Completing a review of "The Rise of Skywalker" has been very difficult these past eight weeks. That's been due in part to there being so much to sift through, both in terms of the material in the film and also -- perhaps especially -- in terms of trying to establish proper emotional distance from unfavorable developments or expectations that went without vindication.
Added to that, all aspects of such an analysis have faced the additional challenge of the fact that new information related to the movie just keeps coming out, both through the official sort of channels, such as interviews with people part of the production, or notably less authorized avenues -- e.g. the recent leaks of the first and last script drafts of "Duel of the Fates,"
Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly's unproduced version of Episode IX.
For the most part, though, it is a difficult film to review because it is an awkwardly assembled composition that doesn't stand all that well to itself; stands even more poorly as an entry in a trilogy; more poorly still as the finale to its particular trilogy; and functions most poorly of all as the conclusion to a franchise-wide saga spanning forty-two years and somewhere between nine and a dozen movies (depending on your preferred metric of counting them).
I suppose the above paragraph could serve as a review right there, but we all know I'm not going to be able to let it go at that. "Star Wars" means too much to me.
Though not even nearly my absolute favorite franchise of fictional shenanigans, "Star Wars" is still so very near and dear to my heart, having been with me from my earliest formative years. I suspect so much of my capacity for imagination is bound up in its imagery, as well as its sensibilities of world-building and storytelling.
Of course, ten million other fans could have composed that same sentiment.
This is a franchise -- a living universe even -- that so many love. Many less than I do, I'd wager, but also plenty who do so more. "The Rise of Skywalker" had a lot riding on it: many sorts of expectations, whether optimistic or pessimistic, whether about the narrative or the box office performance. There has also been an irresistible temptation to look to TRoS for a sense of where the wider franchise is going. I certainly haven't been exempt from any of this.
Now that the film is not only out but also a solid outline of the form it may have assumed has taken shape as well (thanks to those recent leaks about the project from when Colin Trevorrow was still intended to serve as its director), it is equally difficult to avoid ruminating over "what could have been" and then dwelling upon it.
I don't need to belabor the observation that the film has neither particularly resonated with general audiences nor long-dedicated enthusiasts -- myself included. That said, I would like to make the effort here to examine "The Rise of Skywalker" on the basis of the film that was produced, not an alternate Episode IX we have no reason to suspect we will ever see.
I want to take stock here -- merits, warts, and all -- of TRoS, not "Duel of the Fates"; and to do so on the basis of its role as the movie that concluded The Skywalker Saga/the "Star Wars" Sequel Trilogy/Disney Trilogy/whatever other names we may know it by; and to take whatever insight we may on its possible implications for the franchise writ large.
To paraphrase a memorable exchange between Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi early in Episode I, while "Star Wars" may have had a hand in teaching many of us how to be mindful of what is possible, let us not do so at the expense of engaging with what is actual.
On that note, two weeks before "The Rise of Skywalker" was released in theatres,
Polygon released an interview with the film's co-screenwriter Chris Terrio in which he said the following:
"So it became this little creative sandbox where we really could try anything.
The thing about a movie of this size is that you can imagine anything. Anything you can imagine, literally, can be realized in some way. It’s the only time in my life that I will ever have an experience like this. Not only that, but your heart is just brimming over because it’s Star Wars and it’s these characters that you love. They’re like your relatives. You love them. I feel that I know and love Luke and Lando better than I know some of my family, and I treat them with as much love and warmth as I would treat family. Or even more. So to have that at the warm emotional core of things, plus to have the ability to stage anything — any battle, that is, any event that is galaxy history — on a canvas that size, it’s a one-chance-in-a-lifetime thrill."
And this is what they chose to do with it: constant death fakeouts -- one each for Chewbacca, C-3PO, Zorii Bliss, Babu Frik, and Rey; then two for Kylo Ren (third time's the charm, I guess) -- and nearly constant thousand-yard stares from Rey while Finn ineffectually screams her name from somewhere too far away to matter.
I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Let's go back a step.
To begin this proper (from my point of view anyway) dive into the condition of "Star Wars" today, I won't mince words: the novelization of TRoS releasing in March has a lot of work cut out for it -- a challenge approaching the impossible even. One for which I truly hope The Force is with author Rae Carson.
On the optimistic side of things, she has hinted that there is a lot of missing material to the story that this novelization will provide:
On the pessimistic side of things, no matter how much the novel adds or improves, the movie will remain in the slipshod state of assembly it is now.
And on the real-talk side of things, a movie at this level of production shouldn't need to look to its novelization to achieve what the film should have in the first place: thematic and narrative coherence with the rest of its trilogy.
I won't wax so pessimistic as
Forbes contributor Paul Tassi as to say that TRoS erased "The Last Jedi."
Donna Dickens at /Film actually makes a solid series of observations on how well TRoS's revelations concerning Rey's lineage mesh with the interactions between she and Luke in TLJ. I will, however, echo Tassi word for word where he says "The more I think about it, the more the disparity between Star Wars’
Force Awakens and
The Last Jedi, and then
The Last Jedi and
Rise of Skywalker is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen in blockbuster cinema."
I will hardly be the first reviewer to say this last movie tried to do and be too much. Say what one will about "The Last Jedi," "The Force Awakens," or even the individual installments of the much-maligned Prequel Trilogy, none of those films were in the heat of an identity crisis.
Does "The Rise of Skywalker" want to be about the cumulative positive effects of small, individual acts of kindness or about the final grand spectacles that topple an empire in the span of a few hours? Does it want to be about a small few who can inspire and lead others or does it want to show the net positive resulting from various disparate factions already working towards similar goals uniting in common cause?
Does TRoS want to continue the theme from "The Last Jedi" about The Force working through "nothings" and "nobodies" like Finn and other defected Stormtroopers to bring about freedom and balance -- or does it want to play up the importance of Force "dynasties," with notions of lineage at the personal level for a few having major effects for everyone?
Perhaps the answer is ... all of the above? And if so, to the film's credit, it actually manages to tackle all of these things to
some degree, though mostly not to a degree of satisfaction. Consequently, it now seems safe to say that the Lucasfilm Story Group is no longer in session -- or at the least no longer serving the purpose for which it was formed.
My overall cognitive
and emotional impressions of TRoS remain the same now as eight weeks ago: it feels like there was ultimately no oversight at the end of this journey to mandate a coherent trilogy. There has been far too much fluidity in the wider plot and thematic elements of the "Star Wars" universe of late, as well as even that of individual stories.
