Second Look - Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker

Note: This review contains spoilers for the Star Wars Skywalker Saga and Avengers: Endgame.

As the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy went on, though I noticed some issues with it, I made the choice to reserve my judgement on the trilogy as a whole until the release of the final part, The Rise of Skywalker, cautiously optimistic that it might make the journey worth it as Revenge of the Sith did for the prequels. Unfortunately, The Rise of Skywalker proved what happens when you devote yourself to a trilogy without a solid outline, dragging down the entire trilogy as a result. This eventually led me to reevaluate the trilogy with the context provided by The Rise of Skywalker, though it wouldn’t be fair to go through said reevaluation without looking at the third part again, which I have not seen since the original theatrical release in 2019. Upon a second viewing, my opinion didn’t change all that much, and in fact it may have lowered a little bit.

Second Look - Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

Note: This review contains spoilers for the Star Wars Skywalker Saga.

Between The Walt Disney Company’s acquisitions of Marvel and 20^th Century Fox, the company acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, and with it came the announcement of a new trilogy of Star Wars films, collectively referred to as the Sequel Trilogy for taking place after the Original Trilogy. The announcement of the first film, The Force Awakens, naturally generated an amount of hype not seen since the Prequel Trilogy to the point where I saw the film opening weekend and enjoyed it on my first viewing. The further away I got from this first experience, however, the more problems I began to see with it on subsequent viewings, to where I wanted to reevaluate it following the trilogy’s lackluster conclusion. While The Force Awakens did do some things right, it’s not nearly as good as I once thought it was.