So this is going to be my first WordPress post. How typical.
So a few days ago as of this inaugural post, I saw The Rise of Skywalker on opening night; full theater if you didn’t count the first two rows. Of course, I heard some reviews from the critics I trust (none of them either particularly good or absolutely terrible). And as one does in a movie theater presumably, I watched it.
There were things that I liked, things that I didn’t, and things I couldn’t help but shake my head at. Coming out of the theatre, I was euphoric, and slowly came down to a depressive state. What did I just watch? Was it as good as I thought it was? Was it as bad as I thought it was? Is there a middle ground somewhere?
I don’t think I have ever been more conflicted about a film in my life. Granted I haven’t watched as many films as you may think (working on it), but this…this stuck with me in the wrong ways. Or did it?
So, the purpose of this writing is to sort through these thoughts and see where on the spectrum I fall into. Unfortunately, I have to talk spoilers because there’s just now way I can navigate this space without getting deep into it, so this is your warning.
And just in case this is a legitimate problem for you: I thoroughly enjoyed The Last Jedi. If that bothers you, you can safely click away. You can’t hurt me.
Okay, let’s begin.
Just recently, I’ve realized that this internal conflict of mine really boils down to what I think as a fan, and what I think as a filmmaker-in-training. These two factions fighting for dominance within the confines of my skull have driven me between contentment and outrage. I have seriously lost sleep for the past five days trying to figure out a definitive verdict on this particular feature film. If you think that’s silly, don’t meet me in real life.
So what I’m going to do is examine both sides and the merit they have and see if I can come to a resolution, or at least you will, maybe.
What I think about The Rise of Skywalker as a filmmaker-in-training
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a 2019 film directed by JJ Abrams and stars everyone from the last two Skywalker movies and then some. The Rise of Skywalker is a case of taking back what someone else said even though what that last guy said was an interesting point that not everyone could agree on for various reasons; some valid and others very much invalid. In fact, this movie goes out of its own way to backpedal on the ideas that The Last Jedi presented in the name of preserving the legacy of the original Star Wars trilogy.
The ideas that writer and director Rian Johnson’s middle story gives question those values and tropes. Instead of Rey being a long lost Kenobi or hidden Skywalker, Solo, or Palpatine, she’s a nobody; sold at a young age for booze money and forced to raise herself. Instead of Poe being a heroic leader, he’s a cocky narcissist whose hate-filled decisions get people killed. Instead of Snoke being a puppet master grand villain, he’s a stepping stool for Kylo Ren to ascend into that role. Instead of having Luke Skywalker live up to his legend status, he’s a broken old man consumed by the loss of his nephew. And on and on and on it goes.
In this final installment in the Skywalker Saga, Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter, Palpatine was behind everything and survived being thrown down a large hole in an exploding battle station, there’s a fleet of planet-killing Star Destroyers that come out of nowhere like an RKO, and Ben Solo is redeemed with a kiss and dies. Sigh…
From a technical standpoint, this movie also moves at a frenetic pace due to its rapid cutting between shots and a lot of genuinely emotional moments become flat because the editing won’t let them breathe, and the dialogue feels borderline like something out of a fan fiction. The movie also uses a McGuffin and two sub-McGuffins to move the story along, but the story itself feels weak since it’s busy trying to undo the anti-traditional things that The Last Jedi introduced in every practical way to make something of it.
But back to backpedaling. Easily the most frustrating complaint I have against this film is how easily it could have committed the new direction the saga was on from the previous film. Why can’t Rey be a nobody? Why does her strength in the Force have to be explained through her lineage? Why can’t Kylo Ren/Ben Solo be the ultimate villain? Why do we need to bring back the Emperor? Why do we need a WHOLE FLEET of planet-killing Star Destroyers? Why do we need to come back to all these tropes when we have a brand new, compelling, and perfectly good idea in our laps?
I hate to play movie doctor, but instead of having three McGuffins as a reason to have your heroes go on an adventure, why not just have them go around recruiting systems to fight the First Order? That way, it’s more satisfying and earned when all the ships show up at the end instead of having Lando and Chewie fly the Falcon around off-screen at the last minute gathering everyone to fight. It would be consistent with The Last Jedi since no one responded to Leia’s call. Maybe they’ll respond to a Jedi that’s not related to the Skywalkers or Palpatine.
And if they wanted to keep the Emperor in the movie and have Kylo Ren as the main villain, have Kylo Ren find the Emperor’s flagship The Eclipse from old canon along with a sizable fleet of old Star Destroyers. Make Palpatine start out as a spirit within the ship that grants Kylo Ren access, but Palpatine just wants to be reincarnated and is letting Kylo Ren do what he wants as he waits for his moment to strike; whatever and whenever that may be.
