9 Things Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Did Right

3. The Universally Great Performances

Snoke Interesting
Lucasfilm

The Rise of Skywalker is wonderfully-acted and while many of its positive qualities have been overlooked, at least this one has been acknowledged by reviewers.

The highlight is, yet again, the best performance in Star Wars history courtesy of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, but the entire cast does a tremendous job.

Daisy Ridley is, like always, wonderful as Rey and makes for an effortlessly likable, emotionally engaging heroine while John Boyega and Oscar Isaac offer great supporting performances despite their iffy character arcs in the film. Similarly, although their characters arguably should've been cut since there wasn't enough time to develop them, Naomi Ackie and Keri Russell do fine work as Jannah and Zorii respectively.

Meanwhile, Carrie Fisher, an un-credited Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Billy Dee Williams all give terrific and heartfelt performances in Rise, even if the latter two weren't in the movie enough, while Ian McDiarmid is fantastic as Palpatine and new cast member Richard E. Grant is delightfully evil as First Order General Pryde.

Contributor

Film Studies graduate, aspiring screenwriter and all-around nerd who, despite being a pretentious cinephile who loves art-house movies, also loves modern blockbusters and would rather watch superhero movies than classic Hollywood films. Once met Tommy Wiseau.