The Rise of Skywalker makes me sad and I wanna talk about it

I’ve started this thing to organize my thoughts on films and to keep my writing sharp. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do and the things I would eventually end up talking about. Naturally, Star Wars was one of those things, because if there’s something the internet desperately needs is another dude shouting his opinions about Star Wars into the digital void. I wanted to keep things pretty objective on this blog, discuss the craft, talk about themes and deeper meanings and camera work. I won’t be able to do that with this one. This one comes straight from the heart.

I’d like to start with an anecdote. There’s this dear friend of mine who I often go watch movies with. He loves the art form; he loves Star Wars. Whenever we see a film, we always stay until the end of the credits, and not just because Marvel conditioned us to do so. We really do enjoy the act of sitting there until the end, contemplating what we just watched, maybe sharing some early comments. On the 18th, when the credits started rolling, he immediately got up and mumbled “I’ll see you outside.” He couldn’t leave fast enough. He couldn’t wait to get away. The film broke him.

I didn’t hate it as much as he did. At least, I don’t think so. I appreciated some of the humour, a few character interactions. I thought the puppets were cool, and the very last John William score we’ll ever get almost tricked me into having feelings more than once. Yes, feelings. The most disappointing thing for me was the lack of engagement I felt throughout the film. The closest I’ve been to feeling something was at the very end, and I don’t think for the reasons J.J. Abrams wanted.

It’s the scene where Rey is apparently dead (spoilers, I guess) and Kylo Ren runs to her side and uses the Force to bring her back to life. A moment I called since that snake scene at the very beginning. When Rey wakes up, grabs his hand, and they look into each other’s eyes, I was flinching. I later flashed back to a similar moment, a similar feeling: The end of Episode VII, when Kylo and Han Solo are standing on that bridge. I was scared, gnashing my teeth, sweating like a Gamorrean. I couldn’t believe what was going to happen but, at last, it did: as the light turns red, Kylo kills his father, the characters around scream in pain, and so does the audience. A painful, yet compelling moment (barely explored in subsequent movies).

That feeling of fearful anticipation, disbelief and hurt wrestled within me once more, as Kylo and Rey locked eyes. Just like my brain was screaming “Don’t kill him!” back in Episode VII, now it was crying “Please, don’t kiss…”

But they did. They kissed.

This is not giving the fans what they want. This is giving a couple shippers their idiotic fan fiction, with no regards for logic, even if it goes against any sensible character motivation. I loved Kylo Ren, it’s easily my favourite part of these new movies. I wanted to see him redeemed, die a hero’s death. But not like this.

I decided to start with this because I think that this scene, this choice, is a good indicator of the reasoning behind many of the decisions made for this film. But first things first.

I loved The Force Awakens. I still do. I thought it was a safe, admittedly derivative story propped up by intriguing characters and a great sense of momentum. J.J. Abrams crafted a film with a great structure, that reintroduced us to a world we longed to go back to. A film now made worse by its sequels, that showed a lack of a unifying vision from the people in charge.

It goes without saying that Rise of Skywalker comes at a very different time for Star Wars. Since that first Episode VII teaser, we’ve had four movies and a TV show to quench our thirst for blue milk. In 2015, the fan base was (mostly) united in excitement and anticipation. In 2019, the fan base has never been more divided, with mixed feelings about Disney’s treatment of the IP. People are still debating The Last Jedi to this day, a film that, for me, does as many things right as it does wrong. A film that either drops or subverts most of the plot points introduced in the previous film. Not an easy film to follow. To make things worse, Carrie Fisher tragically passed away in-between movies, before she could ever take part in a film that was clearly meant to feature General Organa in a big way.

So, amid this chaos, The Rise of Skywalker happens. A film made by the same guy who made The Force Awakens, following a middle chapter that completely butchered (for better of worse) all the things Episode VII was setting up. What came out of that unimaginably difficult situation is a chaotic, manipulative and reactionary nostalgia-fest that desperately tries to tie everything together through a plot that is incredibly thin and exceptionally bloated at the same time. Thin because the core of the second act action consists of a series of interconnected fetch quests with the goal of reaching a planet: not the most compelling narrative for the concluding chapter in a trilogy. Bloated because, after two movies that basically argue with one another on what this series is about, TROS has to set up a new villain, develop Rey into a believable force-user, show Kylo’s arc towards redemption, make justice to Carrie Fisher’s character with no footage to go on, give Luke and Han time to say goodbye, invent something important for Finn and Poe to do, reintroduce Lando. And so on. Not satisfied with doing just that, TROS also introduces some new characters that fail to leave any impression because so little time is given to explain their backstory or motivation. I’m pretty sure some of them don’t even say their name out loud. As I said, bloated.

In all this, Finn is wasted (again); Rose, a fairly important character from TLJ, is side-lined to give space to new, more profitable merchandising opportunities with new cast members; Lando is given nothing to do; Chewbacca gets captured again and is presumed dead for all of 30 seconds. We are never allowed to feel anything, the film never lingers, it never stops. The action is boring and repetitive, the editing is seizure-inducing. We keep jumping from scene to scene, from planet to planet, with little regard for structure or pacing. We don’t have time to take anything in. All the cool sets, amazing puppets, incredible production value of every corner of every set. Gone in an instant, with no sense of reverence.

