We were excited about seeing the movie for a long time, like all Star Wars fans were. And I already reviewed the movie without spoilers earlier.
But this following review will have spoilers, so if you have not seen the movie yet, this is your chance to turn away, to close this page and go see the movie without this review ruining any of the surprises, because there are surprises.
Last call, last chance. If you read on, there will be spoilers.
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Okay, so now, here goes. The spoiler-filled review of ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’
First of all, it felt like much of the movie was a bit rushed. The pacing was uneven. I had heard that the first half was slow, while the second half went so fast, that you hardly had a chance to catch your breath. To some degree, that is true, although it certainly was not ridiculously slow in the first half. The action in the second half was predictable. It is a Star Wars movie, after all. The bigger problem to me, however, was that the storyline at times felt rather incomplete. There were a lot of questions that were answered, but there were others that remained unanswered, or which felt glossed over.
In fact, I hear some suggesting that this movie was a hot mess of Easter eggs, which sounded quite accurate to me, frankly.
It was all a bit too much at times, almost to the point of being distracting of the fact that this is supposed to be it’s own movie.
To be sure, there were moments when I felt emotional and nostalgic, when we glimpsed the old Star Wars universe, if you will. Such as Luke catching the lightsaber, and making his presumably final appearance in these movies as a Force Ghost. Also, Chewie’s reaction upon hearing about the death of Leia was powerful and emotional. This film did have some moments like that.
Indeed, there were a lot of Easter eggs, obvious allusions to other movies, to the point that they felt excessive and, frankly, like shameless pandering to the old school Star Wars fans. There were times when this film reminded me of Indiana Jones, almost. But mostly, there were just a lot of references to other movies, including the very one that director J.J. Abrams clearly seems to want everyone to forget: ‘The Last Jedi.’ Yes, Luke catching the lightsaber is meant to serve as a retort and reprimand to Luke’s tossing of the lightsaber in that last film, and it also kind of reminds us of when we saw Luke last catch lightsabers, in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi.’ There was also an appearance by the porgs, which were some of the most popular new creatures from ‘The Last Jedi.’
There were plenty of other moments when we see nostalgia of earlier films. Obviously, the return of some of the characters, including Chewie, C-3PO, and R2-D2, the return of Lando Calrissian, as well as appearances by all three of the main characters of the original trilogy in some form or other: Leia, Luke, and Han Solo. We get to visit yet another desert planet, and there is even an homage of sorts to the fact that it has been 42 years since the release of Star Wars, with that festival that only comes around once every 42 years, according to C-3PO. There are kind of skiffs that are a bit reminiscent of those used by Jabba’s entourage in ‘Return of the Jedi.’
Before finishing this particular review with spoilers, I went ahead and watched the newest Star Wars movie a second time. This allowed me to view it without the distraction of surprises, since I had already seen it and knew what was going on. Also, I had watched and read some reviews, and knew a bit more what to kook out for.
One example: when Han Solo is talking to Kylo/Ben, just before Kylo finally turns away from the Dark Side and becomes Ben again. I had not caught onto the significance of Han Solo’s last words, which were “I know.” This was in response to Kylo/Ben beginning to talk to him, and seeming to be on the verge of telling him that he loved him. It was a nod to Han saying those same words in response to Leia in ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ after Leia tells Han that she loves him. It made it all the more powerful, packing an emotional punch, and was a nice touch, even though I had not quite grasped it for some reason after the first viewing.
Now again, I watched a lot of videos after seeing the movie the first time, and admittedly, most of the reviews were negative ones. A lot of people, or I should clarify a lot of passionate Star Wars fans, really did not seem to like this movie, and truth be told, I can really understand that.
My problems with the movie were consistent with the consensus among many of these fans and critics. Specifically, I did not like the pacing, and felt that they tried to pack too much into too short of a movie. Some parts felt rushed, and other parts felt a bit forced. There were contradictions with the storyline, and also, admittedly, while I was excited on some level with the return of the Emperor, it did not come in quite the manner I expected.
