Come on, we all know what this one is, not too much need for preamble here so let’s dive straight in.
(WARNING:- I’m going to discuss it so here be spoilers - I will be giving stuff away. If you’ve not seen it, maybe come back to this later.)
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker
Dir. JJ Abrams / Dur. 142 mins
In A Nutshell:- Something about space priests and robots. Haven’t really been paying attention.
The Good:- In a film that is the culmination of nine films and 42 years of filmmaking, you want a bit of breathless spectacle and a hefty dollop of emotion. This film certainly delivers on that, plunging headlong into the action and barely letting up for a minute. It had a daunting task to pull off - namely having to include Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia despite Fisher’s passing after filming the previous one and without resorting to the CGI shenanigans of Rogue One. To the film’s credit, it does this admirably with Fisher being a much larger presence in the film than I’d anticipated and getting as good as a send off as you could hope for given the limited amount of unused footage they had to work with. C3PO gets more to do than in any of the new trilogy films so far and the return of Lando can't help but bring a warming feeling to an old fanboys heart. While I have reservations about the return of the character, Ian McDiarmid’s Palpatine is always good value and he’s clearly relishing the chance to be back. And speaking of returns, it was no real surprise that Luke would be back as a Force ghost but nice to see a brief memory-based return for Han to round things out. Not necessary, sure, but a nice touch. Rey’s journey to reject the expectations of her genetic legacy and chose a name and a future for herself feels like a suitably Star Wars place to leave things.
The Bad:- While I may have been swept up in the nostalgia of it, when I stopped to think about it, a lot of the film felt like wasted opportunities. Bringing back the Emperor, while pleasing for hardcore fans, feels like a big backwards step after the intriguing steps in a new direction that The Last Jedi made, especially coupled with having to tie Rey into one of the main Star Wars characters.* Bringing in new characters like Jannah while sidelining Rose who was prominent in the last film also feel like it’s bowing to unpleasant pressure in the worst way. There are also moments that fill underwritten, almost first draft, like Finn having something to tell Rey that never gets resolved**. Overall, when looked at in retrospect, it’s a film that’s trying to course correct from the previous director while stuffing in more new things. It could do with streamlining and focussing to make it into a truly great film. It is in some respects a victim of one of JJ Abrams’ favourite tricks - throwing stuff out there that’s mysterious and cool without necessarily paying it off. Fine at the start of a trilogy but probably best left behind at the end.
The Verdict:- I thoroughly enjoyed it. It may not sound like it from the list of negatives above but, while I was in the cinema, I was completely caught up in the momentum of it and swept through to the end. I laughed, I shed a tear or two and I left feeling like I’d been thoroughly blockbustered. While it may not be the film that it could have been, it was still an enjoyable end to the saga. Until Disney decides to start wringing more money out of the Skywalker again, that is...
* This also raises the disturbing image of someone having sexy nudey time with the wizened wrinkled old Emperor as, given their apparent ages, his son would have been born sometime between Episode III and IV...
**It’s clear that he’s going to tell her he’s Force sensitive but it just nevers pays off into anything.
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