Hey there and Happy Holidays everyone…

After much anticipation, my son and I went to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker last night. First of all, this is not a movie review just my commentary on the film and the way the critics and the fans are reacting to it. Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker has been widely criticized and after seeing it I cannot understand why. I thought it was incredible and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. There is lots of action throughout and many questions answered. Much homage is paid to the original Star Wars Trilogy and the characters and I cried at least three or four times while watching this. It will make you feel things and remind you of the moments of the past. It will also shock you and make you say WTF? But it never loses that intensity that Star Wars always had or the magic that will never die. So why do so many critics and fans hate this movie? To be fair it has been divided. There are just as many fans who enjoyed it.

I purposely refrained from reading any spoilers or reviews about this movie before seeing it. Why? Because unlike my son whom is twenty-four and wanted to know everything, I wanted the experience to be just like it was when I saw the first trilogy. Going into it knowing absolutely nothing. Because I’m old school. When I was growing up, nobody knew anything that wasn’t in the trailers. And I believe that the internet kind of ruined that aspect of going to the movies. With social media not only can we find out people’s theories and opinions about a film but even go so far as to insult the actors and the filmmakers for not making the films the way that we think they should be made. I have to draw the line on that one. Art should never be interfered with by anyone unless they are the creator. The Star Wars films are very precious to a lot of people including me, I get that, but I keep my opinions about the actors and the directors and writers to myself. Insulting them on the internet isn’t going to change anything, it just makes us look like ungrateful opinionated cyberbullies.

I feel sorry for the actors who had to deal with such people and were treated so poorly that they had to leave social media altogether just to get away from being bullied by so-called fans. Engaging with celebrities can be fun but not when we start attacking them just because we didn’t like their movie or don’t like the way they look. Celebrities and filmmakers are not our school chums that we like to poke fun at every day. They deserve a certain amount of respect. It’s very unfair to the people who were paid to do a job and they did it to the best of their ability. Kelly Marie Tran who played Rose Tico was not featured much in The Rise of Skywalker and I can’t help but wonder if it was because of all the backlash she had to deal with after starring in The Last Jedi. If that’s the case it is unfortunate. She is a very fine actress.

When this film ended, I went home feeling sad that the Skywalker story had come to an end. I grew up on this story, I used to buy the magazines and records and books and anything that had the Star Wars name on it that my parents would let me have. This marks the end of an era and a personal one for me. Star Wars is what made me want to write my own stories and I can’t thank George Lucas enough for the inspiration that his work has awakened in me as I am sure it did for many others. He may feel like he isn’t a part of this legacy anymore, but he is. Regardless of who’s making the films now. He started this and if it ends, it will end with him. But can Star Wars ever really end? I say not as long as the world wants to see it. Disney will continue to make money from this franchise as long as we want fresh content like The Mandalorian being shown now on Disney Plus and Kenobi coming in the very near future. There are still many stories to tell and I hope I will still be around to see them. And I hope they are told with the heart of the man who created the original films.

When the Force Awakens was released, I didn’t care about Rey, Poe, and Fin right away. They had to grow on me because I am such a die-hard fan of the original trilogy. Well now they have, and I will miss their characters. This was the first film in the new trilogy to feature them interacting with one another as a group and they have great chemistry. It’s too bad that we didn’t get that in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.

I’m glad that I didn’t listen to all of the naysayers and bypassed The Rise of Skywalker because it is truly an amazing film. I believe if you go into a film looking for things like plot holes you will hate it before you even see it. If you think you will hate it then you probably will. If I was a filmmaker, I wouldn’t want to take on a masterpiece like Star Wars because people are so passionate about it. J.J Abrams and Rian Johnson are the bravest filmmakers I’ve ever seen for stepping up to the task and accepting all of the brutal comments from fans who were completely dissatisfied with the work that they did which in no way makes them bad filmmakers. They are both very on top of their game and have other film credits that were highly successful. I am personally a fan of J.J Abram’s Star Trek films.

My son and I had a great time watching The Rise of Skywalker and I will continue watching The Mandalorian, but I can’t help but wish that George Lucas would continue making films because he too deserves another moment in the sun until he just can’t do it anymore. Today’s young hotshots learned from the best.

Until next time…