Episode I–VI: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Anakin Skywalker, The Chosen One
It is important to understand that, at its core, Star Wars is the story of Anakin Skywalker fulfilling the prophecy of bringing balance to the Force.
With this being said:
What I disliked
Palpatine survived. Vader isn't the Chosen One. His sacrifice was for nothing.
I think the only thing worse than having Luke Skywalker nearly kill his teenage nephew (the same Luke who willingly turned himself into the Emperor and then chose to spare his father and face a painful death) in the previous film, is completely negating the purpose of episodes 1-6 by completely undoing and making Vader's turn back to the light useless.
If Vader's sacrifice fulfilled the prophecy of bringing balance to the Force, then Palpatine simply being alive this whole time means the prophecy was never actually about defeating him — the entire climax of the original trilogy becomes decorative. Anakin didn't bring balance, and therefore was not the Chosen One. He just paused things for thirty years until the sequels needed a villain again. What a stupid, and I mean STUPID, decision man. Ugh. This wound is still fresh man.
The lack of cohesion between films in this trilogy
You can tell there was no story treatment for the sequels. This film spends a lot of time undoing or trying desperately to make the best of what happened in the previous film. Look, I get it — what else are you supposed to do when Rian Johnson leaves your saga-concluding film without a big bad, for the purposes of "subverting expectations"? You need to scramble. Unfortunately, bringing Palpatine back was just literally the worst possible thing you could've done.
The specifics make it worse the more you look at them. Snoke was set up across an entire film as the mysterious power behind the First Order and then immediately gets killed off in The Last Jedi with zero backstory, and instead of building on that choice, this film needs a new big bad and reaches backward for Palpatine instead. Rey's parentage gets the same treatment: she goes from "nobody, from junk traders" in The Last Jedi to "secretly a Palpatine" here.
Rey Palpatine is the Chosen One.... question mark?
This is not how this works? If it was, my sister would've been a Bieber a long time ago, and I actually may have been a Skywalker myself now that I think about it. Seriously though, it leaves a terrible taste in my mouth that this movie ends with a Palpatine being the chosen one, but erasing her lineage because.... she can?
That's really the problem with the twist as a piece of storytelling, not just as a "shocking" reveal that she is in fact related to Palpatine. It exists purely to raise the stakes, and then gets undone weakly in the very same film.
Abrams needs plot devices that are extremely unsatisfyingly explained to drive his narratives, and it does not make for a good time, let me tell you
If I had a nickel for every time J.J. Abrams introduces a critical plot device without explaining its equally important origin in this trilogy, I'd have two nickels. Which is weird, mind you.
- "Somehow Palpatine returned."
J.J. Abrams likes to introduce a mysterious and mystical element into his storytelling that is vital to the plot, but he never explains it. This is the second time he has done this in this trilogy.
- "That's a story for another time."
In The Force Awakens, Rey finds Anakin/Luke's lightsaber on Takodana, and when asked where she found this, Maz Kanata responds with a fancy way of saying "don't worry about it." I really don't know why Abrams does this.
The dagger
This made no sense. It's literally essential to the story, but somehow, when created, it was made to perfectly line up with some random Death Star debris. Do you know how perfect that has to be? Do you know how unbelievable your plot point has to be in a fantasy world where people can move things with their minds?
The death of Ben Solo
I actually found Ben's death to be unnecessary and, honestly, convoluted. Leaving him out of the final battle is one thing, but I think they killed him off because there was no time left to write a proper redemption, especially after Carrie Fisher's death and with Han Solo already dead. I do not think he was irredeemable at this point. Let's say he was — having him survive, miss the final battle, then return and give his life force felt questionable. Could Rey have given her life force instead? Did they not both get their life force back once Palpatine died? It is also unclear why Rey died in the first place.
The dialogue was awful
"They fly now?"
"They fly now!"
