With the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker this sequel trilogy, and the last trilogy in a trilogy of trilogies, has come to it’s close. And it’s really a complete mystery as to where the Star Wars franchise is going to go next. The Rise of Skywalker was a pretty solid conclusion to an entertaining trio of films, and like every movie in the history of the world, The Rise of Skywalker had it’s strong points and weak points, both as an individual film and as a part of a trilogy.
So with that in mind, we want to look at the trilogy as a whole and The Rise of Skywalker’s place in that trilogy. Namely, what did TROS knock it out of the park with, and where could the movie have improved? Here is 5 reasons why it’s the best movie in the trilogy, and 5 reasons why it’s the worst.
Best: Because It Had Finality
It might seem like an extraordinarily simple principle, but unfortunately it seems to be a problem for many movies that are the final installment to a long running series that they don’t actually offer any kind of conclusive ending to the tale.
It’s easy to see why filmmakers can fall prey to the temptation to leave something up as a mystery or a teaser to a continued story, but that can be frustrating for viewers. And movie trilogies that have many characters and story lines can fall into a trap where they’re trying to give attention to every single character and story line at the expense of having a good ending.
Worst: Because It Took The Easy Way Out
Although The Rise of Skywalker made it clear that the true villain of the story was always Sheev Palpatine, Kylo Ren was clearly the main antagonist of this trilogy.
And while seeing him become Ben Solo again was gratifying, the rest of his character arc was too easy. Ben himself barely got any scenes after he decided to forsake Kylo Ren for good, and he decided to sacrifice his life to save Rey.
That was an honorable impulse, but it also allowed him a heroic death with no resolution for all of the horrible things he had done, and without actually forcing him to deal with the choices that he made.
Best: Because It Went Big
Some sagas end with a bang, and others end with a whimper. And whether anyone loved or hated The Rise of Skywalker, it’s difficult to deny that it went out with a bang.
Kylo Ren reverted back to Ben Solo. Palpatine was revealed to be alive, and the true villain all along, and Rey stood up against her monstrous grandfather to bring balance to the Force again. The Rise of Skywalker went full steam ahead with it’s story and it didn’t pull any punches, even if some of it’s decisions could have been seen as controversial.
Worst: Because It Didn’t Go With It’s Own Story
The middle installment into this trilogy was received with mixed reviews, and it’s possible that switching directors for The Last Jedi was a mistake for the sake of continuity.
And there is definitely something to be said for course correction, it’s always better to try to improve on what people don’t like instead of shoving it down their throats, but The Rise Of Skywalker really changed directions from The Last Jedi and it was impossible not to notice.
The most glaring example of this is with Rey, who was initially supposed to be no one who comes from nothing, but who actually wound up being the granddaughter of the most powerful and notorious Sith of all time.
Best: Because Of The Greater Continuity
What made The Rise of Skywalker truly great is that it was not only a good conclusion to it’s own trilogy, it truly felt like a conclusion for the entire nine movie saga thus far.
The end of this trilogy unexpectedly brought the audience back to the very beginning, and the revelation that Sheev Palpatine has been trying to manipulate the Force and conquer the galaxy from Episode I to Episode IX made it feel like we were watching the end of a truly massive epic. The fact that The Rise of Skywalker managed to fuse it’s own trilogy with the entire trio of trilogies is impressive.
Worst: Because Nearly Everyone Got Shafted
The story of The Rise of Skywalker felt very much like the story of Rey and Kylo Ren. If they were the only characters in the trilogy then that would have been fine, but they were just the two leads in a series with a lot of distinct characters and story lines.
The movie wrapped up this trio of films with a nice neat bow when it came to Rey and Ben, but characters like Finn, Poe, Rose, and pretty much everyone else who was not Rey or Ben hardly got a conclusion or got no conclusion at all.
Best: Because It Was Epic
Everything about the Star Wars saga is meant to be grand. It’s about an entire galaxy, wars across worlds and the forces of good and evil hanging in the balance. The characters are just people, but the choices they make and their victories and defeats are enough to change the entire universe.
And the ending of this trilogy definitely felt like it was on that grand scale. The most powerful energies in the universe squared off against one another and finally found balance once again, and the Force found itself in balance once again, after decades of galactic turmoil.
Worst: Because It Repeated The Past
The makers of this trilogy weren’t shy about taking inspiration from the original Star Wars trilogy, and in many cases taking that inspiration did work really well and yielded very entertaining results.
However, when we look at the finale to this series, if the characters are removed from the actual story line the plot is functionally identical to the plot of the original series. Working off of what was made before is fine so long as you do something different with it, and The Rise Of Skywalker really fell short when it came to that.
Best: Because It Was Classic Star Wars
The sequel trilogy of Star Wars films definitely did try to step outside of the typical Star Wars arena, and it had some successes and some failures there.
However, with the finale installment into this series, clearly the creators of the film decided to go for a classic Star Wars story. Going outside of the lines can be a lot of fun, but when it comes to the core films that define the Star Wars saga it’s nice that there is a reliable foundation for everything else to stand on, and The Rise of Skywalker gave the audience a classic Star Wars ending.
Worst: Because A Story Needs To End
The sequel Star Wars trilogy was a solid installment into this seemingly endless saga, but what made The Rise of Skywalker ultimately feel so weak was that it was a continuation of a story that had already been concluded.
And that was a bad habit that every installment into this trilogy got into, taking stories that had already ended and telling the audience that in fact it wasn’t over, and this is how it’s continuing now. Developing plot threads that had no conclusion is one thing, but essentially retconning what already happened in order to work off of it is another.