Prior to the leaks of Trevorrow and Connolly's scripts, this disconnect in the Story Group was perhaps most notable in Story Group executive
Matt Martin's recent comments regarding "Darth Vader" vol. 2 #25 and its apparent revelation that Sheev Palpatine influenced The Force to create Anakin Skywalker in Shmi Skywalker's womb:
"I’ve gone into this at length a few times. No, that is not what the comic is implying. Just no. There’s more to that comic than those two panels. It should be read in context."
"But this is all in Anakin’s head. Wouldn't that idea, a concept that Palps hinted at to Anakin himself, be something likely to freak Anakin out? Something that would linger in his mind? 'Oh crap, what if he made me!' Doesn't make it true. It's all through Anakin's lens."
"But I can tell you definitively, as someone who worked on the comic, that is 100% not the intended implication. I'm not saying there isn't a logical misinterpretation that they're coming to. I'm just telling you definitively that it's not correct."
"Like, I get why people think that and that’s okay. But it’s objectively incorrect."
"It’s part of my job to ensure the stories are aligned with the overall vision of Star Wars. If the intention was to make a direct connection between Palps and Anakin’s birth, I would have had it removed."
Charles Soule, the issue's writer, even chimed in to defend Martin's bizarre position:
"I am, in fact, the writer. Matt and I worked closely on this series and this point in particular. I hate explaining stuff in my work in too much detail, but you need to understand the scenario happening here.
The Dark Side is not a reliable narrator."
Soule's comment would be a helpful point if anything within the comic offered an indication that what we see isn't to be trusted. In truth, the issue and those preceding it do precisely the opposite: we see that it's altogether possible for the gateway Vader is utilizing to do what he wants it to (i.e. bring someone dead back to life), so we're then left with little to no reason to doubt the validity of the imagery he witnesses shortly after passing through.
Did the writer look at the finished pages of the comic prior to print? Did Martin? In the just-a-few-days-more-than-a-year between this issue's December 19, 2018, publication and the recent Twitter trainwreck, did they not look at any of the numerous articles on fan websites and in other geek circles that spoke of the revelation/confirmation that Palpatine created Anakin?
Pablo Hidalgo, another member of the Story Group, certainly did, and
took the step of confirming their veracity within the first week of the issue's release:
"Not sure why it's being treated as groundbreaking. given 1) what's in Episode III 2) the peculiar POV of the comic and 3) how long this has been out there (13 years or so). Of all the amazing things this comic does, it's an interesting reaction to a small piece."
Hidalgo then added a picture of an ultimately unused passage from an early draft of Episode III's script wherein Palpatine explicitly told Anakin "I have waited all these years for you to fulfill your destiny [. . .] I arranged for your conception. I used the power of the Force to will the midichlorians to start the cell divisions that created you" -- as well as "You could almost think of me as a father."
In Martin's defense, he has apparently been holding this position on the book's contents
since that same first week it
was published, but it seems little effort was made to address the prevalent understanding that was forming throughout the fandom and wider online community for more than a year. To his credit, though,
he does also say "FWIW, I’m not trying to tell people what to believe. I’m just saying that I can assure you that is not the intention of that comic and that comic only."
I half expect what Martin and Soule are saying about this on Twitter to simply be ignored by future writers, who will almost certainly defer to what is on the page. Martin in particular is difficult to give much weight in credibility on matters such as these.
I say that in part because of his name being attached to issues #20-21 of Poe Dameron's eponymous comic series as one of its Lucasfilm Story Group consultants, along with James Waugh and Leland Chee, as was the case with the Darth Vader comic storyline discussed above.
In these issues, as in a number of other places throughout the canon that has been undergoing construction in recent years, the concept of a past harmony -- and perhaps a harmonious future yet to come -- between use of the Dark and Light Sides of The Force is discussed. Upon examining a mysterious spherical artifact called the Kazerath, Resistance ally, friend to Luke Skywalker, and researcher of all things Force-related Lor San Tekka makes the following remarks and observations:
"Just
look at it. Crafted using both the Dark and Light Sides of The Force, and clearly designed to be operated by both at once."
- "Poe Dameron" #20
"The device is incredibly unique. It might imply a chapter in the grand history of The Force when Light and Dark were not in opposition, but
united. ... As you know, I have dedicated my life to gathering knowledge about The Force. Both sides, Light and Dark. So
many lives have been lost in their battle over the millenia -- but I think someday this fight could
end. If they could work
together, see that in many ways they are the
same... Perhaps the Kazerath is a path to that future."
- "Poe Dameron" #21
So, why is this relevant to how much credence we give Matt Martin? Because
Martin is on the record as insisting it isn't possible for anyone to exist in such a state as described by Lor San Tekka -- while
applying special pleading to the cases of The Bendu and the Mortis gods in an attempt to invalidate them as examples of it:
"The difference is in the individual, not the Force. 'Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.' An individual can not exist in the middle (Bendu doesn't count because he's a whole separate thing, same with the Mortis gods)."
"But what I'm saying is that the Force itself has a spectrum but the characters are on one side or the other. The balance in the middle is not a place an individual can exist."
He's
even gone so far as to claim that George Lucas "saw the Force as a clear binary light and dark so that's how I tend to see it" -- despite Lucas creating the Mortis gods, from among whom The Father explained to Anakin in "Overlords," a season 3 episode of "The Clone Wars":
"My children and I can manipulate the Force like no other. Therefore, it was necessary to withdraw from the temporal world and live here as anchorites. ... You cannot imagine what pain it is to have such love for your children and realize that they could tear the very fabric of our universe. ... It is only here that I can control them. A family in balance. The Light and the Dark. Day with night. Destruction replaced by creation. ... Too much Dark or Light would be the undoing of life as you understand it."
As for the Dark Side "forever dominat[ing] your destiny" once you begin using it, this was demonstrably false in the Original Trilogy in which it was uttered, but is especially so in a look at the wider franchise where no less than three major Dark Side-wielders are concerned: Assaj Ventress, Ben Solo, and Anakin Skywalker himself. In Ben's case, he actually actively struggled to resist the Light Side and go down a dark path by choice.
Even if we extend special pleading to Anakin because he's The Chosen One, and even to Ben (for whatever reason), once we pile up enough exceptions to supposed rules, they stop looking much like rules. Yet
Martin remains keen to insist they are when confronted with these details, and quick to backpedal into another fallacious position:
"I think 'forever' is hyperbole and we've seen in more than a few stories that it's possible to bring someone back into the light. My point is just that it seems impossible for one to exist somewhere in between. Once you start going dark, it's a slippery slope."
Ben Solo's ongoing struggle to resist being seduced by the Light Side of the Force notwithstanding this "slippery slope," of course.
It's quite clear here that Martin himself has a preference for a notion of The Force as a morally simplistic, mutually exclusive good-evil dichotomy. Which is fine. We all have matters of preference. His just happens to be incorrect, and he's unfortunately apparently unwilling to part from it without (perhaps unknowingly) utilizing his position to taint fandom understanding. Granted, there are other fans who would say the same of Pablo Hidalgo, whom I've invoked in opposition to Martin, so perhaps I should withdraw the sentiment.