Okay, here’s the thing about the Emperor: he seems to die in ‘Return of the Jedi.’ You know what? Let’s be a bit more blunt about it: he dies outright. For over three and a half decades, that was our understanding of the events towards the end of that movie, right? I mean, Darth Vader/ Anakin Skywalker is watching Emperor Palpatine electrocute his son, right before his eyes. There was no uncertainty, because Palpatine outright declared that this was what he was going to do, and he was very clearly doing that. But then, Vader/Anakin lifts the Emperor up over his head, and then throws him down one of those endless pits that Star Wars movies are so famous for. We see an explosion at the end. Then, a few minutes later, as Luke is struggling to help his father to one of the ships, we realize he has to rush to escape the Death Star, because it is about to blow up. And it does blow up, and presumably, the Emperor blows up with it. If he had not been killed by the fall, or by the electrical explosion at the end of that fall, then surely, he must have died a fiery death when his most dangerous creation explodes, right? In other words, there is really no way that he could have survived. Period.
Wrong, apparently. But how did he escape? Hell, how did he even survive at all? That is never explained. Why did he systematically go into hiding? Why create Snoke and others to do his dirty work? After all, he is the Emperor, the undisputed leader of the Empire. Presumably, he does not need to hide, one would think. Yet, he does. Why? That, also, is never explained. He just suddenly is there, in some sinister lair on the Sith planet of Exegol. It is never explained how he survived, how he got there, and why he seems to be attached to that weird machine. Is that his life support system? Again, it is not explained. He does not need assistance breathing, as Vader does. And while he seems weaker than we have seen him before, he also seems all-powerful, which is to say more powerful than ever before, simultaneously. Like Obi Wan just before Darth Vader struck him down in the first movie, Emperor Palatine tells Rey that he too will become more powerful if she strikes him down. In fact, he will reside within her.
I don’t know. That seems a bit…well, forced. Weak.
Yes, I understand that J.J. Abrams was kind of put into a very difficult position by Rian Johnson famously throwing a monkey wrench into the machinery of the Star Wars traditional story, and I will get back to that later. For now, I will say that whole Johnson actually had some good and truly innovative ideas, and brought back unpredictability and even a degree of reality.
But the problem with Palpatine surviving is that it completely detracts from the sacrifice of Anakin Skywalker at the end of ‘Return of the Jedi.’ After all, the prophecy that he fulfilled was to bring balance back to the Force. Yet, with the Emperor still alive, he actually has not done that, and so he sacrificed his own life, and apparently for nothing. No, I do not like that. It is a worse betrayal of the legacy of the original films than Luke tossing the lightsaber and refusing to train Rey in ‘The Last Jedi.’ That was a huge problem in this movie.
One of the questions that was never satisfactorily addressed was how Palpatine managed to survive. Upon first learning that Palpatine would be making another appearance in this last Skywalker saga movie, I had kind of expected Emperor Palpatine to be a Force ghost. That was not the case. He actually literally survived the fall and the apparent electrical explosion at the end of ‘Return of the Jedi.’ Yet, not completely, because he seemed to need the use of that machine that seemed to be propping him up, almost like an external version of the body armor/uniform/life support system that kept Darth Vader fully alive and mobile, only this left Palpatine more stationary. He has no pupils and, presumably, no eyesight. He seemed almost half dead at times, although that was likely to make him appear more sinister and zombie or ghost like. I did not see how the energy that he sapped from Ben and Rey would somehow have given him more life and fixed his wounds, however. Perhaps it was mixed with Rey’s bizarre healing abilities (more on that in a little while). That seemed a bit strange and rather cartoonish, and not quite adequately explained, either. If he needed the use of that machine, most likely it was because some aspects of him were broken, and it hardly seems that whatever he sucked out from those two would have necessarily fixed all that.
