Sigh.
I'm having the hardest time writing a review of the latest Star Wars film. If you follow this blog you know I am an impassioned Star Wars nerd and I have been for nearly my entire life. I am by no means the biggest Star Wars nerd, nor the most impassioned, but I'm probably in the upper 15% thereof. I love it.
I did not love this.
[PREAMBLE]
There is a subsection of fandom, of the internet, of life that think they should always have their way, and they have taken to being the worst people in our society in their expression of their desires, and the disappointment they feel when their desires aren't met. Episode VII: The Force Awakens itself awakened this force of ugly underground trolls, but they just stirred and stewed. They were still excited about the return of Star Wars, but Episode VII wasn't exactly what they wanted. Cries of "Mary Sue" and basement boys totally butt hurt over ... well, whatever it is they can't deal with in life that they then project it into outrage at pop culture and entertainment.
But that awakening led to an absolute explosion with Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Rian Johnson, as writer and director, was keen to work within the Star Wars universe, and also work outside it, examining the metacommentary of Star Wars fandom and storytelling. It didn't go over well with some people, and next to, say, Donald Trump, it's one of the most divisive things on the planet. The trolls loathed that film. By the sheer fact that not only didn't it give them what they wanted, but it actively played against their very expectations was just too much and their brains exploded into unquestionable self-entitled rage. They drove Kelly Marie Tran off twitter with vile harassment. They've been calling for Kathleen Kennedy's head on a spike for years. They see red even thinking about how Johnson decided their hero, Luke Skywalker, turned out. JJ Abrams' first Star Wars film was a puzzle box filled with so many questions, that Johnson answered in a way that nobody expected (people spent so much time debating these questions and looking for clues, that to either have them dismissed as irrelevant or answered so plainly was not appealing at all to many). They went to forums, and aggregate sites, and social media and everywhere and anywhere to try to sink not just the movie, not just its cast or director, not just its producer, but the entire Disney studio system that put it out. They tried to raise money for a remake for fuck's sake.... This criticism from this sector of the fandom can be boiled down to misogyny, racism, and immaturity, and should've been ignored, but boy was it loud.
So loud, that it was hard to hear that there were actually more level headed criticisms out there. I've spoken to people who aren't huge, impassioned Star Wars nerds who either just didn't know how to feel about The Last Jedi or didn't like it for very specific reasons...some of which being the tone of the film, the comedy that wasn't really like anything previous in Star Wars, or being left with feeling of dissatisfaction (given how it ends with death, despair, and only the slightest nugget of hope...it's a 2017 film all the way). I don't blame people for those reactions. There are also actual fans who just don't like any metacommentary in Star Wars, and that's a valid criticism, as it's not something that's been so direct, or so of-the-moment (the prequels have a very specific metacommentary, George Lucas' observation of the nature of humanity and how we fall-into tyranny instead of being overtaken by are uncomfortably prescient).
Critically, The Last Jedi was exceptionally well received, and there's a very strong section of fandom who either loved it straight away or who have come to love it over the past couple years. And it still made bank. But the rage machine seeped into group making Episode IX, or at least to the executive branch, and "course correction", at least to those excited by the prospects left at the end of Episode VIII, was the worst case scenario.
Well, The Rise of Skywalker not only attempts so much "course correcting" with in the film, but they actively marketed to film to insinuate as much. The subheading might as well have read: "More of what you love, less of what you didn't, and reversals on decisions made last time to make you happy!"
[SPOILER FREE REVIEW]
But this one, this Rise of Skywalker feels like corporate dictation all over. It plays like a film trying to meet very specific objectives. There's the backtracking they had to do, there's all the fanservicing they had to do, they had a trilogy to conclude, but they also decided to try and wrap all nine films together in a way that it wasn't actually set up to do. They wanted to apply real meaning and importance to everything going on, and they wanted the shouty, pouty fandom to shut the hell up. This film screams, at almost every turn, "we're trying so hard to give you what you want". There's very little in this film that seems to be what the director and production team want, though.
The Rise of Skywalker is a hot mess of a movie. From post-release news, we know that there was more than a bit of a rush job put on this. Lucasfilm had director Colin Trevorrow lined up for the longest time to take on Episode IX, but shortly after The Last Jedi Trevorrow was fired and JJ was convinced to return. Disney had a baked-in release date for this final installment and it meant that everyone was under too much pressure and decisions weren't necessarily made in the best way.
