Welcome back to my occasional movie review series. It's been a LONG time since I have reviewed a movie on here, but I decided to give it another shot after seeing the latest Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker. I have a lot to say about the film, but I do want to point out that this will not be a spoilers free review. From this point on there will be spoilers for both this movie and the other movies in the Disney Star Wars series. You have been warned.
As you are certainly aware, the movies that preceded this one were divisive to say the least. In my initial review of The Last Jedi, I gave a mixed review, acknowledging the films flaws but still defending some of the better points of the film. And I also reviewed Solo: A Star Wars story as well, giving it a meh out of ten, it's a film that exists but that's about all I can say about it.
I have since seen both films again, and my opinion of each has diminished greatly. The flaws I pointed out in The Last Jedi were almost franchise killing on a second viewing and I no longer think the film has much in the way of positive qualities, at least in terms of story. Indeed, I think it was so bad now that it retroactively made The Force Awakens worse. And Solo? To be honest, other than the crazy Darth Maul cameo at the end, I've almost entirely forgotten the movie.
It's not surprising then that I skipped out on watching The Rise of Skywalker until now. The film had mixed reviews from fans with fans of The Last Jedi hating it and fans of the original movies liking it more. With a sour taste in my mouth from the previous films and very low expectations I decided to wait until the film showed up on my Netflix DVD queue (and yes, I still get DVD's, there's a wider selection to choose from, DVD's are mobile and it's way better than subscribing to a dozen different streaming services).
And after having seen it now, what do I think? It's mixed to be sure. I don't think it was a bad movie but it was a bad Star Wars movie. It was a well made film, with decent acting but a stupid story and bad ending. Had it been in a different franchise or had a better lead in film, I'd be willing to cut it more slack but even then I still don't think it was that good.
But before I get into the bad, I do have to say some good things about the movie. The settings, special effects and acting were all very good, for the most part. The action scenes seemed credible to me and were a lot more exciting than the ones in The Last Jedi. The effects shots were pretty good and you can tell there was a good mix of CGI and practical effects, which is an improvement over the prequels.
I also liked all the throwback fanservice. Disney could have gone another way with this and pretend that the prequel eras and the original series didn't exist, but they went out of the way to bring a lot of actors and characters back from those movies. The list of these characters is too long to write but bringing back Lando in a major role and the cameos from Wedge Antillies and all the various Jedi in the end were great. Lando especially was well needed as it was egregious that Billy Dee Williams hadn't been in any of the sequel films, or even the side stories! Even the poorly treated Hayden Christensen was given a cameo line. And they even brought back many of the old fighters and starships from those movies too, even though I still don't think we actually got to see much of the B-Wings in action.
It's also clear that JJ Abrams wanted to fix some of the more annoying things about The Last Jedi. For one thing the Rose/Finn plotline was mostly dropped and Rose is mostly a cameo appearance, though even there she's greatly improved from the pointless filler she was in the last movie. Honestly, she probably should have had a large role in order to redeem the character, but it's probably all they could do to Jar-Jar her in this movie. Thankfully, the "romance" arc with her and Finn, which made zero sense in the first place, was totally dropped.
The much maligned "Holdo Maneuver", where ramming starships at relativistic speeds somehow doesn't totally break the setting gets nerfed in this film. A throw away line mentions that it was a one in a million shot, which is enough to explain why the entire setting wasn't broken by The Last Jedi. Though a throw away line, it was much appreciated. There is also a lot less social justice pushing in this movie and we don't have any forced diversity characters like Admiral "Dangerhair" Holdo from The Last Jedi. I think I might have seen two chicks making out at the celebration scene but whatever, it's a blink and you miss it thing and there isn't any point in this movie where it was clear that the creators were flipping a middle finger at red tribe America like they did in The Last Jedi.
I also appreciate that Abrams actually bothered to answer some of the questions that Rian Johnson not only refused to answer but even made fun of us for asking. We found out what Snoke was and who Rey's parents were. Those answers weren't great, at all, but I do appreciate that Abrams main goal was making a story that made sense (kinda), not just subverting everyone's expectations for the sake of it.
I also am happy that Rey seemed like less of a Mary Sue in this character. Instead of just being handed all of her power, she actually works for it this time. She is shown getting trained by Leia so her powers make more sense now and she even fails once or twice, which is a huge step up over her "can't lose at anything" persona in the previous two films. She's still overpowered, but at least now there's a better reason for it as she's the Emperor's daughter.
Finally, I'm glad that the three main characters, Finn, Poe and Rey, actually spent time together in this movie. In the last one, they were split up for the whole film and it greatly hurt the film as these actors do have pretty good chemistry together. Seeing them interact was nice, though it did made me mad that Johnson somehow managed to screw that up.
So what didn't I like about this film? The story. The god damned story. As much as I loved seeing Ian McDiarmid hamming it up as Emperor Palpintine, his existence in this film makes pretty much no sense. The Emperor was dead after the Return of the Jedi. Totally not coming back, thrown down the shaft and blown up, never see him again dead. But he comes back again now?
I know the movie tries to handwave this by mentioning the speech in Return of the Sith where the Emperor claims to have the power over life and death, but still, it makes zero sense. Plus it's a shameless rip-off of the Dark Empire comic book series back in the day, where it also made zero sense. The Emperor was dead. Can't stress that enough.
