Birthday Special: Movie Review - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

About 42 years ago, a then not so well known George Lucas went about making a space opera film known as simply Star Wars. Since then, a beloved franchise was born and after the first film came five sequels, three prequels, cartoons and TV shows set somewhere within or around the films, so many video games and plenty of comics among other things. Star Wars has been a huge franchise that has become iconic and beloved for many years. So we come the final film of not just the sequel trilogy, but the overall Skywalker saga as well. It came out at a time when the parent company of Lucasfilm, Disney were rethinking their strategy for the franchise seeing as The Last Jedi divided fans and Solo: A Star Wars Story was a flop. I guess while Pixar, Walt Disney Animation and Marvel were flourishing, things weren't working out so well for LucasFilm and a few of Disney's other projects (particularly the remakes). So this is the film that will either save a beloved franchise to fight another day or will divide fans even further. So let's see if this was worth it (and judging from the box office totals, it was):

Playing out in a similar style to Avengers: Endgame, we learn that Kylo Ren (reprised by Adam Driver) is out to find the source of a mysterious transmission of a Sith lord many thought was long dead. Meanwhile, Rey (reprised by Daisy Ridley) continues her Jedi training now under the watchful eye of General Leia Organa (reprised via archive footage and realistic CGI by the late Carrie Fisher) before setting out on a quest with Finn (reprised by John Boyega), Poe (reprised by Oscar Issac), Chewbacca (reprised by Joonas Suotamo), C3-PO (reprised by Athnony Daniels) and BB-8 to find a Sith wayfinder that could lead them to where Ren has gone. Though what they encounter may be more terrifying than anything they have faced before.

This final film in what has been an epic saga of films 42 years in the making, is OK. Yeah as much as I enjoy seeing the gang again as well as all the battles, familiar faces, the John Williams cameo and the new characters (yes even for the last film of a saga, they still introduce new characters), it has some problems. The running time could be a bit shorter because there can be a lot of pausing moments. The battle at the end has me wondering how on Earth is gravity working and I guess the last thing is how they never give a good enough explanation of certain elements. But nevertheless, it concludes the saga in the most satisfactory way possible as well as paving the way for more stories to come after it (though chances of another trilogy are unlikely). So yeah most fans like myself will enjoy it and I'd say don't let what negative fans have said about the franchise recently, put you off from seeing this film. But I will agree with Disney in that perhaps a few years gaps between films will work out better than one film per year like they do with their other properties. 7/10