"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Friday, December 20, 2019

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019, PG-13)


I’m still processing The Rise of Skywalker. There’s already enough talk flying around about it to know it’s a divisive movie, albeit in (very) different ways than The Last Jedi. I’d say my feelings don’t veer to either a love-it or hate-it extreme. Overall, I’d say I really liked it but wasn’t enamored of it, and while there are definitely things I take issue with, none of it goes so far as to ruin the film for me (premise spoilers.)

The Resistance is still hanging on in its fight against the First Order, but it’s thrown for a big loop, one major enough to pull Rey away from her Jedi training to join her friends on an important mission. Rey, Finn, and Poe (along with Chewy, C-3PO, and BB-8) head off in the Falcon on a hunt to find the rumored ancestral world of the Sith, where a new dark power is rising.

Since this is ultimately a movie I like and I’d prefer to end things on a higher note, I’ll start with my complaints. The story isn’t all that tight and features a lot of sidetracks – it reminds me a little of episodes of Lost that start with the characters declaring they have to do this Special Important Thing!, then the next 40 minutes of the episode are spent showing their trek across the island to get to the place where they’re gonna do the thing. Also, while I enjoy it as a film and feel it brings things to a pretty good close, the new trilogy as a whole doesn’t feel that cohesive, and this movie sometimes feels like it’s going out of its way to reverse The Last Jedi. Some characters don’t get their due; in particular, we have little chance to get to know the new characters, Rose has a glorified cameo, and I’d have liked to see more for Finn. Finally, rendering unused footage of the late Carrie Fisher into new scenes/settings comes off surprisingly well from a technological standpoint, but Leia isn’t very well-integrated as far as the story goes. In her scenes, the dialogue around her solitary lines often feels noticeably forced to work their way toward whatever lines of Fisher’s that they had available.

All that adds up to a lot, but I think the good stuff really adds up too. Even though, like I said, we only get a little of the new characters, each makes their impression with the limited screentime afforded them. We’re treated both to some neat new worlds and to significant moments with old ones. There’s some terrific action, especially a few super-cool light saber fights, and I love the all-hands-on-deck feel of the big finish – even though this is clearly Rey’s story and she’s the one we follow most, everyone gets to contribute something of value at the end. And while I wish Finn had a bigger role in this film (as well as Poe, for that matter,) the movie definitely offers the largest amount of trio scenes in the entire trilogy. I am such a relentless sucker for good found-family relationship content. I live for a strong trio, and I’ve been waiting years to see all three of these characters involved in good, sustained scenes together.

Nice acting across the board. Our main cast all does good work, with pride of place going to Daisy Ridley’s Rey deciding once and for all who she’s going to be. I also want to single out Adam Driver because, to the extent that Kylo Ren’s story works for me, it works because of him. New cast members include the always-great Richard E. Grant, Keri Russell, a barely-used Dominic Monaghan, and Naomi Ackle, who I’m not very familiar with but who was very good in her scenes as Jannah. And for returns from the old guard, we of course have appearances from Billy Dee Williams (Lando!!) and Ian McDiarmid.

Warnings

Violence, language, scary images, and thematic elements.

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