Yes, the force connection between Rey and Kylo is interesting and makes for inventive fight scenes. Honestly, everything about Rey and Kylo is good (except for that kiss), but it’s all in service of a story that lacks a cohesive identity, a clear thematic connection (your past doesn’t matter? Maybe?) and that is only interested in giving us what we expect.

The Knights of Ren are a glorified cameo. Their fight with Kylo is certainly fun, but it lacks any dramatic weight since we don’t know anything about them. Palpatine throws his lighting in the air, honouring a Hollywood tradition that I never thought I’d see performed in Star Wars: the blue sky-beam that has been in every other summer movie for the past decade. That thing that is so cliché and played out that internet already got bored of making fun of it. Bet you wanted to see that in a Star Wars movie.

I don’t care about the discourse around Star Wars: the toxic fandom, the boycotts, the insults. I don’t think we should give that kind of stuff the time of day. But it is worth nothing that that discourse informed many of the decision made for this film. I’ve seen people joking about the fact that this film feels like it was written by Reddit. Only that’s not a joke. It really feels like J.J. and his team scoured the internet looking for a way to conclude this trilogy that would piss off the least amount of people. This is why Palpatine happened, why Rey and Ben kiss; it’s why Chewie gets a medal. They literally referenced a meme in a Star Wars film. And the worst thing is that these moments, carefully engineered to please dedicated fans, only work to take you out of the film, to make you think of the conversation around the saga, but not the story you are experiencing in the moment.

The story. Is there even a story to talk about? The Emperor is back in the first scene of the movie - actually, he’s back in the opening crawl - and he has a plan that sounds like a kid made it up playing with action figures. Again, that sense of disconnect between what you are watching and what you are thinking is probably the worst thing about this film for me.

“OK, we can’t do the Death Star for the FOURTH time…”

“But we need a galaxy-ending threat. It’s the last chapter of the saga, it’s capping off a nine movies series!”

“So, what about a bunch of Star Destroyers…”

“That’s not enough.”

“…with Death Star Cannons on them?”

“Genius! And who made them?”

“I guess Palpatine conjures them up?”

“He can do that?”

“He had – like - 30 years to dangle from a sci-fi crane and laugh maniacally. I’m sure he had time.

“That’s good enough.”

I’m not enjoying the film as I watch it. I’m thinking about the choices that were made for a scene. It all feels so transparent in its sad attempt at making the trilogy feel worth wile by reintroducing a big baddie everyone loves, arguably the campiest (and therefore best) part of the prequels.

And maybe it’s true. These movies about space wizards and questionable physics are meant for kids and I’m not supposed to think about them this much. But I am. A lot of people are. I care about this series. And I wanted to love these new movies. Because Empire Strikes Back was so good we are still waiting for a Star Wars movie to top it. Something that won’t ever happen, I’m sure.

As I said, I don’t care too much about the fandom and any element external to the films themselves. What I do care about is film criticism, and I hate how much liking or disliking a certain Star Wars movie has become a way for people to judge others or jump to conclusions. It’s a goddamn Star Wars Movie, get off your high Falthier (yes, I looked it up). Like what you like, hate what you hate and treat people nicely.

Kathleen Kennedy is an experienced producer who worked on some of everyone’s favourite blockbusters. She is to blame for some of the more myopic choices made with this trilogy, sure, but she is a capable professional who’s getting way too much hate just for being in charge.

I kind of get why they didn’t really have a road-map, a planned outcome from the get go: whatever they were setting out to do, people on the internet would have been able to predict it with some accuracy, so leaving room for the story to change was, on paper, a good move. After all, the original trilogy was made one movie at a time, and that turned out great. But we all know what the result was: an awkward, inconsistent sandwich, a weird tasting Ryan Johnson burger in between two J.J. Abrams buns, only the bottom bun lacks any of the consistency and texture of the top one. Weird metaphor, I know, but I’m going with it.

And by the way, no: The Sequel Trilogy not being so great doesn’t redeem the Prequels, it doesn’t make them any better. Those are mostly bad movies that aged terribly with some good moments and cool world building. Revenge of the Sith is the better of the three, yadda yadda yadda, you know the drill. If anything, some of the stuff in these new films, especially The Last Jedi, makes the choices made in the prequels a bit more palatable.

This new trilogy is kinda bad in its own way. A series of film made by committee, produced by the biggest Mass Media Conglomerate in existence, that despite this manages to feel meandering and unfocused in its execution. The fan service is obvious and invasive. The previous trilogies are rendered unimportant by the return of the big evil that was defeated in Return of the Jedi. The old characters are not given a chance to reunite. They die one by one, leaving a bittersweet after-taste which will surely affect someone’s enjoyment of the originals.

As for me, I’m not done with Star Wars. The Mandalorian is quite good and there’s hope for the next shows and films to learn from the mistakes of this trilogy. Certainly, they helped us put George’s mistakes into perspective. No one will ever be able to make Star Wars again, to catch lightning in a bottle, and distill it into such perfect a form.

It’s sad that they couldn’t finish off this story in a satisfying way. It’s sad that people complaining on the Internet scared Disney off whatever path they were taking with this last chapter. It’s really sad that these new protagonists portrayed by brilliant actors got overshadowed by a story more concerned with hitting plot points than building character moments. It’s sad that it had to end with an overproduced all-out space battle with a million ships when it’s the smaller, more intimate moments that make Star Wars the magical experience that it is. At least for me.

Luminous beings are we. Not this crude matter.

Happy Holidays, and may the force (still) be with you.