Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
When my mom and I first went to “Return of the Jedi” in 1983, I was five, and didn’t have any real concept of an era ending by the time Luke, Han, Leia and everyone else celebrated with Ewoks on the forest moon of Endor. Obviously I could tell the story was ending, but it was not yet a big, cultural event for me to see “the end” of a “Star Wars” trilogy.
When “Revenge of the Sith” closed out the prequels in 2005, I honestly did not expect to be writing about new “Star Wars” again, so I went all out in discussing that film, the prequels, and the six-film arc that showed the rise and fall, and redemption, of Anakin Skywalker. I don’t know that I would have gone through the trouble if I felt, 14 years later, I would be writing about the end of yet another trilogy of “Star Wars” films, this one following events post-“Return of the Jedi.” That said, I will always be proud of the effort I put into that review.
I had no preconceived notions of where I wanted the narrative of “The Rise of Skywalker” to end up. I was not invested in “Reylo,” or the Poe and Finn shipping, or any of the specific character dynamics/relationships heading in one direction or another, so long as they stuck a landing that, I thought, made the 9-film arc of the Skywalker Saga- which started with taxed trade routes and slave boys, and continued through betrayals of the Jedi, secret romances, and new hopes born in secret whom will redeem their father, then a new generation whom grew up hearing about the battles of the older one taking up the call- conclude is a satisfying manner. What that looks like is going to be different for everyone else, and certainly, I’m not a fan of all of the choices writers J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio (whom share credit with original filmmakers Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly on the story) make here, but in the end, I feel like a definitive bow has been wrapped on the story of how that slave boy being found by a Jedi master essentially threw the whole galaxy into chaos for generations. But more on the fan base later…
At this point, I will tell you that I will not be shy with regards to spoilers. You were warned.
The most frustrating thing “The Rise of Skywalker” does is try to cram what feels like 1-2 movies of story into 141 minutes. I do not necessarily think that was J.J. Abrams doing “course correction” after Rian Johnson went in his own direction with “The Last Jedi,” but I think it was Abrams and the group at LucasFilm trying to cram a whole Hell of a lot of story in to one movie to tie up the entirety of the Skywalker Saga. One of the things this does is bring a whole lot of narrative, but doesn’t do a lot of explaining of setting story arcs for characters apart from Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). I finally understand the creative reason for all of those two-part final stories we saw earlier in the decade with the “Harry Potter,” “Twilight” and “Hunger Games” franchises; those stories needed room to breathe and develop, and it feels as though “The Rise of Skywalker” was what happens when a massive final chapter tries to do too much for the sake of the symmetrical shape of three “trilogies.” Even if they didn’t split this into two movies, maybe an extra hour, devoted to the moments between characters and further exposition, would have done much in improving how this movie feels. Currently, it feels very rushed.
The film’s crawl sets the stage. A message has gone out through the galaxy from Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid)- he is still alive. Unfortunately, we don’t get much in the way of “how,” but we get it has something to do with the Dark Side of the Force, and he has made his way into the outer reaches of the galaxy. The opening finds Kylo, now Supreme Leader of the First Order, looking for wavefinders that would help him locate Palpatine. He does, and the Emperor has a mission Kylo can get behind, in order to get the fleet of Star Destroyers he has made in secret- find Rey, and kill her, and a whole fleet of star destroyers will be yours. Rey will be making that somewhat easy for him to do, as the Resistance is about to get confirmation from a mole in the First Order that Palpatine is, in fact, alive, and they will be searching for Sith wavefinders, as well.
This “sequel trilogy” is the most unbalanced one, narratively, but a lot of that has to do with the way Abrams and Terrio rush the narrative in “Rise of Skywalker” without fleshing it out. Contrary to how some people view it, I think “The Force Awakens” sets up some interesting story threads, and “The Last Jedi” carried them into fascinating directions that revealed a lot about the characters. One of the problems with “Rise of Skywalker” is that it doesn’t set a particular time frame for this one to allow us to see how the story got to where it was. Yes, there’s a lot of story in the crawl, but the crawl also sets the stage for where the particular story is at when we start watching it, and this one doesn’t entirely. It’s only because of the panel at Star Wars Celebration this year that we know it is a year since the Battle of Crait at the end of “The Last Jedi,” and other narrative nuggets- like the first time we see him in this film, Kylo is on Mustafar- are spread into other sources than the film. This isn’t lazy storytelling on the part of Abrams and Terrio but rushed storytelling. The first part of this film especially zips from set piece to set piece, and doesn’t give us room to breathe. Abrams directs them with the same energy he brought to “The Force Awakens” and his first “Star Trek” movie, but “Rise of Skywalker” feels impersonal and going through the motions, bringing to mind “Star Trek Into Darkness” more than “Force Awakens” and “Star Trek.” Maybe Abrams should stay away from second films for franchises, even though he’s great at resetting the deck for long-going ones (“M:i III” is another great example).
