Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hours, 21 minutes
Director: J.J. Abrams
Quick Impressions:
I will do my best not to spoil anything, so consider this review safe to read if you haven’t seen the movie yet. I won’t give away any major surprises, plot twists, or reveals. I definitely have no desire to ruin the experience for anyone. But know this. If I were you, until I saw the movie for myself, I would read nothing. In fact, stay off the internet entirely. Don’t watch TV either. Maybe to be safe, cut off your electricity. Just sit around in the dark and try not to dream in case you get force vision spoilers.
Honestly, I’ve been so worried all week about accidentally reading spoilers. I was so relieved we were able to watch the movie fairly early–at this amazing private party hosted by a law firm my husband has worked with–so that I didn’t have to cloister myself for too long.
Now what can I say about The Rise of Skywalker?
I’m that undiscerning Star Wars fan who likes both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. I also like the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy. To give you an idea of my personal taste, I would say The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie (not exactly a bold or surprising pick), but when my daughter asked us all what our favorite Star Wars movie was last night, I answered, “Revenge of the Sith.” When I was little, Star Wars meant A New Hope Until They Escape From The Death Star, and I watched it endlessly. (The last part of the film didn’t interest me much.) My favorite character is Anakin (which for me includes Vader). I prefer the story of the prequels, even though those movies are clearly not as good as the originals (to put it mildly). I’m not crazy about Ewoks, but I like Warwick Davis. Baby Yoda is cute, but I prefer Clone Wars to The Mandolorian (and to just about everything else if I’m being honest). I didn’t read any of the now Legends material, but I have read several of the new novels and like Bloodline best (next the first new Thrawn one). Ever since I heard that Darth JarJar theory, it has been canon for me. I still get deeply emotional when I think about Carrie Fisher, whose willingness to be the public face of bipolar disorder meant a lot to me personally.
So now you know what I like, and I liked The Rise of Skywalker. My feelings, however, are a little bit complicated, and I will freely admit that if someone else tells you it is a horrible movie, they may not be wrong. Certainly the movie’s flaws are easier for me to rattle off than its strengths, but part of that is that fear of spoiling surprises curtails my praise.
I do believe that The Last Jedi is a better film. But if you’re a fan and you like fan service, then you may prefer this one. My nearly seventeen-year-old has been a Star Wars fan since young childhood and grew up on Clone Wars, and he says this movie is his new favorite. His almost eleven-year-old sister loved one particular story arc because she’s a fan of one particular character. My husband loved the movie, too, and defiantly professed his love for it in the face of all haters. But if you were to look at them all as standalone movies, The Last Jedi is stronger than The Rise of Skywalker. By now, I’ve seen The Last Jedi eighty-five times because my mother is always watching it, so I appreciate its methodical pace and well-crafted, stagey scenes. The first time I saw the movie, though, I found it an onerous watch, taxing to take in. I ultimately liked it, but watching it almost hurt my brain. It felt like a chore. It subverted all my expectations and left me depleted, uncertain of how I felt, exhausted. The Rise of Skywalker, on the other hand, may not be a perfect movie, but it was fun to watch.
The Good:
Anthony Daniels gets a wonderful part in this–for a change–and he delivers his lines with delightful aplomb. His performance as C3PO is easily the highlight of the first half of the movie. I was actually stunned by how well he is showcased. For a long time, I’ve felt that the live action films have short-changed Threepio (vexing because Daniels is so devoted to the character). He’s had some shining moments in The Clone Wars and other animated projects, but neither the prequels nor episodes VII and VIII have used him particularly well. Here he gets great material, and he just kills it. What a lovely curtain call for him! (I call it that only because this film is the end of The Skywalker Saga. I don’t believe for one minute that Anthony Daniels will stop playing C3PO while there is breath in his body. He’s probably playing him at some fan event right now!)
I was also impressed by how much Leia is in the movie. J.J. Abrams has been saying she has multiple scenes, but I really didn’t quite believe him, to be honest. I thought he was just trying to be respectful of her memory and pull on fans’ heartstrings to promote the movie. But wow. For somebody who was dead long before filming started, she is in the movie a lot. A lot. Granted, something does seem a bit off when she is on screen, but that may be in part because I know they built those scenes around outtakes from a late actress. If I didn’t know, it might work seamlessly. I do commend J.J. Abrams for his respectful treatment of Fisher and Leia’s legacy. The closing credits actually made me cry. I think he goes out of his way to honor her, and it seems to be coming from a place of genuine feeling. I do wish I could have seen the movie made in a parallel universe where Fisher lived long enough to play Leia in the flesh. But I think what Abrams managed to pull off by including her in the way that he could was impressive and absolutely the right choice.
