Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Spoiler Filled Review

And so, for now, the main Star Wars saga (the Skywalker Saga, if you will) has come to an end.  I've spent the past three weeks rewatching every film in the saga - and threw in Rogue One as well, just for completeness - in preparation for this film.  And as a huge fan of the old Star Wars EU canon - which these movies have replaced - well...it's hard to think of a film I should have been looking forward to more in my life.  And yet, it's also a film that I've dreaded for a bit, after JJ Abrams was announced to be taking over Episode 9 and inklings started to creep out that the movie would be reversing course on what Rian Johnson did with The Last Jedi.

For The Last Jedi was a fascinating Star Wars movie that tried to do some of the more interesting things ever done with the series, and ended in a way which suggested that the Good Guys would have to regroup after some years, with a new batch of supporting heroes, but that hope was still alive against a bad guy in Kylo Ren who felt more like a modern bad guy than anyone in prior Star Wars history (the MRA-like atmosphere Ren has posed for Eps 7-8 just has always felt appropriate).  JJ Abrams - whose work in other peoples' sandboxes (See Star Trek as well) has always relied upon focusing heavily on what came before instead of creating something new - is not a director I'd expect to carry forward what Johnson started.  And......he definitely did not. 

Note: this post will include spoilers.  So if you haven't seen the movie and want to remain unspoiled, stop reading NOW.  This is your only warning:



The Rise of Skywalker is a mess.  It features a lot of fun moments, some fun snappy dialogue, some great acting - the whole cast commits to it all and raises the level of the writing so much - and a phenomenal score (I take back all my complaints about the music in TFA).  It also features prequel-like writing, a billion plot set pieces that don't give us any time to breathe and take in the characters, and a plot that feels incredibly like Abrams wanted to ape Return of the Jedi this time around. 

And well that's not necessarily a bad thing - TFA worked despite being a rehash, and TLJ takes the Empire Strikes Back template and puts its own twist on it in interesting ways, even if it didn't all work.  But Abrams is way too obsessed with rehashing the original trilogy, to the point where he seemingly pretends The Last Jedi never happened, and it's a clear detriment.  Snoke's dead and Kylo Ren has no villain to turn against?  Here's Palpatine back again, despite no foreshadowing of such at all.  Rey's parents are nobodies?  Nah, she's Palpatine's granddaughter!  The Resistance has basically no forces left?  Oh here's a last minute fleet of ships from absolute nowhere to save the day.  Finn gets a new friend/possible romantic interest in Rose?  She's entirely sidelined.  Even choices that began in The Force Awakens are rejected seemingly for no reason: Kylo Ren in particular goes from being a villain who rejects the past and feels like a jealous and angry man at the idea that he can't get his way to....a stereotypical confused boy whose mother's dying force projection can change his mind? 

But honestly, the rejection of The Last Jedi and all it stands for is annoying, but hardly the biggest problem with the movie.  It's a problem for sure - the Emperor's return is never explained and makes no sense based upon the past few movies and the focus on the new Star Destroyers makes no sense given that after TLJ, the First Order STILL HAD an overpowering fleet and control of much of the galaxy, something that is completely ignored here.  But the biggest problem is an exacerbation of the problems of The Force Awakens - the movie features set piece after set piece, a large number of which don't make any sense based upon our previous understandings of the Star Wars universe*, and spends practically no time to breathe and develop the characters. 

*For example, the Hyperspace skipping thing makes no sense even based upon what we know of how hyperdrive works from JUST the films - where going through hyperspace means you can't be tracked per TLJ, except somehow TIE Fighters, which don't HAVE hyperdrives, can follow them perfectly?  Or how the Emperor apparently built a fleet of Star Destroyers with their own built in Death Star Superweapons without....anyone knowing?  It's like a Kevin J Anderson novel in how it pulls out greater and greater threats without any regards for logic and making sense - might as well have added the Sun Crusher in there.

Rey and Poe have had practically no interactions in the whole trilogy (Poe introduces himself to Rey at the END of the last movie), but now they're true companions.  Rey and Poe get into a fight quickly over Rey training while they're out there, and it's never brought up again.  Kylo Ren starts out the film supposedly searching for the Emperor to kill him to maintain his power as the head of the First Order, and immediately agrees to serve him in exchange for destroyers....and then turns to the light without any build up to same immediately as Leia sends some sort of force message to him and dies.  The actors play all of these scenes to the best of their ability, but the work done to justify these developments is never there - instead the movie rushes from set piece to set piece, introducing new people and characters constantly and then leaving them as soon as we've gotten to potentially know them.

 So we have Poe reconnecting sort of with an old flame and past in Keri Russell's Zori, for about 5 seconds, with her going from wanting possibly to kill him to giving him her pass to freedom in about 10 minutes without any explanation, and then she disappears until the climax.  You have Finn connecting with Naomi Ackie's Jannah, a former first order stormtrooper who defected as part of her unit he can obviously connect with....but that connection is cut short by Rey heading out on her own to the Death Star's remains.  Mind you, that scene even more shows how much this movie jams a billion things in: Rey takes a dangerous journey through a rough ocean to the Death Star, gets there seemingly with no problem, and then Finn makes the same journey ENTIRELY OFF SCREEN.  Whereas Return of the Jedi had two parts, this movie has like 7 or 8, and it never spends enough time with any of them for them to have any impact other than "sure, that's cool."  And that continues with the climax, where anyone who knows anything can tell that Rey isn't going to give in to Palpatine and that Ben is coming to save her (a different movie would've had her kill Palpatine and on her own assert her strength of will to remain herself, but this movie instead poses that Rey can't do it without Ben's help for some reason). 

All of this is fun and the action is great, and again the music is tremendous.  And the actors are really good.  But the only thing that separates this movie from the prequels is the acting being tremendous, as just like those movies, common sense and character development are thrown out in order seemingly to make sure the plot moves from action set piece to action set piece.  Explanations, character development - these have no place here.  Heck, a particularly notable instance of this is Finn trying to make a dying declaration to Rey early in the movie.....which never comes up again between the two characters.....ever.  Mind you, Rey and Finn haven't built up as a romantic couple in here or the books, so it's kind of unclear what he was going to say! (And then Rey kisses Ben before he dies because......Reylo is a ship people like?  I don't know). 

The Last Jedi tried to use slower moments to talk messages of hope, of freedom, of the power of courage and the limits of individuals as direct actors instead of leading groups.  Say what you want about those messages, or whether the subversions really belong in Star Wars, but it developed those themes and was an interesting movie as a result, one which made an impact.  The Rise of Skywalker is not likely to have an impact, other than being just a sign of the times and another Star Wars movie.  It's fun, but doesn't stand out.  And that's a shame.