Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker Movie Review (No Spoilers!)

The Star Wars franchise is nearly as cosmic as the cinematic universe it inhabits; bursting at the seams with impossible technology, mesmeric world-building and heart-pounding moments, all showcasing timeless themes of courage, family and destiny. Even those who have never watched a Star Wars are aware of its massive cultural footprint on cinema. For many like myself, Star Wars is a cathartic movie-going experience featuring genre-bending action, adventure, comedy, drama, and sometimes even horror, that services the formation of an immensely entertaining piece of fantasy fiction.

Star War: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019) attempts to achieve the improbable in acting as a wholly satisfying footnote for the entire “Skywalker Saga” (Episodes I through IX) while also operating as a three-act story with purpose, structure and coherence. Star Wars is beloved for its charmingly delightful characters, incredibly rich settings and spectacularly emotional resonance; however, it is also infamous for nonsensical storytelling, convenient plot devices, and endless retcons to its own canon. The Rise of Skywalker places all of these components front and center on gratuitous, unapologetic display.

“The dead speak!” From the first line of the traditional opening crawl, The Rise of Skywalker wastes no time letting its audience know that this film is heavily invested in revisiting key moments from the original Star Wars trilogy, much like Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015). The difference between The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker is that the former plays on nostalgia to its advantage, referencing key moments from the original Star Wars trilogy to provide us with a flavor of Star Wars that has not been prevalent since Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983). The latter uses nostalgia as a crutch, constantly reminding us that other characters have already encountered nearly identical internal and external conflicts prior to this final installment and have overcome them with greater satisfaction, leaving the most substantial emotional beats of the film with much to be desired.

To both its advantage and detriment, The Rise of Skywalker moves along at breakneck speed powered by outrageous energy, a quality often apparent in the films of director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, The Force Awakens). Abrams crams mountains of story into roughly 2.5 hours, but the film’s pacing never feels overly long nor dull. At the same time, critical character moments are tightly squeezed together to push the plot forward, suggesting that the film may have benefitted from either less story points spread during its existing runtime or a longer runtime for Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio (Argo, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice) to tell their complete story.

Abrams and Terrio recognize the importance of presenting Star Wars as a grand space odyssey of good versus evil and The Rise of Skywalker is undeniably the grandest Star Wars of all. Never before have the “star wars” of Star Wars looked as astonishing or daunting as the final battle in The Rise of Skywalker. The colossal scale of action in The Rise of Skywalker is unmatched by any other Star Wars film, bar none. Scenes in The Rise of Skywalker featuring Emperor Palpatine are wonderfully executed and expertly shot, despite how oddly bizarre the character’s machinations frequently are throughout the film. Actress Daisy Ridley (Rey) and actor Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) ooze charisma onscreen both together and apart, bowing out of The Rise of Skywalker with arguably their finest Star Wars performances yet. It’s also incredibly satisfying to watch the three primary heroes of the Star Wars sequel trilogy (Rey, Finn and Poe) together at last for an epic adventure after following divergent paths in both Abrams’ The Force Awakens and director Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VII - The Last Jedi (2017). A large majority of this film is absolute, unabashed fun.

The Rise of Skywalker builds upon various ideas initially established in The Force Awakens, but half-heartedly backtracks on the progression of those ideas as they were developed by The Last Jedi. It’s unfortunately unsurprising that The Rise of Skywalker feels very much like a direct sequel to The Force Awakens rather than The Last Jedi in an admirable, but inevitably doomed attempt to reconcile the Star Wars fandom’s well-documented differences of opinion on the Star Wars franchise post-The Last Jedi. Popular fan theories dating back to the first teaser trailer for The Force Awakens are not only implied, but openly acknowledged in The Rise of Skywalker. The result of this uninspired approach is a disjointed smorgasbord of events loosely taped together in a botched effort to appease all fans rather than construct something new and fresh. The Rise of Skywalker often plays more like reading a Reddit post or watching a YouTube video rather than watching an actual Star Wars story naturally unfold.

The problems with The Rise of Skywalker ultimately boil down to an intense need for acceptance from all sides of the Star Wars fandom by Star Wars production company LucasFilm rather than a sincere desire by LucasFilm to deliver on a story completely of their own design. This shortsighted decision leads to an unsatisfying conclusion to the 42-year-old cinematic narrative.

The Star Wars sequel trilogy offers powerful and relevant themes of stolen childhoods, impossible expectations and fond remembrance, but fails to step outside of the franchise’s own shadow to become something greater or even something unique unto itself, much like the prequel trilogy is when compared to the original trilogy, despite the prequel trilogy’s palpable faults. While this new trilogy is a massive step-up from the disastrous prequel trilogy that effectively ended the cinematic franchise involvement of impassioned Star Wars creator George Lucas, it has become painfully obvious now that there was a lack of cohesive plotting by LucasFilm for Star Wars Episodes VII, VIII & IX.

Lucas himself once declared of the original trilogy and prequel trilogy, “It’s like poetry, sort of – they rhyme;” regrettably, for fans of the franchise, LucasFilm has made it abundantly clear with The Rise of Skywalker and its modern library of Star Wars films (with the notable exception of The Last Jedi) that Star Wars movies no longer simply “rhyme” – they are instead a reminder of what was, as well as what could have been.

At this point, Star Warsis no longer invested in pushing the boundaries of cinema as the inspiring storytelling of the original trilogy did and the innovative special effects the prequel trilogy had done, opting instead for the establishment of a franchise that now chooses safe and sound over brave and bold, as has become the norm for the various production companies acquisitioned by and positioned under the umbrella of the Walt Disney Company, such as Disney Animation, Marvel and Pixar. Emperor Palpatine might even call this current status quo “ ironic;” for what was once a franchise lavish with infinite ideas, has now become a breeding ground for monotony – at least as far the movies are concerned.

3/5

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- Jamie Anderson, Lawrence Headquarters Branch