I'm hesitant to cast aspersions upon someone's character over their approach to works of fiction anyway, but the interpretation of The Force that Martin promotes hardly feels like a good-faith reading of something like this ancient Jedi meditation chant revealed in "Dooku: Jedi Lost" --
"We call upon the three: Light, Dark, and balance true. One is no greater than the others. Together, they unite, restore, center, and renew. We walk into the Light, acknowledge the Dark, and find balance within ourselves. The Force is strong."
Also, it is simply impossible to reconcile Martin's description of The Force with what we know of the Prime Jedi, to whom the above chant belonged. Long before the Jedi Order of the Republic era became oblivious to their deterioration into the hamstrung pawns and political puppets of corrupt bureaucrats and other officials -- and even before a rogue Sith faction split from the original order to have borne the Jedi name -- the Prime Jedi were equivalent to what fandom hypothetically refers to as "Grey Jedi." Per pg. 246 in the New Edition of "Ultimate Star Wars," "the Prime (first) Jedi [were] at balance with the Force—in peaceful coexistence with both light amd dark":
And finally, though -- as stated at the begining of this look into TRoS and the current state of the franchise -- I'm going out of my way in this review not to think too much about "what could have been," it's worth mentioning that "Duel of the Fates" was also written with a proper understanding and depiction of The Force in mind. This is most blatantly conveyed by Rey declaring to Kylo "Our Masters were wrong. I will not deny my anger. And I will not reject my love. I am the darkness. And I am the light" -- followed shortly thereafter by this exchange between Rey and the Force Ghosts of her predecessors:
---
Yoda: "Taught us much, you have."
Rey: "I've taught you?"
Yoda: "Mmm. Succeeded where we have failed. Narrow was our point of view."
Luke: "You choose to embrace the Dark Side and the Light. To find balance within."
Yoda: "Co-exist, they must, as such feelings do in all of us."
---
In the interest of full disclosure, I do want it on the record that I'm not particularly attached to the Palpatine explanation about Anakin's creation and would happily accept James Luceno's 2014 "Darth Plagueis" novel being reinducted into canon. In that novel, it was revealed that Darth Plagueis's experiments with the midichlorians in an attempt to command the power of resurrection had inadvertently prompted
The Force itself to create Anakin in response, so as to restore the cosmic balance that was being disrupted -- with Palpatine then incorporating Anakin into his own plans.
So, that in mind, believe me when I say that my taken issue with this claim of "No, Palpatine isn't obviously Force-Fucking Shmi here" thing is the lack of consistency from Lucasfilm Story Group.
On the other hand, I will confess to having much more an attachment to the "Grey Force" concept that Martin believes
"could[n't] be a thing" -- but in my defense, I also used to accept the false dichotomy he subscribes to until canon materials began introducing us to the proper Force balance. Given that depictions of The Force have evolved past our original understanding, I'm not going to encourage it being dragged kicking and screaming back to a less nuanced and less meditative conceptualization.
Again, though, my main gripe here is the lack of consistency from Lucasfilm on fronts such as this. And it gets worse when coming back round to "The Rise of Skywalker" itself. Much worse. Even before we take the recent leaks of Trevorrow and Connolly's scripts into account.
When the first trailer for TRoS was revealed last April at the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago,
Kathleen Kennedy claimed afterwards in a brief interview with Yahoo! Enterainment's Kevin Polowy that it had essentially always been the plan for Palpatine to return in the Sequel Trilogy --
---
Polowy: "Big shocker, of course, in this trailer: the reappearance of Palpatine. What can you tell us about this? How long was this in the cards? Was this sort of in the blueprint since Episode VII?"
Kennedy: "This has been in the blueprint for a long time, yeah. We had not landed on exactly how we might do that, but yes, it's always --"
Polowy: "Always to be in Episode IX?"
Kennedy: "Yeah."
---
More recent interviews with others involved, including Abrams's TRoS co-screenwriter Chris Terrio, specify otherwise. In one interview with Awards Daily,
Terrio had this to say:
"We felt that right from the beginning, when J.J. established Kylo Ren in
Episode VII, there was a war going on inside him and that he had been corrupted by something bigger than himself and had made bad choices along the way. J.J. and I felt we needed to find a way in which he could be redeemed, and that gets tricky at the end of
Episode VIII because Snoke is gone. The biggest bad guy in the galaxy at that moment seemingly is Kylo Ren. There needed to be an antagonist that the good guys could be fighting, and that’s when we really tried to laser in on who had been the great source of evil behind all of this for so long. That’s when we really started aggressively pursuing this idea that there is old evil that didn’t die. The source of the evil in the galaxy is this dark spirit waiting for its revenge and biding its time. The entity known as Palpatine in this version – his body died in Return of the Jedi – is patient and has been waiting. He dug his fox hole and has been waiting for his chance to re-establish his total domination."
For valuable context, note that Terrio mentions in this same interview that he wasn't brought in to work on anything related to "Star Wars" until Abrams had accepted the job to return to the Sequel Trilogy for Episode IX. In another recent interview, this time with The Hollywood Reporter,
Terrio identified that period as the fall of 2017.
In other words, contrary to the claim that Palpatine's return was planned from the beginning of the Sequel Trilogy's development, if Terrio is to be believed, Palpatine's return could not have actually been planned before very late 2017 at the earliest, when release of "The Last Jedi" was itself already near.
Ironically, the Awards Daily interviewer seemed to catch onto these implication, as their very next question for Terrio asked "Was returning to this entity known as Palpatine always in the plan or was it newly introduced in
Episode IX?" Terrio then replies with a much more noncommittal response that seems to contradict what he said a moment prior:
"Well, I can’t speak to Kathy’s overall intent. That was certainly discussed and was discussed before I ever came on. Kathy had this overall vision that we had to be telling the same story for nine episodes."
This backtracking almost seems to suggest that he realized he had said too much, as if there was a party line to tow. This impression is further impressed by
an IndieWire article released the same day as the Awards Daily interview. This second interviewer notes that Terrio "was mum when asked if Palpatine’s return was already in place when he joined the project."
If there had always been a plan to this effect in place, there's no reason for all this coy dodging and backtracking to obfuscate the matter. Particularly given that, despite all this engineered confusion, the reality was abundantly clear from what had already been otherwise acknowledged.
