Movie Review: ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Disappointing

The first half of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker isn’t good, and the second half isn’t bad. After eleven films, the only fuel left in the series’s tank is sheer nostalgia, but at least Episode IX doesn’t go out of its way to irritate the audience, the way The Last Jedi did. I left the theater with a hearty shrug and a strong sense that the film’s director, J. J. Abrams, is the Ford Motor Company of filmmakers — a titan of mediocrity, an avatar of averageness, a guardian of the garden-variety. If he is a defining artist of our time — and I’m not saying he isn’t! — I guess this ain’t exactly the Renaissance.

Via the opening crawl — “THE DEAD SPEAK!” — we learn that our late pal Emperor Palpatine, or someone acting in his name, is calling in attacks on the rebels from a hidden planet. Supreme Leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) resolves to track him down and destroy him to show who’s boss. Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is, by the way, called “The Phantom Emperor,” which would have been a far cooler title for this movie than the one actually used (and also would have made more sense). His orders are, naturally, “Kill the girl.” That would be Rey (Daisy Ridley), the only good person left in the saga who wields the Force. Along with flyboy pals Poe (Oscar Isaacs) and Finn (John Boyega), she resolves to track down and terminate the emperor again, because every film in this series has to recycle previous plot points. Later in the show, when we learn more about Rey’s murky ancestry, there’s a scene that replays a scene from an earlier movie, which in turn was itself a replay of a scene from an even earlier movie. Then there’s the most notable replay of all: Carrie Fisher makes a prominent appearance despite having died three years ago, before this film started shooting, via unused footage shot for The Force Awakens years ago.

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Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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The first half of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker isn’t good, and the second half isn’t bad. After eleven films, the only fuel left in the series’s tank is sheer nostalgia, but at least Episode IX doesn’t go out of its way to irritate the audience, the way The Last Jedi did. I left the theater with a hearty shrug and a strong sense that the film’s director, J. J. Abrams, is the Ford Motor Company of filmmakers — a titan of mediocrity, an avatar of averageness, a guardian of the garden-variety. If he is a defining artist of our time — and I’m not saying he isn’t! — I guess this ain’t exactly the Renaissance.

Via the opening crawl — “THE DEAD SPEAK!” — we learn that our late pal Emperor Palpatine, or someone acting in his name, is calling in attacks on the rebels from a hidden planet. Supreme Leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) resolves to track him down and destroy him to show who’s boss. Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is, by the way, called “The Phantom Emperor,” which would have been a far cooler title for this movie than the one actually used (and also would have made more sense). His orders are, naturally, “Kill the girl.” That would be Rey (Daisy Ridley), the only good person left in the saga who wields the Force. Along with flyboy pals Poe (Oscar Isaacs) and Finn (John Boyega), she resolves to track down and terminate the emperor again, because every film in this series has to recycle previous plot points. Later in the show, when we learn more about Rey’s murky ancestry, there’s a scene that replays a scene from an earlier movie, which in turn was itself a replay of a scene from an even earlier movie. Then there’s the most notable replay of all: Carrie Fisher makes a prominent appearance despite having died three years ago, before this film started shooting, via unused footage shot for The Force Awakens years ago.