Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
The Rise of Skywalker is a bit like the final season of “Game of Thrones”: it restlessly tries to tie up all of its loose ends in its finale without allowing for the proper time for the story and character elements to sink in for the viewers. After eight prior movies with characters many have grown up cherishing, it’s a shame that their last hurrahs end up sidelined to go through a cavalcade of convoluted plot points to get each of these characters where they need to be at the end.
It didn’t need to be this way. There are a handful of characters introduced in the final chapter that did not need showcasing, from Keri Russell’s Zorii Bliss, Naomi Ackie’s Jannah, Richard E. Grant’s General Pryde, and a new cute droid named D-O. They seem to be here to sell toys or to establish spinoff possibilities. These characters get entirely too much screen time for a film that must put to rest a dozen different character arcs.
The Rise of Skywalker takes place some considerable time after the events of The Last Jedi. Rey has been in training with General Leia on how to be an elite Jedi. She ends up abruptly leaving so that she and her merry gang of Resistance fighters can hop around the galaxy. They’re looking for a Wayfinder crystal that is the key to finding the planet called Exogol, where the Siths reside, led by the return of Emperor Palpatine, who is somehow still alive. Obstacles abound, including First Order leader Kylo Ren. Ren is ostensibly seeking to help Palpatine return to power, trying to get his hands on the Wayfinder for himself, possibly to join forces with Palpatine to enact the Final Order to bring the galaxy to its knees.
J.J. Abrams did not intend to return to end the franchise. This third film slotted Colin Trevorrow as its director before the release of The Force Awakens. However, creative differences came into play once Trevorrow and writing partner turned in in their script for an uncredited polish by Jack Thorne, at which point creative differences emerged between the director and studio execs. A week after announcing Trevorrow would no longer be working on the picture, Disney announced the hiring of J.J. Abrams to end the trilogy he started in 2015, along with co-writer Chris Terrio.
Their screenplay feels like they’ve run through a checklist of all of the goods they feel obligated to deliver between the opening and closing credits. Questions find answers, characters get chances to do heroic things, and suitable endings doled out to one and all. Abrams also must fix the outside-the-bounds tinkering that series fans vehemently protested for The Last Jedi. Rian Johnson’s middle chapter tampered on the holy ground by giving Luke Skywalker an ending to his saga few cared to see.
Abrams has his hands full in concluding the trilogy he set up deftly in The Force Awakens because the middle entry killed off the biggest bad guy, while also killing off the heroic figure and mentor most fans had been clamoring to see. To fill the void of Snoke, Palpatine gets resurrected to fill the shoes. Leia would have to do mentor work for the greatest Jedi in the galaxy, with Luke being suddenly unavailable.
A two-hour relic-quest leading to a badass boss battle is a mechanical way to tell a story. If we didn’t already have an investment in these characters, it would likely conclude for many viewers without any emotional payoff. Blame the incendiary reaction to The Last Jedi for ruining any chances for an unexpected finale. Not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them, Disney knows that fans don’t want to see a corporation buy rights to their favorite properties only to have them subvert everything they grew up enjoying. As such, Abrams and Terrio aren’t trying to make a great film so much as to make one that few will go to social media expressing hatred toward for ruining their childhood.
Besides overplotting the story at a time when it should be winding down, there are individual moments where the film shines, just enough to make it a worthwhile entry for many fans. A cool space-chase begins the movie as we watch the Millennium Falcon engage in a chain of warp-jumps to try to elude some tenacious tie fighters in hot pursuit. A few of the lightsaber duels are well choreographed. They’re exciting to watch, though the overall stakes of each battle remain murky.
We finally get the answer as to who Rey is and her lineage. Daisy Ridley gives her best performance in the series. If emotions arise within this final entry, it’s because of her intensity in the role. It seems ironic that this quest to answer all of the questions leads to raising a few more. Finn seems to have something to tell Rey but lies unrevealed in the course of the on-screen story. More important issues, such as a real reason Palpatine still exists beyond just some black magic Sith stuff, arise. Do we assume he can ever be genuinely vanquished, or will he be brought out of mothballs whenever a Star Wars franchise is struggling to put in a formidable villain?
Despite the intention for Carrie Fisher to appear in all three films in the new trilogy arc, following her passing in December of 2016, Disney announced that The Last Jedi that it would be her last Star Wars appearance. Things changed when J.J. Abrams took over the direction and story development, announcing in 2018 that Fisher would make a significant supporting appearance in the final installment without a CG character by repurposing unused footage from The Force Awakens so that it makes sense in the latest chapter. In addition to Fisher, The Rise of Skywalker finally brings back Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian and ups the stakes on the final boss fight with Ian McDiarmid returning to the cowl and grimace of Emperor Palpatine.
Abrams’ The Force Awakens rode primarily on fan service, so it’s no surprise that he ends it with fan service, bringing back old friends and old enemies for one final curtain call before they bow off of the stage forever. In many ways, it’s too much of a good thing, cramming in more than one film’s worth of story to spin a yarn that gives us few moments to resonate. Unfortunately, tradition dictates that these sagas must be trilogies, and Disney, spending $4 billion for the property, must satisfy as many fans as possible from not abandoning their interest in new movies and merchandise that they want to sell. It’s a rather soul-sucking way of telling stories. Still, fans seem not to want it any other way, not letting filmmakers take any risks to tinker with established formulas or suffer ridicule at every turn in social media groups and internet forums. The only way to keep the franchise from dying is to preserve it in a perpetual state of adolescence.
