Read on for my comments on the movie. Spoilers ahead.
Comments
Unlike the reviews, I absolutely love this movie!
Back in 2015, I was in the first public screening of Star Wars The Force Awakens. When the Star Wars theme tune started, I grinned and couldn’t stop grinning till the end of the movie. Unlike that moment, The Rise of Skywalker evoked so much more emotions.
I watched this movie on the opening night and it was fully packed! My seat was good since I booked it online two weeks earlier when the ticket sale started! I was actually quite afraid of this movie. My greatest fear of this movie is that “What if I didn’t like it?”, but I turned out to be wrong. I really like this movie, even more than all other Star Wars movies!
Firstly, the picture is really awesome, visual effects is really good, music is really well done, but the stories has some oddities in it. But what movie didn’t have such kind of thing?
Palpatine
The movie started with a reveal of Emperor Palpatine, who survived the fall in Episode VI! The moral of the story in Star Wars universe is that: if someone fell, they haven’t died. One notable example is Darth Maul (fell in Episode I, reappeared in TV series).
Palpatine’s performance was really great! In all previous movies, we never saw him really fight with such a fierce Force lightning.
I think the hint of Rey’s ancestry was when she accidentally let out Force lightning. But I would say that the reveal wasn’t that much exciting. When Kylo Ren revealed her ancestry, the theater reacted with “ooohh”, but not much surprise.
Leia
Leia was odd, her dialogue seemed off and kept talking as if she wasn’t in the conversation. But I guess that was expected. I dropped a tear when she finally passed on.
I’m also very surprised to learn that Leia trained for a while with Luke before departing for politics work in the early days of New Republic; and she left another lightsaber? That means she have Force abilities all this time and she didn’t use it (until The Last Jedi)? Why?
The Rise of Skywalker
Near the end of the movie, when Ben Solo “rises” from the cliff, I thought that was the literal moment where Skywalker has risen! but no because Ben died?! BEN DIED!? THE LAST BLOOD OF SKYWALKER DIED!? THEN WHAT DOES “THE RISE OF SKYWALKER” EVEN MEAN??
Anyway, before Ben’s death, Rey and Ben kissed!? I was so surprised by this! They spend the past 2 movies fighting each other so intensely and now they kissed!?
At the ending, giving yourself the name “Rey Skywalker” was an odd choice. I bet the message is that “your choice means more than your blood”; even though technically she is “Rey Palpatine”. And that yellow lightsaber? How? Why? What? Will there be another movie explaining this?
Finally
It was a lot of new information to process! The movie is very visually pleasing, very well scored, answered lots of questions, and provoked even more questions!
Thank you J.J. Abrams!