PALPATINE? The Rise of Skywalker SPOILERS | Black Nerd: Review video with spoilers, mostly focusing on Palpatine's lineage.

Bricky: My Very Angry Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker Review: Review video with spoilers.

Channel Awesome: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Nostalgia Critic: Plot summary video.

Channel Awesome: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Spoiler Corner: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker movie, with spoilers.

Chris Stuckmann: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Spoiler Review: Review video with spoilers.

Cinemassacre: Cinemassacre's Last Star Wars Review (Rise of Skywalker): Review video with spoilers.

Devin Nash: Why Everyone Hates the Rise of Skywalker: Review video with spoilers.

Durbania: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) SPOILER TALK | Theological Analysis: Review video with spoilers, and an interesting analysis about what the Bible says about The Rise of Skywalker.

Emergency Awesome: Star Wars Rise of Skywalker Review and Ending Explained: Review video with spoilers.

ET Canada: Roz Weston Reviews 'The Rise Of Skywalker': Review video with spoilers.

GmanLives: The Rise of Skywalker - A Summary Of My Disappointment: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker movie, with spoilers.

Grace Randolph (for Beyond The Trailer): Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker REVIEW: Review video with some spoilers.

Grace Randolph (for Beyond The Trailer): Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker SPOILER Review: Review video with some spoilers.

greigzilla (for We've Got (Back) Issues): Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker: Review article of the movie, with spoilers.

Heavy Spoilers: STAR WARS: The Rise Of Skywalker Ending Explained Breakdown + Full Movie Spoiler Talk Review: Review video with spoilers.

Heavy Spoilers: WHY STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER SUCKED: Review video with spoilers.

I Hate Everything: I HATE STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER: Review video with spoilers.

Jay Exci: The Rise of Skywalker is an Embarrassment: Review video with spoilers.

Jeffrey Roth (for Psycho Drive-In): Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) – Take Two: Review article about the film with spoilers.

Jenny Nicholson: Oh no! The Rise of Skywalker was real bad :(: Review video with spoilers.

Jody's Corner: "Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker" | Spoiler Rant!: Review video with spoilers.

Just Some Guy: Star Wars: Rise of the Pretender: Review video with spoilers.

• Just Some Guy: Star Wars: Rise of the Pretender -- Part 1: Review video with spoilers.
• Just Some Guy: Star Wars: Rise of the Pretender -- Part 2: Review video with spoilers.

Just Write: The Rise Of Skywalker Is The Most Frustrating JJ Abrams Film: Review video with spoilers.

Kevin Smith: Kevin Smith Reviews Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker: Review video with spoilers.

KingEmperorPenguin: An Off-The-Cuff Review of The Rise of Skywalker: Review video, it starts with a no spoilers part.

Left Foot Media: The Rise of Skywalker is a Mess | My Review: Review video with spoilers.

Nate Zoebl: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019): Review article about the film with spoilers.

republished on Psycho Drive-In

Nerdrotic: The Rise of Skywalker Destroys George Lucas' Star Wars | Spoiler Review: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker movie, with spoilers.

Obsessive Cinema Disorder 電影強迫症: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoiler Review: Review article with spoilers.

Oliver Harper: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) Review: Review video with spoilers.

Paul Brian McCoy (for Psycho Drive-In): Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) – Take Three: Review article about the film with spoilers. The beginning has no spoilers.

Red Letter Media: Half in the Bag: The 70-Minute Rise of Skywalker Review: Review video with spoilers. It's mostly bashing the film, but has some good points.

the video on YouTube

Robot Head: How Did This Happen? Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker: Review video with spoilers.

Shadiversity: The Rise of Skywalker is TRASH of the highest order, STAR WARS full in-depth review: Review video with spoilers.

Shawn Hill (for Psycho Drive-In): Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) – Take Four: Review article about the film with spoilers.

Star Wars Explained: Everything I Love About The Rise of Skywalker: Video, listing the things that the reviewer liked in The Rise of Skywalker film. Contains spoilers.

Tamara Chambers (for Channel Awesome): Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Tamara Just Saw: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker movie, with spoilers.

The Critical Drinker's reviews:

• The Critical Drinker: The Rise of Skywalker, and the Fall of Star Wars (Part 1): Review video with spoilers.
• The Critical Drinker: The Rise of Skywalker, and The Fall of Star Wars (Part 2): Review video with spoilers.
• The Critical Drinker: Dissecting The Rise of Skywalker (feat. Nerdrotic and Bowlestrek): Podcast about The Rise of Skywalker film. It's 4 hours long.

