J.J. Abrams is now the only director other than George Lucas himself to have directed
more than one Star Wars film.
Abrams’s first entry in the franchise, The Force Awakens, was criticized for being a
stealth remake of the original Star Wars — a fair point, though I enjoyed that film quite
a bit.
And, if Abrams has committed the same offense with The Rise of Skywalker — and he has
— at least this time he’s a little more candid about it: a crucial scene in Rise of
Skywalker features one of our heroes literally climbing through the wreckage of a pivotal
setting from an earlier film.
It’s hard to get more on-the-nose than that short of one character turning to another
and saying, “This is a lot like Return of the Jedi, ya know?”
The Rise of Skywalker is a lot like Return of the Jedi.
But sitting in the theater, I realized something peculiar about its relationship to that earlier
film.
I recently rewatched Return of the Jedi so that Jason and I could review it on our podcast,
Late Seating, and I decided that it worked much better when taken as an episode of a
series than as a standalone film.
Rise of Skywalker, on the other hand, despite how closely tied its story is to earlier episodes
of both this recent sequel trilogy and the three original Star Wars films, works much
better when judged apart from the saga it is intended to conclude.
I say that for a few reasons, some more personal than others.
The biggest reason is that Rise of Skywalker either ignores or, in some cases, out-and-out
retcons previous episodes in the series.
Characters who seemed to have been killed off rather definitively are back, their returns
handwaved with a line or two of dialogue; direct, unambiguous — and thematically significant
— statements about the backgrounds of certain characters are written over — turns out
they were only true from a certain point of view, I guess.
Ongoing character arcs are either ignored or resolved in the most obvious way possible.
Actually, pretty much everything Rise of Skywalker resolves is resolved in the most obvious way
possible.
That’s as close to a spoiler as I’m going to get in this review, but really, it’s
the only piece of information you need to spoil the entire movie — broadly speaking,
at least.
Even the significance of the film’s title, the subject of much spirited speculation since
it was announced back in April, is easy to guess before seeing the film if you just try
to imagine the least imaginative meaning it could have.
On a more personal level, the decision to plot a course along the path of least resistance
for this final film of the Skywalker saga is annoying because it disregards some of
the most challenging and satisfying parts of its immediate predecessor, The Last Jedi,
which I found to be far and away the best film in the entire franchise other than The
Empire Strikes Back.
Some critics have characterized Rise of Skywalker as a rebuke of Last Jedi, or even an apology
to those in the fanbase who were unhappy with it.
I wouldn’t go that far.
It picks up on several of the threads left dangling at the end of the last film, and
carries forward some of its more important themes, particularly the struggling Rebellion/Resistance
clinging to its ever-diminishing hope of survival as it faces a seemingly insurmountable enemy
force.
Then again, isn’t that every Star Wars movie?
The Rise of Skywalker’s most disappointing departure from The Last Jedi is in its re-narrowing
of the scope of what Star Wars is.
Last Jedi’s dominant theme was one of inclusivity.
The Force belonged to everyone.
And that film ended with the stirring and — for this franchise, anyway — provocative
suggestion that the salvation of the Resistance would come not from someone related to the
saga’s central dynasty, but from ordinary people who carry the spirit of the Rebellion
with them in their everyday lives and, given the opportunity, are just as capable of being
heroes as those people on the Millennium Falcon.
Well, never mind about all that.
Sure, “some things are stronger than blood,” as someone says at some point, but in this
context that just means if you were born into one powerful family, you can choose to side
with another powerful family, if you want.
And the peasants, sure, they can help in the fight, but it’s what the people with important
parents and grandparents do that really matters.
Of course, I can’t be too hard on The Rise of Skywalker, because it’s only doing what
every other Star Wars film, aside from The Last Jedi, has done.
Remember, Luke Skywalker was just a farm boy who ran off to join the Rebellion, until it
turned out he carried the blood of the Chosen One.
It would be nice if J.J. Abrams and the others who made Rise of Skywalker had found a way
of concluding this series other than having it repeat itself, but when I think about it,
that’s just me wishing for Star Wars to be something it’s not.
Because the truth is, as much as I love it — well, most of it — Star Wars has been
repeating itself for decades.
Let’s not forget the plot of Return of the Jedi was basically “We have to blow up the
Death Star — again!”
Even my beloved Last Jedi recycles quite a few beats from earlier films, particularly
Empire Strikes Back, though I would argue it at least lends them a more creative twist
than Rise of Skywalker gives to its refurbished components.
But enough about the bad stuff.
Because, believe it or not, even though I’ve been pretty hard on it so far, I actually
wound up liking The Rise of Skywalker.
