Star Wars - Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Director: J.J. Abrams

Cast*: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley

Have I Seen it Before: It’s opening weekend fam, beyond the vague sense of a mixed reaction, I had no real idea what I was in for, although I did get the impression I might fall into a diabetic coma with the amount of fan service potentially on the horizon.

Did I Like It: Well, since I’m already on record adoring Star Wars – Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), I guess I have to loathe this one, right? 

Is it okay if I still like this one? Are we cool if I do? Do I care if we’re cool? All good questions. Yes, I think the film is messy, and there are plot threads I may spend some idle time over the next few years trying to make sense of, but it was rousing, and crowd pleasing, and fun.

That’s the job J.J. Abrams was hired to do, and now he’s done it twice.

The flaws are real, though. While it was nice to have scenes with Carrie Fisher again, she never felt terribly present in her scenes. Had we somehow not known she died after the production of The Last Jedi, maybe I wouldn’t have had the same issue with her material. Had the film opted for a different tact and had her die off-screen in the events leading up to the film, maybe we would have had a whole new set of complaints.

With the diminished role of the original trilogy characters very much hanging over the film—Billy Dee Williams’ Lando has scarce screen time, and very little to do with the plot other than to show up places and be Lando—the film fully becomes the purvue of the new characters. Rey, Poe, and Finn finally become a trio, spending much of their first two films apart, and their chemistry is breezy, and their quest for the location of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid, another original trilogy character underserved) is the most coherent part of the film. Kylo Ren’s redemption also gives Adam Driver some of his best material in the series. I’ve read some takes on the film that have said it ruins the legacy of all Skywalkers, Rey, Ben Solo, Leia, the entire series, Rian Johnson specifically, and more childhoods than I thought were still standing after Lucas made swift work of them in the last decade.

The film ruins nothing. The story of Ben Solo and Rey (insert last name here) is complete. As had long been prophesied, the Skywalker was destroyed the Sith and brought balance to the force. The Last Jedi still exists, and as of this writing is still available to watch on Netflix, Disney+ be damned.

So, once again—just like with The Last Jedi—I am left with one big complaint: I could have used a whole lot more Lupita Nyong’o. Yes, Kelly Marie Tran virtually disappearing from the film isn’t a great look for the franchise, but Nyong’o was the best part of Star Wars – Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) and was tragically underused in The Last Jedi and here even more so. In The Last Jedi she is relegated to not much more than a cameo, but it was a fun moment that added to the mythology around her character, Maz Kanata. Here, she largely just stands around the Resistance base camp quietly reacting to the story around her, and I even think that level of involvement for Maz was a byproduct of her being central to the re-purposed footage of Carrie Fisher from The Force Awakens. 

Dear Hollywood, 

Please use more Lupita Nyong’o. Jordan Peele and Abe Forsythe are exempt from this notice. Even Ryan Coogler could do a little bit better in this department.

Yours in watching,

Mac

And now, we are left with the final question I introduced in my review of The Force Awakens: While we may not have needed these movies, I’m still glad we got them. They are spectacle writ large, and adventure storytelling at their very best. I’ve spent most of the last day since completing my re-watch of the series and my first screening of this film humming the John Williams march. I’ve dug into my comixology library, purchased a copy of the annotated original trilogy screenplays, and even bought a dirt-cheap copy of the novelizations of those movies. Why? Because even as this film took a winding, sometimes bewildering road to reach its completion, I still don’t want it to end.

* I mean, technically, Harrison Ford should have gotten second billing in this film, as his appearance in the film is far more substantial than Hamill’s was in The Force Awakens (2015), but I suppose that—in the interest of not being nitpicky—I won’t try to override the will of SAG.

Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

Director: J.J. Abrams

Cast*: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega

Have I Seen it Before: I mean, the tired joke to hint at here is that with the amount of times I’ve seen Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), even if this had been the first time I had seen this film, then I would have already have seen it before. I’ll skip that, and say that I was right there on opening weekend, along with everyone else.

Did I Like It: After the highest highs of the original trilogy, and the objective lows of the prequel trilogy (even if you’ve managed to forgive some of the larger flaws in those films, you can’t deny there is some weak sauce transpiring) we may have all come to the new sequel trilogy with bad intentions as an audience.

I’ll only go as far as maybe on that idea.

The first question I want to wrestle with is whether or not we needed a Star Wars sequel trilogy. After mentioning in a few interviews years ago that he had “a plan” for films that would take place after Star Wars – Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983), he spent most of the last few decades insisting that he had no notion of such movies, and he pointedly didn’t think they would be very interesting in any event. 

I tend to think he was lying, or at the very least remembering the truth from a certain point of view, but I can understand why. For one thing, I can’t imagine the reactions to the prequel trilogy were fun for him, regardless of whether they were deserved. Getting older, he probably came to some degree of peace with the idea that he didn’t have anything to prove anymore. He made some great films, some not-so-great ones, and made enough money that his great-great-grandchildren won’t have to worry about money, so long as action figures still exist in the 22ndcentury.

But as Lucas’ attitude toward the idea of the further adventures of Luke Skywalker and company, the story began to take a shape where such stories weren’t needed anymore. I walked out of my first viewing of Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) thinking that the story of the rise, fall, and redemption of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker was—for better or worse—a complete story in six parts.

So, right out of the gate the sequel trilogy has the challenge of justifying its existence, far more so than the prequels had to reckon with. We didn’t need a sequel trilogy, but Disney was relatively sure there would be an audience for such films, and as I write this at the close of the opening weekend for Star Wars – Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker(2019), they were largely right in that regard.

As mentioned above, some might complain that this movie borrows too heavily from A New Hope to be thoroughly enjoyed. They are correct that it owes much to that film, but when one realizes that the original Star Wars is beholden to the structure of Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress (1958), I can’t help but think that is a criticism divorced from any real sense of film history.

Here’s what the film has going for it that reaches beyond the reductive:

The new characters are an absolute treat. On spec, the film would be an opportunity to spend some time with your favorite characters from the original films, but the fact that Rey, Finn, and Poe keep our attention so thoroughly is a testament to the strength of these films going forward. Say what you will about his skills as a storyteller or a visual stylist, Abrams is an absolute master at casting very watchable actors in interesting characters. He managed to pull off the same trick in his first Star Trek (2009). This doesn’t even begin to deal with my favorite character of the new films—and possibly any of the Star Wars films—Maz Kanata as played by the transcendant-even-when-mo-capped Lupita Nyong’o. 

Then there are those original characters. Mark Hamill merely has a cameo, and his film will be Star Wars – Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017). Carrie Fisher toes the line between the optimism at the center of Leia, and the world-weariness that Fisher uses to inject her with new life. And then there’s Harrison Ford. This film is Han Solo’s Unforgiven (1992)—as much as a laser sword movie can reach for that degree of an elegiac quality—and if nothing else, it is a relief and a revelation to not have Ford sleep-walk his way through an entire film. Before this film, the last possibly I would say he did so was Air Force One (1997), and probably as far back as The Fugitive (1993). I’m glad we got you back, Han, even if for only a minute.

Now, the larger question we must answer is: was it worth going through a sequel trilogy? At this point, I would say yes, but to definitively answer that question, I’ll probably wait for my review of The Rise of Skywalker.

*The film gives second billing to Mark Hamill, but I think we can all agree that such placement is overestimating the great Hamill’s contribution to the family.