Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Blu-ray Review - A Must Have!

In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Rey (Daisy Ridley) Jedi trains with General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver) continues attacking innocent worlds and killing rebels. Emperor Palpatine is alive and promises Kylo he will rule the galaxy if he can just kill “the girl” and thus wipe out the Jedi.

Which side will Kylo Ren take?Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Poe (Oscar Issac), Chewy (Joonas Suotamo) and Finn (John Boyega) rush in the Falcon to tell Leia that there is a Rebel spy inside the evil First Order. Palpatine and his generals are building the ultimate Final Order attack fleet. Step by step, the Rebels must find the location of the secret base and destroy the fleet but Will Kylo stop them and what is Rey’s true destiny?

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer

The Return of True Evil

One year after the last film, Kylo Ren obtains a GPS style device called a Sith Wayfinder that leads him to the planet Exegol where he finds the physically impaired Emperor Palpatine alive. Palpatine reveals that he created Snoke as a puppet to control the First Order and lure Kylo to the dark side. Now he is preparing a secret fleet of Star Destroyers with planet killing capability and tells Kylo to find Rey, who is continuing her Jedi training under General Leia Organa.

Leia wants the best for ReyCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Meanwhile, Finn, Poe, and Chewbacca learn about Palpatine’s return from a Rebel spy inside the First Order. Rey re-joins the team and finds notes in Luke’s Jedi texts about a Sith dagger that will provide key info. So the friends plus BB-8 and C-3PO leave to search for this dagger. R2-D2 stays with Leia.

Searching for cluesCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Lando Returns

On Pasaana, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) leads the heroes to the dagger’s last known location in the desert. Through Rey’s “visions” and the Force bond between them, Kylo learns where she is and travels to Pasaana with his Knights of Ren. Rey and the others discover the remains of a Sith assassin, his ship, and a dagger inscribed with Sith text, which C-3PO's programming forbids him from interpreting.

Lando Calrissian returnsCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Sensing that Kylo is nearby, Rey goes to confront him while the First Order captures the Falcon, Chewbacca, and the dagger. Rey, attempting to save Chewbacca while Force fighting with Kylo, accidentally destroys a First Order transport with her great power. The group escapes on the assassin's ship, presuming Chewbacca was killed in the explosion.

Finn, Rey and Poe search for the WayfinderCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Revelation

Poe has an old girlfriend on Kijimi, Zorii Bliss (Keri Russell) who can help get the Sith text extracted from C-3PO’s memory. 3PO is willing to have his memory wiped if it saves the rebellion.

Will 3PO give up his memory?Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

This provides the location to a Wayfinder device on Endor leading to Palpatine's location. Rey senses Chewbacca is alive, and the group is off on a rescue mission.

Can Zorii Bliss help?Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

While Kylo searches for Rey, the pals infiltrate his Star Destroyer with the help of Zorii. Through the Force, Kylo tells Rey a shocking truth about her past and origin. Rey recovers the dagger and has visions of an assassin using it to kill her parents.

Rey faces PalpatineCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) discovers the group and reveals he’s the spy. He allows them to escape on the Falcon, but is executed for treason. Kijimi is destroyed as a show of force.

Big Death Star Battle

On Endor, Rey and friends find an escaped former Stormtrooper, Jannah (Naomi Ackie) who leads them to the remains of the second Death Star now semi-submerged in a sea. Rey uses the dagger to locate the Wayfinder and, upon touching it, she sees herself as a Sith leader. Kylo finds the good guys, destroys the Wayfinder and he and Rey have a big lightsaber battle ending with Rey taking his ship.

Rey and Kylo Ren's final fightCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Frightened by the vision and more, she exiles herself on Ahch-To where Luke lived so long but his spirit appears and convinces her to face Palpatine as he once faced Darth Vader. He provides her with Leia's lightsaber and his old X-wing. Rey leaves for Exegol, using the Wayfinder on Kylo's ship.

Happy Ending?

