rich_jacko (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rich_jacko) wrote2019-12-23 08:01 pm
rich_jacko) wrote2019-12-23 08:01 pm
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Episode IX: Return of the Ambiguous Title
I've never gone into a Star Wars film with lower expectations. You may have noticed from my reviews of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi that I'm not a great fan of the sequel trilogy.
The Rise of Skywalker isn't going to change anyone's mind. If you like VII and VIII for their characters, action and simple sense of nostalgia, then you'll be happy here. If you're disappointed by their lack of imagination or originality, and the many ways they undermine the original trilogy, then you won't be impressed with this one either.
For me, it was... better than I expected. (There'll be a lot of damning with faint praise coming up in this review!) The opening ten minutes or so is jumbled and completely ridiculous, but bear with it and it does settle down into something more watchable. On the originality scale, it doesn't take the occasional bold risks that VIII did, but is at least more inventive than VII. At its core, it's still a remake of Return of the Jedi, but there were (just about) enough novel ideas to keep my interest.
The biggest strength of this trilogy has been its characters, and the same is true here. Until now, we've never really seen the lead trio of Rey, Finn and Poe on a mission together, certainly not on board the Falcon and with Chewie and droids in tow as well. This film sets that to rights and gets that Original Trilogy vibe across a lot better than any amount of shameless re-hashing of plot points. C-3PO gets a lot of story and screen time, which is nice for fans of ol' Goldenrod (like me).
There are new characters in the mix. Richard E Grant has appeared to chew the scenery as this episode's evilImperialFirst Order commanding officer. We meet an old flame from Poe's past. There's another cute new droid with not enough to do. Lando Calrissian is, of course, back this time too (About time!). On top of an already expansive cast, this means the story struggles with too many characters. Several don't get anywhere near the screen time they deserve. Finn and Poe don't get as much attention as in their last two films, although they still get a reasonable amount of screen time and development. Luke, Leia, R2-D2, Rose and Maz are mostly sidelined. In Leia's case (as we all know), sadly there were real world reasons for this. The editing of cut footage of Carrie Fisher back in isn't entirely successful. Her snippets of dialogue are so brief and lacking in context that the script has to desperately throw tortuous lines out to other characters to try to work them into the story. It shows. None of those scenes are terribly successful. There are a handful of more satisfying Leia moments though, even when she isn't on screen. We get some more of her back-story and some pleasing answers about our favourite princess.
Speaking of answers, we get plenty more about "Reylo". The Rey/Kylo Ren dynamic is (rightly, in my view) the main focus of the film, and comes with its fair share of twists and revelations. Some are more predictable than others; some are shocking; sometimes you feel for them both; sometimes you want to slap the pair of them. Whether you care about these two is a good barometer for whether you'll connect with this film. I did, and I found it to be an emotionally and narratively satisfying conclusion to their story. Sure, it's overblown and melodramatic, but that's Star Wars for you.
Palpatine's back. If you didn't already know, that's hardly a spoiler since it's revealed in the opening crawl. He's more a plot point than a character though, there to embody the evil of the Sith. Ian McDiarmid gives us his best cackling Evil Overlord, but there's sadly little sign of the scheming mastermind we know and love (?) from earlier films. What we do have are a surprising amount of nods back to the themes of Episode III. With Palpatine's return and the end to the Skywalker story, JJ Abrams is trying to tie the whole nine-episode saga together, somewhat over-ambitiously. This is no Star Wars equivalent of Avengers: Endgame. Still, it is at least a decent end to what has felt throughout like a fan-fiction trilogy. Definitely the best of the three in this reviewer's opinion.
That will be a controversial opinion. It has been critically mauled by reviewers who admire some of the bolder choices in The Last Jedi. As I described in my review of that film, some of those choices weren't as bold as they have been made out to be, and some do the rest of the saga a disservice. There is no way JJ Abrams could win here. Keep going in that direction and many fans will hate you for it. Retcon the last film out of existence and you undermine this trilogy and alienate Rian Johnson's admirers. It's clear that this is a disjointed trilogy, lacking an overall planned arc. Abrams does the best he can with what he has to follow on from. He acknowledges certain points from Johnson's experiment and runs with them back to his own playground, developing them in ways that are perhaps safer and more fan-pleasing, while still recognising they happened. So how much you like The Rise of Skywalker is likely to depend a great deal on what you thought of certain elements of The Last Jedi. For me, Luke is Luke again, which makes me happy.
Most of the flaws of VII and VIII are still there in IX. The never-ending failure to hold the f###ing camera still during the action scenes is very un-Star Warsy and continually irritating. There is far too much re-hashing parts of the Original Trilogy (mostly Episodes IV and VI this time). I had to fight hard not to shout, "Oh come on!" as yet another planet-destroying super-weapon was revealed. The lack of originality extends to the score, with John Williams seemingly putting his Greatest Hits on shuffle. Palpatine coming back further undermines what was achieved in episodes past. The power levels continue to ramp up for no obvious in-universe reason. Some parts of the plot make no sense if you think about them for more than a few seconds.
