The Rise of Skywalker Closes Out the Star Wars Saga With Heart

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final entry in the series’ nine-film Skywalker story, is the cinematic equivalent of Anakin and Obi-Wan landing that gigantic ship at the end of Revenge of the Sith’s opening space battle. It’s not exactly clean or elegant, and the entire ship is on fire with bells and whistles going off when it lands. But it’s a thrill to watch, and it’s all smiles and relieved laughter once everyone is back on solid ground. 

Despite some bumps, director J.J. Abrams & Co. bring the saga home in one piece. It’s a whimsical, aggressively engaging, positively exhausting movie that all at once might fry your brain and make you fall in love again with one of our defining cultural touchstones. 

Early buzz after the film’s L.A. premiere was that some found its reported galaxy-brain plotting and nostalgic pandering wearying. Indeed, Abrams leans into all of his vices with his return to the series — trapdoor twists, dorky MacGuffin quests, imprecise dialogue — as well as his virtues, including strong characters, good casting and high-energy chase scenes.

These movies are about kooky, melodramatic space adventures that lean on the wholesome values of friendship and hope — that’s exactly what The Rise of Skywalker hangs its cloak on and why it works so well. Though with the previous Star Wars saga installment, The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson made a film that loved its universe and characters, the director caught flack for challenging the series to look past its patented palace intrigue and familial melodrama into galaxies of new possibility. Abrams seems to have allowed some of that to rub off, though he certainly also comes to this armed with all the Force Awakens’ loose plot threads, Bad Robot mystery-box surprises and fan service. 

Abrams is a devotee of the establishment, not a disruptor like Johnson. But he also seems to have a distinct bone to pick with the boneheads who rallied against The Last Jedi for malevolent reasons. Abrams indeed has the final word here, but he offers a loving advancement to Johnson’s noble call to expand the galaxy’s heroes to include more than just those holding a lightsaber. Abrams is more interested in the people and places we already know, but he fits in what he wants from Johnson's film more generously than you might expect. The unification is not perfect, but it feels right. 

Maybe you’ll disagree. Some will likely find The Rise of Skywalker a garish nostalgia run with silly developments. After all, this is Star Wars. Post-film discussion and debate are as much a part of the films as the stories themselves. The Rise of Skywalker differs from The Last Jedi in some ways, but both glow with a love and admiration for the message of the original trilogy. All that’s left at the end is a landed ship, and a reminder of how powerful these movies can be to the ones who they matter to the most.