STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER — Fruitcake Enterprises

Directing: B
Acting: B
Writing: B
Cinematography: B+
Editing: B-
Special Effects: A-

There’s a huge twist, which changes everything, in The Rise of Skywalker. It reconfigures the Star Wars mythology in a way on par with “I am your father,” and honestly, I welcomed it. It’s an intriguing, even exhilarating idea. I just wish it didn’t feel so much like it was never part of the long game in plotting the story arc of this entire trilogy, like they only just thought of it when making this movie, to correct a perceived scattered aimlessness of the previous two installments.

And mind you, I loved The Force Awakens (2015) and especially The Last Jedi (2017). I liked The Rise of Skywalker, but I cant say I loved it. I still had one particular complaint throughout, which certainly bears out now: the “Marvel-ization” of Star Wars was arguably the biggest mistake made in the history of this franchise. In the cases of both the original and the prequel trilogies, each film was released three years apart. It made every single film an event, something for which massive anticipation was part of the process and the fun.

The core “episode” films this go-round were only released every two years, with two “Star Wars universe” films released in both the years in between (Rogue One and Solo), to diminishing returns. Sure, The Rise of Skywalker qualifies as “an event” in that it’s the final of nine episodes of the Skywalker Saga, but there is no doubt how much bigger these events would have been had we had to wait until 2018 for The Last Jedi and then 2021 for this one, with no extras in between. Why not wait for the “a Star Wars story” movies until the next decade? Instead, they flooded the market with five movies in as many years. This shit works for Marvel (though not as much for me even there, honestly); it doesn’t quite work for Star Wars. If more time were taken between releases, there would have been a lot more time to make this one better.

I spent the first half hour or so of The Rise of Skywalker feeling a numbing sensory overload, much more than excitement about what was going on. Eventually incomprehensible pacing gives way to convoluted plot, and that’s actually a welcome improvement. Either way, it’s far better to find yourself thinking What’s going to happen next! than What the hell is going on? The opening sequences of this film are in sharp contrast to the previous two, which have an urgency to them that feels right, is exciting, and is easy to follow.

All that said, I did think about this while watching The Rise of Skywalker: What if I were just one of the millions of movie-goers who don’t pay any attention to the minutiae of things like who directed it, who wrote it, how it’s edited or how it’s shot, and just come to have a good time? Would I care about any of this stuff? Would I care at all what critics are saying, whether positive or negative? Probably not. Consider this: for many years, Return of the Jedi was my favorite one of the original trilogy—until I gained a working knowledge of the critical consensus. Everyone knows The Empire Strikes Back is the best! I actually still have a special place in my heart for Return of the Jedi. And guess what? That movie’s critical consensus is on par with The Rise of Skywalker.

So. Did I have a good time at this movie? Of course I did! I just made the mistake of spending too much time comparing it to what came before, particularly among the sequel trilogy. I would suggest that you not do that. It’ll probably be easier for you, since in all likelihood you don’t go out of your way to watch every movie with a critical eye. Granted, Star Wars fans are of a particular breed, and far too many of them were whiny bitches about the curve balls introduced in The Last Jedi, which I found to be a delight. And also, it’s true, we now live in a world where fan bases get far more steeped into the details than they used to, now that we have far more talk shows and particularly podcasts in addition to all the reviews and blog posts and tweets. Your best bet will be to let all that go. Come to the movie and surrender to it. I fully intend to see The Rise of Skywalker at least once more in the theater, and although I have zero expectation that I will change my assessment of it, I also expect that a second viewing, which is by definition impossible to disappoint, will be far more fun.

Just a few more points. J.J. Abrams had a thankless task of figuring out how to integrate the late Carrie Fisher into this installment, and there was just no way to make it really work. Having General Leia Organa pass away between movies, with characters all just dealing with the aftermath now, would have been just too sad; digitally inserting old footage of her from previous productions feels both wildly contrived (particularly with how her dialogue integrates into the script) and awkwardly placed, even in a strictly physical sense. There’s just no winning there, but Abrams handled the character as well as anyone could hope under the circumstances. Fisher gets just about as much screen time as she got in The Force Awakens, which is to say, not much.

This weakens the effect of the broader sense of acting performance among the entire cast. There’s also the effect of countless new plot points shoehorned into the story arc as this movie, long as it is—141 minutes—moves at an exhaustingly breakneck pace, which gives little time for a lot of the dialogue or performances to breathe. All the acting here is immeasurably better than that of the prequel trilogy films, of course (not exactly a high bar there), but many of them feel a bit phoned in, at least compared to the others in this trilogy. The notable exceptions are Daisy Ridley as Rey, who gives possibly her best performance in this fanchise, and to a slightly lesser extent, Adam Driver, who was given meatier content to work with in previous films. Kylo Ren winds up with that stupid and pointless helmet right back on again in this movie, which means we get less time to see the emoting on his beautiful, tortured face.

And yet! Several moments in The Rise of Skywalker are genuinely emotionally affecting. True lovers of Star Wars from childhood will likely cry multiple times (the one I saw this movie with did); even I got genuinely teary at least once. As weak and disjointed as this movie it as it starts, it largely course-corrects itself as it goes on, and by the end, just because of all that had come before it, the final conclusion is genuinely moving. There’s a couple of things that feel like throwing a bone to certain communities (a somewhat brief return of Billy Dee Williams as Lando, for the Star Wars purists; a brief lesbian kiss, for the gays), and although I don’t like feeling like I’m being patronized, sometimes I’ll take what I can get.

And if nothing else, The Rise of SKywalker is certainly a thrill ride, even if it’s not your favorite one at the amusement park. Once it’s done, it’s shocking to think how long the movie really is, because it never feels like it. Some people out there even think it’s the best; we all have our preferences. I, for one, think it’s far from the best—but, it’s also far from the worst. A solid outing. Lots of fun, and probably even more fun with repeat viewings. And when it comes to the bottom line, that’s far more relevant than subjective ratings, isn’t it?

Overall: B