Overall, The Rise of Skywalker is undemanding entertainment, an enjoyable ride full of derring-do, character journeys, lightsabers, spaceships, colourful alien worlds and battles against impossible odds. It ties up the Sequel Trilogy decently enough. That's not bad, and about the best I could reasonably have hoped for. It is good fun. Switch your brain off and enjoy it.
The Rise of Skywalker isn't going to change anyone's mind. If you like VII and VIII for their characters, action and simple sense of nostalgia, then you'll be happy here. If you're disappointed by their lack of imagination or originality, and the many ways they undermine the original trilogy, then you won't be impressed with this one either.
For me, it was... better than I expected. (There'll be a lot of damning with faint praise coming up in this review!) The opening ten minutes or so is jumbled and completely ridiculous, but bear with it and it does settle down into something more watchable. On the originality scale, it doesn't take the occasional bold risks that VIII did, but is at least more inventive than VII. At its core, it's still a remake of Return of the Jedi, but there were (just about) enough novel ideas to keep my interest.
The biggest strength of this trilogy has been its characters, and the same is true here. Until now, we've never really seen the lead trio of Rey, Finn and Poe on a mission together, certainly not on board the Falcon and with Chewie and droids in tow as well. This film sets that to rights and gets that Original Trilogy vibe across a lot better than any amount of shameless re-hashing of plot points. C-3PO gets a lot of story and screen time, which is nice for fans of ol' Goldenrod (like me).
There are new characters in the mix. Richard E Grant has appeared to chew the scenery as this episode's evil
Speaking of answers, we get plenty more about "Reylo". The Rey/Kylo Ren dynamic is (rightly, in my view) the main focus of the film, and comes with its fair share of twists and revelations. Some are more predictable than others; some are shocking; sometimes you feel for them both; sometimes you want to slap the pair of them. Whether you care about these two is a good barometer for whether you'll connect with this film. I did, and I found it to be an emotionally and narratively satisfying conclusion to their story. Sure, it's overblown and melodramatic, but that's Star Wars for you.
Palpatine's back. If you didn't already know, that's hardly a spoiler since it's revealed in the opening crawl. He's more a plot point than a character though, there to embody the evil of the Sith. Ian McDiarmid gives us his best cackling Evil Overlord, but there's sadly little sign of the scheming mastermind we know and love (?) from earlier films. What we do have are a surprising amount of nods back to the themes of Episode III. With Palpatine's return and the end to the Skywalker story, JJ Abrams is trying to tie the whole nine-episode saga together, somewhat over-ambitiously. This is no Star Wars equivalent of Avengers: Endgame. Still, it is at least a decent end to what has felt throughout like a fan-fiction trilogy. Definitely the best of the three in this reviewer's opinion.
That will be a controversial opinion. It has been critically mauled by reviewers who admire some of the bolder choices in The Last Jedi. As I described in my review of that film, some of those choices weren't as bold as they have been made out to be, and some do the rest of the saga a disservice. There is no way JJ Abrams could win here. Keep going in that direction and many fans will hate you for it. Retcon the last film out of existence and you undermine this trilogy and alienate Rian Johnson's admirers. It's clear that this is a disjointed trilogy, lacking an overall planned arc. Abrams does the best he can with what he has to follow on from. He acknowledges certain points from Johnson's experiment and runs with them back to his own playground, developing them in ways that are perhaps safer and more fan-pleasing, while still recognising they happened. So how much you like The Rise of Skywalker is likely to depend a great deal on what you thought of certain elements of The Last Jedi. For me, Luke is Luke again, which makes me happy.
Most of the flaws of VII and VIII are still there in IX. The never-ending failure to hold the f###ing camera still during the action scenes is very un-Star Warsy and continually irritating. There is far too much re-hashing parts of the Original Trilogy (mostly Episodes IV and VI this time). I had to fight hard not to shout, "Oh come on!" as yet another planet-destroying super-weapon was revealed. The lack of originality extends to the score, with John Williams seemingly putting his Greatest Hits on shuffle. Palpatine coming back further undermines what was achieved in episodes past. The power levels continue to ramp up for no obvious in-universe reason. Some parts of the plot make no sense if you think about them for more than a few seconds.
Overall, The Rise of Skywalker is undemanding entertainment, an enjoyable ride full of derring-do, character journeys, lightsabers, spaceships, colourful alien worlds and battles against impossible odds. It ties up the Sequel Trilogy decently enough. That's not bad, and about the best I could reasonably have hoped for. It is good fun. Switch your brain off and enjoy it.