In addition to Terrio's slip-up, Colin Trevorrow -- who was attached to Episode IX as its director
from August 2017 until
September 2017, when the project was offered to J.J. Abrams -- was on the record
back in November as saying that Palpatine's return was Abrams's idea. In fact, he even went so far as to identify it as something that had never occurred to him or come up while he was working on Episode IX:
"Bringing back the Emperor was an idea JJ brought to the table when he came on board. It’s honestly something I never considered. I commend him for it. This was a tough story to unlock, and he found the key."
Again, all of that was information we had
before Trevorrow and Connolly's scripts for "Duel of the Fates" leaked. The details of those scripts then prove the timing of Palpatine's inclusion beyond all doubt.
It's clear that Palpatine returning was not, in fact, "always the plan." However, the production benefitted from there being convenient enough seeds in place to make a reveal to that effect altogether plausible, and perhaps even logical. Snoke's seemingly first-hand knowledge of -- as well as obvious grudge against -- the Skywalkers left a lot of room for reading Palpatine into things.
So long as we're discussing the credibility of "Star Wars" storytelling people, by the way, Chris Terrio doesn't always inspire confidence either. In
his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he offered the following comments:
"As Luke says, some things are stronger than blood. That felt like a really strong story point to us.
Therefore, at the end of the movie, when Rey declares herself a Skywalker, that felt like the end of that conversation, which is to say that you get to choose your family, and really, you get to choose your ancestry. Rey rejects the blood ancestry that she has inherited, and instead, she chooses the ancestry of the Jedi. When all the Jedi come to Rey at the end, one of the Jedi lightly says, 'We are your ancestors now,' in the background, and I think that’s true. She chooses the spiritual ancestry of the Jedi instead of the blood ancestry of Palpatine."
Not to in any way diminish the virtue behind the lesson expressed in these thoughts, it does nonetheless bear pointing out that "We are your ancestors now" is not said in that scene, nor anywhere else in the movie.
Doubtless the line is in some draft of "The Rise of Skywalker."
However, it is not in the film itself.
Of course, being a co-writer to the director rather than the director himself -- or even the film's editor -- it's easy enough to imagine being as thick in the weeds of the writing and dialogue as he was, Terrio could forget what made its way into the final cut. Much more confounding for his reliability is the following exchange during
his interview with Awards Daily:
---
AD: One thing that’s fairly pervasive right now is the buzz around Kelly Marie Tran’s reduced role in The Rise of Skywalker when compared to The Last Jedi. Tell me about working through her role in the final film.
CT: Well, first of all, J.J. and I adore Kelly Marie Tran. One of the reasons that Rose has a few less scenes than we would like her to have has to do with the difficulty of using Carrie’s footage in the way we wanted to. We wanted Rose to be the anchor at the rebel base who was with Leia. We thought we couldn’t leave Leia at the base without any of the principals whom we love, so Leia and Rose were working together. As the process evolved, a few scenes we’d written with Rose and Leia turned out to not meet the standard of photorealism that we’d hoped for. Those scenes unfortunately fell out of the film. The last thing we were doing was deliberately trying to sideline Rose. We adore the character, and we adore Kelly – so much so that we anchored her with our favorite person in this galaxy, General Leia.
---
Understandably, either (or perhaps both) VFX artists at Lucasfilm were offended by this explanation or others were offended on their behalf, and so
Terrio quickly issued a retraction to entertainment news outlet Vulture:
"I badly misspoke if in an earlier statement I implied that any cut scenes between Rose and Leia were the fault of our VFX team and the wizards at ILM. In that earlier interview, I was referring to a specific scene in which Leia’s emotional state in
Episode VII did not seem to match the scene we wrote for use in
Episode IX, and so it was cut at the script stage before the VFX work was done. If we had chosen to use the scene, ILM would have made it look perfect. They always do. ILM performed actual miracles at every stage of the creative process in
Episode IX. I remain in awe of their work.”
Added to this, he seemingly tried to further smooth over his prior photorealism comment during his interview with The Hollywood Reporter the same day he issued his confusing clarification to Vulture:
"I should emphasize that any Leia-Rose scenes that fell out of the film did so because we felt that the scenes, as we had written them, weren't a good match between the
Episode VII footage and the
Episode IX story. It was not because the VFX weren't exceptional in every shot that ILM delivered. I would sometimes come and sit at the VFX reviews and my jaw would drop at seeing Leia live again. ILM pushed their technology beyond what had ever been done, so that the camera could move with, around, near her, while using Carrie's real performance. The VFX team gave us a kind of gift, to let us say goodbye to her."
Let's be real here: a comment about a scene going unused because it "turned out to not meet the standard of photorealism that we’d hoped for" is about visuals, not writing. "Photorealism" isn't even a word that readily lends itself to a visual metaphor, to say nothing of being functionally at odds with it in a discussion about a film that is splicing old footage with new footage.
Terrio had even confessed "One of the reasons that Rose has a few less scenes than we would like her to have has to do with the difficulty of using Carrie’s footage in the way we wanted to" a moment before mentioning the term "photorealism." We're clearly talking about VFX here. Perhaps not any actual work submitted by the VFX artists, no, but nonetheless a comment bearing an assessment of what the writers believed could be achieved with the footage available.
In other words, Terrio once again comes across as backpedaling for the sake of towing a party line. And that unfavorable determination comes without even getting into an overall assessment of whether his claim that "The last thing we were doing was deliberately trying to sideline Rose" seems to withstand scrutiny.
Others have rather thoroughly gone into that already, so I'll leave it to them.
Being that I've allowed this writing thus far to get far beyond a need for injecting some positivity into my review, I should say as an addendum to the previous topic that credit
is due to the filmmakers for trying to do honor to Carrie Fisher's memory. Whether they succeeded is only for her family to say, so I won't attempt to speak to that at all, but I can say their intention on that point comes through clearly and sincerely.
Speaking for myself, perhaps somewhat callously, I do have to be honest that I don't feel they did justice to the story if they allowed the tragic offscreen passing of our favorite space princess to negatively impact the writing of the film more than it absolutely had to -- i.e. beyond the unavoidable obstacle of being incapable of filming new footage with or recording new dialogue from Carrie.
That being said, I also don't envy them this task at all. Over and above all the expectations of fans like us who are too hard to please as it is, and then beyond having to work around the limitations imposed by one of your major actors passing away ... trying to cobble something together that feels like it maybe kind of works while honoring that person's memory and being considerate of their family's feelings? It makes me think twice before declaring that I wish I had been at the helm instead.
So, on this count, kudos to J.J. Abrams, Episode VII and IX editor Maryann Brandon, Chris Terrio, the VFX people at Industrial Light & Magic, and whomever else to whom credit is due for what they were able to accomplish with an absolutely nightmarish scenario.
