by Josh Sewell
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| Courtesy of Disney |
J.J. Abrams, who helmed The Force Awakens, is back in the director’s chair for this supposed final installment of the Skywalker saga. It’s pointless to attempt a summary of the films up to this point, so here’s this one in a nutshell: Rey (Daisy Ridley) must choose between the light side and the dark side when Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) returns with absolutely no warning or explanation whatsoever. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) must decide if he’s drawn to Rey because she’s an enemy or an ally. Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) do their part to bring down the First Order, with some help from a few familiar faces.
On the plus side, the Star Wars franchise hit the acting lottery when they cast Driver, Ridley, Isaac and Boyega to launch this new trilogy. The charismatic stars are what made these films work, even when the series changed directors or when they’re working with a less-than-stellar screenplay. When the story doesn’t make sense, at least you can enjoy the actors’ fun performances.
In addition, Abrams knows how to direct an action sequence and has a flair for intriguing visuals. I appreciate his preference for practical puppets over CGI aliens and giving each planet its own distinct look, as well as his ability to tug at the heartstrings.
Sadly, despite these positive aspects, the new trilogy (and, by default, entire saga) goes out with a whimper instead of a bang. The previous installment, Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, generated quite a bit of controversy with a story that refused to play it safe or let fans bask in nostalgia. In fact, the primary theme of the film was that dwelling on the past can be fun, but too much is unhealthy because it prevents us from taking risks or moving forward.
Disney’s response to the small-but-loud backlash was to change course and offer nothing but fan service in The Rise of Skywalker. Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio end up shoving viewers’ faces so deep in nostalgia that we risk drowning. After a while, I eventually stopped counting the never-ending callbacks to previous entries and just started rolling my eyes.
They might’ve gotten what they wanted, but die-hard fans have done to Star Wars what Lenny did to that poor puppy in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. They love these movies so much that they’ve crushed all the spontaneity and life out of them.
Abrams, Terrio and the rest of the creative team is so afraid of angering the target demo that all they make are safe, easy choices. That leads to a technically impressive but narratively inert movie. Yes, it’s pretty. Yes, the actors are good. Yes, everything gets tied up with a big bow by the end. But if it all ends up feeling like a big, narratively incoherent shrug, so what?
Nowhere is that more evident than on the Blu-ray’s best special feature: a two-hour documentary about the production of The Rise of Skywalker called The Skywalker Legacy. It ends up being much better than the film it focuses on. There are plenty of compelling interviews with Abrams, Terrio, the cast, key crew members, producers and archival footage of the making of the original trilogy.
Everyone’s enthusiastic about the process, and Abrams’ ideas and explanations are intriguing – so it’s almost impressive how none of that manages to show up on screen in the finished product. Come to think of it, there’s a segment in the documentary that perfectly sums up my issues with Rise of Skywalker.
After Abrams and Terrio talk constantly about honoring the history of Star Wars, complete with casting longtime contributors and dearly departed actors’ family members in background roles, we see that they convinced John Williams to play the owner of an intergalactic junk shop. It’s more or less a throwaway role, but they go on forever about how the set decorators and prop department threw in a ton of cool Easter eggs to honor him.
All the supposed pieces of junk around his character are, in reality, meticulously crafted pieces representing the 51 films he received Oscar nominations for scoring. It’s a genuinely impressive feat, one you’d never notice until somebody pointed it out, yet it has no bearing on the actual quality of the film.
That’s the epitome of Abrams’ filmmaking: he’s great at cool setpieces and little moments, but those don’t fit together to make a satisfying whole. In fact, they have the opposite effect: once the thrill ride is over, the experience falls apart if you dwell on it too long.
The doc’s editing is fantastic, with lots of mirroring going on between the saga’s past and present. It really offers a poignant full-circle feeling that the series’ final installment lacks. Even though I’m still not a fan of Rise of Skywalker itself, the Blu-ray is worth the money simply to watch the insane amount of work that goes into making a blockbuster of this scope. If nothing else, it’s proof that any movie turning out halfway decent is a minor miracle.
Special features: The Skywalker Legacy; two behind-the-scenes featurettes; and more.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action.
Grades:
Rise of Skywalker: D
The Skywalker Legacy doc: B
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