Yes, the way it tosses some of the more interesting developments of its predecessor out the window
disappointed me.
Yes, it annoys me how it wraps things up in a very obvious and predictable way.
And yes, it’s about half an hour too long, the villain and major threat feel conjured
from out of thin air, and the obstacles our heroes face seem designed more to extend the
running time and provide opportunities for crowd-pleasing callbacks and cameos than to
tell the story and develop the characters in the best way possible.
But despite all of that, I’ve gotta tell you, by the end, this movie had me.
I might not have liked the direction certain characters went, but I cared about what happened
to them.
I was emotionally invested.
I even choked up a couple of times — and I’m all man!
Here’s the thing: J.J. Abrams has his detractors, but I’m not one of them.
I think the lens flares are pretty!
He’s not my favorite director, he’s not the most artistically ambitious filmmaker,
he’s far more interested in teasing and pleasing his audience than in challenging
them, but he is as good at what he does as anybody who is doing it at the moment.
He’s a fantastic action director — Rise of Skywalker has some really terrific action
scenes.
He might not be all that ambitious when it comes to story and character, but he knows
where to put his camera, where and when to move it, when to push in close and when to
pull back and let the emotion of a scene come to us.
Abrams is also a good director of actors, and that serves this film particularly well.
Rise of Skywalker benefits tremendously from its performances.
Perhaps more than any other Star Wars film to date, this one leans on the charisma and
likability of its central trio, and Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac carry
the load and make it look easy.
Of the three, Rey is the only one to have much of an arc in this one — Finn and Poe
are mostly just along for the ride — but everybody gets moments to shine.
And most importantly, the friendship shared by the three of them continues to feel genuine
and important.
It’s the heart of this film, and of this entire sequel trilogy.
Other than Rey, the only major character allowed to significantly develop this time around
is Kylo Ren.
His character arc is as predictable as most of the rest of the film, which is too bad,
but Adam Driver brings him to life and makes him a tortured, tragic villain who is compelling
in spite of how unimaginatively he’s used in this story.
Of all the stars of the sequel trilogy, Driver might just be the MVP.
Thanks to him, Kylo Ren emerges as the most interesting villain of the entire Star Wars
franchise.
He’s not as iconic as Vader, not as cartoonishly entertaining as the Emperor, but he has more
depth and complexity than both of them put together.
Rise of Skywalker is packed with appearances from fan favorite characters from previous
films.
Some of these are basically cameos, some are more substantial supporting roles.
One is a cameo that should have been a substantial supporting role — I love you, Rose!
You were my favorite character in the last one!
We’ll always have Canto Bight.
Lando was in the trailer, so I’m not spoiling anything by telling you he’s in it.
It’s good to see him again, and he has a nice moment where he reminds the new kids
that his generation won their war by sticking together.
There are other appearances by veterans of the original trilogy — some you would expect,
some that might be a surprise, some that you might miss if you blink at the wrong time.
The OT veteran whose appearance was the subject of the most speculation was, of course, Carrie
Fisher, who died in 2016.
Her presence in this film comes in the form of unused footage originally shot for The
Force Awakens.
Her role is limited, as one would expect, but still important, and her integration into
this story is about as seamless as something like this could be.
Kudos to J.J. Abrams and his creative team for pulling it off and not allowing it to
come across as creepy and uncanny, like, say, CGI Leia at the end of Rogue One.
In fact, kudos to J.J. Abrams and his creative team for pulling this whole thing off.
Do I wish they’d been more adventurous when crafting this story?
Yes.
Do I wish they had ambitions beyond fan service, homage to previous films in the franchise,
and resolving the story in the safest way possible?
Yes.
I really do.
But what they did, they did well.
And for as much as I lament what might have been, I will always appreciate a big, crowd-pleasing
blockbuster with a climax that features ordinary people rising up to do battle against a tyrannical
fascist regime.
That’s an example that we should all take to heart and be willing to follow, especially
at this moment in history, and most especially with an election coming up here in the United
States next year.
There are more of us than there are of them.
It’s a good Star Wars.
It’s not a great Star Wars.
It’s not the thrilling and inventive deconstruction/reconstruction that The Last Jedi was.
But it’s not a bad Star Wars, either.
It’s a well made, well acted, entertaining popcorn movie, and as an ending to its trilogy
and the trilogy of trilogies that forms the spine of the Star Wars franchise, it’ll
do.
If you liked it more than I did, great.
I’m happy for you.
If you didn’t like it as much as I did, that’s fine, too, because whichever Star
Wars movies you did like are still there, and you can watch them whenever you want.
Because Star Wars, like the Force, belongs to everyone.
And it will be with us.
Always.