Happy May the 4th everyone! And what better way to
celebrate Star Wars Day by reminding everyone how truly awful Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker was.
The last main series Star Wars film
to be released was a crushing disappointment to me when it came out last year
and having rewatched the film again yesterday my feelings have not changed.
So whilst there is a huge list of things that make Episode IX a pile of steaming Bantha
poop, here are the five main points that were the most problematic for me.
Spoiler warning: Major plot points of the film will be
discussed.
1 - The Emperor
Purely as just a concept, having the Emperor be the ultimate villain
is not a terrible idea in and of itself. However the lack of explanation as to
his return and the way he his handled is one of Episode IX’s most egregious
sins. Apparently he has always been there in the final trilogy, having
‘created’ the previous big bad Snoke (rather literally it seems as we see a jar
of pickled Snokes in the opening sequence). Old Palpy was supposedly pulling
the strings behind the scenes this whole time, however there is literally no explanation as to
why he is back or how he survived being thrown down into a reactor shaft and
blown up with the Death Star at the end of Return
of the Jedi. There are no hints or foreshadowing in the previous two films and
so his character feels like he has just been pulled out of a hat as they needed
a villain.
Worse still this huge reveal is imparted via text in the film’s
opening crawl. The film literally doesn’t care.
The Emperor’s motivation and power levels are similarly subject
to the whims of the plot. First he wants Kylo Ren to find and kill Rey. Then he
wants him to bring her to Exegol so that she can merge with him and become the
new Emperor. Then he decides he would rather just suck out her lifeforce and
carry on being the Emperor himself – his motivation continual changes dependent
on what the audience knows or the set piece demands rather than any coherent master
plan. He later becomes powerful enough to shoot massive bolts of lightning into
the sky to take out an entire fleet. Yet the same energy is blocked by a
lightsaber and is essentially pushed back to defeat himself. Which he could
have y’know, just stopped shooting the lighting for a second to prevent?
We also can include in this point his creation of a fleet of Star
Destroyers. It is painfully obvious that they needed some kind of threat in order
to be able to close off the trilogy with a massive battle but little care or
thought appears to have been put into any of this. How were these hundreds if not
thousands of Star Destroyers built underground on a supposedly hidden planet that
you needed a macguffin (of which there are only two in existence) to even get to?
Who are manning all these Star Destroyers, considering their presence is
estimated to increase the existing First Order forces by ‘Ten thousand fold’?
We just have to accept it as Sith ‘magic’, I guess?
And each one has planet-destroying capabilities. Sure. It’s a way of
exponentially raising the stakes from what we have seen in previous fillms but done in the most obvious and unimaginative way
possible. Poe says out aloud “of course they do”, and also earlier: “somehow the
Emperor is back”. Having a character openly acknowledge a lack of an explanation
does not excuse the sheer laziness of the story.
2 - Rey’s lineage
Like it or hate it, Episode
VIII: The Last Jedi made a point of purposefully playing against
expectations both of Star Wars and the
popular ‘chosen one’ tropes in general by the shocking reveal that Rey’s
parents were in fact nobody special. She was not a Skywalker, a Kinobe or a
secret Solo sibling or related to anybody significant.
Much of The Last Jedi was
about letting the past go and coming up with new ideas, both explicitly and implicitly in terms of its
story beats and themes, however The Rise of Skywalker
does a cowardly 180 degree turn on this. But how to please the fans but also make this a twist reveal? Being a Skywalker or Kinobe would be too obvious, let’s
make her the Emperor’s granddaughter! Again, this is seemingly plucked out of a
hat for this film as there is no indication previously that this could be the
case. And no, having hints of being drawn to the dark side in previous films is
not foreshadowing. Any Jedi is capable of being tempted by the power of the
Dark Side of the Force regardless of their lineage.
It’s clear in The Last Jedi
that Luke has no idea who Rey is and beyond the odd moment (Rey shooting
lightning once in a moment of anger) this inner conflict or the consequences of
this reveal is never played upon or even seems to affect Rey in any meaningful
way. ‘Dark Rey’ only appears in a brief sequence lasting a few seconds long and
to me this is a huge missed opportunity. If they were to commit to the idea of Rey being a Palpatine then the climax of the film will have made
much more sense thematically if she did indeed strike down the Emperor in a
moment of anger and thus unwittingly momentarily succumb to the Dark Side and become
Dark Rey. Then a climactic fight could have taken place between her and a recently
returned-to-the-light-side Ben Solo which could have ended in Ben ultimately sacrificing
himself to bring her back to the Light side. The end result would have been the
same as with what we ended up with in Rise
but would have been the much less ‘safe’ option for Disney to take as they
would have risked Rey appearing as slightly less than perfectly wholesome. So
instead they went for the magical channelling of ‘all the Jedi’ route to win
the day instead. Again an idea that has come from absolutely nowhere.
3 - The relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren in general
Some of this is covered above, but there are other issues the
surround these two main characters and their relationship. Whilst Kylo Ren
appeared to show a progression of his character in the previous film, he now
appears to simply revert back to the role of angry brat in The Force Awakens even going so far as to reconstruct his smashed helmet.
Narratively and characteristically this doesn’t make sense. He wrecked that
helmet as it was reminder that he was always in Vader’s shadow and that he was
simply a tool of Snoke. Did he not move on from this?
It feels like a deliberate reversal of the previous
film - something we see happen on many occasions in Rise, leading to a see-saw shift in character and themes across the
trilogy that results in an incoherent mess. Why? Because the fans supposedly
wanted it. Just like fans supposedly wanted to see Kylo and Rey as somehow
romantically involved leading to an awkward kiss between the two right before he
dies at the end. This doesn't seem as a natural progression at all to their
relationship during the trilogy (which seemed more like brother/sister or
kindred spirits kind of vibe) and seems awkward and forced when it suddeny happens. It’s like cringey
bad fan fiction.
