Note: Before I even begin to write this (or you begin to read this), please note: I'm not interested in petty arguments over Star Wars. Different opinions on the quality or enjoyment of movies are bound to happen. That's normal and cool. This particular blog is rarely used and probably gets next to zero traffic (which is fine), but if this post happened to pop up in your search and you clicked here, just an FYI. Thanks.
Yesterday morning I watched the 10:30 a.m. showing of The Rise of Skywalker. Before getting into it, I offer my background with Star Wars. Not as a gatekeeper, or to prove I'm a "real fan", or any of that b.s. By all means, please skip it. It's just some context that might help explain my perspective on the final film of the Skywalker Saga.
Overview of my experience with Star Wars (Utterly Skippable)
I've enjoyed the Star Wars saga since the original trilogy of Episodes IV, V, and VI. There were critics of these films, and flaws they saw, but I see them still as flowing perfectly together as part of a coherent story. That's my particular point of view. No need to try to force that view on anyone, it's just what I see when I watch those movies. There are others who see them this way or something close to it who go a step further and idolize them. That leads to trouble.
I also enjoyed some of the initial books in the large collection of extra-movie materials that are now dubbed Legends. But those books eventually jumped a parsec of sharks on a land-speeder by trying to "be Star Wars", only MOAR. As if to keep asking, "How can we keep topping ourselves with bigger reveals, shocks, and surprises while also keeping to a very narrow idea of what make Star Wars... well, Star Wars?" What did many of these writers see as Star Wars? A tale of some evil galactic authoritarian regime with a weapon that can blow up really big things versus a plucky heroes with good aim and better luck who somehow find a way to stop the bad guys. It's as if those were the things that lead to lightning in a bottle for the original trilogy of films, so why not try to recast the same spell by duplicating what went before? Or perhaps for some it was trying to make it familiar to fans. Or maybe lack of originality? Fear of tampering too much with the recognizeable components?
The prequel films got off to a rocky start because they could never be the original trilogy, even with George Lucas at the helm. Sure, some people didn't like Jar-Jar, but Star Wars has had silly characters before. Some find a bigger accepting audience, some a smaller one. Early elementary Anakin and then teenager Anakin annoyed some fans because they didn't act mature. What a surprise. You could also blame the introduction of the concept of midichlorians. I wasn't a fan of that myself, but it's really not much in terms of an explanation. It doesn't really telling us anything new about the force, but it seems like an attempt to try to reduce the force to biology, which for some fans takes away some of its mystery. And spaces in which audiences can use there imagination and wonder are best left unknown. Yet, honestly, midichlorians are a non-answer answer, and the force is still all mysterious and weird.
Yet despite what some fans didn't like about them, the prequel films managed to make it feel like there was a group of heroes who worked together to go on their own adventures and make their own legends. And the plots were solid as were the fight scenes, etc. Sure, the core members of the group got separated at times, but the first film really put them together as a band of friends and that stuck. Moreover, despite being constrained by what we know must happen before Episode IV, it really is their story. Their time. There is no evil Empire or First Order, just a series mysteries that grow into a threat to the Republic. No Death Star. Second Death Star. Starkiller Base. Etc. And maybe that's another thing some people didn't like about them (and in this I would feel the opposite): they weren't locked into that typical pattern from the original trilogy summarized above.
As for the animated shows and comics, I didn't get into that. The animated shows might be good, but I was busy and haven't had cable (or its satellite dish equivalent) in nearly a decade. I might take a look now that it's all on Disney Plus. But I did pick up Chuck Wendig's Aftermath Trilogy. I honestly didn't like the first half of the first book, and the same book has my least favorite line from anything I've come across in Star Wars: "What's it say about you that you're still in your space diapers." But the book go much better toward the end and the next two books were solid. Good save, Chuck.
To be fair, introducing a whole new cast of characters was going to be hard and it makes sense it would take a while to get a comfortable feel for the narrative. Sadly, those who want to cry about "social justice warriors" apparently think it's OK to know everything about a characters personality and inner monologue unless they happen to be gay, so even if it's barely alluded to it apparently is a crime against science fantasy. Oh well, sucks to be them. The books did well financially and served their purpose of bridging the original trilogy of the Skywalker Saga to the final trilogy. The seeds of the First Order, the whole part about planets being out beyond charted space through a nearly impossible to navigate region, the idea that Palpatine had a plan for what to do in the event of his death, etc., pop up in the last of Wendig's books.