The Emperor’s Lair, or cave, or whatever that was on the planet Exegol, was kind of cool. Probably a bit forced, because it was predictably eerie, in a kind of overdone way. I did like the chanting, which reminded me a bit of the eerie, strange chanting used in Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic ‘The Shining.’
There were aspects of this film that I liked very much, and then, obviously, some things that I did not really care for. So, let me begin to dissect some of the things that I liked, versus those that I felt took away from the movie, rather than enhanced it.
I kind of expected and even appreciated some of the Easter eggs, although they began to feel like simply too much after a while. But again, there was an emotional punch to Luke’s reappearance, brought on by Rey throwing his old saber into the fire, and Luke intercepting it. I liked Han Solo’s reappearance as well, and his simple line, “I know,” which like when used in ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ effectively cut through yet enhanced the emotion behind the sentiments of the moment. Leia outright told him that she loved him back then, while Ben struggled to find the words, but was saved from having to do so with these two simple words. Speaking of Ben/Kylo, I liked his story arc, and appreciated his turn from the Dark Side to become a Jedi again, fitting as a Skywalker, right at the end.
Rey’s rise to fully become a Jedi knight was predictable, and her turn, if you can call it that, to becoming a “Skywalker” was not what I expected, yet more or less acceptable. Better than being a Palpatine, right? But that said, I still think that all three of these movies suffered from making her a little too perfect, almost completely devoid of flaws. There were a couple of opportunities in this movie when she might have come close to turning towards the Dark Side, particularly when she shot out the lightning and blew up the ship, and believed that she had killed Chewie. Then, she uses the moment that Kylo Ren gets distracted by his mother, Leia, to pierce him with his own lightsaber after he seems to have defeated Rey. It could have been interesting to explore that side of Rey a little more, to make her temptation to the Dark Side feel more real, more of an immediate threat. Of course, we also outright catch a glimpse of a different version of Rey, the one who has given herself to the Dark Side. This was kind of cool, and reminiscent of Luke’s glimpse of his own possible turn to the Dark Side when he sees his own face in Vader’s helmet in ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’ It could have improved the movie to make her feel more realistic, more human, and to be tempted by the Dark Side, like Anakin, Ben, and even Luke were at times. Frankly, it would have made her more interesting. Some flaws would have made her feel more relatable.
That is a flaw throughout this last trilogy. Rey is too perfect, from the beginning of this trilogy, right to the end, and that made it hard to feel any kind of struggle. She seems tempted by the Dark Side, but the light side wins out every single time. Anakin was tempted, and eventually gave in. Luke was tempted, and he really struggled with it. Rey apparently was tempted, and like all other challenges, she overcomes this with a degree of ease that feels frankly unrealistic. After all, she seems to have mastered the deepest intricacies of the Force with hardly any effort on her part. Remember in the first movie, she had never picked up a lightsaber before, and certainly never handled one in battle. Yet, she manages not only to hold her own against a master of the Force, but she outright defeats Kylo Ren. Then in this movie, she defeats the Emperor, and with such ease. He is trying to electrocute her, and she successfully resists – as Mace Windu had done before her - by using not one, but two lightsabers (unlike Windu). Apparently, he never thinks to stop trying to electrocute her, even though it literally tears him apart and (presumably) kills him. That was kind of weak.
All the Sith being in Palpatine, and all of the Jedi being in Rey seemed a bit…well, illogical and, frankly, anti-climactic. Ian McDiarmid
Why couldn’t Kylo Ren have been the main villain? Don’t get me wrong: I really enjoyed Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Palpatine. He was a scary villain in the original trilogy, and his character going from a seemingly normal, albeit very ambitious politician, and becoming ever more sinister, until he becomes the all-powerful Emperor, the Sith master of evil. But again, my understanding was that he died. And that was how George Lucas devised it, too, because he told Ian McDiarmid that the Emperor was dead, as well.
