Some Colin Trevorrow exited the project in late 2017. Abrams then had to finish the movie in even less time than he'd had with Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

While the circumstances are understandable, it doesn't change that Star Wars timeline and a lack of basic storytelling logic, The Rise of Skywalker's lightning-fast pace isn't enough to cover up its glaring issues. Analyzing the movie's 15 biggest mistakes only reveals more elements that make no sense.

15 Palpatine Broadcasting His Plan To The Entire Galaxy

And he's supposed to be a master strategist

Bringing Emperor Palpatine back at all, especially at the last minute, was already a questionable idea. This becomes immediately apparent in The Rise of Skywalker's opening crawl, which reveals that he sent out a threatening message to the galaxy that the audience doesn't get to hear (except in the Star Wars crossover with Fortnite). It makes no sense for Palpatine to give the heroes a heads-up when he has the element of surprise.

If Palpatine had stayed quiet, he could have just launched the Final Order fleet and easily taken control of the galaxy. General Hux may still have leaked the information to the Resistance, but they would have had a harder time rallying a fleet if Palpatine hadn't threatened the whole galaxy. Starting the movie this way makes Palpatine look like an incompetent villain, which the rest of the movie reinforces.

14 Transferring A Message By Cable

There are more efficient ways to information

In classic Star Wars fashion, the heroes receive vital information that could turn the tide against the First Order. Unlike previous Star Wars movies, Boolio transfers the message to R2-D2 by cable, which takes time and gives First Order TIE fighters a chance to catch up with the Millennium Falcon. This is a major technological downgrade from simply putting the information on a datacard like in A New Hope.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story also had a scene where it took time and effort to transfer the Death Star plans, but that was because the files were large. Boolio only refers to his information as a message and subsequent scenes never imply that he ed schematics or anything else that would require using a cable. It feels like the scene was only done this way to add extra tension even though it didn't make any sense.

13 Lightspeed Skipping

Apparently there is such a thing as luck

Poe Dameron uses lightspeed skipping to escape from the First Order TIE fighters, allowing him to make several quick hyperspace jumps. On the one hand, it does make sense that the Resistance would need to develop new, risky maneuvers because of the First Order's hyperspace tracking technology from Star Wars: The Last Jedi. On the other hand, Poe had to be extremely lucky to pull this off without getting his crew killed.

It's also implied that this isn't a new technique and that Poe learned it when he was a spice runner. However, fellow former spice runner Han Solo said in the first Star Wars movie that lightspeed calculations needed to be precise because there was too great a risk of crashing into something. If the man who never wants to know the odds says it's too dangerous, then lightspeed skipping shouldn't be this easy.

12 "Somehow Palpatine Returned"

With little to no explanation

The only thing worse than bringing Palpatine back at the last minute is doing so with little to no explanation, topped off with the now infamous yet hilarious line "Somehow Palpatine returned." If the writers wanted to bring back a dead character and make him the true mastermind behind the events of the sequel trilogy, they needed a good explanation. Sadly, the most we get is "Dark science. Cloning. Secrets only the Sith knew."

Even this one line makes no sense, as there's no way the Sith are the only ones who know about dark science and cloning. The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson contains more details about how Palpatine cheated death, but viewers shouldn't have to turn to books for information that should have been in the movie. It's also a missed opportunity to expand Palpatine's talk of achieving immortality in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

11 Replacing General Hux With Allegiant General Pryde

An unnecessary last-minute replacement

Richard E. Grant's performance as Allegiant General Pryde was ittedly a highlight of The Rise of Skywalker, but his character is ultimately unnecessary. General Hux was presented as the leader of the First Order armies, only to be pushed to the background in favor of a new general that had to be established in an already bloated film. Just because The Last Jedi turned Hux into a joke didn't mean The Rise of Skywalker had to double down.

Hux could easily have switched places with Pryde, and making him Palpatine's servant would have made more sense. Hux's father, Commandant Brendol Hux, served Palpatine during the reign of the Empire and was a founding member of the First Order. This would give new context to Hux telling Finn that he needed Kylo Ren to lose and possibly explain some of his questionable choices in The Last Jedi.

10 Pasaana Should Have Been Jakku

Yet another desert planet

The planet Jakku received criticism when The Force Awakens came out for being an unnecessary clone of Tatooine, and Abrams made the same mistake in The Rise of Skywalker. The heroes travel to Pasaana, another desert planet, to find vital information for locating Exegol. However, since Ochi of Bestoon knew Rey was on Jakku anyway, adding Pasaana was unnecessary.

The film could have revealed that Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian chased Ochi to Jakku but lost him in the sinking fields, the same ones Rey warned BB-8 to avoid in The Force Awakens. If Lor San Tekka was with them, this would explain why he was hiding on Jakku, and Luke would give him a map to where he was going. If Pasaana really had to be another planet, then at least make it something besides another desert.

9 "They Fly Now?"

Jetpacks have always existed in Star Wars

As the heroes flee the First Order on Pasaana, they are shocked to see the stormtroopers using jetpacks, comically shouting "They fly now!" This shouldn't be confusing for Finn, as the Republic clone troopers and Imperial stormtroopers had jetpack variants, so why would it be different for the First Order? Even if they had never seen a flying First Order stormtrooper, jetpacks aren't unheard of in Star Wars.

8 So Many Powerful Moments Are Undercut

Sometimes in the same scene

Amidst the overstuffed plot and fast pacing, The Rise of Skywalker has powerful emotional moments, but most of them are ruined in later scenes. One of the most glaring is Chewbacca's "death," where Rey seemingly kills an iconic Star Wars character, only to reveal five minutes later that he survived. C-3PO also sacrifices his memories to complete their mission, but R2-D2 restores them before the third act.

The Rise of Skywalker also has too much comedy that often undercuts what should be serious moments.

Even the most devastating moment in the movie is undercut when Rey dies but is immediately revived by Ben Solo. While this leads to a happy moment where they share a kiss, the scene turns tragic again with Ben's sudden death. If The Rise of Skywalker didn't want to commit to these emotional moments, then the plot should have been simplified by cutting them out.

7 Poe Was A Spice Runner Before He ed The Resistance

Contradicting the movies and books

The Rise of Skywalker finally revealed something about Poe's backstory, but in doing so, it created a continuity error. The Star Wars books established that Poe was a member of the New Republic navy before Leia recruited him into the Resistance. The Last Jedi reflects this by having Poe identify himself to the First Order as "Commander Poe Dameron of the Republic fleet."

Unfortunately, The Rise of Skywalker contradicted this by revealing that Poe was a spice runner before he left to the Resistance. Star Wars: Poe Dameron - Free Fall by Alex Segura attempted to reconcile Poe's conflicting backstory with mixed results, but this shouldn't have needed fixing. Even if Poe being a spice runner wasn't an error, it feels redundant for the movie to copy and paste Han Solo's backstory onto Poe.

6 The Blade Points To The Right Spot On The Death Star Ruins

Convenient yet highly improbable

When the heroes arrive in the Endor system, they discover that aligning the dagger with the Death Star ruins points to the Wayfinder's location. The fact that so much of the Death Star survived the explosion in Return of the Jedi and landed somewhere besides Endor is already hard to believe, but even more confusing is how the blade alignment could still be accurate. Fragile ruins sitting in an ocean should have moved, collapsed, or been eroded by now.

Even if the ruins have remained intact, why would Palpatine or his servants create this clue in the first place? Why risk such a valuable artifact being destroyed if the structure caved in or allow someone not loyal to the Sith to find it? This may be the most ridiculous part of the entire movie, which is saying something considering the things that happen later.