Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
(2019): Written by J. J. Abrams and Chris Terrio, directed by J.
J. Abrams. Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac,
Adam Driver, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fischer, Anthony Daniels, Kelly
Marie Tran, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong'o, Richard E. Grant, Naomi
Ackie, Billy Dee Williams, and Ian McDiarmid. Running Time:
142 minutes.
Rating: 2/4
The spoilers are with me. Always.
I suppose it figures. I first
expressed my doubts that J. J. Abrams could really handle the scope
of something like a Star Wars trilogy way back after the garbage fire
that was Star Trek Into Darkness, but after The Force Awakens proved far better than I'd expected, those doubts
were largely quited. What remained of them was then blasted out the
Death Star trash compactor by The Last Jedi, easily the most emotionally challenging
film in the entire Star Wars canon. I specifically wrote in my
review at the time that the Star Wars franchise now felt freer from
all previous baggage than ever before, truly able to break out and
give us something really new.
Sadly, the contingent of emotionally
dead man-boys determined to make us regret ever inventing the word
"fandom" have been relentless in trying to drag Rian
Johnson's name through the muck ever since, and at least part of
their whinging clearly reached the ears of Abrams, ever one to try to
please. The end result, a movie that (rather unfairly) carries the
expectation of wholly tying together and resolving an entire
generations' worth of storytelling around the Skywalker family tries
so, so very hard to please everyone, but while parts of the film do
soar with the best Star Wars has to offer, it makes several very
clunky missteps that will, over time, only diminish its standing.
With the Resistance still on the run
and trying to regroup and the First Order reestablishing the Empire,
a surprise broadcast in the voice of the supposedly-dead Emperor
Palpatine (we'll get to that plot point, don't worry) sends both
sides scrambling to find a way to locate the legendary homeworld of
the Sith. Kylo Ren gets there first, discovering that the Emperor is
indeed, somehow, still alive (unless it's a clone we're seeing, ala
the old Extended Universe, but that's beside the point). He's been
rebuilding a fleet equipped with planet-destroying weapons swiped
from Death Star technology, and offers it and his powers to Ren in
exchange for him finally tracking down and either killing or
"turning" Rey. This comes with another major story reveal
about Rey's parentage, which, yes, we'll get to that too.
Rey, meanwhile, is being trained by
Leia to hone her powers at the rebels' new base of operations. The
reveal that Leia actually did train as a Jedi, but willingly gave up
her lightsaber after deciding it wasn't her true path, is something I
found rather fitting for her character, and an acceptable answer to
my gripe from TFA about Leia seemingly having done nothing with her
Skywalker lineage in the intervening decades. According to Abrams,
the way they worked what remaining footage of Leia had into this
movie allowed them to mostly match the story they had planned for her
anyway, and this is one aspect of the film that is amazingly
well-done. We know they had to cheat a bit to keep Leia alive, but
it works remarkably well, and allows her character an exit that fits
far better than simply having her die between films or CGI-ing her in
would have. Your mileage may vary, but for my money, this is as
fitting a farewell to our Princess as I can imagine.
When word reaches the Rebellion that,
not only is Palpatine indeed still kicking, but also threatens the
galaxy with more destructive technology, Rey, Finn, and Poe, plus
Chewbacca, BB-8, and C-3P0 set out to find a special piece of Sith
tech that should allow them to find the Sith homeworld. This puts
them on a collision course with Ren, once again seeing out Rey with
the help of the strange bond they seem to share through the Force, as
well as a time crunch to assemble allies and ships before the new
Sith fleet can set off to wreak havoc on the galaxy.
The film is long and packed with
action and exposition, but for the most part it flows fairly well.
Abrams is a solid filmmaker and knows how to provide spectacle while
still pacing things at a comfortable clip. Even his usual lens flare
isn't nearly as irritating, though it IS there. John Williams' score
is wondrous, as always. His music has remained the unassaibly
masterful part of every single film in this franchise, a level of
crowning artistic achievement on par with Howard Shore's LOTR score,
or the entire discography of Joe Hisaishi. I think it would be only
fair to see him take home one more Oscar for this one as a mirror to
the one he took home for A New Hope, oh so many years ago.
The cast also continues to do wonders;
Ridley, Boyega, and Isaac have had as wonderful and refreshing a
chemistry between them as any, and their mutual scenes will be among
the moments from this new trilogy that will always stand out in my
mind. Adam Driver has thoroughly established himself as one of the
best young actors in the business today, having proven able to take
the raw, online-troll matter of Kylo Ren and make him one of the most
interesting and memorable villains in the Star Wars canon. And,
while his presence in this film is problematic on so, so many levels,
there are good reasons why Ian McDiarmid's sneering and endlessly
hateful Palpatine has become so indelibly iconic.
