Now Watching: The Rise of Skywalker

The Rise of Skywalker is a glorious mess and I f**king loved it. I enjoyed every moment from ridiculous beginning to ridiculous end. It doesn’t make a lick of sense but I can’t say I really care. Why? Because nothing in this new Star Wars trilogy really makes a lick of sense and if I could roll with that in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, then it would be hypocritical of me not to roll with it here.

Emperor Palpatine is back! The Rise of Skywalker doesn’t tease this reveal, but announces this major plot revelation in the opening text crawl. And this is where you have to make a choice. The choice is between two very simple questions. The first question is – How? How is Palpatine back? How did he finance and construct a massive fleet in complete secrecy? And How? leads you inevitably onto the endless rabbit hole of Why?

The second question, however, is a far more simple matter – Does it matter? And this is the same dilemma posed by The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. How did The First Order become so strong? Why was ‘The Resistance’ a rag-tag group and not the New Republic Fleet? How did The First Order finance and construct Starkiller Base in complete secrecy? And how did they recover so quickly from the destruction of Starkiller?

If I can roll with The First Order coming out of nowhere to construct a weapon built into the core of a f**king planet, then I can roll with Palpatine coming out of nowhere and building a massive fleet. I really don’t see the difference, and if you say you’re okay with one but not the other then you’re just kidding yourself. Nothing in this new trilogy makes a lick of sense and you’re either okay with that or you’re not.

And if you’re not, that’s totally fine. I’m normally someone who does get hung up on the How? and the Why? I’m normally someone who cares a lot about plot and the Things That Don’t Make Sense. But I’m also someone who, ultimately, cares more about characters than plot, because as I’ve said so many times before, it’s the characters that drive the plot, that invest us in their story, that – particularly in the case of this new trilogy – elevate the rather weak material.

For all their flaws, I enjoyed The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi not for the silly, nonsensical plots, but because I liked Rey, Kylo, Finn and Poe. They were the heart of this new trilogy and whereas The Last Jedi made the mistake of pulling these characters apart, The Rise of Skywalker sensibly brings them back together.

And that’s why I f**king loved this film. I stopped caring about the plot and Star Wars ‘lore’ a long time ago. This trilogy, as I hope I’ve made clear, hasn’t made a lick of sense as far as plot goes from the start. But I’ve stuck with it and continued to enjoy it because I really like these characters. They’re the reason I’m still invested in this new trilogy and The Rise of Skywalker delivers upon that investment.

The opening of the film is a real clusterf**k. All of the key plot points that should have been established in The Last Jedi are instead set up and established in the opening 20-30 minutes of The Rise of Skywalker in a series of scenes moving at breakneck pace. The return of Palpatine is a perfect example of this – it’s something that should have been properly set up and revealed at the end of The Last Jedi, leading to the final confrontation we see here.

It’s almost as if J.J Abrams has crammed as much of the plot of his The Last Jedi into the opening of The Rise of Skywalker as possible. You kind of feel like you’re watching the sequel to a film that didn’t get made, so you have to make do with a breakneck recap to bring you up to speed. None of it really makes sense, but like I said, you’ve just got to roll with it.

And if you’re willing to do that because if, like me, you care more about the characters than the plot, then maybe you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. The Rise of Skywalker is fun, funny in the right places, has some great action, some satisfying character moments and most importantly, a satisfying conclusion to the core Rey/Kylo conflict. It’s also muddled, rushed and doesn’t make a lick of sense, but I think it hits all the key notes, at least for me.

This new Star Wars trilogy really has been a total mess and it’s incredible to see how poorly Disney have handled such a massive financial investment. But despite all its problems, despite all the holes I can pick in each of these films, I still came away feeling positive about them. Yes, The Rise of Skywalker is a f**king mess as far as its plot goes. But it delivered on the things that I was invested in. It resolved them in a way that satisfied me. And that’s why, despite everything else, I really f**king enjoyed it.

6/10