The movie starts fast and never stops. The opening crawl is like, “Well, this is happening, so…that’s a big deal.” Forget any questions about why or how. It’s just happening, so deal with it. Star Wars movies actually do this quite a lot. Basically every time you start one, you’re thrown into some situation already in progress that everybody knows all about except the audience. It’s a pretty good thing Alfred Hitchcock introduced us to the term “MacGuffin” or else we would never have the vocabulary to discuss what’s going on in the first half of this movie.
If you like action, you’ll get it. The movie recklessly careens forward at a frenetic, relentless pace, and for a long time, everybody is always looking for something, just one thing after another. In the end, what they find is pretty much what we were all led to expect from the trailers and posters. I was skeptical of all this seeking and finding, this galactic scavenger hunt toward the climax. But then my husband compared it to knights on a quest, and it’s true, none of the stuff knights are trying to find ever makes any sense. Plenty of stories about knights and quests play out with exactly this sort of energy and scattered desperation, high adventures and friends made along the way.
Speaking of friends, if you like characters, you’re in luck. The Rise of Skywalker has all the characters, characters for days, characters galore. For some reason, it even introduces a bunch of new characters. I’m not sure why this is actually necessary because there were plenty of characters to begin with, and there’s not time to explore the new characters fully. I have heard that the main characters in this trilogy may get standalone movies in the future, so maybe that is why we meet some of these new people and then never learn their full stories. So much is unresolved about Finn, and I could certainly watch more of Poe. Oscar Isaac has such charisma in the role. Keri Russell is good in her small part, too.
The trailers reveal that Billy Dee Williams and Ian McDiarmid appear in this film. They do. Quite a bit. It’s hard not to walk away with the sense that Williams is just there to please fans. Then again, this is Star Wars. That’s sort of why everyone is there. The story doesn’t really need Lando. Somebody else could do everything he does. But the story also doesn’t need half of these other new characters, either. At least we’re glad to see Lando. Other fan favorites appear in smaller roles, more like cameos. Keep your eyes and (especially) ears open.
Chewbacca has a brilliant moment, perhaps the most moving reaction in the film. Some of the emotional moments in the The Rise of Skywalker feel forced, but his is earned.
Adam Driver honestly gives the best performance, though Daisy Ridley is, as always, easy to love as Rey. I was happy to see Richard E. Grant and delighted that Hux is still around. For some reason, Domhnall Gleeson’s Hux is one of my favorite characters.
If The Last Jedi frustrated you by subverting your expectations and failing to answer your questions, never fear. J.J. Abrams is going to give you answers, real answers. The movie answers two of the biggest questions fans talked about relentlessly on the internet, and I am satisfied with the answers. (In regard to one of them, I feel that Abrams tries to have his cake and eat it, too. You didn’t like Rian Johnson’s answer to one question? Fine. Here’s a different answer. You loved the idea that “anybody can do x“? Fine. Now we see that it’s true. Anybody can do x. Even Y!!!!!!!)
I wish I could say more. Obviously the score is good. When is John Williams not good? I will admit I liked the existing character themes more than any new music I noticed, though.
I do think the movie does a good job of tying together all nine films. Others may disagree. My whole family liked the implications of the ending. As I watched, I thought, “I’m not sure I like this ending.” Then I thought, “I’m not satisfied with this ending.” Then I thought, “Maybe I do like it.” After the credits, I decided, “I love it!” In the car, I noted something about every single member of the Skywalker family, but I can’t tell you what it is.
Best Scene Visually:
My favorite visual is a bit of neat, unspoken exposition near the very beginning of the movie. We could have been given a couple of paragraphs of dialogue about a character’s origins. Instead we just see a quick image and totally get it. This is extremely satisfying because it quickly and decisively answers a question that has become an internet talking point.
Best Action Sequence:
Rey and Kylo’s extremely wet lightsaber battle is captivating for a number of reasons.