One of the things Abrams has said in the build-up to “The Rise of Skywalker” was how Johnson’s choices in “The Last Jedi” inspired Abrams to take chances he wouldn’t have necessarily made on his own. I completely believe this, and as much as people want to say this undoes what “The Last Jedi” did, “The Rise of Skywalker” builds off of it, even if it sometimes recontextualizes things in its own way. The bond between Rey and Kylo is still central to this film’s narrative, and their “force bond,” which first came into play in “The Last Jedi,” is even deeper, and results in some of the best scenes and in the film. We learn more about Leia here beyond her current status as general of the Resistance (and son of Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren); the performance by Carrie Fisher in this film was built from archival footage unused from “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi,” and, knowing this is absolutely the last we’ll see of her on film, and in this role (she passed away in 2016) gave every time we see her extra resonance, especially in the moments her bonds with Ben and Luke (Mark Hamill) are explored, giving us further insight into the character. Nothing was as impactful as the moment Luke and Leia shared at the end of “The Last Jedi,” but I feel like Leia, and Carrie, was honored as best she could be this one, final time. There are other references along the edges, or upfront, to things in “The Last Jedi,” and they add story depth where some people had questions at the end of Johnson’s film.
In a film that is intended to tie into the Skywalker Saga as a whole, it makes sense that Palpatine would return, something that has been laid in the new canon’s foundation over the past few years. I think Abrams pulls it off fairly well, actually, with some moments of horror movie freakiness- shot quite well by cinematographer Dan Mindel- adding an extra level of darkness to this arc. (And McDiarmid is as welcome a presence as ever in the role.) It also leads to what might be the most controversial “twist” in the movie, but it’s one that I think benefits the character involved, and plays into something the sequel trilogy has played into when it comes to legacy and how one person’s path can start down one road, but it’s ultimately that person’s choice whether they wish to follow that road. It may seem forced, and a repudiation of what came before it, but I think it only illuminates how strong the character it effects- in this case, Rey- is that they make the decisions they do, by the end. (It’s also where the title comes into play the most.) Especially in the third act of this film, having Palpatine as the ultimate embodiment of the Dark Side of the Force leads to a moment of clarity that Rey has been looking for throughout the film. It doesn’t entirely work, when you think about it (especially in a scene with Luke Skywalker talking to Rey about what he knows), but I like what it means for Rey, at the end.
On the other side of that coin, you have Ben Solo, and the performance by Adam Driver makes for a fantastic counterpoint for Ridley in how his certainty throughout the film is in contrast with her uncertainty, but, at a certain point, they flip, and the uneasiness of his place he had in “The Force Awakens” returns, along with a reminder of who he is. Driver is sensational, although, like with the rest of this film, it feels like more could have been done to flesh out his larger arc, especially what we see early on. Characters that do not have that issue are Poe and Finn, and it’s good to see Oscar Isaac and John Boyega playing off of one another with such ease as the team- which also includes Rey, Chewie, BB-8 and C-3PO- go on an adventure together, one which Abrams has done right by in bringing us to new worlds, introducing new characters (like Keri Russell’s Zorii Bliss and Naomi Ackie’s Jannah) that have potential for further stories, although that means short shrift for Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), the mechanic introduced in “The Last Jedi” who’s sidelined in Abrams’s story almost as much as General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), although at least Hux- here playing second supporting fiddle to Richard E. Grant’s General Pryde- has a twist that makes some sense for his character.
I’ve now seen “The Rise of Skywalker” twice, and there are things about it- the expansion of possibilities of what the Force can do; every moment Rey and Kylo share together; the trio of Rey, Finn and Poe; Lando Calrissian’s return to the franchise (and the performance by Billy Dee Williams); the new world of Kijimi, which is where we meet Zorii; every moment in Palpatine’s Sith lair, which brings to mind the creepy sci-fi worlds of “Dark City” and “Metropolis”; and references to other “Star Wars” eras like the prequels, “Clone Wars” and “Rebels,” in addition to the original trilogy era and what we’ve seen over the past decade from Disney- I genuinely love, even if I’m frustrated by the execution of this final chapter in the story of Skywalker. What I love the most is that Abrams not only gives us moments with the characters that started it all that feel meaningful, along with the new characters he introduced in 2015, but that it’s scored by John Williams, bringing out all of the hits for one, final journey to a galaxy far, far away for the composer. I don’t know where “Star Wars” is headed on the big-screen from here, but, after 42 years, I’m still engaged by this world in a way few others have been capable of.