Actually, that’s exactly what they did in the movie. I guess it could’ve been handled better, but…you know what; never mind. I don’t know.
Moving over to Leia: they did the best they could, but it’s obvious they used deleted scenes from The Force Awakens. The lines she says are noticeably re-contextualized to fit her into the movie. But if they weren’t going to recast her or use CGI for the duration of the film, this was the best case scenario for her, so I can’t really complain, but I thought I’d bring her up.
Okay, lightning round: Finn tells Rey that he has something he needs to tell her (he’s Force-sensitive) but never tells her, C-3PO’s memory is wiped and then restored twenty-five minutes later, Rey kills Chewie with Force lightning but she didn’t actually and nothing comes of it, Hux is a spy to sabotage Kylo Ren but is killed seconds after this reveal, Kelly Marie Tran has less than three minutes of screen time, and the end battle didn’t live up to the hype.
Heaven help me.
In the end, we got what we got: fan service to a fault. The Rise of Skywalker honors damn near every trope Star Wars created to the film’s detriment and the sequel trilogy’s. It sticks to the formula George Lucas invented from 1977 to 1983. And with the 86% Rotten Tomatoes audience approval rating and the $176 million haul on opening weekend, it proved it works. I’m afraid that Star Wars will become nothing more than a nostalgia act trying to capture its former glory by doing the exact same thing but newer and shinier.
As good as The Mandalorian is, it too is a nostalgia act; a project made for the hardcore fans evident by Baby Yoda. You cannot convince me that the show would be just as popular as it is now without Baby Yoda. Hell, I’m willing to bet that hardly anyone watches that show for the titular character. We’re getting an Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off series set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope starring the same guy who played him in the Prequel Trilogy. Am I the only one who sees past the glam?
Say what you want about The Last Jedi: at least did something new. At least it challenged the established law of Star Wars. It’s like Apple releasing a new phone every year and it’s the same phone than the last one except one new minor feature and it’s either bigger or smaller. If Star Wars becomes that, then blockbuster film-making is truly doomed outside of Marvel, because they apparently can do no wrong.
If nostalgia is your cup of tea, fine. But I beg you to truly and honestly ask yourself if you are capable of doing so: If you had your favorite meal every day for the rest of your life and it was made and tasted the exact same way every time with slightly more or less of a key ingredient, how long do you give yourself until you grow sick of it?
Me? I would want to burn my local McDonald’s to the ground after the first month.
What I think about The Rise of Skywalker as a fan of Star Wars
While The Rise of Skywalker is a flawed movie crammed with fan service and tradition, it’s still an enjoyable Star Wars movie for those exact reasons. As I said earlier, it honors the tropes of what came before. It’s comfort food, and there’s nothing wrong with that for now. These are troubling times and the last place anyone probably wants to be challenged in their thinking is a movie theater.
I won’t say it built off of what Rian Johnson created, because that would be a lie, honestly. It went out of its way to disagree with its predecessor, but I’m not mad as a fan. The Rise of Skywalker has everything people loved about Star Wars. Would it have been great if they grew a pair and went in the bold direction they could have easily gone in? Yes, absolutely. It spits in the face of the idea of being something fresh. But am I mad that they didn’t? No. To me, they could have done a lot worse.
Let’s go back to Rey. She was sold at a very young age for drinking money, was forced to raise herself and suddenly was swept up into the notorious Skywalker family drama against her will. Also, she has the ability to manipulate the Force and it’s treated as a mystery as to how. It’s then discovered just after she watches all her friends and allies being massacred, her parents were nobody special. Not Kenobis, not Skywalkers, not the Solos; they were just negligent alcoholics who didn’t give a damn about her. In The Rise of Skywalker, she’s the granddaughter of the most evil being to have ever existed, and she has to live with that. In the end, she defeats her grandfather and adopts the Skywalker name as her own.
Yeah. It actually took this movie to realize that Rey is my favorite character in Star Wars, and I don’t know why, but this doesn’t bother me to the extent that it should. I actually…like it? Or I don’t mind it.
Throughout this trilogy, Rey just gets wailed on physically and especially emotionally. Han’s death, her twisted relationship with Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, Luke’s refusal to teach her to be a Jedi, the disappointment of hearing her parents didn’t give a damn and were no one special, and finally realizing that her parents actually did care but were killed shortly after hiding her on Jakku because she is Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter; just…devastating for her.
