This review contains spoilers
“The Empire, your parents, the Resistance, the Sith, the Jedi… let the past die.”
I was reminded of Kylo Ren’s speech to Rey in The Last Jedi whilst watching The Rise of Skywalker, as I began to wish we could do one better and put this seemingly interminable franchise to rest. The ninth instalment in cinema’s favourite space opera is a crowd pleasing effort from J.J. Abrams, but feels hollow and unsatisfying. When we rejoin our heroes Rey, Poe and Finn, the Resistance is on the ropes after escaping total annihilation by the skin of their teeth. To make matters worse, Emperor Palpatine has mysteriously returned, setting events in motion that threaten the entire galaxy and will force Rey to confront who she really is…
So far, so exciting. What follows is a lot of people running around trying to find things whilst the forces of evil chase after them. There are some great action sequences along the way, including an adrenaline-fuelled chase across the desert and an awesome lightsaber duel set amongst crashing waves. J.J. Abrams has not lost his flair for big sci-fi set pieces, but these are let down by the story connecting them. Where The Last Jedi’s subversive intent bordered on incoherence, The Rise of Skywalker feels like someone fed a bunch of Star Wars related words into a computer, which then spat out this script. Planet destroying weapons? Check. The Sith making a mysterious comeback? Check. Lando Calrissian arriving in the nick of time? Check. We even visit the ruins of the Death Star, which is odd because I seem to remember it was blown into a million pieces at the end of Return of the Jedi. But who cares? Just play the Imperial March and no one will notice. Naming the new bad guys ‘The Final Order’ is really phoning it in, although one supposes it makes sense that they follow the First Order (no Middle Order then?).
The Force Awakens was an enjoyable romp, but felt like it relied on self-reflexive references for emotional weight, like shots of Daisy Ridley curled up in the carcass of an AT-AT walker (remember when Star Wars created iconography instead of recycling it?)*. This time out Abrams has gone into nostalgia overdrive in order to please fans. Much has been written about how this film ‘retcons’ Rian Johnson’s previous outing, particularly in relegating Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose to the sidelines. Despite her blossoming romance with Finn in TLJ, here she barely gets a look-in. It is hard not to see this as Abrams giving into the trolls, although I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he wanted to focus on the trilogy’s core characters. Daisy Ridley turns in her best performance yet: Rey’s transformation into a steely eyed warrior is one of the strongest threads of the trilogy. Oscar Isaac is on reliably good form as fighter ace Poe, but Finn has almost been reduced to a sidekick. This is a shame given that John Boyega still approaches the role with gusto, for a character who previously served as a point of view character for audiences. An ordinary foot soldier who got his hands on a Jedi’s weapon almost by chance, Finn made lightsabers exciting again.
As with any Star Wars film, there are some great visuals, especially on the Sith stronghold of Exegol. Unfortunately, RoS also continues George Lucas’ tradition of clunky dialogue. We even hear Palpatine remind us that “the Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to abilities that some consider unnatural”. If Abrams is going to rip-off old dialogue wholesale, I’d prefer he did it with more irony.
The story feels rushed, in no small part due to the consistently false peril the characters find themselves in. Rey believes she has blown up a ship with Chewie on board, only to learn that for some reason, she and the audience got it mixed up with another ship. Similarly, Finn and Poe are about to be executed, until General Hux shoots the stormtroopers instead, revealing himself to be the First Order turncoat we’ve heard so much about. Such deus ex moments are not uncommon in action cinema, but here they are employed as cheap tools to dig out of plot holes, instead of developing the plot or ratcheting up the excitement.
Before anyone accuses me of shooting fish in barrels, I believe the film’s flaws are more than the usual sins that be can pinned on mainstream action blockbusters.
Avengers: Endgame showed how epic franchises can reach exciting, emotionally satisfying conclusions, whilst maintaining the balance of gravity and humour which modern audiences crave. Abrams’ Star Trek reboots were exciting films with punchy storytelling. Assessed on its own terms, The Rise of Skywalker feels lazy, even cynical. Writing Rey as Palpatine’s granddaughter is a particularly cheap attempt to leverage drama, not to mention raising questions over when or indeed how the old git managed to pass on his genes (I’m unfortunately reminded of playground arguments over whether Darth Vader could procreate).
Much like Yoda warned that fear leads to hate, it feels like franchises lead to greed, which leads to crappy films, which lead to suffering (audiences). I hope we can finally lay Star Wars to rest, although I suspect that, like Luke Skywalker’s ghost, it will continue to reappear.
*George Lucas’ original trilogy mined a vein of pulp fantasy epitomised by Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, repurposing them to create something new and exciting, but also somewhat nostalgic. Frederic Jameson and Mark Fisher have dealt with this at greater length.
Mark It Zero 