In hindsight, it’s fair to say
that Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy has had an identity crisis. The
Force Awakens was basically an original trilogy greatest hits package to
win over fans still skeptical after the prequels while introducing the new
players. It didn’t turn out to have much staying power for me, but was a blast on opening night
four years ago. Next came The Last Jedi, which seemed to play
like a work of fan fiction: some terrific individual scenes and thrilling
moments…but with narrative connective tissue that’s admittedly a little weak. I liked it overall (and I contend that Rian Johnson’s film and the places he took
his story were the work of a fan who holds Star Wars near and dear,
despite the whining that he “ruined the saga” from a segment of viewers).
The Rise of Skywalker, the
final (for now) chapter of the saga, is mired somewhere between its two predecessors.
It’s certainly dialed up the fan service and callbacks once again. And while I wouldn’t
quite say it taps the dark side of fanfic (remarkably, almost none of the fan
toxicity of late seems to have bled onto the screen), it certainly does veer
into the nutty and unrestrained side of it. It’s as if an overcaffeinated fan was
given free reign to throw in every wild idea they could think of—A whole fleet
of Star Destroyers! Force lightning taking out starships! The Millennium Falcon
jumping in and out of hyperspace!—to make the massive blowout spectacle of
their childhood dreams.
The picture picks up some time after
The Last Jedi. The heroic Resistance is dwindling. The evil onetime Emperor
Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) has returned and is on the cusp of leading the evil
First Order to galactic domination. Jedi Rey (Daisy Ridley), ex-Stormtrooper
Finn (John Boyega), Resistance pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Chewbacca (Joonas
Suotamo), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and BB-8 travel the galaxy to find a lost
artifact that could lead them to Palpatine’s lair on the Sith home planet, with
the First Order’s new Supreme Leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) on their tails in
hopes of forming an alliance with Rey.
There really is not much more to
it than that. The film plays similarly to the third Hobbit movie, in
that the plot is simple and everything is all about that final battle. Every scene is just barreling toward the
final battle. Every moment that is not an action sequence is merely putting things
in motion and setting the pieces for the battle. Anyone who’s seen even a
single movie can tell how the battle’s going to go down (even though this film
is not based on a beloved old book a lot of people have read like The Hobbit).
And when the battle finally arrives, the bombast shoots past exciting to ridiculousness
a few times.
Is it entertaining? Sure, for the
most part. The aforementioned spectacles are still pretty cool, and the movie
offers some fun chases, space dogfights, shootouts, and lightsaber fights that are
the saga’s forte. And most of the action take place in eye-catching environments
we haven’t seen before, while the callbacks to series past are mostly kept small, not near re-creations like The Force Awakens. But since
nearly every moment of plot or character is purely focused on setting things in
place for the big finale instead of deepening the characters or mythology, the stakes never feel that high. Even some unexpected
and ostensibly emotional plot turns and surprise cameos amount to little actual
pathos (with maybe one or two exceptions). Also, Palpatine’s return ultimately amounts
to a cheap trailer pop, as the nominal big bad is revealed immediately and gets
little to do as a character besides playing final boss.
By itself, the film works okay as
a big sci-fi action blockbuster. Tasked with bringing this trilogy to completion,
however, it’s not so successful. Only one main character truly gets to bring
their arc to a final and satisfying conclusion, while the rest feel unfinished
or like they’ve barely started at all. This trilogy was mostly a fun time, but
with The Rise of Skywalker as its final chapter, it ultimately feels
like an insubstantial facsimile of the classic original trilogy instead of something
with its own character and emotional identity.
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