Will Rey defeat Palpatine and his plans for an ultimate Final Order? What side is Kylo Ren really on? Can enough Rebels be assembled to do any good against the fleet of killer Star Destroyers? Who is Rey really and what is her destiny? Who will live and who will perish? And how will a Skywalker “Rise”?

Rey has to face her dark sideCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Special Extra Features – on a separate Bonus Disc

• The Skywalker Legacy is a wide-spectrum “Making Of” featurette. It covers everything from outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage from the original 1970’s and ‘80’s films to comments by the classic cast (younger and now), to fun on-set action for this film to a tribute to Carrie Fisher with comments by her daughter Billie Lourd to Daisy Ridley’s tough physical training, info on sets and locations, costumes and make-up, Kylo and Rey’s character journey, Mark Hamill rejoicing that Luke was finally able to raise his X-wing out of the muck and much more!  This extra is entertaining, touching and gratifying! Loved it!

Can Kylo Ren choose good over evil?Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

• Pasaana Pursuit: Creating the Speeder Chase – a detailed look at the huge action chase in the desert, design, build and shoot with helicopters and drones are covered. Cool!

Speeder chase in the desertCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

• Aliens in the Desert – Details of building up a film “camp” for 1,500 crew members in the middle of the desert in Jordan in order to shoot the Festival and other desert scenes. It was a huge effort including road building etc.  Overwhelming… no wonder movies cost so much to make! Interesting.

Alien festival in the desertCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

• D-O: Key to the Past – An exploration of a ship that is key to Rey’s childhood. It contains small, rolling robot D O who is befriended by Rey.. Kind of a sweet extra.
• Warwick & Son – Features Warwick Davis, the little person who played Wicket in Return of the Jedi. He returns to play the character in The Rise of Skywalker along with his cute little person son, Harrison as Wicket’s son. Awwwwwww.
• Cast of Creatures – a tribute to and exploration of all of the creative, fun alien creatures and beings in the series. A celebration of all the actors who puppet them or are actually inside the suits!  Very worthy and colorful extra!

Director J.J. Abrams checking out one of the new creaturesCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Wrapping Up

As we wrote when the film was in theaters, “The Rise of Skywalker is a term with many meanings as you will discover. It was thrilling to see the familiar beginning crawl and those title Star Wars words appear yet again on screen. If there is a theme to this saga wrap-up it is to “Never be afraid of who you are” as Rey and others must learn. There are lessons in teamwork and “family” that might warm your heart and a few emotional bombshells and reveals that match the power of a Star Destroyer’s planet killer weapons.

J.J. Abrams with Oscar IsaacsCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

The pacing of the movie is crisp and quick with a few pauses for emotional more personal scenes skillfully woven throughout. Humor is still there as well and it is mostly achieved on the fly as our heroes are always on the search or on the run. The feel of the film is more like “A New Hope” with an updated “look” and that’s not bad.

Chewy, Poe, Finn and Rey on the FalconCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Tears and cheers were experienced by old and new fans alike in our audience as the saga comes full circle in more ways than one. Some might think the basic plot is too simplistic but fans should be satisfied that most of the holes are filled, questions answered and character arcs completed. For the most part, the Force was indeed with this last installment of the saga”.

Can we possibly win?Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

This Blu-ray/Digital set looks amazing and mostly sounds great but I did have to crank up the sounds more than I usually do.

Kylo Ren must find ReyCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Extras are all fan-pleasing, fun and/or informative. Loved the intercutting of old interviews and bloopers with the original cast in their heyday as well as modern comments on this film and the others.

Director J.J. Abrams with Adam Driver on setCourtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

The only downsides were no director commentary by J.J. Abrams but he is expressing himself throughout the extras so we don’t miss much. I miss a funny blooper reel but several on-set goofing off scenes or flubs while filming are included in the “The Skywalker Legacy” featurette. As we did the film in theaters, we award this MUST have set 4 stars.

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker Blu-ray Rating: 

Courtesy of Lucasfilm Ltd.

You can buy this Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Blu-ray set starting March 31^st

What are Your Star Wars Thoughts?

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