Our Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker 4DX review will be gentle. We’ll not be spoiling the movie for those who haven’t seen it but we’re certainly not going to hold back on our brutally honest thoughts here.
Star Wars 4DX Review
After nine movies this particular chapter of the franchise has to come to an end. A mammoth task for director J.J. Abrams to accomplish and whilst he nails it in parts the rest of the film is somewhat lacking in all major departments.
The basic premise of the story is that news has spread that Emperor Palpatine has returned. Kylo Ren is also on the trail to find the Emperor to kill him and be the only controlling sith leader in the galaxy.
In order to find the emperor, a device must be found that will act as a tracking beacon that will direct its owner to the mysterious sith planet where Palpatine resides.
The opening scene of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is incredible. It is wind the clocks back, eyes as wide as a Cheshire cat, loving every single minute incredible. The 4DX technology also enhanced this scene tenfold to the point where I was beaming from ear to ear.
Smiling like a kid on Christmas morning at what I was witnessing. I was thoroughly lapping up every single frame I was being shown in this incredible opening sequence.
The first but certainly not the last this was an astounding introduction that I think everyone across the board would love.
An incredible opening that draws us in before letting us down gently every next step of the way
It’s after this incredible sequence thou however that the main story falls flat. Lazy writing after an opening segment of exposition tries to cram in way too much in such a short space of time.
We are bouncing from one planet to the next meeting new characters who aren’t on screen long enough for us to care. I mean what the hell was with the festival scene?! Utterly pointless interludes added with zero context or drive to the storyline and sadly this applies to the characters too.
Every cameo we spotted in The Rise of Skywalker
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a Kylo Ren and Rey movie. Finn and Poe’s character arcs are thrown in a dumpster somewhere. We learn absolutely nothing about them that we didn’t know already from The Force Awakens.
We’ve watched these characters over three films and we care about these characters and they didn’t even get to tell their story. Such lazy writing that sadly lets this entire production down. Every character (bar Rey and Kylo Ren) has been cast as a background actor and that’s a real shame.
They have a great story to tell and by the time the credits roll it’s sad that all these loose ends are still hanging in the balance.
A few arcs are tied up thou however.. Kylo Ren’s arc comes full circle but it all feels a bit predictable. Rey’s arc is much more rounded and in a way, we do get some closure here with her story. We find out her background, we learn about her parents and we learn information that is vital to this story. Quite shocking revelations that I personally didn’t see coming. This was a breath of fresh air to at least have ONE character out of all the ones I know and love to have their story completed.
Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver are breathtaking. They carry this movie start to finish and for me, Driver outshines them all. His range is outstanding and these two put on a show.
Regardless of your thoughts on the overall spectacle (mine included), you cannot deny the performances these two gave in this last stand sci-fi finale.
But like I say these two powerhouse performances aside the script is lazy. Poe ends up on a planet for example and meets a blast from the past, we feel as thou we’re going to learn about his story, his arc, his reason for being in this movie. Nope. He comes into contact with Keri Russell’s Zorri Bliss (severely wasted in this movie) and that’s it. Absolutely nothing happens!
Another lazy writing sequence (one of many) has Finn riding a creature that takes much training to ride. But here he is riding it like he’s been doing it for years with the line “Not bad for my first time” to skip all the bullshit in-between. It’s laughably lazy and if the folks behind the scenes don’t care about their script or their characters then why should we?
Fan-Service takes priority over story depth and that’s never a good direction for a film such as this
Rehashing Force Awakens footage of Carrie Fisher I thought would be horrific. But they’ve done an incredible job of blending it together. Granted not much context is delivered within the scenes but the way in which its done is pure art. It really is done so beautifully and the film pays such a fitting tribute to this wonderful woman. The scenes genuinely make it feel as thou she’s still alive. It has to be seen to be believed.
She may be gone but her spirit is beaming brightly in every single frame she appears.
Palpatine is a force to be reckoned with but with such focus on Kylo Ren and Rey’s storyline he also takes a backseat. He doesn’t have that intimidating factor where an audience should be fearing for our heroes fate.
Every step of the way you feel in safe hands and that he poses little to no threat. That’s where this film crumbles. It builds absolutely nothing around the characters we’re meant to fear and the characters we’re meant to love.
Devoid of emotion and devoid of heart. The franchise certainly deserves a better send-off in that particular context.
Overall
This surface-level finale doesn’t dare to dig any deeper. The picture above was taken before my expectations were wiped with Wookie shit. We have a simplistic Rogue One artifact finding mission. Retrieve the wayfinder, find Palpatine, kill him, done. Along the way we have old characters returning and cameos from creatures we know and love that feel so forced it becomes genuinely cringeworthy.
Just when you think the film is going to step out from the shadow of the previous two installments it retreats in fear of being trolled for years to come by angry fans.
The film feels as thou the team involved read reviews of The Last Jedi one by one and said right if we include this, this and this we’ll be ok. It just doesn’t work like that.
As we rush to the end of the story at lightspeed the story still feels unfinished. Driver and Ridley saved this movie from being an absolute abomination and the 4DX experience did too. Every lightsaber wield the theatre lit up with strobe lit lightsaber clash effects.
A fight sequence on water had us blasted with water mist and our seats rocking with he motion of the waves and even snow in the auditorium fell during a winter sequence.
The 4DX was absolutely on-point and once again shows that Disney and 4DX were made for each other. When Rey is in the forest meditating we smell the forest, we smell the sea breeze during various water sequences. Now that is the true magic of the movie.
But when technology outshines the story you’re seeing on the screen then that’s a big red flag right there.
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker is out now in the UK, and on December 20 in the US.
Rating
Summary
After an incredible opening, the rest of the movie peaks and troughs but ultimately ends in disappointment. Without the magic of 4DX enhancing every lightsaber battle and spaceship dogfight, this score would have been much lower. A good movie if you’re a die-hard nerd from nostalgia aspect but as an overall movie and a finale to such a run of films. Not great at all.
Ridley and Driver deliver outstanding performances but two incredible performances aside this is a surface level piece that throws all the other characters we know and love into a trash compactor and never quite delivers on what many fans were hoping for which was a solid end to as a whole, one of the most iconic franchises in the galaxy.
