I have mixed feelings about Rise of Skywalker, and I wish I had put those thoughts into words when we saw the movie in the theater in December. But family was visiting, it was Christmas, and I had more important things to do. I decided to wait until after we watched it again on DVD before commenting.
Second Impressions
The movie was released on video and DVD in mid-March. It's telling that we didn't rush out to buy a copy as we usually do. Even more telling that we decided to rent it, and after we did through Amazon Prime, we waited over a week before we watched it. When we did watch it, we split it up between two nights. A good portion of the scenes simply didn’t hold my attention.
Which scenes were those? Certainly not the scenes between Rey and Kylo (and Ben, each time Rey was able to break through his exterior to the hurting man beneath.) Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley did a fantastic job in their roles. More on that below. But the rest...I've never warmed up to Finn and Po or their storylines. Instead of mirroring the friendship triangle of Luke, Han, and Leia, which appeared to be the goal, they seem to exist solely to cause havoc and destruction to the Resistance. It's difficult to like characters who nearly wiped out everything Leia was working for.
The Real Story
I know I'll watch the movie again in the future, but when I do, I'll likely fast forward to the scenes between Rey and Kylo. I really feel the story between them is misunderstood and largely underappreciated. Driver and Ridley appear to have understood the depth of the bond between the characters--even before the characters found out they were connected in the Force--along with the deep feelings of loneliness and rejection they share, and the subsequent need they have for one another. They are, after all, the only people in the galaxy who truly understands one another. The actors played it well. The ability that Adam Driver has to portray a man in deep emotional pain amazes me, and I love what he's done with Kylo/Ben during the last two movies. When Kylo and Rey talk to one another through the Force bond or when they’re searching for one another, they have my attention.
The Kiss
I'm not talking about the controversial kiss at the end. I'm talking about the controversial kiss between Rey and Ben. Some people screamed so loud about it on Twitter, I could see their font without my glasses. Why!? They wanted to know. He tortured her! Tried to kill her! Tried to manipulate her! Why have her kiss him? Why not Finn?
My first though was, have they seen the movie? I'll say--and I cannot emphasize this enough--that Rey. wanted. Ben. Solo. For all the reasons I mentioned above. Did you notice her change of clothes? When, in The Last Jedi, she went to face Kylo, she changed her clothes. For the first time, the desert scavenger let her hair down and made herself look attractive.
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| Photo Credit: Me. You can tell by all the Beanie Babies I had to place around the TV to keep the cat off the entertainment center. |
(It's a terrible photo, but Blogger removed the previous image I'd placed there despite the fact the license was marked All Creative Commons. But to continue....)
Rey changed her clothes for Ben. She was connected to him. In Skywalker, she admitted she’d wanted to take his hand when he offered it, but she wanted to take Ben's hand. (And how do we know it was Ben at the end? Not simply because he seemed to be different man, took off his helmet, and went to rescue her, but because he changed his clothes. It mirrored Rey's actions in the previous movie.) Kylo may have started out pursuing Rey, but it was Rey who ultimately drove the relationship, pushing for change, trying to reach Ben. So much so, she couldn’t handle it when she finally bested him with the lightsaber. That wasn’t just regret at having delivered what would be a killing blow in anger. It was regret at having mortally injured him. So she healed him. And that, I believe, is the real story. Battles aren’t won with anger and revenge killings, but with heart and the determination to stand up for what’s right.
Rey changed her clothes for Ben. She was connected to him. In Skywalker, she admitted she’d wanted to take his hand when he offered it, but she wanted to take Ben's hand. (And how do we know it was Ben at the end? Not simply because he seemed to be different man, took off his helmet, and went to rescue her, but because he changed his clothes. It mirrored Rey's actions in the previous movie.) Kylo may have started out pursuing Rey, but it was Rey who ultimately drove the relationship, pushing for change, trying to reach Ben. So much so, she couldn’t handle it when she finally bested him with the lightsaber. That wasn’t just regret at having delivered what would be a killing blow in anger. It was regret at having mortally injured him. So she healed him. And that, I believe, is the real story. Battles aren’t won with anger and revenge killings, but with heart and the determination to stand up for what’s right.
Rey did both and she won. When she finally got her Ben, she kissed him, the man to whom she would be connected to for the rest of her life. Sadly, in showing the viewer this was indeed the last movie in the Skywalker saga, the powers that be killed him off. We can only hope he'll show up as a Force ghost and spend some time with Rey at the Skywalker homestead.
So that's it. I may not have liked some characters and scenes in Rise of Skywalker, but I still have a lifelong fondness for the Skywalkers themselves, which now includes Rey, and I'll watch the movie again. That’s what fans do. Like Rey, they stick with the object of their affection even when that object seems bent on destroying itself.