My Review of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker"

I know it took me a long time to watch Star Wars Episode 9. That's because the movie has been sold out for the longest time and I finally got to see the movie last weekend. How could a movie that's so divisive do so well in the box office? After watching it I know why.

First off, I'm a fan of Star Wars but only a casual fan. I don't read the books or play all the games. I just watch the movies and not religiously like some fans. As a casual fan I don't care if things make sense with movies and books and I'm not keeping track of details of the movie.

So it was a shock to me when I watched it. Certain things didn't even make sense to me. At least in the beginning. The whole movie is based off this one knife item that doesn't quite make sense to me why there's such a scavenger hunt for it and the item that the knife will bring them to. It at times felt like a epic space version of Goonies. That's not totally a bad thing though. I loved Goonies. The thing is this is Star Wars and it felt a little out of place.

This movie starts off with a return of Palpatine who we remember from the first 6 Star Wars movies. He mysteriously comes back and so obviously the rebels are extremely worried. Kylo Ren wants to get rid of Palpatine so that he can have total power. They pretty much give all of this away in the movie trailer.

Without giving away too much information there is a ton of surprises along the way to their happy ending (this is a Disney movie don't forget). So one of the problems in this movie is that a lot of the movie is safe. They want to keep all of the fans happy so you never really have any sense of danger to the major characters in this movie. They could have though. It's supposed to be the concluding episode so why care if the character dies or lives? Have fun with it to give the audience a sense of urgency.

We can't kid ourselves though, Star Wars is a money making machine for Disney so we can't expect anyone to be in serious danger. There are scenes in this movie that I felt they made just so that it can help the company make more video games, and merchandise for fans to purchase. Some of the scenes felt very much like a video game.

I keep forgetting that Star Wars is geared towards children. So the scenes that are purposely made so that kids will buy more of their stuff. If you watch this movie as if you were a child I can definitely see why this movie has done so well. It doesn't matter to kids how easily certain problems are rectified in the movie. They don't care why certain people or items come into the scene conveniently to save the day. Also, it's extremely important to them that their heroes don't die.

The actors who portray the characters in this movie all do a great job. Fans will definitely pay more attention to the movie to see if there are any cameos by stars they would never expect in this episode. I can tell you yes there are a few actors that you would not expect to see in this movie.

For fans of the old series I can see how they would be divided about this movie. J. J. Abrams had put in a ton of Easter eggs in this movie. He does a ton of winking to fans and you can say he panders a lot to fans in this movie much like he did with episode 7. I think if you liked episode 7 you'll likely like episode 9 as well. There are certain aspects of this movie that feel very familiar to earlier Star Wars episodes.

Most importantly of all, did I have a good time watching this movie? Yes I did. I was a little confused about certain things in the beginning of the movie but once the intros were done it was a fun ride. There are scenes in this movie that will get to you if you've watched the other Star Wars movies. I think it's an adequate farewell movie.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and that's what's most important. I don't think it's the best Star Wars movie that I've ever seen but I wouldn't say it's the worst one either. There's still fun to be had but if you've got little ones that like Star Wars then this is a must see. This movie is geared towards children so go in watching it as such and you'll have a better time. I'll have to give this movie a 7.5 out of 10. I'll probably re-watch it at some point but I'm not begging to re-watch it again.