"Hey!, it's only a movie" ("Notebook: Hey, it's only a movie, says Lucas - but who's listening to him?", 2011)
It's funny how Disney spent months saying bitter fanboys trolled The Last Jedi so that audiences would think it was a bad movie, and two years later they themselves make a move that screams fanservice, nostalgia and playing it safe. Had The Last Jedi not being the bummer it was, I'm sure Mickey Mouse would have continued the "subvert expectations" concept boldly defended by Rian Johnson, and yet they didn't.
With a large budget, one has to wonder who aids Disney into hiring people who can't direct, write or produce something worth remembering beyond toy aisles. Obviously, J.J. Abrams had things going south even before he replaced Colin Trevorror as the director. Moreover what he envisioned two films earlier had to be retconned with surgeon's hands.
Star Wars Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker is a film that may or may not suffer from the divisiveness caused by the earlier episode. People who loved having their expectations subverted will probably dislike this final entry, as essentially J.J. decided to pay Johnson back the same way he did in the previous episode: by keeping what's substantial & wiping out remaining secrets he (Abrams) proposed in Episode VII The Force Awakens.
But what does this mean to audiences?
Stunning visuals of bad weather.
Stunning visuals of bad weather warfare.
Well, if you're like me, and didn't love Johnson's take, you will like Abrams' better. Let's face it, the new trilogy didn't have much of a story to tell. New characters and new stories do resemble, or try to resemble the best moments the original trilogy had, and perhaps that's the main problem this new trio of flicks has. Lifelong fans may have been misled by the constant homage Episode VII paid to the original holy trilogy. The sequel tried to bring new ideas to the table, and while I openly bashed the movie in both my review, and when discussing it with friends, I can say my opinion has positively changed a lot thanks to the re-watch effect.
Running two hours and 20 minutes, IX is a fast lane roller-coaster ride where the action, revelations and answers happen with speed. At times I felt there could have been more movies to explain a few things better. However, I think this is the only possible grand finale the new trilogy could have had. So, while it's not a masterpiece (none of the films from this trilogy are), it delivers enough content to play it safe, and satisfy the most fans.
Rey is the ultimate Jedi.
Is it Kylo Ren or Ben Solo?
OK boomer, what is Episode IX about?
After the resistance is defeated by the First Order, the good guys went in hiding, while Rey continues her Jedi training. However, a secret message coming from the outer realms, reveals Darth Sidious is still alive!, while no one calls him THAT on the film, Palpatine is the son of a bitch that helped build the First Order from the dark in order to conquer the galaxy once more. Moreover, he created Snoke and was behind Ben Solo's transformation into Kylo Ren. Now that Ren is the new supreme leader, he decides to track down the Sith lord in order to defeat him and become the ultimate evil in the galaxy.
On the other hand General Leia Organa knows the threat this bastard poses, and sets her own team to find the location of this ultimate evil. Fortunately, the resistance has the extremely talented Rey on their side. Honestly, Rey is the most powerful Jedi ever seen on film. She's so skilled, she can overpower any threat within miles of distance. Unless, it's her dark side equivalent she's fighting against. Kylo Ren gets in the way of the resistance, namely Rey all the time. Unsurprisingly, both resistance and first order will meet once more for a final battle. Only this time the first order will have the advantage of a powerful Sith ally.
The first hour feels like the direct sequel to Episode VII, as if nothing of relevance took place in Episode VIII, which feeds my theory that J.J. Abrams didn't like how Rian Johnson handled the sequel, and like Kylo Ren's restored helmet, J.J. picked up all the pieces left, and carefully bandaged everything to build a new movie.
This is our movie!
Psst, we're here too!
From here on there will be subtle spoilers, so stop right here if you haven't seen it yet. The new trilogy lacked a grand story to tell, and it shows throughout every film. The Force Awakens was a remake of Episode IV, and The Last Jedi was the most original out of the bunch, yet it didn't have a story to tell. I for one, see this new trilogy as an opportunity for the Disney company to sell Star Wars toys with their label on it. Throughout the saga we get a lot of action scenes, dogfights, lightsaber duels, new force powers, modern visually stunning scenes but, and this is the big but of this new saga: Not enough story, undeveloped characters, overpowered characters, no balance! no balance whatsoever. The previous trilogies were balanced. Main characters, antagonists, and secondary characters were all there for a reason, and the reason or reasons, were clearly explained, allowing the viewer to feel the need for these characters to exist in each film. The new trilogy took the main features of classic characters and poured them into new characters that were nothing, but a weaker, unfinished, and underdeveloped version of the original characters. The fact that Rey is now the grandniece of Darth Sidious creates a big hole where fans would ask themselves "Wait, so did this bad motherfucker have a family with kids and everything?". In addition, his survival, and time spent in the shadows building The Final Order (his new army of clones) make Darth Vader's redemption a lot more irrelevant in the canon. He did redeem himself and saved his son from certain death but ultimately, didn't stop the forces of evil from securing their galactic dictatorship. Moreover, The Resistance was completely clueless about their true enemy, although they had Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, the two surviving Jedi knights on their side! What the hell? Not even The First Order knew about Palpatine's survival and plot.