And she gets up anyway. And in the confrontation with her grandfather, she’s broken. Her friends, once again, are being killed as she’s watching, Ben came back but was thrown down a hole, and she is about to become the vessel of the darkest soul in the galaxy. Perhaps it’s just destiny that this happens. But she reaches out to the Force one more time: “Be with me,” she says, harking back to the beginning of the film. This time more of a plea for help. For something. Anything.
And then she hears them; the voices of the Jedi that have come before. The Force is with her. It always was, even in the worst times. She never gave up. I’m sorry, but that is awesome to me. I nearly shed a tear in theater. I’m just going to say it again: Rey is my FAVORITE character is Star Wars. Yeah, her being a Palpatine makes her Luke Skywalker Version 2.0 with a different backstory, but I don’t care. I should, but I don’t. Sorry.
I wasn’t a subscriber to Ben Solo being redeemed, but when Leia died reaching out to him and he had that moment with his memory of Han, I was on board. Then the end happened. Could he have lived? Yeah, he should have. Avatar: The Last Airbender proved a villain’s redemption arc is possible and doable. But the story of the Skywalker family is deeply rooted in tragedy, so I was okay with him dying. He was at peace. Redeemed at last.
Poe Dameron got his ex-girlfriend Zorii Bliss back (she’s great and they’ve got some legit chemistry), and he actually got to lead the Resistance. He should have been the one to get everyone together, but I appreciate what was given. Finn is now Force-sensitive to the level that Leia was. It explains how he was able to hold his own against Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens. I didn’t need that, but hey; he’s not related to anyone, and WE HAD BETTER KEEP IT THAT WAY.
The action’s pretty good. Poe light-speed-skipping with the Falcon is fun although it did follow just a jarring Kuleshov-Effect montage between Rey and Kylo Ren. The lightsaber duel between Rey and Kylo Ren on the remains of the Death Star II was thrilling to me. The whole movie followed tropes, so I thought that someone was losing a hand here. Plus I honestly thought that the double turn was coming (Rey going dark and Ben returning to light).
“There are more of us.” That line gave me goosebumps. Still does. Zorii telling Poe not to give up and all the ships arriving just in time was just fun to watch. I’m such a sucker for this crap, and I think that’s the kind of fan I am in a nutshell.
I am a sucker for the same crap.
The Conclusion
So what does this all mean? It’s a complete wash of what The Last Jedi does practically, but to me, the themes still resonate: Lineage does not dictate destiny. It doesn’t matter if Rey is a nobody or Palpatine’s granddaughter: the point still stands. Rey could’ve (and should’ve) been the flag-bearer of “anyone can cook”, reinforcing Disney’s MO of being for everybody, but no matter how you spin it, you still come to the core theme of Star Wars: lineage does not dictate destiny.
I can’t ignore how this movie goes to extreme lengths to undo the steps taken into the unknown by its predecessor, but there is something inside me that is unable to hate Star Wars no matter what story it tells.
Listen; I don’t like the Prequel Trilogy. I have vowed to never watch Attack of the Clones ever again. It’s just a bad movie; one of the worst of the twenty-first century. But it did not make me hate Star Wars. I grew up while the Prequels were in prominence, but it was the Original Trilogy that stuck with me. The Force Awakens – with all the “mystery box” BS and the recycled plot from A New Hope – was still a return to the form everyone fell in love with in the first place. The Last Jedi was taking that form and evolving it into a new idea. It was disappointing on purpose; the franchise needs to swallow that pill someday. The Rise of Skywalker was a step back to where The Force Awakens was and it’s a bad move to make, but I have an unconditional love for Star Wars no matter how bad or same-old-crap it gets, and seeing this same story play out on the screen will always satisfy me. I’m the problem.
Yes, making Rey a Palpatine funnels Star Wars down to two families: Palpatine and Skywalker. But, the Skywalker Saga is over now. Star Wars does not have to be defined by what happened in this saga anymore. We can hopefully move on, with new characters and stories. The choices made in this saga no longer have to define what this franchise does from here on out.
Lineage does not dictate destiny.
My hope is that Disney and Lucasfilm understand this, and act on it going forward.
In conclusion, I think I’ve settled on a stance. Despite every trope in the book, and despite a better fresher idea on their lap, rapid-fire editing, a practical mass wipe of the previous film and fan service to the point of self-sabotage, I still enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker as a good traditional Star Wars film. I could not get mad at even the most frustrating moments where they said no to a new idea.
But the Skywalker Saga is over. The standard has been fulfilled along with the core themes. Let’s all move on now to newer and better things.
Thank you all so much for reading my thoughts! I’m sorry you felt compelled to, but nonetheless I’m grateful. I plan on writing more essays and reviews and such on here. And uh….yeah. Thanks! Later!
Maestro Movie Reviews & Essays 