Film Review: "Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker" **
WARNING: This review contains SPOILERS (I’ve given you CAPS, bold, underlined, and italicized… not sure what else I can do). Read at your own peril.
I went into this film wanting to like it. I purposefully kept my expectations low considering that I was one of those who thought that The Last Jedi was an outstanding movie. Yet, watching this The Rise of Skywalker was like seeing Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace all over again. I came out of seeing Episode I telling myself it was a good film, but knowing it wasn’t. The fact that I got to see it at Skywalker Ranch made me believe I loved it even more. I wrote a rave review saying how George Lucas had recaptured the magic. It was only in forcing myself to see it again in theaters that I realized how bad the film was. This forced me to issue my only retraction to a review I put out... Well, I try to learn from my mistakes. I’m not fooling myself into believing that The Rise of Skywalker works. Man, this was a sad and disappointing day. Too bad it had to be seen with my best friends on the day we always get together around Christmas.
There is a moment early in the film when Kylo Ren, donning his newly recomposed helmet, returns to his command ship to “discuss” strategy with his… “war council” ... I honestly don’t know who they all are. In that scene, one of them barely questions him, causing Kylo Ren to use the force on him. We are immediately meant to remember Darth Vader’s moment in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope where a General questions the power of the force, prompting Vader to demonstrate that power by closing his throat. In this moment, Kylo Ren uses the force to pull the unfortunate officer out of his chair and faceplant him directly into the ceiling where he stays while the conversation continues. This is Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to a “T”. It takes everything we know and expect about Star Wars and turns it up to 11. If only it had an original idea in its blood.
This film is precisely what Scorsese was talking about when he referred to the Marvel problem in films. He had issue with movies being directed not by the director but rather by the studio; a film made by survey. That is what it really feels like here. It seems like they polled Star Wars fans to see what they wanted to appear in the film or not appear in the film… and then tried to construct a narrative around it. Rian Johnson made the excellent Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which is much maligned amongst a certain type of Star Wars fan, because he was willing to take risks. Risks that went against what the studio wanted. I can imagine the meeting where he informed them that Luke Skywalker was not going to be a hero in this film. I imagine you could hear a pen drop at their displeasure. Here, the movie seeks to undo every risk that he took including introducing a new theme into Star Wars about how lineage is not important and that the Jedi and Sith had both been wrong.
Rise of Skywalker begins with the line “The dead speak!”. Immediately after that line in the opening scroll, it informs us that Emperor Palpatine is back. His ability to come back is chalked up in a single line “genetic wizards and dark magic”. “Cloning” is also mentioned. Although the line “the dead speak” refers directly to Palpatine, it also is Abrams taking on Rian Johnson for killing Luke Skywalker, a decision that fans hated. So, Luke isn’t gone! “The dead speak.” In fact, others who we thought were gone will make an appearance to. “The dead speak.” The best reading of the line is referring to the great late Carrie Fisher. The dead do indeed speak in this film. Her performance is one of the few highlights of the film. Watch the acting that she gives as Leia when she hugs Rey. You feel the love emanating from Leia flowing into Rey.
Immediately following this, we meet the newly revived Emperor who has actually been around for a long time on the secret planet of the Sith! According to a Star Wars website, a Star Destroyer has approximately 9,235 Officers, 27,850 enlisted personnel on it. So, let’s round that up to 40,000. The Emperor has been a busy little bee, building the largest fleet in history. So we must assume that is thousands of Star Destroyers each with 40,000 people on board… man, for it being a secret world no one can find, millions of people have been able to find it to come help the Emperor build and man these ships. Now, each Star Destroyer is equipped with a planet killing beam, turning each of them into a Death Star. There is a throwaway line in the film about the “mistake of the Star Destroyer Base” which is a self-reference to the criticism J.J. Abrams took for basically replicating the entire device that the Empire was going to use to bring the universe to its knees in The Force Awakens. Here, he takes that and multiply it by 1,000.
This is one of the basic problems in this film and in a lot of films of late. They think that upping the stakes means raising them to the level of the galaxy being threatened. That only works if they develop characters we care about and understand. I still have no idea who Poe and Finn are other than that they are friends. Thankfully Rey and Kylo Ren receive a little more development, but not enough to justify the length of the film.
Before I go further into my criticism of the movie, let me offer a few praises. The film is the perfect send off for C-3PO who finally gets his amazing one liners again after being sidelined for many films. Good for Anthony Daniels, one of the few original actors from the first film. The acting on both Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver turn in great work. Finally, how they handled using footage of Carrie Fisher as Leia was really well done. It was obvious that she was not there as the scenes with her lack beats, but even in that short time, they set up a wonderful mentorship between Rey and Leia. Her passing is a moving moment worthy of the important change that it creates in the film.