Dark Rey.
The first order's finest.
Let's set that aside and move on to the other characters. Kylo Ren the "I want to be badder than my granddad" tryhard, finally gets his redemption and returns to the light side as Ben Solo with the aid of Leia's final sacrifice. Obviously, this is a required Mcguffin, in order to allow Rey to even the odds against the powerful Emperor, and speaking of Mcguffins, the way to access the emperor's secret planet is via a wayfinder (they were spoiled long before the movie premiered) a two of a kind Sith artifact that gives the exact location of Sidious hideout. In addition, there's a Sith dagger that was also spoiled long ago. The dagger provides the same info as the Wayfinder. Now, let's move on to Fanservice. If bringing Palpatine back from the death isn't enough, don't worry! J.J.'s got you covered!. IX features tons and tons of ripped off quotes from the previous trilogies. From "I got a bad feeling about this" to "The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities, some consider to be unnatural". In addition, there are the unexpected scenes that will take fanservice to the next level. Particularly one scene where a young Luke is training his young sister Leia. How ironic is that? a CGI scene that is more emotional than real scenes. On the other hand, the whole Reylo garbage some fans have been pushing through memes and fan fiction all over the internet, sadly pays them off with the lamest scene in the film. BECAUSE, in the previous films Kylo Ren & Rey were allegedly attracted to each other. I always saw them as enemies. One wanted the other turning to the dark side, while the other wanted the exact opposite. I guess, under J.J.'s eye that's reason enough for you to fall in love with your sworn enemy.
Leia, our princess.
Lando's back from geriatric care management.
Character wise I'd say this is Rey's movie. She's on the most scenes, and we get to see her do a lot of things, and I really liked that because she's my favorite new character. On IX she (Daisy Ridley) delivers some of her best acting in several emotional scenes. The fight scenes were she's in, are incredibly well staged and visually stunning. She is truly a convincing character, perhaps the most powerful Jedi knight out of the franchise. Moreover, characters that weren't popular had far less onscreen time than they previously did. Namely, Rose Tico, and the new characters (Zorii Bliss, Jannah Klaud, Commander D'acy) are all forgettable save for Babu Frik due to the role he plays when aiding the resistance. Other characters play minor roles and don't really add much to the story, save for being there in the background doing stuff while the main characters take the lead. Droid wise, C-3PO & R2D2 return to spend a more crucial role on this film. Especially 3PO who serves as the vessel to unravel Palpatine's location. D-O, the new droid that looks like a hair dryer, is there to sell toys. Which reminds me of The Knights of Ren! Who finally show up in the movie to make you want to buy more toys! As action figures, I'm sure they look great but plot wise, they're as useless as a Stormtrooper playing darts.
C-3PO gets into the action.
Rebel, rebel!
The Rise of Skywalker was clearly a difficult movie to make. Perhaps, the most difficult of the decade. A significant portion of SW fans wasn't shy about sharing their thoughts and views on social media. Times have changed. Today people don't need official media reviewers, they got their opinions, their own sites, and this poses a new threat for film making. Remember when people bashed Sonic The Hedgehog's design? Well, they listened and fixed it. Same with Star Wars. The Last Jedi really turned the tide for Disney, and after all their futile attempts to say Episode VIII was well received, the final episode is all about listening to the fans, which lastly are the reason these movies are made. IX is the best final chapter we could ever ask for despite its ups and downs. Music wise, John Williams has always been the secret character hidden in the background of the franchise. Key classic compositions are brought back in the movie in order to foster the hype for nostalgia. Nevertheless, the new compositions aren't as stunning as what he did in the previous episodes, which is by no means implying his new work is bad or mediocre.
Knights of Lame, ahem! Ren!
The real bad guy.
The third and final act in IX is the expected duel between Rey, Ben Solo & Darth Sidious. It is here where the final revelation takes place. Ben & Rey form a dyad in the force. If the word sounds strange, In sociology, a dyad is a group of two people, the smallest possible social group. As an adjective, "dyadic" describes their interaction. The pair of individuals in a dyad can be linked via romantic interest, family relation, interests, work, partners in crime, or on this case, the force. Palpatine knows this is an opportunity for revitalizing his agonizing body and he sucks out the force energy of Reylo. As soon as he's ready to take matters on his own, he throws Ben Solo into a large fall, just like Vader did 30 years ago with him. Rey is exhausted and her only chance for survival is to summon the spirit of all the previous Jedi before her. "Be with me" takes a whole new meaning. Her first scene in the movie starts with that phrase and we can see why at the climax.
Overall, a decent finale but not a perfect movie. However, I do salute J.J. Abrams effort for putting things in perspective. He even took some of the previous episode ideas and respectfully turned them into a fitting finale.
On a lighter note, let's hope this meme is the last one:
