Okay, there are going to be SPOILERS so please don’t read this if you haven’t seen the film, and SPOILERS make you nuts. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS. SPOILERS.
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Any of you remember how you felt when you watched Aliens 3 and you realized that they had killed Newt and Hicks? I do. I was furious, hurt, outraged. All of their effort and heroism had been wiped away with the stroke of a screenwriter’s pen. The Rise of Skywalk had a similar feel for me. It felt like Luke’s love and bravery, the courage to die rather than use his anger to win, and Vader/Anakin’s return to the light had just been erased because they brought back Palpatine. And I don’t really know why other than an attempt to make sure this movie felt familiar and safe, rather like warm bath water. If they didn’t want to have it ultimately be about Rey versus Kylo Ren then bring in a new threat. Use Timothy Zahn’s aliens out of the Unknown Regions the Grysk. There were other options beyond Palpatine.
This isn’t to say there weren’t great moments, and truthfully I enjoyed the film more the second time I watched the it. (I saw it on opening day at 10:30 at night in a packed theater. It was a remembrance of my friend Vic Milan, and also a reminder that Star Wars is the reason I’m a writer today and not a lawyer.) Chief among those great moments was the scene between Ben and Han. I loved Han’s simple line — “I know.” That was a perfect call back to an earlier film. And of course it doesn’t hurt that Adam Driver is just an amazing actor. I didn’t mind the nostalgia of Lando returning for one last hurrah. He was the first owner of the Falcon. He needed to be there, but the acknowledgement that his flying days were over was nicely bitter sweet. The final moments between Rey and Ben was lovely. Luke’s brief moment with Rey was nice, and I loved the homage to Yoda lifting XWing out of the swamp back in The Empire Strikes Back. (That scene is the reason I quit the law firm. “Do or do not. There is no try.:)
But there was just a whole lot of pandering going on which for me made the movie seem like it was in a defensive crouch, terrified that the on-line trolls would rip into it the way they did with The Last Jedi. Which for the record. I really liked that movie. It deconstructed myth, it took chances, it asked difficult questions. The problem for me with this film was that ultimately nothing mattered.
Chewie’s dead — nah, not really.
C3PO will lose all of his memories (Like he did after Anakin fell to the Dark Side), and never remember R2D2 or Luke, Leia, Han, etc. Nah, R2D2 will just reload his memory.
Rey was a nobody — Nope she’s Palpatine’s granddaughter. (Which I suppose in a metaphysical way would actually make her a Skywalker since Palpatine created Anakin out of the Force itself and implanted the embryo inside Shmi.)
Nobody came to help us before they won’t come this time — Yes they will. Lando sort of channeling James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams — “People will come Poe.” But why? Why did they come this time and not last time? It felt like they were trying to ignore the Last Jedi and I think that was a mistake.
And normally I don’t get too hung up on military logistics in a movie, but I sat there wondering how they financed building this absurdly huge fleet without anybody noticing? And how did they feed the troops? Exegol wasn’t exactly a garden planet. And they were stealing children to form their troops. Nobody noticed and reacted to this in 30 years? If so the New Republic really was as incompetent and corrupt as the Old Republic. Also, they sort of just casually destroyed all these ships filled with conscripted troops who had been stolen as children. Are we supposed to think that all of them were totally loyal, and Finn and the handful of defectors on Endor were the only ones who ever questioned their conditioning? Didn’t make the good guys seem all that good to just kill everyone.
I was really annoyed that Rose was basically written out of the movie. She had a powerful moment in The Last Jedi. “That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.” Here she was barely present. Because they didn’t have time or because of fear of trolls?
Whatever the relative merits of the prequels I would like to have seen Anakin in this film in some fashion. He was the first Skywalker. He was supposed to bring balance to the Force. He should have been helping Rey along with Luke.
Ultimately I think the movies are just too big. Where my beloved Star Wars is working brilliantly is in the TV shows — Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian. Now admittedly I’m a television writer so I think it’s the best way to tell deep character driven stories, but Star Wars is such a rich universe I want to live in it. Wander around, drink in the cantinas, listen to an alien band, run with Hondo and some pirates, bet on a podrace. I don’t need spectacle. I need more of this universe I adore.
Because in a lot of ways it gave me this writer’s life that I love.
Yes. you had much the same feelings as me. You can read my own take on my on blog on my website, if you care to click on the link below
Oh, one other thing I forgot. There was not enough R2D2 in this movie. He wasn’t wiped after Revenge of the Sith. He has been there from the beginning. He was Amidala’s droid. Why wasn’t he along for this final ride?
Something that drives me nuts is how most space movies get scale all wrong. In the extreme vastness of space, everyone is grouped not only in one small cluster at one teeny planet WITHIN its atmosphere!!!! All the empire had to do was go back into space to kill the trespassers. But the whole scale thing drives me crazy.
I found this movie damaged the Star Wars Universe for me. The underlying message is if you’re not a Skywalker or a Palpatine, you’re a nobody.
I really hated that message. I am hoping the Mandalorian undoes that some.
I am not really a fan of JJAbrams underlying thought process with these.
They’re fun, and they move well, but the message is sort of inimical.
Biggs? I think you mean Hicks. 🙂
By and large, I agree with everything you wrote. A trilogy of films is largely a three-act story structure. This film took us into an entirely different story — the dead speak! — while discarding much that had been posed in the second act.
Palpatine’s story arc ended with Episode VI. Now he’s trotted out as a generic villain. I felt like it cheapened what his character had meant to the story — and the Rey retrofit was just silly.
Where all the ships came from, where all the troops came from — well, that’s always been a part of Star Wars that we tend to overlook. In the prequel trilogy, Palpatine used clone troops. I assumed these were clones too, although the officers at least in part were holdover loyalists from the Empire. Space is really really big, and my assumption is that the New Republic never fully took control of the galaxy far far away. Even during its heyday, the Empire didn’t control every system, every planet. Exegol (a cool name for a planet!) was one of zillions of planets.
The Rey and Kylo kiss … ewww. C’mon, this guy slaughtered billions of people and killed Han Solo, her surrogate father. It reminded me of Luke trying to turn Darth Vader. In ROTJ Luke said, “Come with me.” I thought, “What, you think he’s going to say ‘Okay!” and just waltz into the Rebel camp with all forgiven?!” The payoff for their sins is death; from a story perspective, they have to make amends, and they do that by sacrifice. But the kiss I thought was ridiculous.
The Force healing power is new too. Apparently the Force is whatever the writer needs the Force to do to advance the plot or write out of a corner.
It’s time for this franchise to end, or at least go in a new direction. I kinda felt like this universe has exhausted itself, like a gold mine going dry. We’re halfway through “The Mandalorian.” I keep thinking, “This should have been the next film.” It’s an entirely new story in a familiar universe.
One final thought … This film left me missing Carrie Fisher all the more. I fully understand what Mark Hamill means about loving her and being angry with her at the same time. I’ll always be angry with her for wasting her life by using drugs again even though she knew her health was poor. But she was so unabashedly brazen about her flaws that you couldn’t help but love her and her brilliance.
Thank you, I had a feeling late last night that I had the wrong soldier from Aliens, and I almost got up to check on it. Fixed it now.
Yes, I think Kylo should have lived and had to atone. Restoring Rey to life at the cost of his own was not a big enough atonement.
And like you I am loving the Mandalorian. It’s a small, personal story and those work so well. In many ways Rebels had the same feel. The story of a family coming together learning to forgive each other’s failings and celebrate their strengths. I don’t need planet smashing, and vast armies and armadas. I need people struggling and overcoming their own demons, and maybe through those efforts they do a little good along the way.
This Twitter thread pretty much puts an hilarious coda to the entire movie.
https://twitter.com/JonathanLHoward/status/1212024496925880320
This Twitter thread pretty much puts a hilarious coda to the entire movie.
https://twitter.com/JonathanLHoward/status/1212024496925880320
not to be that guy – but you spelled Mandalorian wrong in the first sentence of the last paragraph.
” Clone Wars, Rebels, The Madalorian.”
Thank you. I will fix it. I hate typos.
I really enjoyed Rise of Skywalker but going into it, I knew I needed to shut off my brain and just go along for the ride. As a result, I had more fun during the film than I’ve had since Return of the Jedi. That sense of wonder returned, something I never thought would happen after Episodes 1-3 (I just assume those didn’t exist at all).
On the other hand, the movie was really really REALLY stupid and a second viewing confirmed that. Still, I enjoyed it a lot more than Last Jedi, which felt like they were trying to create a whole new mythology while including really stupid stuff (that whole morose chase of the diminishing fleet was so fundamentally flawed, I couldn’t just look the other way).
And honestly, television is SO good anymore, so much great writing, I’m disinclined to even bother with films anymore, apart from the MCU which *feels* to me like a serial television series anyway.
I loved the Last Jedi because it was courageous and made me think. Thank god for Adam Driver in The Rise of Skywalker. As usual he turned in an amazing performance in what was basically a “fetch quest”, and overall really, really stupid. Right now Clone Wars, The Madalorian, and the upcoming Rebels show are where I’m getting my Star Wars fix.