4 - All other characters get pushed aside.
Make no mistake – this film was all about the Rey/Kylo story. Despite so
much happening in this film, the overt focus on the above and general bad writing
for everything else has resulted in almost all side-characters getting snubbed.
Finn was arguably one of the main characters of The Force Awakens – however his arc was complete in that film,
somewhat repeated in the The Last Jedi
and then given nothing to do with this film other than accompany the other
characters around. He has no arc or growth whatsoever. The reveal from fellow
Stormtrooper defecter Jannah that the Force made them lay down their weapons
and defect absolutely takes away from one of his defining character moments in the
first film. He may as not have been in this film.
Poe is faced with a similar fate. There is no character here. He is
just a guy who flies things now. So what if he has a history of being a spice
trader? Why would anyone care at this point? Does this affect the plot in any
way? New characters such as Zorii Bliss are seemingly introduced for the sole
purpose of ensuring the audience knows that Poe is most definitely not gay.
With a Star Wars that is attempting
to make its world more diverse and inclusive they only appear to have done this
in token ways – making a lot more stormtrooper voices female than previous
films and the token ‘lesbian kiss’ shot at the end that seems tacked on in a
way that can be easily edited out if required to sell the film to other less tolerant
countries. If they really wanted to be progressive they should have just made
Finn and Poe gay and be done with it. At least this would have made sense and been
interesting for the character dynamic and secondary plot. But nope – because it's
Disney.
Other side characters got shafted too. Poor Rose. Whilst we can
acknowledge that she may not have been the best character when introduced in The Last Jedi – the way she was swept
aside in this film is just shameful. It’s painfully obvious that Disney were reacting
to a vocal ‘fan’ opposition to her on social media and it's sad that they
felt they had to do that.
Similarly Hux’s turn made no sense. He would team up with the rebels
and risk the fall of the entire First Order just to see 'Kylo Ren lose’? If his
motivations and thought processes were fleshed out and explained more we maybe would have accepted his sudden
betrayal, however instead it is simply played out in a simplistic and almost
childish manner with his gleeful announcement of: “I’m the spy!”
We also get the cheap and emotionally manipulative fake-outs with
Chewbacca and C-3PO. Chewbacca’s is supposedly killed when a transporter blows
up in the air. Could have been massive turning point for the story. But nope – turns
out he was in a different transporter (off screen of course) and this is
revealed in the very next scene. Similarly, C-3PO delivers the heartfelt ‘taking
a last look at my friends’ line knowing that he would make the sacrifice of
having his memory permanently wiped, only for this to be reversed later on when R2-D2
simply restores his memory from a backup. I’m not saying that Chewbacca and C-3PO
should have been killed off, it’s just the way in which these fake-out where
delivered in this film were quickly played off as being inconsequential and
thus only coming off as emotionally manipulative.
5 - Pandering to fandoms
In my view the majority of issues in The Rise of Skywalker come from a summation of three main points: the
over use of hollow call backs and reliance on nostalgia, reversing the changes
made in The Last Jedi and the fact
that they did not have an overall plan for the trilogy’s story from the outset.
They all have a common thread – this film being subject to appeasing an
increasingly vocal and hostile fandom. In fact, all the earlier 4 points mentioned above can be
largely attributed to this as well to varying degrees.
I truly believe that each film was made separately to gauge
fan reaction between each one in order to decide how the next would take shape.
What results is a film made my committee, lacking a singular vision or narrative cohesion.
Whilst The Last Jedi undeniably has
its fair share of missteps, at least Rian Johnson had creative control and
attempted to take the franchise in a new direction and do something different.
Say what you want about how crappy the Prequel films were but at least George Lucas
had a creative vision and executed it how he saw fit.
The Rise of Skywalker is
simply a collection of fan service moments and feels utterly lifeless as a
result. Needless call backs to ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this’, Han Solo’s
‘I know’, the inclusion of Lando (bringing back another original trilogy
character because that’s what’s expected), Chewie finally getting a medal (who
cares), a new cute droid being introduced (because of course we have to sell
more toys) – are all ultimately hollow as they have not earned their place in
these new films and are simply banking on viewer’s nostalgia for the originals.
In isolation they are meaningless.
Other miscellaneous points to mention that I wish I had more time to
discuss: Leia’s use and demise, the Knights of Ren being wasted, the frequent
healing and resurrection powers that make death meaningless, teleporting
objects through the Force, Ghost Luke’s powers (he can catch things and use the
force to lift an X-Wing does it matter that he is even dead?), the horrible CGI
on ‘young Leia’, the bad editing and scene geography (seemingly stranded
characters can move to another planet/location with ease), the majority of the
plot based on macguffin hunting that doesn’t make sense when reverse
engineered… and so on and so on…
To conclude, I am not one to rag on a film just for the sake of it
and if you enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker that’s
totally okay too. You are free to disagree with any or all of the above. These are
just my thoughts on the film and why I felt so let down by it, both as its own film and as the conclusion
to a trilogy and the main series Star Wars films. I
cant help but feel that in recent time we have hit a saturation point with Star Wars as a franchise and that it no
longer feels as unique or special as it once was, but instead it has become
ubiquitous, generic and almost a parody of itself.
I used to call myself a Star
Wars fan but nowadays isn’t everyone? With Disney at the helm I’m sure they
will continue to make more films and TV series. The recent success with the
decent The Mandalorian series indicates the way forward seeing as they will be
taking a break from the main series films for the foreseeable.
I’ll continue to
watch from the sidelines but will keep my expectations in check.
But as always... I gotta say it: May the Force be with you.
4th May 2020
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