Moving deeper into analyzing the film now, kudos also go out for some genuinely touching moments: Kylo Ren's pained return to being Ben Solo after conversing with the memory of his father; the boyish jubilance in Ben's smile when he manages to bring Rey back from death; and the tearful embrace between Rey, Finn, and Poe as they celebrate their Pyrrhic victory. These are grand moments that did make me feel caught up in them.
Evoking emotion of an altogether different but no less satisfying sort, all of Emperor Palpatine's scenes made for fantastic nightmare fuel approaching a proper sense of horror. I don't offer these compliments lightly, but there was something delightfully
Giger-esque about it all.
The costuming, lighting, makeup, and cinematography folks -- and whoever else was involved -- deserve recognition filled with applause for bringing the Emperor (back) to life in this way, as does the perpetually marvelous Ian McDiarmid.
And as with all of the Emperor's scenes, the ground-based part of the showdown on Exegol was good stuff. A thoroughly entertaining mix of thought-provoking lore, dramatic tension, and the right kind of creepy. That imagery of this massive cavern full of chanting, hooded cultists will stick with me for always.
The adjacent sequence of past Jedi speaking to Rey and giving her the strength to rise (oh, I see what you did there now, Abrams) also provides some overdue satisfaction to us fans of the franchise who long for the films to acknowledge characters from the various animated series -- though the sequence itself could undoubtedly have been made more dramatically effective by way of having the Force Ghosts of all those Jedi appear. Or even a few of them. Or ... any of them. Why, oh why, this wasn't done will forever be a mystery to me.
Another mystery: Since Palpatine was revealed to have been behind the First Order all this time while his Final Order fleet of Star Destroyers was being prepared in secret in a
different part of the Unknown Regions from the part of the Unknowns where the conventional First Order was doing its own secret preparations -- why didn't he just keep all of it secret until the Final Order fleet was ready?
For that matter, all these Star Destroyers and Sith fleet personnel (according to the TRoS Visual Dictionary, each destroyer was crewed by a total 29,585 people) present for the Sequel Trilogy the same problem the developers behind "Dirge of Cerberus" introduced to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII with Deepground: a staggering lack of a sense of scale. There's just too many of them for this to make good sense.
Even a fleet one-tenth this size would have been pushing it, but it would have been absurd on a smaller scale.
So long as we're working on making sense of things, how do we know Palpatine is gone for good this time? Why should we believe it will stick any more than before if Palpatine's body died in Episode VI as well (as Terrio confirmed in the Awards Daily interview), yet he endured as this malevolent spirit?
On a related note, Palpatine's newest death works better on a second viewing than it seems to initially. Yes, he gets himself blasted with his own Force Lightning (again), but Rey was also advancing on him from only a few feet away. She would have been on top of him in an instant had he cut off the stream of lightning.
And on a different sort of "related" note, the reveal of Rey's lineage as a Palpatine is not inherently a bad idea; it was just mishandled. The execution was clumsier than this very paragraph.
Ideally, if this was going to be done, it should have been revealed in Episode VIII. That, of course, wasn't yet the creative direction at the time of Episode VIII's production, so that's neither here nor there, but if it had to be a development that didn't emerge until now, it should have been revealed to Rey by Palpatine himself. That Kylo was used as the messenger just felt like a hackneyed attempt to cover for the veracity of what he told her about her parents in Episode VIII -- an unnecessary venture to begin with given that he implies he only drew those conclusions from what he found in her subconscious anyway ("You remember more than you say").
Along similar lines, the trilogy would have functioned better as a trilogy had Palpatine's broadcast across the galaxy been featured on screen in more than just a passing reference within TRoS's opening crawl ... again, ideally in Episode VIII ... what with the only place it can actually be heard by audiences being
a limited-time special event in -- of all places -- the video game, "Fortnite."
Of all the bizarre choices that went into this movie's production, that may take the cake.
At least
Abrams and Maryann Brandon saw fit to work Palpatine's reveal about Snoke being his cloned puppet into TRoS. It's nice to get an explanation for Snoke, even if other things went unexplained. As I've said before, in this regard TRoS actually stepped up in one place that "Duel of the Fates" apparently would not have, so credit where credit is due.
That nonetheless still leaves us without an explanation for the resurrected(?) Emperor, which -- per the HuffPost article linked in the previous paragraph -- Abrams and Brandon decided wasn't important: "There was so much information in the film and so many characters that we wanted to have an audience concentrate on. I think we felt we didn’t want to clutter the film up with things you didn’t need to know."
An absolute misfire in storytelling decision making for numerous reasons, not the least of which is that Palpatine's return was revealed to audiences in the announcement trailer for TRoS more than eight months before the film's release. The marketing engine for "The Rise of Skywalker" fired up by inviting audiences to speculate and theorize about this Obviously Significant Plot Point for the better part of a year only for the film itself to handwave it aside without any answers at all.
Not only a storytelling misfire, it was also an ironic one given
Abrams's own recent remarks about "The Last Jedi" that "I don’t think that people go to 'Star Wars' to be told, 'This doesn’t matter.'"
To be altogether honest, though, the precise circumstances and mechanics of Palpatine's return are of the least concern for me of the things that went unelaborated in TRoS, or of those that were left to just meander aimlessly.
In the first place, it's plenty easy enough to imagine
several scenarios that could have brought him back. In the second, the TRoS Visual Dictionary describes the Sith Eternal cultists on Exegol as "Loyalists seeking to resurrect the tradition [who] have coupled technology and the occult to bring forth unnatural manifestations of the dark side." Most likely, this functions as our explanation for Palpatine's resurrection, and probably explains it as well as any attempt at a more detailed explanation would.
Third, at least in so far as Palpatine's final restoration is concerned, Abrams and Terrio actually made use of established "Star Wars" lore. In Chuck Wendig's 2015 novel, "Star Wars: Aftermath," Palpatine advisor and Sith cultist Yupe Tashu speaks of a Dark Side ability to drain the Force energy -- the very life force -- from someone:
"Did you know that Sith Lords could sometimes drain the Force energy from their captives? Siphoning life from them and using it to strengthen their connection to the dark side? Extending their own lives, as well, so that they could live for centuries beyond their intended expiration?"
This is most certainly the ability Palpatine utilizes in TRoS to drain the Force Dyad of their strength, revitalizing his body while leaving Rey and Ben's on the verge of death. Fans had long believed Palpatine capable of such an ability anyway based on his role as the apprentice in "The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise," and many continue to suspect that this may even be the cause of Padmé's medically unexplainable death at the end of Episode III -- i.e. Palpatine siphoned her of the Force and funneled it into Vader, who was undergoing resuscitation at that very moment from the mortal wounds he had received on Mustafar.