The Final Skywalker Saga Trilogy
That brings us to the final trilogy itself.
There is a lot to find fault with in this trilogy, and a lot to enjoy. We get to choose which we spend more time focusing on.
Before I knew anything much about the trilogy, I wondered if JJ Abrams would be comfortable with this. I'm not him or a good friend of his. But taking over from Lucas? That's pressure. He did a decent job rebooting Star Trek in the alternate timeline films. But he had seen that some Star Wars fans would howl and rage even with Lucas himself, who you know, thought up the Star Wars universe, tried to make more movies. Just like the prequels, the Wendig books, or the one shot movies (Rogue One and Solo - yes I saw them but they don't need covered here), criticisms for new Star Wars films go beyond just the usual affair and into "burn the blasphemers" territory.
For The Force Awakens, I was skeptical going in because based on the preview trailers I suspected I had the plot down and posted my prediction in a thread in a reply to a post on Nerdist: that it would be a remake of A New Hope. An orphan from a desert planet hooks up with an old general from a previous generation's war to fight an evil military dictatorship that uses a big laser weapon to blow up a planet. The general will die to add some emotional gravitas and the orphan, who is waking up to the power of the Force, will wield it and use the aid of new friends/allies to blow up the superweapon.
As each of those things happened while I watched the film in the theater, it became more of a distraction and a disappointment as I mentally ticked off the list. Poetic echoes and nostalgic call-backs are one thing, but it felt like 1) I already knew the whole plot, so *yawn* and 2) this new group of characters were being forced to relive someone else's story rather than get their own. I didn't enjoy this one, and it wasn't until I re-watched it a few years later that I could appreciate the original bits woven in, which only made me wish their had been more of them.
I enjoyed The Last Jedi. I was a little worried at first because the trailer suggested it might be a rehash of The Empire Strikes Back. That wasn't the case. I liked that I had no idea what the plot was going to be, and that we got a more expansive view of the force and balance. Plus the fight scene with Kylo and Rey fighting Snoke's personal guard was a masterpiece of choreography and cinematography. Having Rey be "from nowhere", for her to be "nobody... nothing", was refreshing. Star Wars is often confined by images and memories of the original trilogy, which stifles creative and growth.
Which bring us to The Last Jedi, a.k.a. six hours of film in a two hour eighteen minute run time (if we include the credits at the end). It was just too crowded. That doesn't mean I didn't like it. I did. And I don't mind a quick pace. But it wasn't able to do justice the story arcs in inherited and introduced. On the plus side, it had more originality to it than The Force Awakens and a clever lore reveal/plot device. One the minus side, it was just too derivative.
Again, just like the Legends books, which got mired in a few keys ideas, images, and plot devices, so too did The Last Jedi. It jumped the space shark with laser beam attached to its frickin' head with a fleet up super-extra-duper star destroyers with death star-level weapons mounted on them. While I was watching the film, the image of Dr. Evil's sharks with laser beams did indeed flash through my mind.
Also, the need to make Rey a "Palpatine" felt cheap and pasted on. The scene at the end would have meant so much more if Rey, a nobody from nowhere, had chosen to take on the name and legacy of Skywalker out of fondness and appreciation for Luke and Leia. It was badly bolted on retcon on The Last Jedi.
On the plus side, the secret of the Sith was a great twist that recontextualized everything Palpatine did in the Skywalker Saga.
And with the Jedi (as they existed and were known) gone, along with the Sith and most of the Empire (original flavor, First Order, Final Order, and extra crispy), the slate is now clean for anything that takes place after The Rise of Skywalker.
Beyond The Rise of Skywalker
I sincerely hope that whoever is making choices for the direction the Star Wars franchise will take the opportunity to find some brilliant creative minds to imagine the future of its universe. The dumbest, shittiest thing they could do is try to make something "like" the Empire or pit an evil force-wielder vs. a saintly force-wielder as the main plot driver.
There is some much room for imagining a wider take on Star Wars that builds on and honors the legacy of its past without being forever trapped by it. No matter what happens there are self-appointed gatekeepers who will shit on it. Screw them.
And that a wrap for today.
May the Force be with you.
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