Another beloved series comes to an end

By Isabella Littleton

Artwork by Ella Benitone

2019 was the year of farewells for many movie and television franchises: “The 
Avengers,” “Game of Thrones,” “Toy Story,” and “The Big Bang Theory” to name only a few. All came to their conclusions last year. These finales were met with tears, joy and disappointment. Even one legendary series that had been running for over 42 years decided it was time to come to an end: Star Wars.

On Dec 20, 2019, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” hit theatres. Since its reboot in 2014, the new sequel trilogy has received mixed reactions from fans but has generally gotten praise from critics. However, “The Rise of Skywalker” is now the franchise’s second lowest ranked movie by Rotten Tomatoes at 53%, only surpassing “The Phantom Menace” as the lowest at 51%. With this, fans quickly began to share their opinions about the movie, and St. Mary’s girls always have an opinion.

“Man, they stuffed so much in there,” said local Star Wars enthusiast Ginny Bratton (12). “It seems to me they were so concerned with the new trilogy that they forgot they had to wrap it up.”

Bratton expressed that she does a lot of research when preparing to watch a Star Wars movie and “read diligently” on this one. Despite her extensive research, she explained that there was “a ton of information to process” in just the exposition of the movie. She also said that everything “seemed rushed” and wished “they had slowed it down.”

Aislinn Choo (9) also had some strong opinions on the movie. “The movie was just meh,” she commented, “I don’t feel very satisfied by it.” Choo thought many characters were pushed aside in favor of a rushed plot and twist that she felt to be “messy.”

Though both viewers had negative initial feelings, they each decided to look at the positives rather than harp on the negatives. “God bless John Williams,” Choo exclaimed, who felt the music brought the movie together, especially with the recurrence of familiar themes like “Duel of Fates” and “Battle of Heroes.”

Bratton praised the “Ben-Rey combo” and said, “Their arc was fantastic. So much could be said about it.” However, she “[wishes] they had more time.”

Though the series is ending, Star Wars has plans for the future, in what they are calling Phase Two, which will include new movies, television shows, comics, books and more.
However, Choo reminds us that “‘[The] Clone Wars’ is the best piece of Star Wars media, other than ‘Lego Star Wars’, and that’s the tea.”