Now… returning to my criticism: still at the beginning of the movie, Kylo Ren is aided by the Emperor who uses his minions to reconstruct Kylo Ren’s helmet. This is a problem that is twofold. The first issue is that Adam Driver is such a good actor that covering his face for most of the film is not in the film’s interest. In fact, his performance is one of the few good things in the film. His ability to convey his end transformation with just his eyes is amazing. Look at him at any point prior to the last 20 minutes and you see hate and rage. Look at his eyes as he holds Rey at the end, and you see a different person. The second problem is the problem that is symbolic of the film. Because the public felt that The Last Jedi destroyed the Star Wars universe, Abrams is demonstrating that he is putting it back together. Too bad, there’s no purpose in the helmet, just as there’s no purpose in the film.
As the movie gets going, we are treated to a series of the best scenes from previous films. The fact that they recycle so many images and scenes from the original trilogy demonstrates that ideology behind the film… give the audience what they love. We see Luke raise an X-wing out of the water, we see Chewie playing hologames again, Lando gets to say his famous line “I have a bad feeling about this”, we get to see Rey facing off against the Emperor as her allies fight a large fleet of Star Destroyers that she gets to watch just like Luke did in Return of the Jedi. This list goes on and on. But the most egregious example of this comes when they replicate one of the greatest scenes in all of cinema: “No, I am your father” from Empire Strikes Back. Kylo Ren, helmet on, is confronting Rey when he reveals the truth about her heritage (destroying the original theme from The Last Jedi) that she is indeed the granddaughter of the Emperor. Like Luke, she realizes that Kylo Ren, like Vader, is indeed telling the truth. Wanting not to live with this revelation, she stands on the edge of an airlock. Looking down at the planet below, she prepares to jump just as Luke did in Cloud City. Like Luke, she does not want to live with the knowledge she has been given. We are supposed to realize that this is the worst news she could ever receive. The problem is she doesn’t know the Emperor. She hasn’t seen him harm her personally. She of course later realizes that he is responsible for her parents' deaths, but in this moment, there is no connection, just a reference. At this moment, Kylo, like Vader before him, tells her that she can join him and kill the Emperor. All he needed to do was say “we can bring order to the galaxy!” Oh man…
In the end, we arrive at a remake of Return of the Jedi, where the fleet battles Star Destroyers while our hero takes on the Emperor. The Emperor’s plan, as I understand it, is to bring his granddaughter back so she can kill him (just as he told Luke to do before that. “Strike me down and your journey to the dark side will be complete”) and then he and all other Sith (there are a lot of Sith Ghosts… cult members… not sure) will possess her. He says this is a ritual, but we learn nothing more about the Sith from the little information sprinkled into the action. Why couldn’t he have done this with his children aka one of Rey’s parents? Why did he have to wait for her? I don’t know. Once Kylo Ren arrives, the Emperor suddenly tosses that plan aside and comes up with a new plan… almost like “well… since you’re both here, I might as well do this!” He drains each of them of their life ‘force’ and is reborn himself… interesting considering that he was cloned by scientists… you think that they would have him be young instead of old… anyway. When he takes their life force, he becomes powerful again. Still old, but powerful. Actually, more powerful than we’ve ever seen. He sits down and uses his force lighting, not to attack someone, but to render an entire fleet inoperable. Wow… why didn’t he just do that in Return of the Jedi? Then, the final fight happens… you think that the Emperor, given how long he’s lived, would learn a few things, but apparently he has forgotten the entire episode with Mace Windu and how he was transformed into the hideous old man from his light and spritely self. Well past is future, right?
I don’t think this movie understands the force. I almost feel like Han Solo in Force Awakens yelling at Finn, “that’s not how the force works!” The Last Jedi really brings home the force and how it works. The force is about balance and that is an issue for both the Jedi and the Sith. The Jedi seek to destroy the Sith and vice versa, but by doing so, the balance is lost. There will always be both light and dark. It is about learning to control those urges, not get rid of them. So, in the end, Rey destroys the Sith and a new generation of Jedi will rise… but the problem is… the force doesn’t work that way.
And now for something that is totally going to get people going, haha. Here is my ranking of the Star Wars films. I have not seen Solo.
Empire Strikes Back ****
A New Hope ****
The Last Jedi **** (review here: https://www.gourmandfilmwriter.com/home/2018/9/24/film-review-essay-star-wars-episode-viii-the-last-jedi-)
Return of the Jedi *** ½
Rogue One *** ½
Force Awakens ***
TIE: Revenge of the Sith ** and The Rise of Skywalker **
TIE: The Phantom Menace * and Attack of the Clones *