Other comments from Tashu a moment later further reflect an ironic prescience on Wendig's part:
"And even if your people continue to march forward, reclaiming system after system—we will be waiting. In some form or another. The Empire is just a skin we wear, you see. A
shell. It's not just about law and order. It's about total control. We will always come back for it. No matter how hard you work to beat us back, we are an infection inside the galaxy's bones. And we will always surge forth when you least expect it."
Far more important than even the precise details of "somehow Palpatine returned," there are character arcs here in TRoS that essentially perished to storyteller famine as well as themes integral to the entire Skywalker Saga that were left thirsting for a drop of overt exposure -- in
this, the final installment to not only the Sequel Trilogy, but also the central saga of the "Star Wars" franchise.
Finn's "I never told you" sub-plot, for example, is played to decent comedic effect, but never gets resolved. While that isn't as frustrating for me as it has been to many reviewers, truth be told, what
is frustrating about it -- infuriating even -- is Abrams's intended explanation for it.
During a meet-and-greet with fans following an Academy of Motion Picture Arts screening of TRoS, Abrams confirmed this inherently ridiculous interpretation of the scene as being what he intended:
A couple of days later, Finn actor John Boyega reaffirmed in a series of tweets that Abrams's intention was not simply a far more logical declaration of love from Finn to Rey:
Let's just break this down to the brassest of tacks: yes, Finn is Force-sensitive. Yes, the movie makes this abundantly clear. No, it doesn't make any fucking sense for "I can sense The Force too!" to be what Finn expected would be his last words.
Especially not to Rey, whom he showed romantic interest in within a few minutes of their first meeting. And
especially when what he seems most sensitive about is not wanting their other best friend to overhear him revealing it. And also especially after his sub-plot from the previous film in this trilogy connected him romantically to someone else, only for that angle to have been abruptly dropped since then with nary any lip service.
Finn has no reason to want to keep this Force-sensitivity thing from Poe as though it were some embarrassing or shameful secret, and it's far from a relevant confession to offer on one's deathbed. What is Rey supposed to do with that revelation as she suffocates in quicksand? Is it going to provide any comfort, or is she just going to say "Good for you, I guess??" and then die?
Most blessedly, Abrams apparently made it clear that this is just what the moment means to him and that others should feel invited to interpret it differently (e.g. in a way that makes sense):
This may be one time we were all better off that Abrams couldn't muster the courage to have something left vague be made more concrete, or couldn't be bothered having his work explain itself.
Moving on, but sticking close to Finn, obviously Jannah and the company of other former Stormtroopers that he meets on the Ocean Moon of Endor are there to serve several purposes.
For one, they serve to remind us that the Stormtroopers were also victims of the First Order, as they were taken from their families and names when they were children. This plays neatly into a recurring theme across the franchise that slavery needs to be confronted and ended wherever it is found.
The role cast for these characters also strengthens the theme that individual acts of compassion build on one another into something greater; and it serves to carry on a theme of The Force working through everyone at times, not just "Force royalty," so to speak.
These are all worthy themes, of course, but in skipping right to introducing us to a company of defected Stormtroopers, Finn doesn't have to contend with the reality that he's spent the better part of three movies shooting and blowing up people who may be just like him -- people who also deserve a shot at redemption -- and has done so without trying to bring any of them "back to the light."
In other words, TRoS is unwilling to confront the implications of its own themes, so it falls down really hard here.
I wish I could say that was as far as the mishandling of my favorite Stormtrooper goes, but it isn't. Somehow, the movie finds a way to take it a cut deeper than even this.
On the Ocean Moon of Endor, did Finn and Jannah taking the other skimmer to chase after Rey at the Death Star ruins ultimately serve any purpose other than further emphasizing what we already knew about Finn (i.e. his devotion to Rey)? I want to say there must be something in there, perhaps in how she Force Pushed him back from getting involved -- but was it meant to say that this is how guided by satisfying her anger Rey has become? That she's now knowingly hurting her friends rather than doing so by accident, as in the earlier cases (BB-8 and Chewie)? Or is it meant to show her trying to protect Finn from getting severely injured again, as he had the last time he came between Kylo and Rey to protect her? And if it's this latter reading that applies, does that inform Finn later pleading with Rose on that Final Order command ship to not try saving him this time from his latest attempted suicide-maneuver-to-take-out-the-bad-guys?
I don't know which of these answers is meant to apply because Abrams doesn't usually see fit to convey what his characters are thinking.
All I do know is that I'm glad we got that genuinely heartfelt threeway hug between Finn, Poe, and Rey at the end -- and that I'm annoyed we didn't get one between Finn and Rose. And I say that as someone who both a) isn't even a fan of that pairing and b) was so taken aback by separating Finn from Rey and Poe for most of "The Last Jedi" that it took me weeks to appreciate Rose's role in that movie. After the bond they made with one another, it's jarring as hell that we don't see anyone but Chewie hug her.
Essentially, almost every single thing done with Finn in this film was a trainwreck surpassed only by the misuse afforded Rose.
While we're still near our discussion of Jannah and co., we should really take a moment to acknowledge another elephant in the room: too many new characters were introduced in TRoS, to the detriment of some who had been around previously.
Newly arriving, we got Jannah, her crew, Zorii Bliss, Babu Frik, D-0, General Pryde, and the Knights of Ren. Can you say you learned more than a sentence worth of anything about any of them not played by Keri Russell?
General Armitage Hux had been with us since Poe and Finn's iconic meeting and exciting escape from the First Order early into Episode VII. His usage in Episode IX is less unceremonious than Rose Tico's, but that's true of unnamed Stormtroopers as well.
If I'm being honest, for the role Abrams and Terrio chose to give him, Hux was actually used reasonably well until he was disappointingly shelved abruptly and completely in favor of General Pryde.
Hux still has a position as a general by the time of Episode IX, but no longer as the highest ranking officer in the First Order. Barely recognizable here as Kylo Ren's former rival; as the former commanding officer of Starkiller Base; or as the ranking officer on the Supremacy, the First Order's one-time mobile capital and personal flagship for Supreme Leader Snoke -- Hux more or less serves in disgrace with Kylo Ren now Supreme Leader. Thus, his betrayal of intel to the struggling Resistance, giving them the opportunity to prevent Palpatine's Final Order from laying siege to the galaxy.
I suppose the filmmakers felt that after being found out in his role as spy, Hux needed to be eliminated as consequence for such a significant betrayal, with the same officer who executes him being in command of the fleet during the film's final battle. All of which is fine, as far as that goes.
Since Kylo, of course, repents to become Ben Solo again, that leaves the need for someone who isn't Palpatine to execute Hux and command the Final Order during the aerial portion of the film's showdown. Perhaps Captain Phasma could have been brought back one more time to serve this role, though, rather than a random new general being thrust upon us at the eleventh (IXth?) hour.
