By J1 Reporter Mia Dunker

It’s no understatement to say that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had a lot to live up to. The movie is the third and final movie in the sequel trilogy of the popular franchise, and the lead-up to the film has been years long. But does the film live up to the hype?

The Rise of Skywalker certainly has some positive aspects. What I personally enjoyed most about this movie was seeing the main characters interact with each other. One of my main qualms with the past two movies was the main trio of characters (Rey, Finn, and Poe) rarely seemed to interact with each other, let alone be at the same place at the same time. The Rise of Skywalker fixes this, giving us some of that good main character interaction content. Unfortunately, that’s about all I could personally enjoy about the movie, but I can understand how some of the references and plot events that called back to past Star Wars movies could be appealing to more hardcore fans of the series.

That point brings me to my main criticism of The Rise of Skywalker: it is geared more towards long time fans than casual ones. An example of this criticism in action is me and my mom. My mom has been a Star Wars fan for a long time and enjoyed the movie, while I had a harder time understanding the plot as a more casual viewer. The movie relies heavily on past events from the series, not adding too much original plot. I have seen that this has been a criticism of all the sequel movies, with some people believing that they do not add much originality to the series.

 I also have some issues with a romance plot line later in the story that seems forced and unnecessary. This part of the story relies on the redemption of the villain of the sequel trilogy, but I feel like not much effort was put into this redemption story, resulting in the romance feeling forced and uncomfortable.

Overall, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a somewhat enjoyable movie that does more to cater to hardcore fans of the series and ultimately falls a little short of my expectations as the sequel trilogy’s finale.

The movie was released Dec. 20 and is still in theaters today with a PG13 rating.