This is, apparently, the end of the Star Wars series that started way back in 1977. And it's all over. We now know the stories of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia, plus their parents' stories, plus their kids' stories, and this is the end. It's over. Goodnight. And at a certain point near the end of the over-long Rise of Skywalker, when there are light saber battles going on at the same time as a fight in the sky involving flying ships shooting lasers at each other, I realized that this is a perfect time to end this thing. Not only because this has all been done before, but because I'm tired of it. This is boring. This is been-there-done-that. There is nothing new to add and nobody is going to outdo Star Wars from '77 or Empire from '79. That lightning in a bottle magic is ancient history and won't be repeated in new installments, so why even try anymore? This is the end, and it'd be nice if Disney actually realized that and did us all a favor and retired it forever.
The best character in Rise of Skywalker is C3PO and the best scene in the entire film is when the "Star Wars" logo slams up onto the screen with the great beginning of John Williams' iconic score. I suppose that's saying something, that the best things literally involve nothing new about this modern trilogy of films. It's also pretty surprising that The Last Jedi, which most Star Wars fans think was akin to being stabbed in the back, is probably a better film than this final feature. So what happened exactly? What went wrong? Why have we arrived here, when a by-the-numbers, fairly entertaining, filled to the brim with fan service film is ultimately disappointing?
Supposedly, before George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney, he had been talking to the old gang (Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill) about reprising their roles. There's not really any point in wondering what a George Lucas written/directed 7th Star Wars film would have been like, because we're never going to see it and it probably would have been just as terrible as the awful prequel films. But in retrospect, did Disney do any better? Yes, the JJ Abrams directed 7th installment, The Force Awakens, was a good film. It was fun, simple, entertaining, and it was great to see Ford and Hamill and Fisher back in their old roles. Ultimately it was a misstep, though, as the story they concocted deprived the fans of what they wanted to see all along: a film not only starring the original gang back, but a film with them all together. But no, they came up with a story that left Luke Skywalker absent until the climax, killed off Han Solo before he could ever be in scenes with Luke, then killed off Luke in episode 8, then Carrie Fisher died in real life after episode 8. Disney ruined what everyone wanted to see in the first place. And while the new characters in The Force Awakens were supposed to carry the storyline, by the end of this final picture we now realize that the new character's storylines and arcs aren't that compelling, interesting, bold, new, or worth caring about.
Besides Disney and the unfortunate script choices of The Force Awakens, you can blame writer/director Rian Johnson for the rest of the problems of this new trilogy. After the introduction of Rey, Finn, Poe, Snoke, and Kylo Ren in episode 7, you were curious and interested in their future. What drama would unfold between them? What great adventures would we see? What compelling stories would unfold? But after setting up the beginnings of the story, JJ Abrams left and gave the reigns to Rian Johnson, who apparently had other plans. Johnson killed off Snoke in episode 8 for no good reason, depriving episode 9 of a new, major, big bad to defeat. Johnson also threw away the plot surrounding the mystery of Rey's parents. Johnson not only killed off Luke Skywalker, but he made him give up on the force. So what does JJ Abrams do when he returns to finish off everything in episode 9? He changes everything back! It's almost like episode 8 never happened. Luke Skywalker is now back with the force and a gung-ho hero as if his mysterious, cranky-old-man phase never happened. The evil, big bad villain that was Snoke just becomes the evil, big bad Jedi villain, The Emperor, who somehow never died, simply because they needed a villain thanks to Johnson's failure. And that bit about Rey's parents? They might be somebodies in episode 7. In episode 8 they're just nobodies. Well it's episode 9 and now they're back to being somebodies. Cohesion, people! Is it that hard to write a three movie outline and stick to it? Thanks to a ton of mistakes in the writer's room, this new trilogy ends up a complete mess on numerous levels. And it's not even that the films are terrible. They're not. This new one actually has a great first half and some great special f/x and a fairly interesting story. The problem is that ultimately the potential for something epic and awesome was squandered.
When episode 9, The Rise of Skywalker (which, let's face it, is the ultimate spoiler title), opens, we find the evil Kylo Ren searching and finding a beacon that will take him to a hidden realm amongst the stars where The Emperor, Senator Palpatine, is hiding. The last time we saw The Emperor he was being tossed down a shaft by Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi. It would've been nice if this trilogy had a great, all-star villain that is evil throughout three films and at the end there's an epic battle against him. Sadly, that's not in the cards.
The rest of the plot has Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewbaca, and C3PO travelling to various worlds looking for the second beacon so that they, too, can find where The Emperor is hiding and kill him and also stop his army, which is now known as The Final Order. Is it me, or does it seem like in every Star Wars movie the villains have a whole army and a ton of ships and are ready to rule the universe and kill everyone but they lose...and then the next movie it happens all over again? Doesn't it take time, money, and people to build a whole army? Not only is this plot repetitive but it's ridiculous.
During their adventures, Rey, Finn, Poe, and the crew are involved in a few interesting and exciting sequences. There's an entertaining, fast-paced battle with the heroes on flying vehicles racing across a desert planet. There's a pretty cool light saber battle on the remains of a Death Star ship that crashed in an ocean with giant waves. C3PO's quips and memory wipe storyline are amusing. Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron is a good hero. Finn and Rey, however, are the big stars and don't really get enough that's interesting to do to shine. Carrie Fisher is back thanks to unused old footage, but with so little footage to work with, it ends up being unsatisfying and weird.
What The Rise of Skywalker does have, if you care, is fan service. You want fucking Ewoks? You got 'em! You want Lando Calrissian? You got 'em! You want Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill? You got 'em! What the film also has is cringe inducing silliness that a lot of the others have as well. While nothing in this film is as stupid as Jar Jar Binks or Leia flying through space, seeing The Emperor shooting lightning bolts at Rey while she painstakingly tries to fight it off with her lightsaber is groan-inducingly bad. And while Kylo Ren was at least once a semi-intriguing figure, his ultimate arc in this picture feels forced and unearned. And that's the big problem with this film and with these three new Star Wars films. The great drama of Luke vs. Darth Vader, the chemistry between Leia and Han, the bold, new, exciting scenes in Jaba the Hut's lair and the Walker assault on Hoth are nowhere to be found. This trilogy is just nothing new, nothing fresh, nothing worth caring about. Sure it's entertaining in spots, pretty to look at, amusing, sometimes funny, but it doesn't have the edge, that visceral excitement that the originals had.
The last shot of Rise of the Skywalker is fantastic. It's Tatooine and there are two suns setting and the John Williams' score is playing and you should feel alive, you should feel like pumping your fist and leaving the theater with a big smile on your face. The problem is that the scene happened already. It was with Mark Hamill as Luke in Star Wars in '77. Disney can't even come up with anything new. They're recycling. And it's not working anymore. **1/2
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