Plus I think it pretty much makes Anakin Skywalker's arc over six movies pretty pointless. Why was he the chosen one, the one to bring balance to the force if he was just going to die and kill the Emperor for nothing? He came back again even after his sacrifice? Makes the whole first six movies a waste of time.
And of course, the movie screwed up in how they announced it as well. We find out that Palpatine is back in the OPENING SCRAWL! There is not shock to this as it's literally the first thing that happens. There is not shocking scene at the climax of the movie that the Emperor is back, it's just out there right away. It would have had more meaning if it was a twist for later in the movie, not just the first thing that happens.
Of course, nobody was shocked by this as the Emperor's return was spoiled by both the trailers and marketing. Indeed, the only way to hear what the Emperor's message was is to watch the video of it... taken in a Fortnite event. I'm not kidding.
I think this would have been more forgivable had there been any foreshadowing of this at all in the previous films. Indeed, how hard would it have been to drop a couple of hints that Snoke was just a puppet and that the true power is still out there? It would have been that good of a storyline regardless, but the execution could have been way better. The absolute refusal of Rian Johnson to give any help to JJ Abrams hurt this movie pretty badly and this is another example of it.
There are other problems with the plot too. The dagger as a McGuffin didn't make any sense as why would anyone build this? Why did it have the location in it. Why couldn't C-3PO just tell us what the damn thing said? I'm generally not a fan of McGuffin plots in the first place but even so, this again wasn't that well executed.
I also have to say that the number of characters in this movie was a little out of control. There were so many of them and most of them only got a few lines at best. There's Poe's old girlfriend, a new friend for Finn (who might be Lando's daughter) a new evil general, and cameos from just about everyone and anyone from the old movies. Though some of the cameos were appreciated it was out of control.
General Hux was wasted in this movie. Far from the sinister villain from the first movie with a great evil speech, or even the universes punching bag in the 2nd, Hux does almost nothing for the entire film, suddenly turns on his comrades and then dies like a chump. Him being a spy doesn't make much sense as though he did hate Kylo Ren, he didn't hate his comrades and I doubt he would have actually turned on them without good reason.
Another plot point I didn't like was the Knights of Ren. They had been built up as this mysterious force of possible dark Jedi that would help Ren hunt down Luke Skywalker's Jedi. Indeed, it was thought that perhaps they WERE Luke's old students, but we don't really find out, they get zero development at all and just die in their second scene. They are just extra mooks that didn't amount to much of anything.
The ending was pretty dumb as well. Rey kills Palpintine somehow with his own Force Lightning. This doesn't make sense as they were just saying Rey would fall to the darkside if she kills him and it also doesn't make sense that the Emperor doesn't just stop shooting the damn lighting when it's clear it's going to mess him up. Regardless, the whole "let's bury Luke and Leia's lightsabers on a planet that he hated with a passion and she spent most of her time on as a sex slave" plotline was about the worst way they could have ended the movie and indeed the series. It makes no sense to return there and even less sense for Rey to take the Skywalker name. Hell, cut that scene out and I'd be willing to bump it up my rating from bleh to meh.
Finally, I have to say that I was disappointed in the final space battle. We get to see two of the biggest fleets ever seen in Star Wars and... that's pretty much it. All of the combat is between the Star Destroyers and starfighters. None of the big ships hit each other and the battle is confused and jumbled. Unlike Rogue One, where you had a real idea of how the ships were fighting each other, all we get is a few "hero shots" where the main characters do everything. I've always loved Star Wars for the space battles and I have to say that out of the Disney movies only Rogue One did it right.
So does the bad outweigh the good here? Sadly, I think it does. I think Abrams did a better job than Rian Johnson did, but that's not saying much. I also don't think it was up to the quality of The Force Awakens, which was at least serviceable. The film could have been way better than it was.
But I will say this. It was an improvement over The Last Jedi. JJ Abrams had an uphill battle and given what he had to work with he did ok. Had this not been a Star Wars movie I'd have liked it more, and the films biggest problems are due the the one that proceeded it. At best I'd say it's so ok it's average and at worst I'd say it's disappointing but still better than The Last Jedi.
As for Star Wars itself, I'm not sure how much of a fan I am anymore. I still love the original series and have a soft spot for the prequels as goofy and jumbled as they are, but Disney's work has been a lot more miss than hit. Out of the five Disney movies they have made one terrible one, three forgettable ones and inexplicably, one masterpiece (Rogue One remains not only my favorite Disney Star Wars movies but in the top three of all time for Star Wars).
I don't have a whole lot of hope for the series going forward. As of right now there aren't any movies in the immediate future and who knows what is going to come out of it when it does happen? So many movies have been put on hold or canceled it's hard to keep track. Right now the franchise is pretty much dead outside of The Mandelorian, the last season of The Clone Wars and the other TV series in the pipeline. Will it be enough to redeem Star Wars? Time will tell.
Until then I did enjoy writing this review as a nice change of pace. It's been too long, despite the fact that I have watched several interesting movies and TV shows. If you would like more of these reviews, let me know in a comment below and if this post is well received I may do more of them in the future.
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