Star Wars - Episode IX: Der Aufstieg Skywalkers

It has been quite some time since I got excited about this franchise; I guess the TV shows maybe are doing more at the minute, but for the films there is little to get excited about within them, and probably far too many of them being made for all the 'proper' fan to make it a date. Rise of Skywalker had been largely panned by viewers and critics, but I decided it was a good Friday night sort of film - one that doesn't take too much effort to watch. I was correct because this film really doesn't have much of a plot to care about, and seems to have been patched together without a lot of thought to the whole.

Technically it is very impressive - although of course it is because hundreds of millions of pounds were spent to make it sound and look good; and it mostly does. If you want lightsabers and space battles then you get it here. However if you put aside the technical feat, it is very much hollow. I struggled to care about anyone in the film; the dialogue was often clunky, and there was almost nothing natural or organic in there. The writing doesn't help itself by doing things that seem fan-service at best, and cynical at worst. For example the constant references back to other films by having scenes that echo scenes in the original films break things up. Meanwhile moments or aspects are included that don't seem to mean much in the moment and feel like they have been included in the hope of linking to yet another spinoff opportunity. With all this, the cast are mostly stuck with just going with it the best they can but nobody really stands out as an actor.

In the end, it is a fairly bland product; full of noise and spectacle but nothing of any real grit, interest, or substance.

... which is that there was no overarching story to this trilogy planned.

Say what you will about the prequels -years later they aren't considered secretly great or misunderstood. But they did one thing right. They expanded the universe of Star Wars with more world building and more lore, some good, some bad. The prequel story, while stilted, was the product of a single vision. In the end you had bad execution with good building blocks.

The Sequel Trilogy doesn't expand anything, instead it makes everything smaller. Star Wars has never felt so small and tired as it does after The Rise of Skywalker. Each movie exists just to tear down and apologize for what came before it. Anakin/Vader's entire character arc is completely and unforgivably undermined after this film.

Overall the movie was so bloated and overstuffed with choppy pacing to course-correct from The Last Jedi. It's Flanderization in action. The original movies had so many little touches and so much atmosphere and craftsmanship beyond a few big reveals, neat action set pieces, and bizarre coincidences with the same ten people running into one another over and over. The original films built iconic imagery and characters in the context of them doing things and bonding and building. This was not always perfectly done, but it was done well enough to feel meaningful.

You can't just write a movie with the assumption you already have all of those things and skip the work it takes to get them. You can trick people for awhile by using the familiar imagery and beats and deconstructing the world with meta-humor (Abrams did that well for The Force Awakens if nothing else), but you just cash in that goodwill and cheapen all of that stuff by association.

Oh well, the big action movies these days are indeed made for children and China - I can't remember who recently said that, but it's true.

Star Wars: Episode IX is, at times, a decent thrill ride, and it provides us with some satisfying moments, but it fails to tell a compelling story. It feels empty. It rushes through a corporate checklist of must-have moments at a chaotic pace. It manages to thrill with epic space battles, but it lacks a soul. There's no creative vision here, no story to tell. The pressure that comes with making a Star Wars movie seems to have shackled the creators, preventing them from doing anything interesting with the film. It's a shame. The Star Wars universe is one of the greatest fictional universes ever created. It should provide fertile ground for many new and interesting stories. If I were Disney I would take a serious look at the creative process for these films. They could probably learn a thing or two from Marvel Studios.

Where the Mandalorian feels like somebody taking their own beloved Star Wars fantasy and putting it on screen, this feels like a marketing product. While the direction is enjoyable, the actors are doing a great job, the writing and the story is just checking boxes.

Retcon what the fans hated in the last movie? Done. Callbacks to the originals? Done. Cute new animals and droid for toys to sell? Done. New stormtrooper looks for game skins? Done. Are we blowing up random planets? Sure...

Best to get your SW fix from the expanded universe stuff. Pehaps where the company didn't spend a billion dollars on marketing, there's still room for a kid to look over the setting alien suns of his planet and dream of something more.

You should probably disregard any review that gives this a 1/10 or a 10/10. It is not a terrible movie, nor is it legendary. For the average movie-goer I suspect it will fall somewhere between 6/10-8/10. Highly enjoyable in terms of visuals and plot twists, but not enough to stick around with you for years to come like the original trilogy.