The Rise of Skywalker proves nothing can be perfect

Written By Logan Dubil, Staff Writer

WARNING – This article contains spoilers for the new film, “Stars Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”

When I hear Star Wars, my first instinct is not to visualize a specific character or scene, but to reminisce on my past. This may seem strange and – what’s the word I am looking for – dramatic, but it is the absolute truth. Star Wars played an enormous role throughout my childhood. I remember watching my first Star Wars film…how devoted I was to the movie. From there, I continued my journey into the Star Wars universe, watching film after film until I completed the original six. It did not take me long to watch these movies, because in my opinion, they are not hard movies to watch. The plot makes sense, the character development is done properly, and the overall viewing experience is highly enjoyable, but I cannot say that each of the movies were perfect. I believe that everything can be improved, especially after watching Star Wars’ newest member, “Rise of Skywalker.”

Looking back to 2015, I can recall how I felt after watching the “Force Awakens” trailer: iffy. Hearing the famous Star Wars theme song again allowed me to – like I said before – reminisce on my pas, but the exposure to new characters made me worrisome. Disney taking over the movies was enough to make me anxious, let alone the introduction of a new cast. To make a long story short, I was disappointed with this so called “revival” of the Star Wars series.

Then, 2016 came along with “Rogue One” – my favorite film outside of the original trilogy. Setting the bar high, it gave me another reason to fear the final production of the films that have yet to be released. 2017 brought “The Last Jedi,” which was only slightly better than “Force Awakens,” due to the fact that there were multiple opportunities to create a masterpiece, and at the end they were not taken. 2018 allowed Star Wars fans to re-fall in love with a Star Wars favorite, Han Solo, with a backstory on his character. Then came 2019, the main purpose of this article.

As the die-hard Star Wars fan I am, I was excited – yet extremely depressed – to watch “Rise of Skywalker.” My unanswered questions were soon to be resolved, but the joy of a year by year Star Wars release was coming to an end. A few days after the movie came out, I found myself in the theater with popcorn and candy by my side. I came. I saw. Am I satisfied? Yes, but I have numerous complaints. Below is what I believe are Star Wars’ top three failures when it came to the production of the “final” (because we all know there will be more movies in the future) film.

#3) – The First Same-Sex Kiss –Everyone should be allowed to be with whomever they want to be with. I just think that the last Star Wars film was not a time to introduce a same sex relationship into the movie franchise. Where did this get Star Wars? Read the headlines. Numerous countries have already cut this scene from the movie. This alone proves a point…the people are not happy. Looking further into this flaw, it makes it seem like Star Wars threw this scene in to do their “fair-share” regarding supporting the LGBT+ community, when a better route would have allowed this relationship to develop, rather than introducing the relationship in the last five minutes of the movie.

#2) – Rose – Oh, Rose. Star Wars had the perfect opportunity to kill you off. Why are you still here? Rose was first introduced in “The Last Jedi.” Many fans speculated that her and Fin would become a thing. Then, she almost dies, but later, she is saved. Then, Fin finds himself a new potential partner in “Rise of Skywalker,” making Rose practically irrelevant. Not cool, Star Wars…not cool.

#1) – The Lightsaber Duels – I understand that the film’s main purpose was to emphasize the fact that both Rey and Kylo Ren were unsure about their current positions – good or bad – but for goodness sake I cannot even count how many opportunities each of them had to kill each other, yet it never happened. Instead, our villain dies to a true love’s first kiss. Is this Star Wars or a Netflix chick-flick? To be honest, I am not too sure anymore.

To make things clear, I am a huge fan of the recent movie, I know reading my top three list makes it seem otherwise. I just think that a lot of mistakes were made.

Well, there goes the Star Wars storyline. All that is left to do now is wait until Fall 2020, where we can find out if Baby Yoda returns home safely.