It would have at least felt more appropriate that Hux be removed by someone else we've been following in the First Order since Episode VII -- and Phasma in particular since she is someone with whom he already has meaningful history. She was both protege and assassin to Hux's father, General Brendol Hux, who sponsored her entry into the First Order after finding her on a desolate planet and being impressed by her battle prowess. She also later conspired with Armitage to kill Brendol, to their mutual benefit.
Given the narrative satisfaction built into going this route, it's actually thoroughly surprising Abrams didn't choose to, particularly since he's on the record as being
surprised by Rian Johnson's decision to kill Phasma off in TLJ and feeling there was more for her to do.
Though bringing her back for TRoS would have been yet another element of Rian Johnson's Episode VIII seemingly undone by Abrams, this one would have arguably been fair game since Johnson had reintroduced Phasma anyway after she was seemingly killed off in the destruction of Starkiller Base in Abrams's Episode VII. I, at least, wouldn't have thought it tacky on Abrams's part to do so.
I do find Pryde executing Hux and generally supplanting his role from the two previous movies
quite tacky and unwelcome, though. It just makes for such an incongruent, anticlimactic, and unsatisfactory resolution to this character's arc. Phasma would have really been the better choice for not only the characters involved, but also for this film's place in the trilogy.
Along a similar line of thought for a very different aspect of the movie, those steeds used on the Ocean Moon of Endor -- and later utilized during the final battle at Exegol, on the surface of the Final Order command ship -- could have just been a herd of fathiers instead of orbaks. The decision to use such creatures calls to mind the Canto Bight sequence from TLJ anyway, so the connection may as well have been made explicit; given Finn that added personal association; and thereby strengthened the small-acts-of-kindness and the path-chosen-not-inherited themes an added touch more.
Not that they aren't still present: again, the charge on the orbaks calls to mind the Canto Bight sequence anyway, and the Visual Dictionary for TRoS even specifies that the orbaks share taxonomy with fathiers. Sometimes allusions work better when they're utilized as hammer rather than scalpel, just as the reverse can be true. In the closeout to a trilogy or capstone to an otherwise long-form series of storytelling, one may as well go all in with the payoffs.
That's the approach the producers and filmmakers behind "Avengers: Endgame" took, and it paid dividends in every way imaginable.
Looking at the other new characters and how the film could have been better served with them, Zorii Bliss could have easily done double duty, fielding the role of both Poe's old partner
and the Kijimi droid tinkerer. Then we could have maybe skipped that clumsy hostile introduction for her that swiftly led to her randomly deciding to help anyway by clumsily introducing us to Babu Frik.
Forbes contributor Scott Mendelson perhaps put it best when he said of some of these plot elements,
"It wasn’t just bad storytelling but a waste of valuable time." With just a little finessing and tightening of the script in places, a much stronger film could have emerged.
Or they could have simply increased the length of this movie. That would have probably provided a working solution too.
Whether the decision (i.e. the fault) for the insufficient runtime lay with Abrams, producers at Lucasfilm, or Disney executives, their decision makes so little sense in light of "Avengers: Endgame" clocking in at just over three hours and still delivering Disney the highest grossing film of all time last year.
Given the dire need for some more positivity in this review, let's take a moment to acknowledge the filmmakers for managing to emphasize proper balance in The Force via the recognition, even utilization, of aspects of both the Light and Dark Sides. Choosing to have a Dark Side ability -- one that the Jedi Order of old would surely have found particularly horrifying -- serve as the centerpiece of the film in terms of Force powers is a striking decision that compels this writer at least to forgive some of the other shortcomings of the film.
The story is even written such that the use of this ability plays directly into a theme speaking to the cumulative positive effects of smaller acts of kindness than just the big space battles.
After healing the vexis in the cave on Pasaana despite its threatening nature, Rey explains to BB-8 "I transferred a bit of life, Force-energy, from me to him. You would have done the same" -- seemingly inspiring the droid to do just that in activating the previously overlooked D-0. BB-8 provides D-0 with some of his own battery life, reactivating the other droid after years of inactivity.
This second decision then leads to D-0 being present in Babu Frik's workshop, where Rey shows kindness to the previously mistreated droid by oiling him. This third minor act of compassion made D-0 like and miss Rey, leading to a later conversation about her with Finn in which the newest Resistance droid shares with Finn vital information about Exegol's atmosphere and the Final Order's navigation limitations.
This sub-plot makes for a surprisingly subdued and thoughtful demonstration that, without the Dark Side, there can't be security and wholeness. While the "small acts" theme never quite explicitly comes around to addressing its related theme of the galactic injustice that slavery continues, there's
something to be read into Episode I having the enslaved Anakin reveal that he had a dream of coming back to Tattooine to free its slaves -- and then Episode IX ending with Anakin's heir arriving on Tattooine.
Given that the script for "Duel of the Fates" somewhat more overtly addresses the topic with Broom Boy from Canto Bight having been freed by heroes of the Sequel Trilogy, ending on this note with Rey on Tattooine encourages reading into it a resolution to Anakin's aspirations.
Speaking of such things, TRoS even provides closure to Anakin's desire to save Padmé by having his grandson give his life force to save the woman
he loves. This creates for a nice thematic bookend via the additional observation that Palpatine likely stole Padmé's life force to restore Vader to some semblance of life. Now, the son of Padmé's daughter has given his life force to save the woman he had sought to possess -- this woman ironically enough being Palpatine's own granddaughter.
In general, the Prequel Trilogy finally gets plenty of acknowledgement from the Sequel Trilogy in TRoS, with the B1 battle droid in Babu Frik's workshop; multiple Clone Wars-era ships showing up for the final battle, including Naboo N-1 starfighters from Episode I specifically; the T-shaped visors on Sith Trooper helmets deliberately evoking the look of Clone Troopers (per the TRoS Visual Dictionary); Palpatine's line about how "The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural"; the insane acrobatics during Rey and Kylo's duel in the Death Star ruins; a double-sided red lightsaber; the voices of the past Jedi; defeating Palpatine with Mace Windu's trick of deflecting the Sith Lord's own Force Lightning back at him; and the concept of utilizing The Force to keep people alive.
For all my bitching about TRoS, it does offer some genuinely nice ideas. Kylo's turn probably needed one more scene to fully sell us on it, but is still mostly solid anyway on the strength of Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, and Harrison Ford's performances.
The reveal of Leia's lightsaber was a nice surprise, as was the explanation that she abandoned her Jedi training when she had a vision that her son's death awaited at the end of her journey in the Force -- though the added exposition that she foretold it being taken up again was unnecessary. Even for "Star Wars," that was overly heavy-handed.
