Movie Review: Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker

Director: J.J. Abrams

Starring: Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Joonas Suotamo, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Ian McDiarmid

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 142 minutes

2019 was a year filled with partial endings, in which some of the biggest entertainment franchises came to turning points that closed significant, long-running stories but left the door open to various kinds of continuations.  Avengers: Endgame gave satisfying endings to some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s longest-standing characters and plotlines even as the franchise itself continues to expand exponentially in both film and television.  Dark Phoenix was the last film to feature the main X-Men ensemble, and possibly the last film in the entire franchise if The New Mutants doesn’t come out before the characters and concepts are inevitably rebooted as part of the MCU, which makes the quality of the film even more disappointing.  Game of Thrones came to its wildly controversial conclusion but will be succeeded by at least one spinoff.  And before the year was out the grand-daddy of all geek franchises arrived at its own significant conclusion.  Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker brings a close to the Skywalker Saga that has served as the franchise’s backbone for 42 years, but Star Wars as a brand is so ingrained in our larger pop culture that it would be clear that we’re far from done seeing stories from the galaxy far, far away, even if The Mandalorian wasn’t currently the biggest show on TV.  Still, a lot of Episode IX‘s focus is on wrapping up not just the storylines of the latest trilogy that was started by Episode VII- The Force Awakens but on tieing them more intimately into the nine-film story that also features the Original and Prequel trilogies.  It’s a very difficult task for any film and the fact that director and co-writer J.J. Abrams and the rest of the filmmakers involved stick the landings in even some regards is impressive, even if they miss with several as well.  Still, the film can’t help but feel a little overstuffed and safe as it tries to deliver as much fan service to as many of the disparate factions of Star Wars viewers as it can and some of the connections to past films feel like attempts to back away from the more creative and forward-thinking storytelling that its immediate predecessor, Rian Johnson’s divisive Episode VIII- The Last Jedi, tried to force on the franchise.

Skywalker‘s aforementioned place in such a large, constantly expanding blockbuster entertainment entity hurts the film, even though many of its most enjoyable moments come from celebrating that same entity.  The fact is that viewers have been told the Skywalker Saga was going to end twice before already.  1983’s Episode VI- Return of the Jedi stood for decades as the chronologically latest of the franchise’s cinematic installments until The Force Awakens came along and 2005’s Episode III- Revenge of the Sith was similarly sold as the last episodic Star Wars film because of its completion of the three-film origin story of Darth Vader.  Therefore it’s sometimes hard to buy into the stakes of yet another installment claiming to be the last hurrah.  Simply put, a viewer of Skywalker can’t always shake the feeling that a lot of its story developments will be altered or undone and its significance undercut if ten years from now the decision is made to once again begin making Star Wars episode films.  There’s also the fact that the new film simply has too much in common with its first trilogy-ending predecessor.

Much like Return of the Jedi, Rise of Skylwaker‘s plot is kick-started by the presence of the franchise’s ultimate villain, Emperor Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid).  While this does have the intended effect of making the latest adventure for the new characters more significant to the overall franchise it also adds to the repetitive vibe of the movie by undoing the Emperor’s climactic death in Return of the Jedi, which served as the central climactic victory that ended the story of both the Original and Prequel trilogies.  Still, Palpatine’s presence does add a sense of weight to the proceedings and watching Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver) reckon with the renewed Sith threat is interesting.  Which points to the overall impression Skywalker leaves.  Despite how different Force Awakens, Last Jedi, and Rise of Skywalker all are as films they can all effectively be summed up the same way: everything squarely focused on Rey and Ben is pretty great.  Everything else is a mixed bag.

When we left them at the end of The Last Jedi Rey was literally and metaphorically shutting the door in Kylo’s face, refusing the possibility of continuing their ambiguously-defined relationship after he gave himself fully over to the Dark Side of the Force.  Despite this, they find themselves once again on parallel paths, which of course cross (and do so rather quickly).  Kylo agrees to follow Palpatine’s lead in order to be given access to his massive Starfleet but secretly searches for a means of ending the Sith Lord so he can rule the galaxy on his own. Rey and her Resistance friends Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) set out along with Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and BB-8 to destroy Palpatine once and for all, which, again, is a quest that would carry more weight if Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and his father Anakin/Darth Vader hadn’t already seemed to do so 36 years ago.  Along the way Rey, Poe, and Finn are met with personal and ideological challenges that complete their trilogy-wide character arcs but while each have their strong moments only Rey’s role is fully-fleshed out and satisfying (which is quite impressive given the tight rope the writers have to walk in terms of reconciling the vastly different intentions for the character The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi clearly had).  There are some unnecessary additions to Poe’s backstory that actually take away from the strength of his character and much like in The Last Jedi Finn just doesn’t wind up feeling as significant as one would assume he would and should be following his substantial, meaningful part in The Force Awakens.

As has been the case throughout the Sequel Trilogy the cast is the most uniformly excellent aspect of Skywalker and the actors’ successes at elevating the sometimes problematic writing is a testament to their talent.  Adam Driver continues to craft a captivating villain with uncommon depth and the ways he conveys Ben’s inner conflict make for some of the best scenes. McDiarmid remains as perfectly cast for the sneeringly evil Emperor as ever but the familiar material he’s given doesn’t let him make as much of an unsettling impression as he did in Return of the Jedi and the prequels.  Archive footage of the late Carrie Fisher allows Princess/General Leia Organa to have her story completed in moving fashion although the need for someone for Leia to bounce off has the unfortunate side effect of sidelining Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico.  The Chewie material has been one of the Sequel Trilogy’s consistent strengths and Skywalker is no exception, with Suotamo delivering an unexpected amount of pathos through the familiar grunts.  And, despite some problems with how their characters are handled, seeing the main trio of Ridley, Isaac, and Boyega adventuring as a team like their predecessors in the past films did is one of Skywalker‘s biggest thrills.  Boyega and Isaac continue to have a delightful chemistry and buddy cop dynamic.  And Ridley is a force of nature (no pun intended) whose powerful, vulnerable work carries the film.  The film’s greatest success is in pushing Rey to extremes and Ridley is more than up to the challenge, proving for (allegedly) the last time why this is the role she was born to play.

Skywalker also achieves only mixed success as a spectacle.  Abrams’ lightsaber duels, of which there are several, are again mostly lumbering, disappointingly slow affairs that offer neither the visceral intensity of The Last Jedi‘s throne room fight nor the impressive, elaborate choreography of the prequels, despite one or two clever visual tricks.  Rey and Kylo get one fight each that are slightly more exhilarating but they are over too quick to make really lasting impressions.  The climactic space battle between the Resistance and Palpatine’s forces lacks the creative, energetic direction Johnson brought to the table but is still quite entertaining thanks to its immense scale and the inclusion of some nice callbacks to previous films.  But the action highlight of the film is without a doubt the earlier desert chase that’s reminiscent of something out of Mad Max: Fury Road.  All of the main protagonists are working together in this scene and the combination of the cast’s delightful chemistry and the opportunity for dynamic visuals offered by new, jetpack-equipped Storm Troopers makes for one of the most thrilling, simply fun movie sequences of 2019.

That sequence and the impression it leaves encapsulate how the film itself makes one feel.  Rise of Skywalker is far from the best or most unique film in the franchise and its intense desire to please everyone sometimes creatively compromises it, but it’s still an immensely enjoyable film, a crowd-pleaser with a real heart at its core.  It’s certainly not actually the end of Star Wars, and there’s more than a slim chance it will eventually even lose its title as the end of the Skywalker Saga but for now, it’s a solid enough finish for the long-running tale.

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