On December 20th the final episode of the Star Wars saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, premiered in theatres. The Star Wars story has been a part of many peoples lives since Star Wars: A New Hope first hit theaters in 1977; since then the fan base for this series has grown as people fall in love with the storyline and characters. There have been nine episodes in the long story and The Rise of Skywalker was the final movie made following the original characters and storyline.

In the previous two episodes before Rise of Skywalker the audience was introduced to new heroes like Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), along with the sinister villain, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Director J.J. Abrams continued the development of these characters in this new movie while following the storyline of the previous ones. Famous characters from the original movies like Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), and long loved droids like C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and R2D2 (Kenny Baker) also played roles in the new trilogy of movies.

Right from the opening credits there was a surprise and people in the theatre cheered in excitement for the movie. The Rise of Skywalker was packed with lots of plot twist and thrilling moments. The special effects were very well put together and looked amazing on the screen.

The Rise of Skywalker had the characters, both old and new ones, try and fight the cruel First Order. After The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren has become Supreme Leader and the band of rebels in the Resistance are struggling to stop him from taking over the galaxy.

This movie focuses a lot on Rey, Finn, Poe, C-3PO and Chewbacca (Chewie) as they embark on a journey to find a secret Sith planet. As they look for clues Kylo Ren is on their trail hunting down Rey, who has grown very strong with the force and is close to becoming a Jedi. This finale to the nine episode saga is filled with lots of action shots as well as emotional moments for the characters.

Though the action shots were exciting to watch it left the movie with little time to build, making it feel very sporadic throughout. Since there was so much constant action, I found it difficult to enjoy the climatic ending since there was little build up towards it. This ending to the saga also introduced new aspects to the The Force, a major component to Star Wars, making certain characters appear to have powers beyond The Force.

The movie also made lots of connections back to the previous movies, giving long time fans tons of nostalgic moments. By doing this J.J. Abrams showed how the orginal movies are still extremely tied in to the newer episodes, as well as satisfying fans who may have thought these movies are trying to be “better” than the originals.

Having watched every Star Wars movie previous to this one, I went in wondering how they would end this series and wrap up each characters individual story. These movies are very difficult to make since there is such a huge fan base and people have high expectations for them. The amazing soundtrack stayed loyal to the previous movies along with the opening monologue of words. Overall, the movie delivered in the fact that major plot holes and questions from other episodes were answered.

This was the finale of Star Wars movies following the storyline of Skywalker; there have been rumors of other movies coming out that show a different aspect as Rogue One and Solo did. There have also been many successful TV shows and video games that intertwine into the Star Wars world like Star Wars the Clone Wars TV show and the Star Wars: Battlefront video game.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is definitely worth seeing even if you aren’t a huge fan; the plot is thrilling and will have you on the edge of your seat throughout the movie. Despite the ending feeling a little rushed and forced at some points I think overall it payed tribute the the other movies, and the story George Lucas created 42 years ago.

8/10