The opening half hour of this film reflects that. It's frenetically paced. The opening crawl is an information dump that just jumps right past BIG events and tries to proceed as if we're just cool with it. It then proceeds to give us scenes that are barely a minute long over for the next half hour (this may be faulty memory on my part, but, regardless, the opening act is all over the place). It's dizzying and overwhelming. Between the opening crawl and the opening act, it's like they were trying to cram a whole film's worth of set-up and content in.The best moments in this film are the ones that are allowed to breathe. Any time where a scene takes place for more than two minutes, where the characters actually connect with each other and aren't just spouting exposition or exclamations to action, it's actually really great. But there aren't many of those. The film has just too much to do to sit still.
I could rail against this. I could be one of those Star Wars fans who just rages at how I didn't get what I wanted out of this. Ultimately, though, I recognize that I feel like one of those reasonable fans who just didn't like The Last Jedi. This film didn't deliver what I feel like the last film was setting up... the unexpected. I suppose looping right back to Emperor Palpatine as the big bad was unexpected, except for the fact that it was already done in the old Expanded Universe of comics and novels. It feels like a rehash.
I get it though, he was the Phantom Menace of the prequels, and the big boss of the Original Trilogy, so it should wrap back here...it's just not very...clever. It feels unearned. In reality, if this was the plan, it should have been two films, one setting up the discovery of his existence, the next trying to find him as to take him and his secret fleet down.
The reality is The Rise of Skywalker isn't necessarily bad. It's entertaining enough, and there is SO MUCH STAR WARS that the expanded universe of novels and comics and video games and television can play with this for a decade filling in the blanks.
But there's not much in this film that feels new. The best critique of this film I heard was very simple: how is the galaxy any different here than it was at the end of Return of the Jedi? I mean, Episode VII went through the motions of the Original Trilogy in quick succession, but it still felt very, very new, very exciting. It still feels very energetic when I watch it four years later. But this, there's a lack of energy to it.
Rian Johnson left a wide open path of possibilities and the decision to go towards fan appeasement resulted in no risks being taken. There are deaths in this film, but there are also so many death fake-outs that it's kind of ridiculous how many times we get tricked into thinking someone is dead. The first such fake out is huge, but so immediately reversed that the gut punch we felt leaves no lasting mark. It's such a neutered movie.I rewatched The Last Jedi again shortly after watching The Rise of Skywalker and any doubt I had about that film washed away (I mean, I loved it before, but I wondered if it was just pushing so hard against the haters), especially when compared to Episode IX.
The problem, as I see it, was there was no complete vision for this trilogy. Just like the Original Trilogy (and much of the Prequel Trilogy) there was no endgame really planned. Had there been then perhaps The Last Jedi would have delivered more of what fans were hoping for, more answers to questions teased out in The Force Awakens, all leading to a unified, satisfying conclusion here. But there was no plan. Each movie was left to its own devices, the first tasked with softly rebooting the whole thing, the second allowed to forge its own twisty path, and the third needing to wrap it all up, all with zero real guidelines. So this is what we get.
 |
| That's a look that says "I was a co- star in the last one and I have, like, one minute of screen time now??? WTF?!? |
I really wanted to watch the film again before writing about it, but that doesn't seem to be happening. If I don't make it back to the theatre, that will be two Star Wars films in a row I only saw once on the big screen (I came to really love Solo watching it on home video, it seems much better suited on the small screen). I have watched the Mandalorian so many times though. I'm not sure if that says anything about Star Wars, or my fandom (I'm still buying comics, books and toys a plenty, I tell you what, from sources new and old), except maybe that Disney just needs to work outside of the established characters for the next feature and not try to connect everything.
[RANKING]
1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Star Wars
2.5 ---> The Mandalorian
3. The Last Jedi
3.5 ---> Rebels
4. Rogue One
5. The Force Awakens
5.5 ---> The Clone Wars (Series + Movie)
6. Solo
7. Revenge of the Sith
8. Return of the Jedi
9. The Phantom Menace
10. The Rise of Skywalker
11. Attack of the Clones
11.5 ---> Resistance
I am not entirely sure how I feel about this movie, having just gone this weekend past. I know I enjoyed it, but something felt ... off. I need another watching to solidify things.
ReplyDelete