The Skywalker Saga Comes to a Satisfying End with The Rise of Skywalker
Over the past 43 years the Star Wars Skywalker Saga has touched the hearts of many people. However, this past December this exciting journey came to an emotional end with the final installment of the series, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
This great saga has taken the world to opposite ends of the galaxy, from the outer rim to the unknown regions, from Coruscant, and all the way out to Crait. The Star Wars universe has been building over generations, and ultimately comes down to this one moment, the final episode of the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The anticipation and hype have been building all for this moment. But did it live up to this anticipation? Did it satisfy the millions of Star Wars fans throughout this planet?
Official poster for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Photo from https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Skywalker-Poster-Regular/dp/B082QL3NYV
The first teaser trailer started the anticipation when it finally came out back in April of 2019. This initial trailer received around 111 million views in its opening 24 hours, crushing the total views for both Last Jedi and The Force Awakens received in their first 24 hours of being online. This was followed up by 87 million views for the final trailer. The anticipation was high, and the fans are ready to rebound from the last movie.
All Star Wars fans were left with mixed emotions after the 8th episode, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, came out in December of 2017. The Resistance was left in shambles. They barely escaped the clutches of the First Order and Kylo Ren, aboard the Millennium Falcon with the help of Luke Skywalker’s sacrifice at the Battle of Crait. Rey, Finn, Poe, and Leia are now all working to rebuild what they have lost to hopefully defeat the First Order. The Resistance is rebuilding on their new home base planet of Ajan Kloss. Emperor Palpatine has essentially risen from the dead, and built a new fleet, capable of destroying planets, and the Resistance now has a gigantic challenge in front of them. This movie is full of adventure, new planets, answered questions we’ve been waiting for, extraordinary scenes, and incredible music.
The movie, however, under performed at the box office. Skywalker only reached $502 million in domestic sales, and 1$.062 billion on the international scale. These numbers are solid, but not compared to previous films in the trilogy. This movie also obtained a record low for a Star Wars movie, 52% on the Rotten Tomatoes. Even though the anticipation was huge, this movie did not perform to what everyone was hoping for.
Ryan Stacey, Moeller senior and Star Wars super fan, said, “I think that it was a good cap to the Star Wars movies, however, there were some moments that I would have done differently.” This last movie did the bare minimum for a lot of fans. It offered some service that satisfied fans enough to make it a good ending.
Mr. Jackson, a teacher at Moeller and self proclaimed above average fan, says that the end capped it all off, however, it wasn’t satisfying for him because the way they got to the end was all over the place. This trilogy as a whole was a bit chaotic. There was a director switch in between episode 7 and episode 8, which was then switched back for the ninth. These directors had different styles that gave each movie its own speed and individual level of risk and adventure. Stacey set the stage with all the problems he had with the movie. He said, “After really looking at the movie as a whole, it did move a little too fast. I also had some problems with some plot holes, one being Emperor Palpatine surviving.” However, he goes on to say that as huge fan he admits he was being very “nitpicky” of all the new things that the movie introduced.
Poster recapping the entire Skywalker Saga, Episodes 1-9
Photo from https://3menandamovie.com/2020/01/27/se05e02-the-star-wars-saga-1977-2019/
However, this movie was really a great masterpiece for a lot of people. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has been nominated for Best Original Score and Sound Editing and Visual Effects at the Oscars. Composer of the original film’s score, John Williams returned for another Star Wars movie and created a beautiful soundtrack with some of the classic music. The acting throughout was incredible along with a lot of the visuals and scenes.
This new trilogy may have been controversial, but they brought a plethora of new aspects to the Star Wars universe. Stacey went on to talk about these new aspects he enjoyed including new, more advanced looking Stormtroopers and the concept of the First Order. There were also new planets including Ajan Kloss, the new resistance home base, Pasaana, a desert planet that the crew visits along their journey, Kijimi, a crime ridden planet, and Exegol, the site of the final battle. The final scene capped off the saga, really bringing the movie to a fascinating end.
Though the current trilogy is complete, the future is bright for the Star Wars universe. There are more movies and TV shows planned to come out over the next decade. There is an Obi Wan Kenobi series in the works as well as the final season, season 7, of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. There are also plans for a new trilogy during a different time period in the Star Wars universe. With more in the works for the next 10 or so years, Star Wars is not even close to being done. This might be the end of the Skywalker Saga, but with the end of this era, comes the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in the Star Wars universe.