The end of a saga should fill us with some sense of sadness, of closing the chapter to friends for the last time. Return of the Jedi is the lesser film in its trilogy but delivered the right feels for fans, who were assuming this would be thee characters’ last hurrahs. That sense of finality seems glossed over with The Rise of Skywalker, which trades in melancholy for perpetual exhilaration and distractions from letting such weight sink in. In this way, the film ceases to satisfy longtime fans, even if the results are satisfactory.
Qwipster’s rating: B-
MPAA Rated: PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action
Run time: 141 min.
Cast: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Joonas Suotamo, Billy Dee Williams, Naomi Ackie, Keri Russell, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Kelly Marie Tran
Small roles (live-action and voice): Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Greg Grunberg, Billie Lourd, Dominic Monaghan, J.J. Abrams, Warwick Davis, John Williams, Lin-Manuel Miranda, James Earl Jones, Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Olivia d’Abo, Ewan McGregor, Frank Oz, Freddie Prinze, Liam Neeson
Director: J.J. Abrams
Screenplay: J.J. Abrams, Chris Terrio
Interesting thoughts. I haven’t seen it yet, but I have some pre-watch thoughts. J.J. Abrams seems to have settled into being a pure fan-service director. Not the worst thing to be, but Star Trek Into Darkness, The Force Awakens and seemingly now this film appear to fit into the good but not great category, with few original ideas and nothing that really pushes the envelope in any way or takes the characters in new directions. A lot of Star Wars fans don’t seem to mind this, but some do, and as you’ve mentioned, eventually things will have to change or at least branch out a bit if the franchise is to survive long-term. Even something as mighty as Star Wars can fizzle without proper inspiration behind it. This is evident in the fact that Rise of Skywalker apparently did not live up to expectations box-office wise during opening weekend, though of course it’ll still make more than enough money anyway.
Now, if only I could convince you that The Last Jedi is The Dark Knight of this new trilogy and better than A New Hope Redux…
No doubt, Disney wanted Abrams back because they feared to risk alienating more fans by letting directors do what they want with the property. I’m not sure how I feel about that. George Lucas let Irvin Kirshner and Richard Marquand direct his follow-ups to Star Wars, but I’m sure the deal was that they were going to deliver the vision Lucas wanted and not their own. However, by the time Return of the Jedi rolled around, it was clear that Lucas was as interested in merchandising as he was storytelling, and the Ewoks resulted.
J.J. Abrams, no doubt, was brought back, not because he hit a home run with The Force Awakens, but because he was more interested in delivering what fans wanted, or what Disney thinks fans wanted, than in trying to put his stamp on things. I would criticize him for that, but I am confident that if George Lucas were the one calling the shots for the sequel trilogy, that’s also what would be delivered.
The financial realities are apparent these days. “Going to the movies” is not really what it used to be. Not with big-screen TVs and home theater systems that give you a great experience at less cost and no hassles of kids running up and down the aisles or annoying jerks who won’t put away their cell phones. The primary motivating factor to go to a movie theater rather than wait to see it in the home is to keep a film from getting spoiled, which is one big reason why Avengers: Endgame proved to be monumentally popular in the theaters. That and the fact that there was confidence that all of those heroes people love would be brought back. Had Disney actually killed them all, you can bet there would be a massive backlash.
The Last Jedi, I feel, is a good film, but to many, it’s not a good “Star Wars” film. While I would like to see Star Wars break out of its current cycle of only providing fan-service and Easter Egg hunts, I can’t say I’m immune to rejecting franchise films because they do something with the characters I dislike. Example: some of the films after Aliens in the “Alien” franchise are objectively good, but I hate, hate, hate what they did to the story. I no more want to see Ripley die, to follow a Ripley I know to be a clone or to see a rogue android to have been the one to create the Xenomorphs than some people want to see Luke Skywalker have had his entire happy ending after Return of the Jedi denied, or to stop looking to the past and forge your own destiny, which runs counter to the philosophy set by the original trilogy. It’s going to step on some toes, even if Rian Johnson was right that something has to break things out of the current rut. The past does need to get destroyed if people want them to grow. I guess you, if you’re a visionary filmmaker, have to convince the viewers that this is the way to go before doing it, or they will turn against you.
This is why I wrote the line, “The only way to keep the franchise from dying is to preserve it in a perpetual state of adolescence.” If we want to see new and original Star Wars films, we have to break the current cycle. Rian Johnson had the right idea, but to some people, he did it at the wrong time in the wrong way because they felt that he was breaking the cycle by breaking the original trilogy, which, to some, is off-limits. Some fans would say to do what you want in the Star Wars universe, but the sanctity of Luke Skywalker’s story arc needs to remain preserved. I still like The Last Jedi quite a bit, but after seeing Blade Runner 2049 (which I still can’t embrace because I don’t like what they did with the characters from the original film), I understood much better the distinction between making a good movie and making a good franchise movie. Sometimes it is hard to do both if you’re not the one setting the vision.