Last weekend, I watched Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (RoS) for the first time. I know that it has a fairly poor rating, 52% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing, but I felt that it was, overall a much better story than its predecessor–The Last Jedi. I can’t (and won’t) go into too much territory in terms of spoilers (although I can’t be sure that what I discuss won’t give hints/clues to those the movie’s structure/plot, so you’ve been warned). I think–and will always think–that hiring Rian Johnson was a mistake because he’s not, at heart, a sci-fi writer. As you can see with Knives Out, he’s best when he’s being “clever.” Clever can mean a couple of different things here: 1) witty as Knives Out seems to be a satirical movie (based on the trailers) full of repartee between the characters and 2) provocateur, throwing things our/subverting expectations just because he can, something Last Jedi was filled with. Rise of Skywalker rights the ship, but is ultimately a decent movie, but is an unsatisfying end to a trilogy (and epic 9 film saga) because it has to spend so much time trying to undo the missteps of the previous two movies.
What I Liked
Action: The action of the first movie was back–thank goodness. Instead of action happening off screen in Last Jedi–Luke never getting to confront Kylo (or even Rey about what happened to her parents) was such a downer for me. Luke is (and was) the central character of the Skywalker saga that it was criminal for him to be dispatched in such a ignominious fashion in the previous movie. The action has returned in this one and while not nearly as thrilling as the original trilogy, there are some set pieces that were inventive and well-done. Action scenes, lightsaber battles, and space scenes seemed to be back to the level we expect from Star Wars films
(Some) of the Characterizations: These characters felt more like what we introduced to in The Force Awakens. While some things seemed notably off–the fact that Finn & Rey (first movie) were co-opted by Rey & Kylo storyline (the 2nd movie & fan-base with their “Reylo” fan-fic element)–comes to mind, the characters seemed to stay and be truer to their natures than in the previous movie.
Explanations: While seen as a “walk-back” by many reviewers, what Rise of Skywalker actually gives us is some answers (now I don’t always like those answers or the way they were delivered), but at least it wasn’t just thrown out there to flatly contradict what we were shown in The Force Awakens (“Rey, your parents were nothing special”).
What I Didn’t Like
The Need for “walkbacks”: You’ll notice I’m spending a lot of time talking about Rise of Skywalker in terms of what it did in comparison to Last Jedi. That’s intentional and it shouldn’t be necessary. In the Return of the Jedi, Lucas had already established the characters, deepened the plot, and made Luke’s conflict (destroy or redeem Vader) clear. In Rise, we are so busy explaining elements from the previous movie that made no sense, that the actual “trilogy” went out the window.
No Trilogy: related to the last point–this actually wasn’t a trilogy arc. It was movie 1, movie 1 again (Rian Johnson’s interpretation), movie 3. The “Reylo” storyline proves it. In the original trilogy, Han & Leia “spark” in movie one, their feelings are exposed in movie two, and they deepen in movie 3. In the Disney trilogy, Rey and Finn “spark” in movie one, “why do keep holding my hand?”, but in movie two (Rian Johnson interpretation), Rey and Kylo “spark” and Rose and Finn are supposed to “spark,” and in movie three Finn hints to Rey his feelings, but never says them outright and is in a “platonic” relationship that includes his best friend Poe Dameron (3 way hug) and Rey and Kylo expose their feelings for each other (“Ben”) in that “star-crossed” lovers way. Nothing in the trilogy pays off in the way that it should because movie two didn’t “deepen” anything in the way that a good second chapter of a trilogy should have and the “payoff” you would normally get from the third movie either isn’t there or is far below what it should have been.
Little Details: So many of the little details were off. Some of it was due to the untimely deaths of original trilogy cast members (or advancing ages). Obviously, Carrie Fisher’s heartbreaking and untimely death meant that the filmmakers had to incorporate scenes that were already shot into the narrative to give Leia’s character an appropriate sendoff, but even Chewbacca didn’t look like, sound like, or “run” like Chewbacca as it was different actor portraying him. C-3PO’s voice is higher than normal (again do to age of actor), and Artoo Detoo is hardly used. Some of it was due to the “walk backs” necessary. And some of it was due to the way Disney wants its SW movies to appeal to a new audience while trying to “pander” to the old audience as well. Disney is like look–here are the old droids you remember, but aren’t the new droids–BB-8 and the new droid they introduced just for Rise whose name I can’t even remember (it’s that forgettable as a droid) so cool because, hey, they’re new, and everyone likes new stuff, right, right? There are so many small issues that one only notices if the person is truly invested in the Star Wars world. For me, there are so many of them that it begins to seriously detract from the quality of the story and begins to make it seem more and more like a pale imitation of the original.
Overall Grade: B- (80)
I really think this is a stellar improvement of the last movie, but there are so many flaws in it because it can’t do what the 3rd movie in a trilogy should do, but must spend so much time trying to address the poor choices of the 2nd installment that it really weighs the film down for me.
While not a 52% (which would be a low, low F on a grading scale by the way), and yes I know that RT isn’t a grading scale, but a percentage of people who like/dislike the movie, but my point stands–this movie isn’t as bad as some would have you think as they would like to “punish” this movie and Disney with a low RT score–I still think that it is hamstrung by the fact that it has to essentially be a truncated 2nd act and then a partial resolution that has so many compromises that, while a fun and satisfying movie on its own, it can’t be a satisfying conclusion to a trilogy, let alone a 9 movie saga which is what is was purported to be.
Sidney
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