Yet here he is again. And the story of how he managed to cheat death is never really explained, other than his words – repeated from the same character’s own words in ‘Revenge of the Sith’ – are the closest to an explanation that we get, which is that the Dark Side is a path to many abilities that some would consider unnatural.
Not much of an explanation there.
Those are some huge holes with this movie, and they lack consistency with the whole Skywalker saga. Many of these things just do not seem to make sense. And that is a shame, because this is the final film for the Skywalker saga. There will be no other chances to try and get this one right. This movie feels too forced, too compromised in that regard. It very well might have been detrimental to the whole saga.
Star Wars is, to me, American mythology at its finest, blending Greek style family drama with incredible modern technology, and just a touch of both eastern-style mysticism and western religious traditions. It transcended a cartoonish kind of labeling to become a classic. Meanwhile, the newest movies - particularly the newest - tries to do way too much in too short a time. The pacing in this last movie was such that you hardly had time to digest what just happened, before something else occurs and, at least in one case, completely contradicts what you thought you had understood. Made me long for the slower pace and simpler feel of the old Star Wars saga.
On Thursday evening of the 19th of December, the night before it was officially released, my son and I went to see the latest Star Wars movie ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’ I then reviewed it on Friday morning, being careful to avoid any spoilers, at least any big spoilers.
It was exciting to see this, because Star Wars has come to mean a lot to both my son and I. After all, as a kid, I grew up on it, at least from just after ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ onwards. That meant that I actually saw the original movie, which was then still mostly known as ‘Star Wars’ (it would only later be popularly known as ‘A New Hope’). I could not seem to find a way to watch ‘The Empire Strikes Back,” and read the book of it that I got from Scholastic Books (remember them?). So I was familiar with the story, and collected the toys and all of that, and looked forward to what I thought would be many more movies.
When it finally was released, it was so exciting! I remember how modern, how new, ‘Return of the Jedi’ seemed to me at the time. Luke had a green lightsaber! He wore black, and the picture quality and special effects felt way better than the prior two movies. It holds up relatively well, even after all of these years. I know some people detract from it, for various reasons. Some took exception to the cuteness factor of the Ewoks, which seemed to preceded the disastrous Jar Jar Binks many years later, who was a character clearly meant for little children, but who in fact was a source of extreme irritation for most Star Wars fans, both passionate and more casual.
Still, Star Wars felt like magic back then. Of course, I was a kid still myself. But it aspired kids like me to dream of the universe out there, amidst the stars of the night sky. It gave us heroes who we could cheer for, and villains who would live within our minds long after the closing credits. And it gave us conflicts and drama worthy of Greek mythology, all with the backdrop of a very futuristic universe, where the technology far exceeded our own, yet with a somehow simpler feel to it all.
Frankly, to me, Star Wars is nothing short of modern American mythology at it’s finest, and I do not say that lightly.
Yes, I watched and was excited for the new Star Wars movies, but the prequels infamously were not quite on par with the originals. The newest sequels in this latest trilogy have been criticized. Most people really liked ‘The Force Awakens,’ while there is a lot of polarization in opinions with the follow-up, ‘The Last Jedi,’ with some loving it, and others hating it with a passion.
Personally, I feel that there was a lot to both like and dislike with ‘The Last Jedi.’ Whether you liked it or hated it, it seems to me that Rian Johnson should get points for taking an original, unpredictable approach. He had some interesting ideas, although not all of them worked. Also, the movie felt disjointed, almost like Johnson was making a point of contradicting the normal narrative of one of these Star Wars movies, just throwing a monkey wrench into the machinery, if you will. Yet, my son (who was 12 years old when we saw the movie) absolutely loved it, and felt that it was his favorite Star Wars movie.
Until now. Yes, he liked ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ that much.
In that regard, perhaps this movie was a success, and will carry on the magic of Star Wars to a newer generation, even if movies like this risk irking older fans who first got into the original trilogy.
And that kind of speaks of a certain success in it’s own right, does it not?
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