Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Film Review)

To quote Emperor Palpatine: Augghhhh!!!

MAJOR SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ONWARD:

So, what the hell was Finn going to say to Rey!?  Seriously, they build-up Finn (John Boyega) wanting to tell Rey (Daisy Ridley) this important thing—something he couldn’t mention around Poe (Oscar Isaac)—bringing it up on multiple occasions throughout the film, and give zero resolution to it.  Was it a love confession?  Is Finn a Force-sensitive (and if the latter, why couldn’t he mention that around Poe?)  Is it supposed to be a “subversion of expectations”?  I ended up staying until after the end credits to see if there were any extra scenes.  There weren’t.  The whole situation left me incredibly frustrated, which also nicely sums up my feelings for Rise of Skywalker.

The final film in the Disney Star Wars sequels ends the trilogy on a baffling, frustrating finale.  My expectations for Rise of Skywalker were relatively low after The Last Jedi, though not for the same reasons as numerous others.  I’ve listened to the criticisms and revisited the film and I stand by that The Last Jedi is the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back (you can find my many reasonings why in its review).  I expected the sequel to not hold up when J.J. Abrams returned to the director’s chair—having previously directed the plot recycling Force Awakens.  It seemed clear that Disney was backtracking from Rian Johnson’s more ambitious, risk-taking approach to Abrams' safer tackling of the series.  Yet while the story is certainly falling back on familiar roots, its structure is a janky mess.

Rise of Skywalker is the definition of insanity in multiple senses of the word, emphasized most prominently with the return of the Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).  The film wastes no time throwing Darth Sidious back into the fray…actually, I take that back, the film wasted two whole films before artificially squeezing Sidious into a plot he had no buildup for and no right being in.  The Emperor is a poorly thought-out attempt at “salvaging” the sequels by bringing back an iconic foe after The Last Jedi killed off Snoke (Andy Serkis)—the sequel trilogy’s main antagonist…except that’s bulls***!  Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) was being beautifully set up as a great main antagonist—a complex antagonist without the need for a redemption arc (much like how Maul became once the CGI TV shows took hold of him).  But we can’t have that, Kylo Ren is a Skywalker descendant and must have a redemption arc no matter how forced (Darth Vadar 2.0, just as Abrams wants).

So, why not take the guy who is the first six films’s main antagonist and do it again—only this time in one film instead of multiple.  Who needs setup!?  Just mention in the opening scroll that the Emperor’s back, then immediately show how he’s been behind everything, artificially created Snoke, and has secretly built a fleet of Star Destroyer ships each equipped with their own planet-busting cannon.  Sounds reasonable to me!  Oh, and somehow the Emperor has become one with all the Sith and is now super-duper powerful—not Star Wars comics Force Storm overpowered, but can disable an entire Resistance star fleet with Force Lightning OP.  It’s incredibly ludicrous to spring all this on the viewers and expect them to just roll with it.

Such events required proper build-up right from The Force Awakens, but that couldn’t happen because these ideas were clearly not thought up until the last minute.  The worst part is, regardless of how insane these jarringly massive developments are, one would still except entertainment from Ian McDiarmid’s performance—one of the prequel’s defining saving graces.  Yet McDiarmid feels a shell of his past over-the-top spectacle—giving an impression of not wanting to be there.  His performance feels lackluster, restrained, and bland.  There’s no fun or lovely cheese to be found, just a generic evil villain sprouting monotone monologues.  The role brings nothing interesting to The Emperor and only serves to sour the character’s near spotless reputation.

Adam Driver ends up being the highlight of Rise of Skywalker, with every scene he’s in as Kylo Ren/Ben Solo being a delight.  Rise of Skywalker's best scenes are when Ren and Rey confront each other.  The film doesn’t skimp out on these scenes, utilizing the previously established Force Connection so they can commute, discuss, and spar throughout the film without having to actually be in the same place—a genius tactic that allows antagonist and protagonist to interact whenever without causing pacing issues or placing Rey in inescapable situations.  I love Ren continuously trying to sway Rey to the dark side, pushing her to the limits both mentally and physically, being the ultimate test for her as a Jedi.  Their chemistry here is undeniable, the best interactions between two characters throughout the sequels.  Ren’s potent screen presence and engaging dynamic with protagonist Rey makes it all the more painful having the Emperor swoop in and steal his show as main antagonist.

Ren and Rey’s chemistry ultimately leads to romance, which surprised me as Abrams strikes me as a Rey/Finn (John Boyega) shipper.  I’m not against a romance between Rey and Ren/Ben, per se, but it requires a lot of clever writing to pull off effectively—after all, Ren has done a lot of horrible s*** and tried to kill Rey on multiple occasions, far from what I consider a healthy relationship.  Rise of Skywalker’s solution does work within the lore, it’s just part of the lore I find really dumb and cheap.  Just as Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker are often considered different individuals of the Force, so too are Kylo Ren and Ben Solo—with Rey “killing” Ren, thereby "reviving" Ben.  I hate the concept of splitting a person’s good and evil actions into being “different” people (unless it's an actual psychological issue), primarily because it does not relate to our own morally grey world and makes the Star Wars universe all the more childishly black and white.  The payoff to the romance is far worse than the execution, however, leading to the film’s worst quality bar none.

The film’s pacing is absolutely abysmal.  Star Wars: A New Hope has some of the best damn storytelling pacing I've seen in any film and Rise a Skywalker is quite the opposite.  The film just breezes through things rapidly without any breathing room to take in events.  New coming and veteran characters show up briefly and leave just as fast, without any development.  There is no bonding time between Rey, Finn, and Poe despite having more screen time together than in any other film—events are just moving way too fast to allow for such growth.  They kill off General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), a great wormy villain played by a fantastic actor, as if they just killed off a fodder character—quick and insubstantial.  Kylo Ren has his big redemption moment and a big damn kiss with Rey before suddenly dying in an almost comically quick manner, never to appear again in the film, not even as a Force Ghost alongside Luke and Leia.  That’s like if Darth Vader didn’t get his cremation funeral scene nor Force Ghost appearance in Return of the Jedi—instead dying on the Death Star, never to be seen or mentioned again.  One should never give such an unceremonious end to one of the most prominent characters in a trilogy.

Rise of Skywalker is an absolute mess.  I will say it is an entertaining mess, with some good stuff surrounding Kylo Ren and Rey, but surrounding it is just pure structural chaos.  Love them or hate them, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi at least told their stories with structure and flow, over Rise of Skywalker's blitzing through major events at lightspeed, rushing to the finale like it just wants to get it over with.  With messy backtracking, poor decisions, horrible pacing, and a plot that was clearly not thought out from the beginning, Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker ends The Force Awakens’ good start and The Last Jedi’s great middle on a puzzling, disappointing final note.