REVIEW: ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ is a fun, familiar paradox
Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, and John Boyega star in Star Wars: Episode 9 - The Rise of Skywalker, directed by J.J. Abrams.
More than most film franchises I can think of, Star Wars is founded on paradoxes. It’s the unforeseeable financial juggernaut that emerged from a scrappily-made space story with bizarre mythology. It’s a billion-dollar merchandising success launched by a filmmaker who wanted to be free of corporate control. It advances the idea that human spirit can defeat technological evil, while pushing computer-driven moviemaking to its limits.
And perhaps one of the biggest Star Wars paradoxes of all is how to make one that everyone can enjoy. It’s probably an impossible task; the series has ballooned and consumed so many generations of fandom that the “quintessential Star Wars” is a quality that simply can’t be reproduced. Few other cinematic stories carry this much baggage or inflame so many debates. Those of us who love Star Wars love it dearly, and we hate everyone else who loves it.
So a bit of context: I was introduced to Star Wars through the Special Editions of the original trilogy. I watched them constantly, often with family. The mini-documentary on the edits, included on the VHS tapes, fuelled my fascination with how movies are made. I watched the prequel trilogy in theatres, at the exact preteen age that George Lucas was aiming for. I slowly recognized the prequels’ faults, and came to terms with them. I dutifully keep them near the bottom of any series ranking.
But I also love The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, for different reasons. The fan in me that slowly disconnected from the prequels was utterly satisfied with the nostalgia-fuelled Episode 7, and the cinephile in me that wanted Star Wars to challenge me was thrilled with Episode 8. So now we come to the final chapter of the Skywalker film saga: The Rise of Skywalker. Star Wars will continue, but the characters responsible for the greatest schisms in the fandom will (allegedly) remain in the footnotes of future installments.
If it isn’t already apparent, I love these movies. I recognize their flaws, and I’m okay with them. I expect the films to function on a basic story level, but I don’t expect more than I do from the original movie and its Joseph Campbell formula, where Lucas draped his rich world-building. For me, The Rise of Skywalker is decidedly middle-tier Star Wars. It’s not nearly as frustrating as many clickbait-y headlines - thirsty for the partisan rage that kept pundits in the black when The Last Jedi came out - will attempt to argue. Quite simply, I had a great time watching The Rise of Skywalker, and I expect to do so again. Without a doubt, I can see the seams in its construction. But like all the characters who have called the Millennium Falcon home over the years, I’m happy to look past the dents.
Can’t beat friends hanging out in the Falcon.
The film begins several months after The Last Jedi. The Resistance are in hiding, still licking their wounds from being nearly wiped out by The First Order at the end of the previous film. The mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) is dead, but Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) now runs the organization. However, before he can track down our heroes, a broadcast from outside the galaxy arrives. It’s coming from the big bad of the two previous trilogies: Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).
Thought to have died decades ago, Palpatine has resuscitated himself as a clone, and has built a new fleet of warships equipped with miniaturized Death Star lasers, each one capable of destroying a planet. Outgunned (when are Star Wars heroes not?), Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) have to track down an ancient device that can lead them to Palpatine, so they can put an end to everyone’s favourite cackling Sith Lord before he can retake his throne.
From an outsider’s perspective, there’s not a lot of new content here. Big space battle with bad odds? Check. A search for the true path within a hokey religion? Check. Some people will find the various attempts at subverting expectations - like answers to the questions about Rey’s backstory - to be overly convenient. The contention will be that the writers were backed into a corner, or that they masterminded an apologetic correction of the previous film’s “errors”. To me, nothing in The Rise of Skywalker is any more of a retcon than Luke finding out about his parentage in The Empire Strikes Back. Rewriting material in this grand story of noble lineages is in Star Wars’ DNA.
J.J. Abrams, returning to the director’s seat after the electric jolt of Rian Johnson’s turn at the helm, seems to be fully in his Force Awakens mode. He replicates the character dynamics of the original trilogy just as handily as the warm-and-fuzzies from Finn and Poe’s bromance. In a way, you need a filmmaker like Abrams to close out a rough-around-the-edges saga like this. One of Abrams’ skills is confidently remixing classic properties, like Star Trek or the movies of Steven Spielberg, and having him wrangle the many plot threads of this movie is welcome. There’s a lot going on this movie - some will think far too much - and yet I never felt lost. As revolutionary as Rian Johnson’s contributions are, sometimes a series needs to give the viewer a stable platform to orient themselves.
Adam Driver continues to put in amazing work as Kylo Ren.
At the center of the whole thing are Rey and Kylo Ren, and they rightly hold onto their status as some of my favourite characters in the franchise. Yes, Rey’s character arc follows in the exact footsteps as Luke’s in The Return of the Jedi, down to Palpatine’s tactics in tempting her to change sides. But plot is merely the vehicle for entertainment in this series, and I was never bored by the showdowns between the Resistance fleet and the Final Order, or between Rey and Palpatine. The filmmakers manage to re-stage a similar story, only with even more stirring visuals.
There are plenty of odd choices, loose threads, and other head-scratchers, and yet I don’t really mind. There are at least three examples of fake-out deaths, and it would have been nice for at least one of them to stick. But what is a Force ghost, present in the series since Episode 5, if not a way for writers to bring beloved characters back from the grave? All the puzzlements aside, The Rise of Skywalker still feels like Star Wars, just as The Last Jedi also did, in its radical way, and that’s the most important thing.
Perhaps the greatest gift that this film can give is to put a bow on a block of films that have caused no end of strife. With this story done, the folks at Lucasfilm can jump hundreds of years in the chronology, one way or another, and fill out the universe in a new (and hopefully less emotionally charged) fashion.
Does The Rise of Skywalker change and re-contextualize what fans once thought was gospel? Of course - but no more so than any other installment. George Lucas’ greatest innovation was a story, built of spare parts, that could be many things to many people. It’s a story he could never finish tinkering with; neither could any fan, novelist, comic writer, game developer, or subsequent filmmaker. No one can really tell you what Star Wars is. One thing it isn’t: finished.
Star Wars: Episode 9 - The Rise of Skywalker gets three stars out of four.
Stray thoughts
Part of me wants to know more about Palpatine’s family and part of me doesn’t. Did he rape or artificially inseminate some woman?
Random things I loved: lightspeed skipping, the final battle in the throne room, Rey’s lightsaber, Rey and Kylo’s Force connection, the duel on the wrecked Death Star.
Need evidence of Star Wars being made for kids? Look no further than how movies put so much weight in a handful of fairly chaste kisses between characters.
C-3PO had some great dialogue and I won’t hear any argument on the matter.