The Rise of Skywalker: Not With a Bang, but With a Sigh

Star Wars is a franchise that has spanned generations, and when it was announced that The Rise of Skywalker would be the last film for awhile (at least the last one in the saga of the Skywalker story), there were mixed feelings. The Star Wars fanbase is extremely passionate about the story (sometimes to the point of being overdramatic), and the newest trilogy has had mixed reviews on all levels. There seemed like an enormous amount of pressure for it to be good, on top of the usual pressure that the ending of a series has on it to go out strong, powerful, and usually loud. In comparison, the Avengers Infinity Saga finished this year – that’s the level of ending a saga like this is expected to have. That’s not the level of intensity that The Rise of Skywalker had though – not by a long shot. In many ways, this trilogy was doomed by a lot of stylistic choices, and maybe this wasn’t the end for the Skywalker saga that fans would hope for, but I’m not entirely sure it could have gone another way. No matter how hard it tried, the Skywalker storyline was a large part of the issue with the sequel trilogy, and maybe a lackluster ending can open the franchise up to a better future.

The Force Awakens Receives the Torch with Plenty of Ambition

*Potential Spoilers Ahead: Be Warned*

As a twenty-year-old, I obviously have no idea how it felt to watch the original Star Wars: A New Hope in theaters when it was new. Watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens today can’t be quite the same, considering all of the throwbacks and tributes to the original series, but I can imagine that the sense of excitement, wonder and imagination was very similar to what I felt watching the Millennium Falcon roar back into my life. Though at times the throwbacks were a little too much and the surprises a little too quick, J. J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens has taken the torch George Lucas lit and is running with it towards a future far, far away.