After the highly divisive The Last Jedi fan reactions, director J.J. Abrams (of The Force Awakens and Lost fame) returns to conclude the Disney Star Wars trilogy as satisfyingly as possible. To his credit, he tries to do several things here: wrap up the trilogy he started, tie up the nine-film “Skywalker Saga” nicely, and focus on course-correcting, especially when it comes to the previous film in this trilogy. Naturally, doing all of this in a mere two-and-a-half hours in such a way that will please fans both old and new is a near-impossible task. The question is, how well does he pull it off?
Let’s start with the story. Emperor Palpatine (the wonderful Ian McDiarmid) has inexplicably survived a pretty long fall down that shaft–not to mention the destruction of the Death Star–in the climax of Return of the Jedi. Well, now the conniving, fearsome baddie is back, and has sent out messages across the galaxy to trumpet his return. He’s got his eyes on the Resistance, of course, and wants to destroy them with the massive fleet of Star Destroyers at his disposal. But more importantly, he wants to track down Rey (Daisy Ridley) because the prune-faced villain has a special interest in her.
This new information about Palpatine’s return sends Rey and her friends Poe (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega), and C-3P0 (Anthony Daniels) on a galaxy-wide scavenger hunt. The first hour of the film consists of them travelling from planet to planet, collecting MacGuffins, and often stopping to shout exposition at each other. Although it’s great to finally see all of these characters together, this is still easily the weakest part of the film. Additionally, Finn still doesn’t really have a whole lot to do here.
Also to Abrams’ credit, Carrie Fisher’s posthumous scenes (re-purposed unreleased footage from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi) work surprisingly well. It’s especially impressive, considering how clear it is that the actress herself isn’t actually there.
Easily the best element of these new films is still the connection between Rey and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Without giving anything away, The Rise of Skywalker carries their Force-Skype sessions over from The Last Jedi. Unfortunately, Abrams tries so hard to please audiences with fan service that it’s difficult not to feel as if you’re drowning in quicksand at times. References to not only the classic films, but the previous ones in this trilogy are fired fast and furious.
There are so many questions that this “final chapter” raises, and plot threads as well, that it ultimately feels like two movies in one. There are new Force powers introduced, new lineages retconned, new armies amassed–not because these elements make sense within the plot, but because the film demands them. The overall plot feels incoherent and rushed as a result, with huge logical gaps, which is disappointing considering that this is billed as the finale to a nine-film saga that has spanned forty-two years. Sadly, even the lightsaber battles become repetitive; the throne room battle from The Last Jedi was more memorable. The dialogue and writing is some of the worst it has been in the entire series.
This saga conclusion also plays it extremely safe. Whether you loved or hated The Last Jedi, at least Johnson took risks there, even if not every one of them paid off in a satisfying way. The Rise of Skywalker, on the other hand, is completely predictable and poorly executed. Trust me, if you’ve seen Return of the Jedi, you’ve already seen this one.
In the end, despite some nice touches and a few surprises, the result is largely a mess. Abrams ultimately fails to land the ship, even as he pulls out all the stops to please every generation of Star Wars fans. Again, this is not entirely his fault, as he is simply trying to course-correct the problems created by Rian Johnson and Kathleen Kennedy. The Rise of Skywalker definitely suffers from a lacking middle chapter, but this director would also be wise to step back and take a look at some of the troubles he established in The Force Awakens. This “final chapter” suffers from trying to please too many fans, but ultimately pleases nobody.
★★ out of four
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence.
141 minutes.
THE REEL REVIEWER WITH JOSHUA KROEGER 