Film Review: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

La commedia è finita. Game over. That is all that can be said about the future of Star Wars, one of the most popular and lucrative media franchises in history that, deservedly or undeservedly, has captivated generations for almost half a century. Although it was hard to expect that any of the sequels and various spin-offs would ever have the power and impact that the retroactively titled A New Hope had back in 1977, or that any sequel would be as surprisingly good as The Empire Strikes Back, it is still difficult to accept that the plunge into Hollywood mediocrity represented by the last trilogy would be so sudden and utterly devastating. Perhaps the best testimony to this is that no major Hollywood blockbuster staple in recent years has been met with as little enthusiasm and as much contempt as The Rise of Skywalker. The reason, of course, lies in The Last Jedi, which among franchise fans caused so much disappointment, anger, and poured so much vitriol on social networks that Hollywood PR people in desperation were forced to resort to a trolling campaign from the Kremlin as the only acceptable explanation. The last film thus had an even more difficult task than The Last Jedi had in attempting to surpass Empire – it had to be so surprisingly good that it would wash the bitter taste out of mouths and somehow manage to convince fans that The Last Jedi either never existed or that the disappointment they experienced two years earlier ultimately had some meaning. Of course, the bar in that case was set so high that it was hard to expect even the otherwise successful director and co-writer J. J. Abrams to reach it.

The plot shows how Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the leader of the First Order, an organization that destroyed the Galactic Republic and sought to restore the Galactic Empire, finds none other than Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), the former Emperor and leader of the evil Sith, who is located on the remote planet Exegol. It turns out that he not only survived the destruction of the former Death Star on Endor and the collapse of the Empire, but has also been manipulating events from the shadows for the last few decades, preparing to strike the last remnants of the Resistance with a large fleet of Star Destroyers, each equipped with planet destroyers like those once possessed only by the Death Stars. The only obstacle to Palpatine's plans is Rey (Daisy Ridley), who is training to become a Jedi under the guidance of Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and Palpatine instructs Kylo to find her and attempt to eliminate her. Meanwhile, Rey and her friends from the Resistance learn from a mysterious "mole" within the ranks of the First Order about the existence of the secret fleet on Exegol and devise a plan to destroy it. The problem is that the planet is so remote that it can only be found using special devices hidden throughout the galaxy, which triggers a spectacular race against time.

Let's start with the good news. The Rise of Skywalker is a better film than The Last Jedi. The bad news is that this is not a great achievement. But let's continue with the good news anyway. The most important one is that Abrams entered this project more than aware that the previous film had thoroughly derailed things and that drastic measures were needed to get the franchise back on track or at least somewhat repair the damage. This was most evident in the screenplay, which attempts to return to the roots and offer a simple story about the struggle between Good and Evil without any "subversion" and "deconstruction," that is, characters whose allegiance to either block is unclear. Thus, the screenplay, after what was supposed to be the main villain in the previous film was eliminated, decided to resurrect the main villain from the main trilogy, with the problem caused by his death in Return of the Jedi "elegantly" solved by introducing new elements of Jedi mythology. Abrams also decided to "detach" from political engagement, so the film largely lacks new "intersectional" characters and other details (with the exception of a barely noticeable lesbian kiss scene at the end that was cut from versions for some Asian markets) that would suggest to even the least informed viewer that Hollywood producers are "on the right side of history." Instead, Abrams invested all his talent into creating as many spectacular scenes as possible, served to the viewers in rapid-fire succession.

Although many of these scenes look truly impressive, more experienced viewers will notice that the furious pace was deliberately inserted to hide as many plot holes as possible, as well as arbitrary, illogical, and inconsistent handling of the franchise's mythology, along with underdeveloped characters that even experienced character actors like Richard E. Grant cannot save from oblivion. In some cases, such an approach was motivated by additional reasons, such as the unpopularity of the character Rose Tico, who, unlike in The Last Jedi where she was one of the protagonists, is here degraded to a cameo appearance. Some of the actors, however, do a good job even under such conditions, with Adam Driver particularly deserving praise for managing to produce some kind of "chemistry" with Daisy Ridley and with her in the film's finale create the emotionally strongest moment in the entire trilogy. This is also reflected in Ridley herself, who, along with good acting, showed certain athletic ability, and it is believable that her character Rey, at least for a long time, will be the strongest role in her career. Unfortunately, most likely also the best, because the character is still burdened by script limitations, as well as the efforts of Abrams and his screenwriter Terrio to correct the crooked paths of The Last Jedi in a way that gives Rey superhuman abilities that make almost all the struggles the protagonists went through in the previous eight films seem completely pointless.

Perhaps the best testimony to how far Star Wars has fallen from its former glory is the film's epilogue, in which Rey appears without any explanation on Tatooine and visits the former farm of Luke Skywalker. This only reminds viewers how devastating comparisons to the original trilogy are and how unlikely it is that Rey, Kylo Ren, Finn, and Poe will become part of global popular culture and references for future generations as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, and Darth Vader were and still are.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)

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