Kelly Marie Tran is excellent as well,
but here we cross into the troubling parts of the film, nearly all of
which have to do with storytelling and narrative decisions. Tran has
gone on record about being bullied off social media after The Last
Jedi by the usual Gamergate/Pepe the Frog suspects, and their
insufferable whining is the only reason I can think of why Rose is
given such short shrift in this film. She's there and present, but
very clearly shunted off to the side, having no part in the various
"quests" in the film's middle act. Even more depressing,
her potential romance with Finn, which provided The Last Jedi
with one of its most potent scenes, has been seemingly erased
entirely. As much as I found plenty to like in this film, the
erasure of Rose as someone of emotional consequence to the other main
characters strikes me as nothing less than an act of deep cowardice.
This could, perhaps, have been
salvaged if the final film had fulfilled the very real promise of
Finn and Poe coming out as bisexual and ending up together, something
that Oscar Isaac appears to have endlessly teased as something he was
very much ready for. Here, too, that is punted away, with both
getting new female side characters as potential past and/or future
love interests as a way for the film to canonically insist that,
"NOPE, no queerness here, carry on!" Again, cowardice,
plain and simple.
And with that, let's talk about
Palpatine and Rey's parentage, the two greatest signs that, for all
Rian Johnson's efforts, the powers-that-be in charge of Star Wars
simply can't bring themselves to actually let the past die so that
something new can take its place. I can think of many scenarios
where an appearance in some form of Palpatine, as another spectre of
the past rearing its head, could have thematically worked in this
film as a way for Rey and the Resistance to truly end the Empire once
and for all. But one where he had seemingly gained literal
immortality and SOMEHOW survived being tossed down an air shaft in a
space station about to get blown to smithereens- the sort of
DBZ-esque erasure of Death that just about never works- was not one
of them. It simply stretches the imagination beyond all reason,
especially since Kyle Ren would have functioned well enough as a
final villain for Rey to overcome.
Rey's parentage might be the bigger
betrayal of this trilogy's potential, though. Here, too, The Last
Jedi had done the series a great service by being willing to toss
out any lingering fan theories about Rey being a descendant of Luke,
or Obi-Wan, or whoever, because the real power of both that film and
the Star Wars universe in general was its promise that greatness can
come from anywhere. That simple, final scene of a cleaning boy with
Force powers, gazing at the stars and dreaming of more, is precisely
the sort of thing that gave Star Wars its magic in the first place,
the narrative importance of the Skywalkers notwithstanding.
But of course, Abrams and his mystery
box just couldn't let that be. Instead, we get a tired and drawn-out
reveal about Rey being the direct granddaughter of Palpatine himself,
which, no. I won't bother trying to list the ways that makes zero
storytelling sense, because I respect both myself and my readers far
too much to subject us all to that. Rey is a wonderful character,
and the nature of the Force allows for plenty of conflict between
Light and Dark without having to tie blood lineage into it. The
Force truly is universal, and not the prerogative of a few families.
To reduce her to just another ancestral figure, both with the reveal
of her parentage as well as her symbolically adopting the Skywalker
name at the end of the film, reduces her weight and imact as a person
who can offer a new, different future to her world.
This is all so frustrating because, in
spite of it all, there are still plenty of grand, magical moments in
this movie. All the Star Wars films, even the bad ones, have bits in
them with that spark, and there is plenty of that here. Rey
connecting with all the past Jedi, their voices ringing out as she
gazes through light-years' worth of stars, culminating in it being
Luke's voice saying that the Force will be with her, always, is an
incredibly powerful sequence, as is her final visit to Luke's old
home and her gaze into the dual sunset, BB-8 at her side. Even Kyle
Ren's brief "turn" back to being good, though that too had
its flaws, was salvaged by him at least having to sacrifice his life
to ensure Rey's survival (I swear, Kylo Ren living happily ever after
would have been the one unforgiveable sin, had this movie gone
there). The final ship battle has a size and scale to it that I
marvel at.
This is not one of the worst Star Wars
films, but it had a clear path to being one of the great ones, and in
several key ways deliberately chooses to not take that path. In a
way, I find that more frustrating than the bonkers, but often still
admirable, ways that Lucas' prequel trilogy fell on their faces,
because there was at least a clear vision being followed that didn't
care what I thought about it.
Star Wars is so many things to so many
people. I don't like everything about this new trilogy, but this is
a universe big enough for us all. I have the Star Wars stuff that I
love, and I choose to remember and focus on that. That includes The
Last Jedi, but only time will tell if I can make my peace with
The Rise of Skywalker.
-Noah Franc
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