Fellmans Movie Reviews

RED = SPOILERS:

So, maybe the sequels aren’t up to snuff with the originals. Maybe a bunch of the parts don’t make a lot of sense. Maybe some of the characters were literally carbon copies of characters from the first movie. That’s not really the point of this review. The point is that you can still watch a movie that’s finishing off a masterpiece of a series and enjoy it for being ironically bad. But if you’re like me, you still have to finish it. Because you can’t watch eight movies out of a nine movie series, and then not watch the ninth movie. That’s like running 99 yards down the field and dropping the ball at the 1 yard line. It’s just a little bit of ridiculous…

What’s it about? And, finally, on our Star Wars marathon, we have Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker. The last movie in the series revolves around Rey and the others trying to get to the hidden Sith planet of Exegol to stop the former Emperor Palpatine from raising a new fleet of Super Star Destroyers that he calls “The Final Order” and once again taking over the galaxy. Rey interacts with Kylo Ren on the way to the planet. The rest of the resistance have their own troubles they go through on various planets as usual as well. The droids are a bother. Same old, same old… 

What’s good? This one’s not bad, I suppose. I make fun of it as I watch it. But, as far as Star Wars movies go, it’s not the bottom of the deck. The special effects are easily the best part of this movie. It’s a Star Wars movie. Of course they are. It’s got a little of that Star Wars comedy back in it. But not much. There’s a good joke where they all look back at 3PO and then he turns around to look behind him and there’s nobody back there. That’s pretty funny… 

What’s bad? A bunch of things don’t make sense. I’m aware of suspension of disbelief and all that. And how nerds and superfans go picking over things with a fine-tooth comb. But some things are just blatant, and go jumping out at you, and you have to voice your opinions.  

The acting? There’s not anything wrong with the acting in the movie. I’d say they all did a good job. If anything, I’d say it’s more the characters than anything else. I think Kylo Ren is written as a whiny little child and he’s always crying about things. That’s not really Adam Driver’s fault. He’s just playing his part… 

The effects? This is, of course, a Star Wars film. And as such, is headed by George Lucas’ production studio, Industrial Light and Magic. Which is the top of the mountain when it comes to special effects in Hollywood. So, obviously, the special effects in this movie are going to be nothing short of ridiculous… 

The story? It’s a good way to end the Star Wars story, I think. Or, at least, this chapter of it, at any rate. A big fight scene. A huge battle sequence. There was a lot of action along the way while everybody was making their way there. It’s a well written story. For the most part. The dialogue might not be the greatest. But the overall story is fine.  

The plot twists. It seems like they throw in a few extra plot twists whenever they can just to shake things up a little bit. Some call it writing. Some call it unnecessary. It depends on how you look at it. Like Obi-Wan says “it all depends on your point of view…” 

Rey heals that big snake. Making Rey a Force healer was a good choice because she’s supposed to be the representation of the light side. But then, when she healed that big snake on Pasaana, it just bounced. It was like “Thanks… Later…” It was still a giant snake. Why didn’t it attack them? It probably got injured when it killed Ochi, who was trying to defend himself FROM THAT GIANT SNAKE…  

Rey and Ren can see and touch each other through the Force. This is a whole new thing that no other Jedi or Sith can do. Where is this coming from? They’re fighting with lightsabers “through the force”? What sense does that even make? So, he can see her well enough to duel her with a lightsaber, but he can’t see her surroundings, or know where she is? Are their faces blurry? Like on COPS? How does this work? 

There’s a whole lot of teleporting going on. And then, when they’re on Exegol, they’re just straight up teleporting. Teleporting themselves across long distances. Teleporting lightsabers to each other. Why didn’t they do this before? If Kylo Ren could teleport himself to her before, why didn’t he just do it when they were dueling with lightsabers through the Force? None of this makes any sense. 

Ben brings Rey back to life. Ben Solo brings Rey back to life with the Force and then disappears into some, probably, mystical Force himself. Or, maybe, because he used his energy to bring Rey back to life, maybe he’s a part of Rey now… Who knows…  

 Super Star Destroyers With No Other Weapons. You know, for a fleet of Super Star Destroyers with these gigantic planet-killing lasers on them, they sure are easily beaten by this ragtag group of untrained civilians that just popped up out of nowhere and started flying towards them. You’d think this “Final Empire” of Palpatine’s could easily wipe out this small band of people that the Resistance had managed to scrape together. But, no… They were destroying these gigantic ships left and right. It seemed like they were one-hitting these Super Star Destroyers like it was no problem at all. It really didn’t seem like Palpatine got his money’s worth for that huge fleet of starships that he’d been plotting to use for all this time… 

So, for no reason other than to finish the series, you should watch Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker. It’s not great. But it’s not terrible. And you can get a few laughs out of the big battle scene at the end. That’s it for the great big Star Wars marathon. And as always, May the Force Be With You…