Movie Review - Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, Rise of Skywalker

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

StarWars : The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, Rise of Skywalker from Lucasfilm

SPOILERS: Yes.

During the production of The Force Awakens the hype train was full steam ahead and I was riding on it! Writer/director JJ Abrams spoke of wanting to give something good to the existing fans, but also wanting to create a 'new mythology' for a new generation of Star Wars fans for whom this new trilogy would be their first experience and have ownership of it. I respected this approach and it excited me. I wanted something new and fresh in the Star Wars universe, that would take the galaxy far, far away in new directions, which would be thrilling for old fans like me and capture the imagination of new young fans. 

I grew up with the original trilogy. My dad took us to stand in lines that wrapped around the blocks to watch the movies when I was seven to ten years old. I watched those original trilogy movies so many times I could cite every line from all three movies from memory. Star Wars was inside me. I won battles of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit against teams of people. I grabbed collectibles and played the games, and still do! 

However, I will say that compared to the grandeur and scope of the Prequel trilogy which expanded this galaxy so wide and far reaching (and even the original trilogy), this new series of movies felt insular and isolated like (almost) everything that happened occured on in a small corner of the galaxy. 

The Force Awakens, for me, paid off handsomely for all the expectations built during filming and trailers. It created new but familiar situations for heroes new and old to rise up and struggle against. But then the subsequent films squandered the possibilities that The Force Awakens opens. 

When The Last Jedi opened, I went and saw it multiple times. I disagreed with and was even horrified at a few of the choices made in the story. But overall, I still praised it because it was subversive and different and took Star Wars to places it hadn't gone before. Again the feeling of a claustrophobic galaxy was present, but by the end of the movie things were in motion, hints were dropped and the whole galaxy was open to possibility! The Resistance is only a dozen people now, The Republic is gone. Luke is now a force being, but he will still be powerful. Rey has the ancient Jedi books, and more power than she knows what to do with! Anything is possible! Just like in the previous two trilogies, why didn't we jump many years forward in time? We saw that not just Rey but also other youngsters were opened up to the force.

Then along came Rise of Skywalker. It was a big Nope. The list of everything I disagreed with and did not enjoy is far too long, easier to say almost the whole movie. But I can count the things I liked on one hand. I'm glad Finn found other former stormtroopers. I'm glad we got to see Lando back in action. I'm glad to know that Leia trained under Luke. Kylo's remade helmet looked cool. You can toss the rest. The pain of Episode 9 was made even worse when Colin Treverow's script was leaked! Now THAT movie would have felt a lot more enjoyable! I got excited again when I read what had been planned. But because fans had a diversity of opinion about The Last Jedi, Disney got scared and ran away from Colin and what would have been a MUCH better film. Sigh. If only. 

Missed opportunities: Sure, I can look back on this new trilogy and criticize over decisions that Disney and Lucasfilms story team decided to make. It's easy to do now after the fact. But when deadlines are on, I'm sure these decisions were not easy to make. But honestly, what happened to the "new mythology"?

• Kylo Ren was a great and fearsome new enemy, bent on carrying on the tradition that he saw as his grandfather's legacy. Kylo Ren spends time communing with his grandfather and venerating the remnants of Vader. Surely the very powerful force being of Anakin would have shown up? Then Snoke mocks Ren's mask? Why? That was part of the identity of all of the Knights of Ren. Kylo Ren then smashes his mask after being mocked? Ok, I guess. But then he rebuilds it even better in the last film, with the blood red crack lines spidered through it. (One of the very few things I liked about Episode 9) And I didn't feel we needed another redemption. We spent six movies watching Anakin fall from good to bad and work through his feelings of love for his son, his only link back to Padme. Luke helped redeem him. Kylo Ren's redemption felt flimsy by comparison, and not needed for the story. Then his dad, Han Solo, shows up to try and turn him around? Han should not have been a force being. Kylo hated his dad, and killed him. Why wasn't this his grandfather Anakin who showed up? Seeing a vision of Vader who then lifts off his helmet and levels with Kylo Ren about his need to turn around would have been more powerful and made a little more sense, if you had to redeem Kylo Ren.
• Knights of Ren: Incredible force vision of them when Rey touches Luke's saber. In TFA, Snoke speaks as though Knights of Ren are cool dudes, his elite fighters, and Kylo being the leader is an impressive thing, especially that some rando woman can best the leader of the KoR. They finally make a few brief appearances in Episode 9, kidnapping Chewie before being bested by their former leader. If you really wanted a "new mythology" perhaps as the Luke himself said, "It's time for the Jedi to end." I liked that idea. Jedi vs Sith move into history as two new groups of force users with different ideals and methods move into the forefront: Knights of Ren could have been the new Dark side villains displacing the tired idea of two and only two Sith. And who would move into the light? 
• Snoke was a great mystery, who was he? Not a Sith clearly. A new Dark side force user, a new shadow over the galaxy. Why didn't we explore this more? I did NOT like that he was cut down in the middle of the action without answers. A puppet of Palpatine? He loses all menace and meaning with that reveal. I felt so deflated.
• Luke's lightsaber: uh... what? Last seen falling down a maintenance shaft of Bespin. How did it end up at Maz Kanata's? No answers, no hints, no one mentions it again. In the now "Star Wars Legends" novels Vader recovered it from Bespin before they leave, but those aren't cannon anymore. Another missed opportunity to flesh out a larger galaxy.
• Again who would take on the mantle of the Light side in this "new mythology"? Why not have the evil of the Knights of Ren be held at bay a new Light side group trained in new ways of thinking, call them "Skywalkers". Rey and the new kids on the block grow up and bring balance to the force (with guidance from force being Luke?), showing off new tricks, and new thinking like... you can be in love and still be good? You don't have to fall to the dark side because you have some passion in your life? Talk about something that would have resonated with today's kids.
• Rey's parentage: The worst of all choices was made in Episode 9. The stronger story choice was to stick to the fact that they were nobody! That the force awakened inside someone new. The message being: it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, anyone can be a hero! But we threw that superior message away by trying to shoehorn in Rey being from Palpatine. Cementing the fact that unless you are someone special, from a special family, you can't be a hero. Thanks for ruining what was set up to be empowering, Disney.
• Luke got the raw end of the deal in this trilogy. Everyone wanted to see badass mentor / fully confident Jedi master Luke. But we didn't get that. We got a hint of it in the TLJ with the face off of Kylo Ren and Luke's visionary self, but not enough. Mark Hamill strongly disagreed with the story choices made for Luke in The Last Jedi, and so do I. I just don't see Luke's character like that. While I did agree that it was time for the Jedi to end, to make way for a new class of Light side users, Luke should have been the inspiration for a whole new generation of force users! 

I felt let down by the end of Rise of Skywalker. Disney/Abrams tried to tie up all the loose ends, but the whole production of Rise of Skywalker being one insanely fast paced action after another, leading to more and more improbable face offs, and nothing really felt emotionally satisfying. Palpatine didn't need to return. No need for any of that junk. We didn't need the Empire to still exist, we DEFINITELY didn't need an uncountable fleet of classic Star Destroyers with big phallus hanging from underneath, gross! It's incongruent with the opening scroll of TFA, when it says the First Order rose from the ashes of the former Empire. Why was all of that crap brought in? Only to answer the question of Rey's parentage and once they had decided that Kylo Ren had to be redeemed they needed a bigger bad guy. 

In the words of Kevin Sorbo in Hercules (paying homage to Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda): "Disappointed!"

Rating: 5 out of 10 galaxies