Luke and Leia knowing about Rey being Palpatine's granddaughter, meanwhile, can't avoid feeling like a bit of an ass pull, but it actually kind of works. Though the Sequel Trilogy could have gone numerous directions with its look into how much where we come from matters in regard to lineage, family, and choosing our own path, TRoS decently addresses all that and satisfactorily resolves those questions where Rey is concerned, even if the scene featuring her proclamation of her new last name -- while that nosey old lady patiently waited -- was drawn out way, way too long. Not to mention that it was way too cheesy, again, even for "Star Wars."
On a related note highlighting another success of the film, though, via Rey we witness a redemption of the Jedi Order symbolized by a revision of the Jedi Temple Guard, who wielded rarely seen yellow pike lightsabers. Complete detachment was expected of these Jedi, as well as complete nameless anonymity -- but Rey embraces her attachments and unveils her yellow saber in the same scene she takes her newly claimed family name. This is the opposite of detachment and anonymity.
Probably not for nothing, with respect to the light spectrum, yellow is also the combination of green and red. We've already discussed how TRoS -- and really, the Sequel Trilogy as a whole -- succeeded at properly portraying the dual nature of The Force.
It's as though Rey was always preparing for this: to become the new Temple Guard of sorts, embodying the lost paradigm of the Prime Jedi. She even used a staff as her weapon of choice before she ever held a lightsaber, and ultimately fashions the handle of her yellow saber from her staff.
Even as a Sith, she would have apparently still preferred a double-sided lightsaber/staff saber, if her Dark Side manifestation in the Death Star ruins is any indication.
In old EU terminology, Rey could probably also be considered a Jedi Sentinel. Yellow sabers were for this class of Jedi in the old canon as those occupying a place of balance in Jedi culture and teachings between the Guardian (blue saber) and Consular (green saber) disciplines. The Temple Guard, for instance, were rather appropriately classified as Sentinels. In addition, as with Rey herself, mechanical know-how was also a distinct characteristic of Jedi in this grouping.
Though only the Consular discipline has thus far been reintroduced by name into the new canon, in light of that class's return, as well as that of the "Warrior Master" title bestowed on the most skilled of Jedi Guardians, it would probably not be unreasonable for fans to continue utilizing the Sentinel term, particularly in relation to Rey.
I'll take this moment to acknowledge I may be giving Abrams and Terrio far too much credit for all of the above. However, the possibility is there at least. They came onto the project with a very thoughtful script left behind for them to dissect, and if nothing else, they could have pulled enough inspiration from some of its grander ideas to preserve one or two of them.
Getting back to that notion of the Jedi Order's redemption, the identity crisis we spoke of early in this analysis arguably comes most into play in TRoS's ending. Though I don't agree with the full extent to which they level these charges,
Polygon writer Siddhant Adlakha does raise some thought-provoking observations about TRoS's portrayal of the Jedi in her analysis:
"When the film ends, Rey symbolically puts Luke and Leia to rest by burying their lightsabers, as if these weapons are manifestations of the characters themselves. But this burial of the past doesn’t represent any sort of change for the saga’s status quo when it comes to conflict. Rey still has a lightsaber of her own, one she constructed from her staff as a symbol of her newfound individuality. By adopting the Skywalker moniker, Rey becomes a symbol of continuing the Skywalker story in name only, rather than embodying its underlying lesson about rejecting violence in favor of redemption.
In the process, Rey fails to establish an identity outside the flawed and rigid dogma of the Jedi Order.
The Rise of Skywalker places the weight of that dogma upon her when she opens herself up to all the Jedi of the past, and treats this act not as a burden or an emotional hurdle to be parsed, but as a badge of honor. It does so without consequence, treating the Jedi and the Force as de facto good, rather than as ideas that flawed characters can use for self-betterment and for the betterment of others.
The film keeps the Jedi and the story of Star Wars in stasis, rather than letting them evolve. A shame, considering Yoda’s words in
The Last Jedi, which apply both to flawed Jedi Masters teaching new students and to the old generation of Star Wars films as a new one comes along: 'We are what they grow beyond.' Apparently not."
For reasons I've already gone over, I heavily disagree with the assertion that "Rey fails to establish an identity outside the flawed and rigid dogma of the Jedi Order." It is plainly evident that she has chosen to embrace her attachments. She is not a traditional Jedi. She's a Prime Jedi.
I also insist that the film adequately portrays the dual-nature of The Force without feeding into the fallacy that the Dark Side and all use of it is inherently evil while the Light Side and all who practice it are necessarily holy. TRoS does, I acknowledge, simultaneously still recognize and emphasize the virtues of the cumulative generations of Jedi past. Even when they had not been paying proper deference to the whole Force, the Jedi Order were better people and a better (though still very flawed) culture than the Sith.
Not because of the Light Side being inherently better than the Dark Side, but because the specific ways of the Sith culture in particular were inherently without virtue, bound up as they were in giving into anger, the craving of power, and an eventual confusion of love with possession -- or worse still, an outright desire for unyielding dominion.
Emphasizing the positives in the Jedi's legacy was an appropriate creative direction for the third installment. Even Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly's "Duel of the Fates" was intended to do this, with the name "Jedi" becoming a symbol of hope throughout the galaxy once again, as it was always supposed to -- as a nine-year-old slave named Anakin Skywalker perceived it when he met a Jedi on his dusty, perpetually overlooked planet.
Admittedly, it does come off as an awkward clash of tones that TRoS never follows up on TLJ's discussion of the Jedi Order's failings, made particularly odd since Rey doesn't conform to their interpretation of The Force while earnestly wanting to hear their voices. When their disembodied presences arrive to assist her during her showdown with her grandfather, there is no shortage of reverence and fanfare attached to the sequence.
Nonetheless, with TRoS needing to present the Jedi name in a positive light and already operating its many plot points and themes at a screentime deficit, it would have likely been even more of a clash in tone to work that in without adding additional runtime and room for its ideas to breathe. As it stands, the editing and pace of the whole film can already be accurately described as awkward at best.
Because I'm pretty sure I could continue picking this movie apart for another eight weeks if I allowed myself to, I'm going to find the words now to wrap this thing up.
Overall, if "The Rise of Skywalker" were a steak dinner for the family, it would be a mixed bag of mediocre scenes and plot developments in the form of inconsistent cuts of meat, none of which got as much time as they really needed in the pan -- much less the time to properly rest before someone started cutting into them. There are a couple that came out just shy of excellent, but the side dishes outshine nearly all the meat.
In years to come, the prevailing assessment of Disney's sequel era of "Star Wars" will likely be that it defines itself as a discordant trilogy. Consequently, the final word on the Skywalker Saga may sadly be of it ultimately lacking the courage to grow beyond itself or its origins.
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