Final Star War

Well, I went to see Rise of Skywalker because I kept seeing headlines about Rose Tico that made me think they were going to kill her off like they killed off her sister. She's actually alive and well; she just gets little screen time and stays behind at the Resistance base with Leia, Maz Kanata, and others whose names I don't know. Well, at least Rose does come out for the starship battle that apparently took place in a planet's atmosphere, rather than in space, so that nobody needed astronaut suits. It was kind of freaky and yet awesome seeing the people ride horses across the surface of the Star Destroyers. I mean, it's still bad that Rose didn't get to do much, but at least she wasn't pointlessly killed like Captain Phasma, who was hyped so much because of her fancy armor. Being alive, Rose can appear elsewhere I guess.

SPOILERS BELOW

I was initially annoyed by the movie starting with Rey, Finn, and Poe bickering about the Millenium Falcon and BB8. Eventually they made up and all left together to find the Macguffin, the Sith Wayfinder. But still, I got annoyed so much about Rey abandoning them without explanation. Always going off to fight Kylo Ren by herself with no plan for her allies. Even one time abandoning Finn on the old Death Star wreck and flying away without one word of apology or explanation about why she chose to heal Kylo's wound instead of letting him die. You know, are you on the Resistance side, or not? So much of her story is caught up in having force battles with Kylo, it's annoying. I did however enjoy Finn getting to meet other ex-Storm Troopers and bond with them. Jannah was pretty cool, and sort of made up for that awesome woman who got killed off for nothing in the train heist in Solo.

The tease about Finn possibly wanting to make a deathbed confession to Rey during the quicksand bit was silly, and they just left it unresolved while lampshading it. I liked Lando's scenes and Han Solo finally getting turn his son back into Ben Solo. They used the Leia footage pretty well, and even included a flashback to her lightsaber training with Luke years ago. It was cool that Rey got to use both lightsabers to battle Palpatine in the end. I was glad that Ben revived her and that they only shared a kiss before he died. That's enough redemption; he can become a force ghost like Anakin Skywalker too. The whole reveal about her Palpatine backstory felt out of nowhere, and underexplained. But fine, whatever.

I hope they give the Star Wars movies a rest for a while, and just focus on their Mandalorian TV show and Baby Yoda sales. No more Skywalker space opera please.