This is the obvious offender. Telling me, when they are also literally showing me. I mean you'd think Lucas wrote this dialogue himself (Love you, George). It's also not the only case, either: a lot of the Force-power exposition in this film gets stated flatly by characters explaining new abilities to each other in real time, rather than earned through what's shown on screen. It reads like a script note standing in for actual character development, and it creates a tonal whiplash next to scenes that are otherwise trying to be emotionally weighty.
The supporting cast gets left behind
Poe and Finn both get shortchanged here. Poe's spice-runner past with Zorii Bliss gets dropped in with almost no setup, existing to justify a plot detour rather than to develop him as a character. Finn spends most of the film hinting he has something important to tell Rey, a thread that traces back to a Force-sensitivity tease in The Force Awakens and it just never pays off. You know, you could've just made him force sensitive from the start, but instead we are left,,,, confused?
Worse is Rose, who gets built up as a co-lead in The Last Jedi and then almost entirely sidelined here, which was definitely in response to backlash toward her character. Some of it earned, I mean the Canto Bight subplot wasn't particularly pushing the narrative, and existed solely for the sake of having a b-plot because Rey and Kylo's section of the movie would've made for a 90 minute film. Of everything in this trilogy, that's maybe the clearest evidence that the story was being written reactively, film to film, instead of planned out in advance.
The Final Order fleet doesn't hold up, and neither does Palpatine's plan
Thousands of Star Destroyers, built in total secrecy on Exegol, never get explained logistically. Where did the resources come from? How did nobody notice any of it? It also retroactively undercuts the scale of everything that came before it in the saga; if the First Order could've just deployed the Final Order fleet, what was the point of any prior battle?
And Palpatine's actual plan doesn't track either. If he already secretly controls a hidden fleet and has been quietly steering Kylo's entire arc, why send Kylo on a scavenger hunt across the galaxy for wayfinders he could have simply handed him?
What I liked
Music
John Williams is the greatest to ever do it. Zimmer is second but its not close. His music resonates here, as usual. Nothing in the score itself is groundbreaking or new in this film, but it works as a love letter to the franchise, with many beautiful musical moments. For example, the Yoda and the Force theme plays when Luke lifts the X-wing, using the same music as when Yoda lifted the X-wing. The fan service is strong with this one. Yoda's theme playing when everyone returns is also beautiful, and Leia's theme is beautiful too.
C-3PO
I loved the arc this movie gave him. To be fair, at this point he was the only original trilogy character left with the main cast, so they needed his familiarity.
Babu Frik
That little guy was hilarious. Loved the character design as well.
Fan service (I guess)
Chewie getting his medal, Luke lifting the X-Wing, Lando's return, the Wedge cameo, the voices of the Jedi, Han Solo in the vision. I enjoyed these scenes as a Star Wars fan, though it wasn't particularly aiding in this film being good cinema. It still felt good to see even though I know it was done solely to ease the uneasiness in the fan base.
The duel on the wrecked Death Star
The Rey vs. Kylo lightsaber duel on the wreckage of the second Death Star, in the storm, is genuinely great cinematography and a strong callback location — one of the few moments where the film's visual instincts fully land.
Ian McDiarmid's performance
Whatever the writing does or doesn't earn around Palpatine, McDiarmid himself sells it. The practical makeup and body horror design paired with his full commitment to the role make Palpatine feel genuinely unsettling in a way the script alone doesn't support.
Kylo Ren's redemption
Taken on its own, separate from how Ben's death is handled, Kylo's turn back toward the light is reasonably well-acted and lands emotionally in the moment, even if the choice to kill him off immediately after undercuts it.
Overall critique
The cinematography has real high points. Palpatine unleashing Force lightning at the entire fleet looks like it was pulled straight from Ralph McQuarrie concept art — and the sound design and music remain spectacular throughout. But a strong score and a handful of striking visuals can't paper over a script built on undoing its own predecessor, a central twist that costs nothing, and a supporting cast reduced to loose ends. This film closes out what should've been the start of the next generation of Star Wars on such a sour note. Star Wars, my first love, has had a terrible taste left in my mouth since then.
Discussion
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