Rise and Shine

There’s a meme going around online of Doctor Manhattan, the man-made god from Alan Moore’s “Watchmen”. He’s staring up at the stars in the sky, while three captions float around him. The captions read “It is May 25, 1983, and I am about to watch the last Star Wars movie”, “It is May 19, 2005, and I am about to watch the last Star Wars movie”, and “It is December 20, 2019, and I am about to watch the last Star Wars movie”. The lesson of the story being that there will never be such a thing as “the last Star Wars movie”, because its success won’t allow there to be a last movie. Now in the hands of Disney, it will be milked for profit until the end of time itself. Chances are, you will be dead before there is truly a “last Star Wars movie”. But for those in denial, we have what is being promoted as “the last chapter of the Skywalker saga”, a supposed conclusion to a story arc going back 42 years. Did Disney stick the landing, or will it have people wishing this was indeed the “last Star Wars movie”, period?

Directed and co-written by JJ Abrams, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” is the ninth movie in the linear series, and it continues to follow the adventures of Rey (the lovely Daisy Ridley), the scavenger turn Jedi apprentice. Rey is currently training with Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher, via archived footage), who has been retconned into being a Jedi as well. On the other side of the galaxy, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) has found a Sith Wayfinder, which leads him to the location of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who is somehow still alive after the events of “Return of the Jedi”. Over the past thirty years, the Emperor has built a hidden fleet of Star Destroyers, and plans to use said fleet to crush the Resistance. Rey, along with her many allies, including Poe Dameron and Finn (Oscar Isaac and John Boyega), must find the location where the Emperor is hiding, and stop his sinister plan.

You really can’t talk about this movie without mentioning the first two installments of this sequel series, “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi”. “Force Awakens” was also directed and co-written by Abrams. That movie ended with many dangling plot threads that were left for the next writer and director to tie up. Then again, Abrams is used to not completing plot threads, as it’s part of his “mystery box” style of writing. Basically, he purposely withholds information in order to keep his audience intrigued. Frankly, it’s just lazy writing and an excuse for him to get away with there being massive plot holes everywhere that he didn’t bother to think through. But this strategy backfired big time, because Rian Johnson, the writer and director of “Last Jedi”, totally ignored all those lingering plot threads and just made up what he wanted instead. The end result was a movie that’s hated by Star Wars fans, as it was nothing more than a failed experiment in nihilistic deconstruction, including the humiliation and unceremonial death of Luke Skywalker, the childhood hero for many generations of movie lovers. So now Abrams had to follow through on his own story (something he’s not used to doing), and retcon everything Johnson did to fit the story that he originally had in mind. In other words, this movie is kind of a Frankenstein monster, but it mostly works, mostly.

First and foremost, the best part of this movie is that everyone is behaving like they should since “Force Awakens”. It’s great to see Rey, Poe, and Finn all working together, something we should have seen in “Last Jedi”. They have great chemistry together and you can tell that the actors are having fun. Also, there’s no scene in which a character is lecturing the audience about how “this is bad”, “that is bad”, “everything is bad”, eating up screen time that could have been used for something else. We get plenty of lightsaber duels, although some need improvement (apparently, Rey doesn’t want to use both of her hands in battle, because … reasons). Most of the comedy does land, thankfully, because “your mama” jokes shouldn’t be something that still exists in the distant future. Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran), much like Jar Jar Binks before her, gets a bare minimum amount of screen time, and rightfully so, as Johnson himself admitted she didn’t fit the mold of Star Wars, and that she reminded him more of a friend he would hang out with in high school (that explains so much). And plot holes caused by “Last Jedi” are fixed, like who Snoke was, that Luke’s cowardly behavior was wrong, and what Rey’s true parentage was (which personally gave me chills).

What doesn’t work is few and far between, but still pretty bad. The Leia scenes don’t comes across as natural. It’s pretty obvious that her footage is shoehorned into the movie and the characters that she interacts with are working around that footage. Yes, it’s nice to see Carrie Fisher one last time, but Leia should have been killed off in “Last Jedi”, since they had a year to work in her death before that movie was released. The CGI effects are great and often a sight to behold, except for this one flashback scene, which features deaging that is so laughable, the deaged Leia from “Rogue One” looks more believable by comparison. The story is a little too repetitive from sequence to sequence. Our heroes have to travel from one location to another, trying to retrieve an item to help them find the Emperor's location, but something gets in the way, and they have to go somewhere else to retrieve another item. This should have stopped at the end of the first act, but unfortunately, it goes on until the start of the third act. There’s too many conveniences that exist to move the plot along. Every time there’s something stopping the heroes’ quest, moments later, they find a solution. And if you are among those who complain about Rey being a “Mary Sue” because she’s an expert at everything she does, this movie won’t change you mind, as she uses all types of Force powers, both old and new, whenever the plot calls for her to do so.

All that being said, I don’t hate this movie. I think after a few more viewings, this could be my favorite of the Disney sequel trilogy. It’s better than “Last Jedi” (not a high bar to clear), and about on par with “Force Awakens”. I would certainly prefer watching this movie over any of George Lucas’ prequels, however, “The Empire Strikes Back” is still the gold standard for the franchise, and “The Return of the Jedi” remains the most fun installment and satisfying ending. Is this the ending to a 42 year old epic that many fans wanted? Probably not, but as I said in the introduction, this franchise will never really end. And to be honest, by the end of the movie, I wouldn’t mind seeing more adventures with Rey and her adorable droid, BB-8.

Overall, I might be a little too generous here, but I give “Rise of Skywalker” a well deserved four stars out of five. Chances are if you’re a die hard “Star Wars” fan, you’re going to see this in theaters no matter what I say, and you’re going to buy it on physical disc as part of your collection. While it’s not a perfect movie, it’s an entertaining and enjoyable one. That concludes this fanpicked review. And remember, when it comes to the media that you consume, be like Indiana Jones, and choose wisely.

Short Version

Pros:

Characters have great chemistry together.

Humor that works.

Amazing CGI effects.

Cons:

Leia’s scenes seem unnatural.

The plot gets too repetitive.

Problems are too conveniently solved.

Verdict: **** (four out of five stars).