Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

TL;DR: A bad science fiction movie saved by the Star Wars universe.

I don’t go to the movies much anymore, but I’ve somehow managed to see all of the Star Wars sequel trilogy movies on the big screen. Here is my Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker review.

Recently I watched the last movie in the triology, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. I found the two previous movies quite entertaining, and I sat down in front of the silver screen with a big bag of candy and above average expectations.

Unfortunately, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker does not live up to those expectations. It’s without doubt the weakest movie in the sequel triology, and among the poorest movies in the Star Wars series as a whole.

There are many reasons why The Rise of Skywalker falls short of the expected Star Wars quality. There are too many concurrent, incoherent and messy plot lines. The level of cheesy dialogue and comic relief is overwhelming, even for a Star Wars movie1. Rey moans like a tennis player when she fights. The incompetence of the Storm Troopers also hits a record high in The Rise of Skywalker. These guys can’t do anything right.

The Fall of Star Wars

The lack of engaging characters is perhaps The Rise of Skywalker’s biggest problem. It doesn’t feature annoying characters like the infantile Anakin Skywalker, or the punch-in-the-face-on-sight Jar Jar Binks2, but characters like Poe and Finn don’t make a great impression either. What comes out of their mouths is either cheesy or unintelligible, and I’m pretty sure The Rise of Skywalker would have been a better movie if both of they were mutes.

The only performance I feel I can applaud is Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. Driver makes me want to see an entire spin-off movie entirely about his character, which is not something I can say for the rest of the cast.

How bad is The Rise of Skywalker? Let me put it this way: During the Christmas break, I watched Solo: A Star Wars Story. The movie didn’t fare that well compared to the Star Wars movies before it. But personally I enjoyed Solo a hell of a lot more than I enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker.

For Fans Only

Kylo Ren and Rey in a light saber fight on top of the downed Death Star.
Game, set, and match!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a bad science fiction movie set in the amazing Star Wars universe. It takes more than impressive CGI to make a a good movie, and The Rise of Skywalker lacks everything except for impressive CGI. If this was not a Star Wars movie, it would have bombed at the box office.

Watch Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker if you’re a Star Wars fan. If you just happen to enjoy science fiction, there are a thousand other movies you should spend your precious time on instead. Will I watch it again myself? No, I won’t. Will I still purchase a copy of the movie to complete my collection, throwing more money into the already bulging Disney coffer?

Of course I will!


  1. It might be that this is a result of the franchise now being owned by Disney. ↩︎

  2. The only thing that might save Jar Jar is if he is actually a Sith lord↩︎


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