Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
/“Long have I waited and now, your coming together is your undoing.”
Filmology Rating: 2.38 out of 4
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the final film in a trilogy that wraps up a saga. This marks the return of JJ Abrams in the writer and director chair with story credits from Colin Trevorrow, which explains a lot.
The second the film starts, you immediately postulate that something feels wrong. It's the pacing. The first half of this film can be summed up as being boggy, void of any internal conflict or compelling characters, and an excess of action to distract you from the fact that there is no story - but rather a sequence of things that happen.
The action itself is very forgettable and borderline terrible. The issue is that 'The Force Awakens' was big. Then 'The Last Jedi' was biggerer. Now 'The Rise of Skywalker' needs to be biggererer and it all rings very hollow because of how little you care for the characters.
The only real characters in this film are Kylo Ren and maybe Rey. However, their internal conflict is not addressed until ninety minutes into the film.
This is not as bad as the prequels because in this case, you never cared that much anyways because 'Force Awakens' was set-up, 'Last Jedi' was wheel-spinning, and this is trying to conclude something that was never fully fleshed out opposed to the prequels where it was full of characters you already loved and it completely focused on them and not new characters.
The addition of Palpatine felt very dumb. JJ Abrams has said that Palpatine was the plan all along even though Rian Johnson said there was never any "plan." I truly believe that the only reason you will feel anything in this film is because an elderly actor playing your favorite character appears on-screen or some old John Williams music floods the soundtrack. Otherwise, you simply don't care because nothing feels like it's at stake.
The film is also very plot-oriented. All the characters are in such a rush to do this or get another macguffin that nobody sits down and just talks. Those original three movies always had those little moments and 'Rise of Skywalker' has none of that. It's just concerned about very broad strokes.
It got to a point where it began feeling like a fan film. It became so dumb and blunt that it felt like someone on YouTube made a fan film. Especially the first half, which was very boring as well.
There is also some things that are done with the force in this film that retcon pretty much the entire saga as a whole. I guess that's JJ Abrams "F*** it." It was also surprising how dull the exposition was presented. 'The Force Awakens' had such a restraint to it that this film feels like too much crammed into too little. Perhaps that's Chris Terrio's contribution.
Overall, the film is very broad and boring with poor pacing, and an excess of action to keep your mind busy from the fact that these are no longer three-dimensional characters, but rather beige stand-ins. However, it's certainly not as terrible as other critics or fans may have you believe. It's essentially a "whatever" movie because you never truly cared to begin with.
Like what you want to. It's fine. This sequel trilogy did a reverse prequels where the films now got worse opposed to better like the prequels, which are still perfunctory and awful. So this entire sequel trilogy as a whole is just one big "whatever." That's the one word to sum-up 'Star Wars' now: whatever.
Rating: Skip It
-Nolan
Star Wars has gone from being everyone’s franchise to being a franchise that appeals to the darkest corners of the internet. The films themselves never divided the fandom, but the sickening racism and sexism helped make some of the darkest minded fans feel isolated from the series that they grew up watching. It brought them to a destructive mindset when they realized that they were part of the Empire rather than the Rebellion that they idolized. It would be a foolish dream to wish that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker would heal those broken people and help them come to the light side, but one can hope. However, it could have been easier to heal a broken base with a good film.
The Resistance has gone into hiding after the losses during The Last Jedi. General Leia, played for the last time by Carrie Fisher, is sending out Resistance members with the hope of finding a way to bring the First Order to its knees. Rey, played by Daisy Ridley, has been continuing her Jedi training under Leia with the hope of being a weapon that can go unmatched by the First Order, but little does the Resistance know that a once thought dead enemy has returned from the shadows.
Looking back at Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the biggest complaint was how it wasn’t the film that most audience members wanted. “Not my Star Wars” was one of the biggest statements that I kept seeing pop up, and those people need to get out of the fragile bubble that they live in. The world shouldn’t bow down to their every whim just because they want to bully those who disagree with their opinion. The Last Jedi offered a film that subverted everyone’s expectations which is one of the greatest achievements of the film, but The Rise of Skywalker does little to give an audience a thought provoking film and tries to live on the goodwill of other films in the Saga.
The Rise of Skywalker is creatively bankrupt. For those who were worried that JJ Abrams wouldn’t be able to land a conclusion in a creative way, you had every right to worry. The film takes many callbacks from Return of the Jedi, which should make many filmgoers want to bang their head against a wall. Retelling other films from the saga feels hollow and like a slap in the face. It would be like retelling Citizen Kane or Casablanca every ten years, they are classic stories that generations have grown to love but nothing will ever touch the classics. The original trilogy is incredibly unique and holds a special place in the hearts of millions, and that love cannot simply be replicated by playing Mad Libs with the plots of those films. If fans wanted to relive those stories then they would simply rewatch the films, especially since they have become so easy to access with Disney Plus. Fans and filmgoers don’t need to have nostalgia and fan service shoved down their throats, especially when it feels forced into the film.
Nothing in this film is clear. Why are certain characters brought back to life? How are they brought back to life? How did certain weapons get built? Why does the plot revolve around a ticking time bomb that is only mentioned at the start of this film? It’s basically the line “A great story for another time” line on repeat from The Force Awakens. The stress that screenwriters Chris Terrio and JJ Abrams must have felt should have given them the inspiration to come up with an engaging and fun story but nothing in this film feels either engaging or fun. Terrio and Abrams were left with a near blank slate after The Last Jedi and they could have taken the story anywhere that they wanted, instead they went looking on Reddit and tried to cram in every fan theory without giving any explanation. Looking at the films, the duo have written before it shouldn’t have been a surprise that they couldn’t stick the landing of the film. Terrio was a member of the writing team for the also creatively confused films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League; while Abrams has written other films that require magical macguffins that mean everything at one moment but in reality offer no actual importance to the film such as in Mission Impossible III. This creative duo were the wrong people to bring this cinematic journey to its conclusion and one can only imagine what film we could have been treated to if we have good storytellers involved.
To some it probably seems like I’m just a fanboy upset because I didn’t get what I wanted with this film, I would argue that what I was given makes no sense. I’ve been a Star Wars fan since the age of five and I hope to continue to be, but I need to follow a film that can follow its own internal logic. It has nothing to do with character beats but with the simple storytelling concepts. For me a great story can always overcome shotty filmmaking. When we sit down in the theater we are giving ourselves over to the craft of a storyteller, that storyteller has the ability to bring us on any journey that they wish. The journey just needs to make sense within the world that they have crafted. The Rise of Skywalker cannot keep it’s own cinematic jargon straight and it becomes a headache inducing that you cannot help but laugh to let out the strain that the film is creating.
It’s strange to have a film like this feel so hollow. This film should leave me in tears just like Avengers: Endgame did but I left feeling like I had wasted my time not only watching this film but watching the entire sequel trilogy. The prequels were about the corruption and fall of Anakin Skywalker, the original trilogy was about the redemption of Anakin, and this sequel trilogy is about what? While I don’t need a cut and dry storyarc for this trilogy, I needed something or someone to root for. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is meant to be the conclusion to a story that started over forty years ago and every audience member should leave with a great sense of fulfillment, instead you will leave confounded at why this film even existed other than to put another million dollars into Disney’s bank account.
Rating: Skip It
-Jonny G