The best and worst of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Best: The Trio

Many people felt that The Last Jedi lacked cohesiveness because it split the lead cast three ways and didn’t build on the established relationships of the first film. The Rise of Skywalker brings them together and proceeds to show us how their dynamic has grown. Rey, Finn, and Poe are like three siblings in this film – squabbling over silly things while backing each other every step of the way. Poe is like the older, responsible one, while Rey is the youngest who wants to follow her own way. Stuck in the middle is Finn, the perennial peacekeeper.

It makes sense that Poe and Rey would struggle to get along, as their only association is Finn. There’s a little bit of jealousy going around, as Finn and Rey obviously have a deeper connection, and yet every scene these three were in together was pure gold. They worked like a well-oiled machine, giving credence to the fact that these three have been working to keep the Resistance alive between films.

Worst: Poe’s Past

The damage done to Poe’s character is hard to forget. In The Last Jedi, his mutineering ways cost the lives of practically the entire Resistance. He was written less as a hero and more as a misogynistic loser who hated that a woman replaced Leia in command. Those tendencies are far behind Poe in The Rise of Skywalker. In fact, he constantly reminds Rey that she’s their best fighter and they need her on the mission. But that doesn’t absolve the creators of how they developed the rest of his character.

Poe’s exceptional charisma and unwavering love for Finn makes him a favourite among fans but, in this film, we learn that Poe was originally a spice runner – aka, a drug dealer. It’s a stereotype to cast a person of colour as a drug dealer. In a post-Empire world, one would have expected the son of two Rebel fighters to have a decent job. Why was Poe into spice then?

And then, to add salt to the wound, the person that Poe interacts with from his past is an ex-flame who Poe seems to still be interested in. The predictability of Keri Russell’s cool character, Zorii Bliss, being pigeonholed into being”the girlfriend” leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It seems like she was added purely to ensure Poe is seen as the straight male hero of the franchise.