The Rise of Sky Walker surprised me by not being anything that I expected. It didn't do what I had imagined but also didn't do what others were predicting. By doing so it allowed me the surprise and wonder I had when I first saw the first trilogy as a child. In the meantime I have built up expectations and demands which this film wasn't willing or able to give me. but in the end it also connected me to the entire Star Wars experience, to my own history with the series, and I guess, if I was being honest, that is what I was looking for.
The Force Awakens was about bringing us back to the world of Star Wars and The Last Jedi was about upending all we thought we knew. Now The Rise of Skywalker is about bringing it all full circle. There are almost endless plots which need to be resolved and a plethora of characters who need to be showcased. There wasn't time to do all of it. The ambition here is immense, and perhaps the film doesn't always succeed it capturing it all. But it is admirable in the attempt, truly a fan's tribute.
The Rise of Skywalker goes at breakneck speed. Structured differently than any Star Wars film before it eschewing the typical at structure of these films, Skywalker hits the ground running and barely stops to breathe. At times I felt overwhelmed with the pace, but eventually I got into the rhythm. My main critique of this film would be its relentlessness but I understand it is trying to pack in a whole lot of story. Sometimes it goes too far. When there is so much to do introducing Keri Russell's character seems to use up important screen time for not much payoff. But on the other hand the introduction of Naomi Ackie's character is quite refreshing. In some ways the story being told here needed to be 4 hours long to really do it all justice. There is some much packed in here, some of it is powerful, some rushed. I felt Revenge of the Sith has a similar ambition problem but both find ways to tie up the endings emotionally even if they don't wrap everything up clearly.
While it often feels it is packing too much in it also focuses more narrowly that I expected. It takes our core group, Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, and fixates on them. We get a good amount of Leia and Lando (I mean I always want more Leia but given the constraints of the situation they managed that well) but mostly this film focuses on the sequel trilogy's core. Characters new and old like Rose and even R2D2 get sidelined a bit. The rest of the galaxy happens in the back ground. This helps the movie get grounded which it needs to balance all of the references it tries to pack in. We end not with the connections of the new characters but with our core and their love for each other. I was taken aback at how much this affected me, both in seeing our heroes come together at the end but also with seeing the legends find peace. Still there will be those who want resolution to the newer characters and stories reach fulfillment. The film throws a few bones in that direction but stays rooted in the main line story. It is this tension and the failure to completely resolve this which most prevents The Rise of Skywalker from reaching the heights of the series. But as I said it comes close.
Despite this The Rise of Skywalker is a fan's wish list of characters, items, ideas, places, ships, everything we nerd out about so much that we want to revisit. However if the main fault with this film is how much it tries to do I'm okay with that. I very much enjoyed seeing it all come together, all fit in, even messily, and not in the ways I had imagined or hoped. I liked that it wasn't the movie I expected, not the story I would have told. Lately our film culture is to expect we are entitled to get our story told instead of the story the film makers want to tell. I let myself sit back and let the story I was seeing guide me. I didn't need it to plot out my dreams. I needed it to surprise me and entertain me. It did that.
I had my own ideas about where Rey and Kylo Ren should go in their arcs, what I wanted to see from Poe and Finn. But the movie made me see there are other possibilities and that's okay. What I did like is how the film focuses on giving them their agency, they get to be fully realized people who make their own choices and in the end create their own identities. The final moments are about choosing who you want to be, not being told who you are. I know a big plot point will be controversial. It was a meaningful story for me and I had ideas about where it should go. But even though it didn't get there the way I had thought it got there in another way. We get to choose who we are. That is a lesson this whole series has been wrestling with since 1977, never truly achieving, until now. It was always held back from us, but The Rise of Skywalker gets us there. For me that was a truly meaningful end to this journey.
I have been watching Star Wars movies my whole life. Yes, this chapter is over as this story line, the story line of the Skywalkers, is done, but I will always have it. The Rise of Skywalker won't be my favourite chapter in the saga but it will still be beloved to me as a part of something I truly love, something that gives me joy, something that I will return to again and again. And it gives me a fitting close.
Now bring on more Star Wars!
** Spoiler Section**
Okay I'll say a bit more but this part touches on plot points so don't read it if you don't want to know.
One of the main critiques of the film, which I am sympathetic to as I had similar feelings upon my first viewing, is that The Rise of Skywalker "undoes" much of the progress The Last Jedi made. I think this is a misreading of the film. It is based on the idea that the film must match our expectations of how to deal with these issues to actually deal with the issues. Upon more viewings I came to see the film didn't need to resolve The Last Jedi's questions in the way I had in mind to actually resolve them.
For example The Rise of Skywalker faced a number of challenges including resolving the arcs of Rey and Kylo Ren. First Ren's redemption was necessary but difficult. How do you find a way to make it honest without betraying all the bad he had done and what he represented as the heir apparent, a spoiled man child who needs to control the galaxy and looses his temper when a woman becomes the hero instead of him. Well this is where I think the film reaches some of its best moments. Watching it a couple times I came to see it was Leia who saved him. It was only the unconditional love of his mother which could save him from who he made himself to be and undoes his entitlement. And once he was saved he could do what he needed to do, sacrifice himself and his needs for Rey for the real hero of the story. While I don't feel their kiss was necessary his death was, like Anakin's before him, also saved by the unconditional love of his family. He comes to the place where he realizes he has to support her place as the lead.
Finally Rey's arc, finding out who she "is." She finds out that is completely up to her. Many who liked the idea that she comes from "no where" are upset she is given a family lineage. But again I think this misses the point. She is told who she is and what that means and she rejects that, given the ultimate act of agency she chooses who she is, no one can tell her. We get not only to see Rey's story resolved but we get to see Leia's as well. We see her Jedi skills as we never have in live action before. Despite the loss of Carrie Fisher the film makers were able to give her the heroic arc she always deserved. And at the end we have Rey, Finn (clearly force sensitive himself), and Poe, embracing in one of the many emotional beats the film manages to make for us. Weather it is Luke and Leia's ghosts, Han's memory, Chewbacca finally receiving his medal, C3P0's true heroism, The Rise of Skywalker moved me more than I expected it to.
Because it's not about fan service as critics will want to say. It is about delivering on all that has been built to so far. Yes the film is obsessed with that but that is what endings are about. When I came to let the film be what it was and not what I had set out for it to be, I was able to see if met and often exceeded what I had in mind. Is the film perfect? No. There remain some changes I would want to see. I still see Episode VIII as being the strongest in the new trilogy. But this film, like each of the Episodes before it, has offered me something special and will be a satisfying conclusion to the epic each time I watch it.
Star Wars Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker
Starring: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Naomi Ackie, Kelly Marie Tran, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Naomi Ackie, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Jimmy Vee, Greg Grunberg, Dominic Monaghan, Denis Lawson, Warwick Davis, Andy Serkis, James Earl Jones, Ewan McGregor, Frank Oz, Freddie Prinze Jr., Ian McDiarmind, Harrison Ford
Director: JJ Abrams
Writers: Chris Terrio, JJ Abrams
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