Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker

The saga ends with this somewhat watchable yet entirely disappointing entry that falls well short of the high bar set by its two top-flight predecessors, with the less-than-captivating narrative, which details Rey (Daisy Ridley) and her various cohorts’ efforts at battling a fearsome (and familiar) villain, suffering from a decidedly erratic feel that paves the way for a curiously (and frustratingly) momentum-free midsection. Scripters Chris Terrio and J.J. Abrams spend much of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker‘s first half focused on the scavenger-like search for a certain object, and it’s clear, certainly, that the almost episodic bent of this stretch ensures that certain sequences just aren’t able to pack the engrossing, visceral punch that director Abrams has obviously intended – with the palpably uneven atmosphere compounded by Abrams rather generic approach to the material (ie this often feels like paint-by-numbers Star Wars). It’s clear, then, that movie’s tolerable vibe is due predominantly to the cast’s typically stellar work and a smattering of compelling sequences, although, by that same token, there’s little doubt that the whole thing concludes on as anticlimactic and underwhelming a note as one could possibly envision (ie that dimly-lit space-battle finale seems to go on forever). The end result is a less-than-satisfying capper to an admittedly inconsistent series of films, which is a shame, certainly, given the buildup promised by both 2015’s The Force Awakens and 2017’s The Last Jedi. (And this is to say nothing of the almost comical degree to which Abrams undoes many of the twists and character arcs within Rian Johnson’s latter picture.)

**1/2 out of ****