Best Scene:
The end of the movie gets really, really interesting for a minute. I started thinking, “Ooh! This is so mystical and creepy! Is it wrong that I want the bad guy to win? I kind of want to see this plan happen, but J.J. Abrams would NEVER dare end on that note!” And then I started thinking, “Ooh! Why am I suddenly behind this character one million percent? Why is this person so easy to root for as if I always have been?” But then I saw what was going to happen, and I was disappointed. A few minutes later, though, when I had reflected about implications, I changed my mind.
The Negatives:
For a while, I started thinking, “They should have called this film Star Wars: The Great MacGuffin Hunt!” Seriously. For the first half of the movie, everybody is looking for something. Just nonstop. And if they ever find the thing, then it always turns out there’s the next thing, though, because they have to find it!!!!!!! (I was about to joke that I expected them to look for children on milk cartons next, but they are sort of doing that, too.) Rest assured, if there’s a thing, they are looking for it.
The pacing in this film can only be described as frenetic, and I’m not sure why that’s necessary. I know The Rise of Skywalker has a lot to tell us, but it could slow down. As is, we don’t have time to take a breath, to process what’s happening emotionally. I think part of this is Rian Johnson’s fault. His movie does not feel like the second of three. It’s more like the second season of a TV show expected to run for five or six more years. So much must be explained and resolved in this third movie. And some things Abrams wants to resolve here must first be introduced…in this film. So a lot of stuff is crammed in. Another problem may be as simple as this. The story had to be reworked. Carrie Fisher died. They couldn’t help that.
On a first viewing, some major story elements seemed rushed and not as emotionally resonant as they clearly intended to be. And there’s a major turn that feels…inadequate. (It’s hard not to forgive this, though, given fixed limitations.) Some of the big emotions aren’t deeply enough felt by the audience. But I’ll be honest, I don’t care much. The movie gave me what I needed. It told me a couple of missing pieces of information.
Now I know the story of this sequel trilogy. As always, I want to go back and watch the movies all over again, beginning with Episode 1. (I’ve begun thinking that’s the best way to watch. If you start with IV, V, and VI, then I, II, and III are terrible.) Every time I see a new Star Wars movie, I learn more of the story. And it doesn’t matter if the plan wasn’t in place in the beginning. It’s the story now. I love watching the story grow and change.
Now that I do know the whole story of this third trilogy, though, I really begin to wonder if it was told in the best way. I wish we could have gotten the story from another point of view. There is one character in particular whose point of view I would like to experience. If we had been with this person from the beginning, we would be seeing a different story.
I also have some major questions about a couple of characters we see only briefly, particularly about one of these new character’s origins. There is someone (not shown or even mentioned but implied to exist) whose identity I would love to know. It is truly hard to imagine such a person existing. Who was this? (Or was it not a “who” so much as a process? I need answers! I jokingly threw an unlikely contender’s name into the ring in the car and thought I was very funny.)
The thing about this movie is, yes it isn’t perfect. Star Wars movies seldom are. Only Empire and A New Hope are great films. The others are all botched in one way or another. But who cares? These imperfections are all smoothed out in ancillary material–comics, novels, animated and live action TV shows. Anakin Skywalker has a great story. The prequel trilogy doesn’t tell it very well, but The Clone Wars fixes so much of that.
I think the story here is actually pretty great. I require immediate clarification about how much of what Luke and Leia knew and when. Until I get that, I am beginning to make my own assumptions, and for me, this new material explains certain elements of the previous films rather well.
I do think this trilogy was ultimately extremely unkind to Finn, though. I hope he gets further cinematic adventures (because we all know John Boyega won’t do Disney+). In The Force Awakens, we’re led to believe Finn is a major character, a hero, but he keeps getting less and less material. I mean, he’s always around in this one, and the actor has plenty of screen presence, but…his character just doesn’t feel done.
And why reduce Rose’s role so much? That feels like giving in to trolls.
Overall:
I think of a conversation between Marge and Homer Simpson. “Marge, I’m confused. Is this a happy ending or a sad ending?” “It’s an ending. That’s enough.” That’s the way I feel about The Rise of Skywalker. This is one of those endings that gets better as you think about it. Maybe this final film isn’t perfect, but it does provide closure, and it’s pretty fun to watch, too.