Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was released on December 20th, 2019 and is the ninth installment of the Skywalker saga. Going into this movie was very exciting for me as it is the 4th Star Wars film I got the pleasure of seeing in theaters and I will say that standing in line with a souvenir cup and bucket full of popcorn filled me with tons of anticipation. From the legendary yellow font scrolling across the big screen, while John William’s classic score blares into your ears to a character staring into a binary sunset until credits roll, it really had me hooked from beginning to the end and had me walking out with my souvenirs in my hands while I’m as excited as a schoolgirl.

This movie has divided fans and critics as they label Rise of Skywalker a great blend of nostalgia and new characters or a convoluted and rushed mess. I see both sides of the spectrum as I watched this movie twice but the fan in me just really enjoyed this movie. It was a great blend of all three trilogies and a balance of old and new characters. The chemistry with the characters was fun to watch and the battles were fan service galore. It is by far not a perfect movie, but no movie is. They all have their iffy moments and I could see that as I watched the movie but it didn’t matter to me. What mattered to me was that I had fun and this movie gave me what I wanted. Rise of Skywalker was like the icing on the cake for me as it wrapped up the story of the Skywalker’s that begun in a galaxy a long, long time ago.

**THOSE WHO HAVE NOT WITNESSED GREATNESS, DO NOT GO ON**

Ah! spoiler territory, now this is where the fun begins. Episode IX (nine for the hardcore fans like myself) has definitely found a place in my heart along with Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV Return of the Jedi. Yes, my favorite three are all endings to each trilogy. Now to me, Rise of Skywalker is an almost perfect blend of every generation of Star Wars fans. In the final battle, the Resistance is about to be overrun by the new and improved First Order called the Final Order and they are losing people left and right and Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) is about to give up hope when Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) speaks over the radio saying there are more of them. When the camera pans around a star destroyer, there sits so many ships from the yellow Naboo ships from The Phantom Menace to the Ghost from the show Star Wars Rebels. It is practically fan service everywhere you look. That’s what I love about this movie is because it reflects on every Star Wars title that has happened and in some way it includes it in this film. Another favorite moment is when Rey (Daisy Ridley) trashes a ship she took after she fought Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and plans to stay on the island Ahch-To to keep her friends safe from her since she is the granddaughter of the big bad from every Star Wars piece you can think of, Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Rey is just about to throw in her lightsaber into the fire, but a ghostly hand catches it and it is revealed to be Ghost Luke Skywalker. The last time we saw Luke he had died in The Last Jedi after saving the Resistance from the First Order. Many fans know that The Last Jedi wasn’t a homerun of a movie as they messed with Luke’s character and changed him from the Skywalker from the Original Trilogy, however Rise of Skywalker fixes his character and the Luke that we all know and love returns to motivate our heroine to get back into the fight. It was nice to see some of the misses from The Last Jedi get corrected in this latest. But I can’t finish off my nerdy rant without mentioning the scene that had me jumping out of my seat along with the other fans in my theater. That scene is when Rey and Ben Solo have their energy drained by Emperor Palpatine in an attempt to bring back the Sith. As Rey lays there dying she calls out to the Force and to the Jedi of the past. That is when we get the voices of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness), Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), Master Yoda (Frank Oz), Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and even favorites from the tv shows Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and many more. The past Jedi motivate Rey and give her enough strength to defeat the evil Sith lord and bring peace to the galaxy again. If I were to rate this movie, I’d give it 9.5 out of 10 because I have followed this saga from beginning to end and this movie brought together everything I loved about Star Wars and devoted itself to pleasing the hard core fans.