The biggest positive for me has to be Palpatine. Since he was always the big bad huy of both the OT and the PT it makes sense to me to bring him back. Like I said before it does constantly remind you of just how much of a course correct this film really is, but whatever. I did find the Snokes in the tanks to be a tad funny, but it makes sense and I’m glad they didn’t waste time explaining exactly how that works. There will undoubtedly be an EU novel soon that will explain the whole thing. Overall though, I loved Palpatine’s new design. Although he was hooked up to a big machine, it still seems that he’s been cloned (makes sense considering the Snokes) considering how he no longer has a “melted” face but instead just looks like an old man with pale white skin. The white eyes and how his expressions changes in between flashes of light was a really cool effect that gave him that otherworldly feeling that the PT unfortunately toned down. The whole design actually reminded me of Bela Lugosi and the pale skin even gave him a B&W film feel. As a matter of the whole Bexol, or whatever the planet was called, reminded me a lot of Dark Empire, and although that will clearly annoy some people, I’m personally quite leased with it. TBH there really wasn’t much about this aspect of the film that I didn’t like. The hidden gigantic fleet and Palpatine attacking the rebel “fleet” with force lighting was fairly over the top, but at this point I don’t really care, and why not embrace the more absurd elements of SW at this point.
However I don’t really know what to think about the new twist regarding Rey’s identity. She’s apparently Palpatine’s granddaughter? The film didn’t really explain it. Palpatine just calls her his granddaughter, but never elaborates. Was Rey’s mother or father his child? And when did he father this child? Obviously this will be explained in the EU at some point, but I felt like this was a bit more important. But he also implies that he’s Anakin’s father, though that would obviously be through the force. Either way it makes the whole Reylo thing kind of weird now.
Speaking of Kylo Ren, I thought his arc was handled quite well in this. His redemption moment of tossing his saber into the sea was a nice reversal of his TFA scene and the stuff where he came to help Rey at the end was quite fun. The ability to move stuff via the force-link will probably annoy some people, but I thought it was a nice extension of the raindrops in TLJ.
I do however find it a bit funny that they actually ended up canonizing a fan theory that been circulating that Rey’s rapid growth in force abilities has to do with her literally being a divergence in the force like Anakin was. I can’t say I love that idea, but since TFA and TLJ are what they are, I’ll take it.
My biggest gripe with the film, oddly enough has to do with who dies at the end. I honestly would have much preferred if they had switched the deaths so that Ben lived and Rey died. Not only is Ben giving his life-force to Rey a really odd stretch considering how Anakin basically went dark side for that specific ability (more or less), but I guess he’s also a divergence in the force, or something like that, so why not. The main reason it bugs me is because I think the alternative would have been better narrative-wise. After all, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Luke had meaningful hero’s deaths, and I think it would have meant more if Rey had done the same and Ben was left behind to follow her example and do the right thing. There would have been so many opportunities for interesting stories in the EU or even other films post TROS if Ben had survived and became the Skywalker (technically speaking) who would continue the Jedi way, which BTW he was involved with for a fair while before Snoke/Palpatine corrupted him. Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I think this would have been way more interesting.
A few minor quibbles;
I still don’s know what “Rise of Skywalker” is supposed to mean and was there any real meaning to Rey returning to Tatooine at the end. The yellow lightsaber made me smile, and the ghost Luke and Leia was a nice moment, but burying their lightsabers there didn’t seem to have any real significance other than Abrams getting to shot a Tatooine scene.
Also the Knights of Ren kinda got the Phasma treatment. It’s almost like a ST tradition by now to build up hype around character/s and then just kill them off. At least they got to do something cool in this film before they were all killed.
