My first experience with Star Wars was the second chronological movie in the series, “Star Wars: Episode 2 – Attack of The Clones.” I was a very young child when I first watched it. I was charmed by the interesting and cool stories that were told by George Lucas. So when I saw the trailer for a new Star Wars trilogy directed by J.J. Abrams, I was so excited for it I counted down the days until the release of the movie. Now with the latest Star Wars movie “The Rise of Skywalker,” comes with the end of the Star Wars series.

     The first movie of The Sequel Trilogy is the seventh movie in the series, “The Force Awakens.” This is the first Star Wars movie that I watched during release. “The Force Awakens” takes place thirty years after “The Return of The Jedi” with a new cast of characters and some old ones to reprise their old roles. It’s about Rey, a force-sensitive scavenger played by Daisy Ridley and Finn, a defected StormTrooper played by John Boyega to work together with an old Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford, and the resistance to take down the First Order. Their main goal is to destroy the planet-destroying base appropriately named the Starkiller Base. The First Order is also ruled by a new emperor called Snoke and his Sith apprentice Kylo Ren, who is eventually revealed as Han Solo and Princess Leia’s son, Ben Solo. This movie shows a strong female protagonist and for the first time the face of a Stormtrooper. This is to show the humanity of the Stormtroopers unlike the previous movies which showed them as ruthless, brainwashed soldiers who have no characteristic but following orders given to them. The movie showed a promising future for the Star Wars series to come.

     Then came the second movie in the Sequel trilogy, “The Last Jedi.” This movie was an utter disappointment, a giant mess. The plot of the movie was generic, boring, and just full of missed opportunities that would’ve made the movie so much better. The characters in this movie made such questionable choices as if they weren’t even trying to win. This is especially apparent with Laura Dern’s Vice Admiral Holdo, who was put in charge temporarily after Leia was injured. She claims to have “no plans” for what to do next only until the main characters call for a mutiny then reveals that this was “part” of her plan? That’s just ridiculous. Not to mention the infamous throne room fight scene, where the Praetorian Guards were just spinning around and acting like they got hit even though they obviously didn’t; overall that whole scene just didn’t look so great. 

     The final movie in the Trilogy is “The Rise of Skywalker.” After the disappointing “The Last Jedi,” Disney released “Solo: A Star Wars Story” which didn’t do so great either, but better than The Last Jedi with a 70% on Rotten Tomato from critics and a 63% by fans. After two bad movies in a row, I was afraid that the final movie of the Star Wars series would be another flop. To my surprise, it wasn’t too bad. Yes, there were some questionable things in the movie, like letting Kylo kiss Rey at the near end of the movie, but most of them were tiny details that can be easily looked over. What made me especially upset about this movie is the fact that they brought back Palpatine who somehow lived after getting thrown off of the Death Star.  This took away the win from Luke Skywalker and the redeemed Darth Vader. Overall the movie was pretty enjoyable and tied up some loose ends.

     The Sequel Trilogy’s visual effects and music are astounding. The visual effects look really great, bringing the vast universe to life. The music accompanies the tone of the story and really brings out a grand feeling that represents how Star Wars is. While the quality of the story gradually goes down over the three movies, I really recommend watching them. I give the Sequel Trilogy a 6/10.