Logan Sork Film Reviews
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker
The world revolving around Star Wars is in a bit of a civil war of its own. The Last Jedi divided the fanbase, with extremists on both sides either praising or trashing the film. I’m in the middle when it comes to the sequel trilogy as, while I don’t think they are the best films in the world, I like them well enough. I don’t envy the task of J.J. Abrams, who has been called back to Star Wars for the final film in this respective trilogy. Not only is he tasked with pleasing both sides of the fandom, but he must also bring closure to not just the sequel trilogy, but the entire Star Wars saga. Does he manage to pull it off?
Well…
Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker is directed by J.J. Abrams and is the final installment of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy as well as the last film in the Skywalker Saga. The film stars Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac and Ian McDiarmid. The story picks up roughly a year after the events of the previous film, with a mysterious radio signal being sent out across the galaxy. Looking to defeat anyone who could potentially challenge his conquest of the galaxy, Kylo Ren (Driver) travels to the source of the signal. There, he discovers that the sinister Emperor Palpatine (McDiarmid) has mysteriously returned from the dead and that he has amassed a large army that can help him conquer his galaxy. Meanwhile, Rey (Ridley) continues her Jedi training, and, with the help of her resistance allies, searches for a way to reach the Emperor to stop him, and the Sith, once and for all.
I’ll start this off by saying that, as per usual, J.J. Abrams and his crew have delivered a visually stunning film from a technical perspective. The cinematography is beautiful, especially when capturing the exotic planets and locations our characters visit. The action sequences are nearly perfect, from the large scale space battles to the creative lightsaber duels, one of which is simply top tier. The visual effects are also very well realized and help bring that classic Star Wars feeling with an updated aesthetic. The score from John Williams is also fantastic and remains one of the things that is never wrong with these films, bringing in some great emotional beats along the way. And as always, there is that great imaginative feeling that each Star Wars film creates as we journey from place to place, looking at all the exotic locations and epic space battles unfolding before our eyes. There is always that special feeling that all Star Wars films have and this film is no exception to that rule.
The performances in this film are also excellent. Daisy Ridley may not have the most interesting or well-written protagonist in Rey, but she does a lot of heavy lifting to make you interested, turning in a great performance that is her best as the character. Oscar Isaac and John Boyega have great chemistry together as Poe and Finn respectively and bring a lot of fun energy to the film. Ian McDiarmid is also great as the Emperor, bringing the same menace and certain level of camp to his performance that made his character great in the first place. Out of all of the performances in the film however, no one reaches the heights of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, who has maintained a great character throughout all three films and is no different here. The humanity brought to his character’s turmoil in this film is second to none, providing the film with some of the best moments in this new series.
However, as great as the technical elements and performances are, they cannot compensate for some major issues this film has. The biggest of these issues is the pacing, which gives the film, and the audience, very little time to breath. The film moves at such great pace that you are barely given time to process the information given to you, resulting in a viewing experience that always makes you feel like the movie is sprinting towards a conclusion, leaving you to play catch up. To compare this to previous films of the franchise, the opening couple of minutes take place in the same location. This film on the contrary jumps between so many locations that the film barely has time to set up any plot threads before jumping into the next action set piece that follows it. Things like the return of the Emporer, Rey’s training and other big reveals are simply glossed over when they should be given time to sink in and process. Characters and their reactions to said revelations are either quick and easy or simply nonexistent. The film is in desperate need of breathing room, and I think an additional thirty minutes to even another hour would do a lot to improve it.
Sadly, to say though, even that additional time may not be enough to improve some of the bombastic creative decisions made in this film. I won’t give anything away, but when you really look at the twists that this film pulls off, most of them either don’t make any sense or amount to nothing. It felt like Abrams and company went with whatever theories or moments would please fans the most and made their decisions around that without thinking how it would impact the overall story of the film and this trilogy as a whole. Which brings me to my big issue with the film and just how anticlimactic it is. The battle at the end is big yes, but it was never built up to in the previous films, making it painfully obvious that the creative minds behind this trilogy never had a plan for where it was going and simply made it up as it goes. Now, this could work for some franchises that tell their stories in an episodic fashion, but Star Wars never did that. It was always one man telling the story from beginning to end in both trilogies. This trilogy has had it’s moments for sure and I kind of like each one individually, but when you put them together the end result is a bit underwhelming.
And underwhelming is the word I would use to describe The Rise of Skywalker. The pacing leaves you exhausted by the end, the story sometimes makes absolutely no sense, and it makes you question where this trilogy was going to begin with. However, I don’t hate this movie and there is a lot of good to be said here. The visuals are stunning, the technical stuff is great, there are a lot of interesting scenes, and the performances are all great. It’s just a shame that this trilogy had to end in such a muddled fashion as there was a lot of potential to be found in these films. Still, they had some great moments in each one and that’s how I’ll choose to remember them by. While this film may not be the best, it isn’t enough to destroy my love for such a great cinematic world.
6.5/10