Thor Skywalker's reviews:

• Thor Skywalker: Palpatine's return makes no sense (The Rise of Skywalker Dissection Part One): Review video with spoilers.
• Thor Skywalker: Is Anakin still the Chosen One? Is the lore broken? (The Rise of Skywalker Dissection Part Two): Review video with spoilers.
• Thor Skywalker: The Rise of Skywalker: An average end to an unnecessary trilogy? (Let's Talk Some Star Wars): Review video with spoilers.

Tyrone Magnus: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoiler Review...: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with spoilers.

Vito: The Rise of Skywalker is ABSOLUTE GARBAGE: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with spoilers.

WardWorks (for Cross the Netflix Stream): Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker Movie Review: Review article with spoilers. Includes a non-spoiler part in the beginning.

Reviews with spoilers - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019) - Italian

Marco Minniti (for Asbury Movies): Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker (in Italian): Review article with spoilers, in Italian.

English version by Google Translate

Analysis - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

AngryJoeShow: Top 40 Plotholes in Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker!: Video about plot holes and stupid moments in The Rise of Skywalker film.

Anomaly Inc: Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker - The MASSACRE Of Star Wars: Videos about the history of Disney Star Wars, leading up to The Rise of Skywalker film.

• Anomaly Inc: Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker - The MASSACRE Of Star Wars Part 1
• Anomaly Inc: Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker - The MASSACRE Of Star Wars Part 2
• Anomaly Inc: Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker - The MASSACRE Of Star Wars Part 3

Filmento: The Rise of Skywalker — How to Fail at Endgame | Anatomy Of A Failure: Analysis video, comparing The Rise of Skywalker film to the Avengers: Endgame movie.

How It Should Have Ended: How Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Should Have Ended: Parody video about the possible outcome of alternative timelines in the movie.

Just Write: The Rise Of Skywalker Is The Most Frustrating JJ Abrams Film: Review video of The Rise of Skywalker film, with spoilers.

Jonathan Burdett (for Films&Stuff): The Rise of Skywalker's Broken Structure: Analysis video of The Rise of Skywalker film.

KingEmperorPenguin: A Military Analysis of The Rise of Skywalker: Analysis video of The Rise of Skywalker film, focusing on military tactics.

Let Me Explain: How Star Wars Goofed - Let Me Explain Rise of Skywalker: Analysis video about the creation and structure of The Rise of Skywalker film.

Lore Star: 10 Disgraceful Letdowns in Rise of Skywalker | Star Wars Explained: Analysis video about the problems of the narrative in The Rise of Skywalker movie.

Lore Star: 10 Things the Rise of Skywalker Doesn't Tell You | Star Wars Explained: Video about some background elements of The Rise of Skywalker film.

Mr Sunday Movies: 10 Mysteries Solved From Star Wars Rise Of Skywalker: Video about unanswered elements of The Rise of Skywalker movie.

Quora: What would you change about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker?: Forum about the possibilities of improvement.

Savage Books: A Professional Editor Breaks Down The Rise of Skywalker: Analysis video about the character arcs and plot of The Rise of Skywalker movie.

ScreenCrush: Star Wars: Why Rise of Skywalker is So Very, Very Bad: Analysis video of The Rise of Skywalker film, focusing on the problems of storytelling.

Screen Junkies: Honest Trailers | Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Humorous analysis video about the problems of The Rise of Skywalker film.

Screen Junkies: Serious Questions | Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Humorous analysis video about questions that arise after watching The Rise of Skywalker film.

Thor Skywalker: This part of The Rise of Skywalker completely insults fan intelligence...: Analysis video about the problems of the MacGuffins of The Rise of Skywalker film.

WhatisAntiLogic?: The Rise of Skywalker changed the entire franchise.: Video trying to make sense of what happened in the sequel trilogy.

Analysis - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker movie: References to other works

My Sunday Movies: All Easter Eggs, Secrets & Cameos - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Breakdown: Analysis video about the references to other movies in the Star Wars series.

WhatCulture Star Wars: Star Wars: 7 Massive Plot Holes The Sequels Stupidly Created: Analysis video about the plot holes the sequels created in other movies in the Star Wars series.

Review about supplemental material - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary book

Vito: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Book is WORSE Than the Movie: Review video. The video sheds light on many things that explain elements of the The Rise of Skywalker movie.

Review about supplemental material - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novel adaptation book

Star Wars Explained: The Rise of Skywalker Expanded Edition - Star Wars Book Review: Short review video about The Rise of Skywalker novelization.

Star Wars Explained: Five Questions Answered by The Rise of Skywalker Novelization: Video about how the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker explains some unclear points of the movie.

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Buying the product - Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker movie (2019)

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Have you seen the Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!