The Rise of Skywalker: My Thoughts (Warning: Spoilers Ahead. Read at Your Own Risk.)

So, it's finally happened. After 42 years and nine movies, the epic Skywalker Saga we all know colloquially as Star Wars has ended. With the addition of The Rise of Skywalker to the decades spanning Star Wars franchise, we finally see closure to the story of Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian, and the conclusion to the story of the new generation of heroes FN-2187, Rey, and Po Dameron. The film has proven to be divisive amongst fans of the series, with an almost equal split between those that love it and those that hate it, with almost no middle ground in terms of opinions. Either you thought it was a great addition to the story or you didn't.

I am one of the former. I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was eight years old, when I saw Episode 4 on VHS for the first time. I'll even admit to enjoying the prequel films despite their writing and pacing problems. For a long time, I was one of the many that thought the prequels would be the end of the Skywalker Saga, until I heard the news that Disney had purchased the rights from George Lucas. Once it was confirmed beyond all doubt, I waited with bated breath for news on Episode VII.

Fast forward a few years later and we now have come to the end of the sequel trilogy and what I hope will be the beginning of a series of new adventures for a new generation of heroes. The Force Awakens was proof that Star Wars without George Lucas could be good, if handled properly. The Last Jedi, helmed by director Rian Johnson, disappointed many, including me, because of the perceived disrespect and character derailment of Luke Skywalker, besides the writing issues with such things as Canto Bight, clumsy dialogue, and an inconsequential new character in the form of Kelly Marie Tran's Rose Tico. The biggest problem people had with The Last Jedi, however, seemed to be the lack of payoff for the obvious setups from The Force Awakens. Throughout TLJ, we were told in no uncertain terms that the past didn't matter. That we should "let the past die" as Kylo Ren told Rey during their climactic confrontation. Many took this to be the film's entire thesis statement, especially in the wake of questionable comments by Rian Johnson himself belittling fans who dared criticize the film, legitimately or illegitimately.

Which brings us to the third and final film of the sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker. I'll get right to the point since I've spent a good three paragraphs rambling on about the trilogy as a whole: I enjoyed the film much more than I did The Last Jedi, and even more than I did The Force Awakens. I felt that it was well put together; the acting was at its very worst adequate, and all the loose ends left behind by The Last Jedi were lampshaded or explained in a way that, while feeling contrived at times, satisfied the word builder in me. Unfortunately, though I enjoyed this film more than I did either the Prequels or the other two sequel trilogy films, it was not without its own problems.

First, the good things.

1. Rey's development.

Perhaps the largest complaint about the new sequel trilogy was its main protagonist, Rey. Orphaned and growing up a slave on the desert world of Jakku, the film introduces Rey. Through use of a silent scene with almost no dialogue, we are told that Rey is a scavenger, that she lives alone, that she barely survives on what are explained in supplemental materials as old Rebel Alliance and Imperial rations, for which she barters with machinery scavenged from the wreckage of an old wreck of a Star Destroyer. After she meets FN-2187, now nicknamed Finn, we see that she has combat experience and piloting experience, though where she learned to pilot is not explained within the film itself, but in the supplementary work "Before the Awakening." This, coupled with later revelations that Rey is an immensely powerful Force-sensitive, and hints from the film itself that Rey's lineage would prove to be important in the next two films, made many outright state that Rey was what is called a Mary Sue, which The Last Jedi compounded by allowing her to do things with the Force that even Luke or Anakin Skywalker could not do without first receiving weeks, months, or years of training.

Fortunately, The Rise of Skywalker fixes this by showing us that Rey DOES receive training from an elderly Leia Organa (herself trained by Luke in the years after Return of the Jedi, as explained in flashback form), and explains that the earlier incidents from the previous films resulted from instinctively tapping into the Force, with her ease at lifting an entire wall of rocks being explained as possessing the raw talent of her grandfather, Darth Sideous. Rey's father, they reveal, was the Emperor's son who married and rejected his own father's lineage in favor of becoming "no one" so that Rey would live free of his influence. Some call this a plot hole because they do not explain how or when the Emperor ever had a child, but those who do fail to realize that is because we do not need the explanation. Plot holes are when they give acts within the story that break or change established rules. Nothing is broken or changed by not explaining how or when the Emperor found a girlfriend.

Examples of actual plot holes include the infamous Holdo Maneuver from The Last Jedi. One of the cast brings this up as a possible way of destroying the Emperor's new fleet only to be shot down by Po Dameron explaining that such a maneuver is a one in a million shot. Nevertheless at the end of the film we see that it worked at least once more, as we witness a Star Destroyer being bisected in just such a manner over the forest moon of Endor.

Luke's behavior from The Last Jedi is explained as his having given in to fear after failing to prevent Kylo Ren from turning to the Dark Side and destroying the new Jedi Order Luke had worked hard over the years to build. He outright admits that he was wrong to waste his life in exile on Ach-Toh, and tells Rey that "a Jedi's weapon deserves more respect" when he appears to her in spirit form to warn her against taking on the same self-imposed exile as he once did.

Where the film's corrections are best used, however, is in the character of Kylo Ren. Ever since murdering Han Solo in Episode VII, Kylo Ren has been on the difficult path of redemption or, as he refers to it, the call of the light. During the final act of the film, Ren becomes Ben Solo once more with a little help from Rey, who has been attempting to turn him back ever since The Last Jedi. In a clear mirror of Darth Vader's journey back to the light side of the Force, the combined efforts of Leia, Han Solo in vision form, and Rey all give Ren the strength to throw away his crossguard lightsaber and become Ben Solo once more. It then shows us just how powerful Kylo Ren really is when he takes on his former comrades, the Knights of Ren, and defeats them all single-handedly using Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber. Ren then gives his life to restore Rey's after she dies in battle defeating Emperor Palpatine and the Sith in a final confrontation, thus bringing true peace to the galaxy at last.

My biggest complaint about the film, though, would have to be that it feels rushed. For all the explanations that it gives, there left unexplained. Some are obvious. The Knights of Ren were the few students Kylo Ren turned to the Dark Side after he destroyed the Jedi Order. It reveals this in dialogue in The Last Jedi, though it's rather quick. Other events are, sadly, left to deleted scenes or speculation. I'm still wondering just how Maz Kannata ended up with Luke's old lightsaber in the first place after it was lost on Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back. There is apparently a deleted scene explaining this, but I've yet to see it.

The climax felt rushed as well, I think due to the fact that Abrams was trying to both fix the plot holes left by The Last Jedi and use all of the ideas that he had put forth during The Force Awakens. Reports are that Abrams wanted to save some of those ideas for an Episode X, but Disney mandated he use them in one film or not at all. Abrams opted for the former. If he had cut some of those ideas, however, I think the film would have been better served, as it would have given time to flesh out other ideas that he was able to use.

Final verdict? A good film overall, but not as good as it could have been. Hopefully Disney has learned the right lessons from this and will improve the quality of the films they release in the future.