Star Wars: El ascenso de Skywalker

Saw 'The Rise of Skywalker' just before Christmas with my sister, but it took me a while to gather my thoughts on it. Being not sure what rating to give it or how to express my opinion on the film. Will admit that when seeing it in the cinema, to me it was enjoyable but had a lot of faults. Since watching 'The Rise of Skywalker' then though, the more it has been thought about the more it has gone down in my estimations. My reservations felt back then still remain the same, as well as what struck me was good, while thinking of more since.

My opinions on the previous 'Stars Wars' films were much more definite, being a fan of the original trilogy and while the prequel trilogy had a lot of flaws to me they weren't that bad. Also thought 'The Force Awakens' and 'The Last Jedi' were better than expected (am aware that possible blasphemy has been committed here), but 'The Last Jedi' certainly had a lot wrong with it. 'Solo' was good fun on its own terms too. Absolutely judging it from an open mind, 'The Rise of Skywalker' left me very conflicted however and ended the trilogy on a whimper rather than a bang, it's not deserving of a 1/10 but it is not near deserving in my opinions of the 10/10s mostly given to counter the negativity in classic critic bashing style. Of the franchise, this was the one in all honesty that left me the most disappointed.

Will start with the good things with 'The Rise of Skywalker'. It is gorgeously shot and designed and the special effects are often a marvel. John Williams delivers yet another rousing score that has its own character but cleverly includes the well-known iconic themes from the previous films.

There are some great performances here, Daisy Ridley carries the film outstandingly, having become more confident with each film, and Adam Driver is menacing and conflicted. Carrie Fisher again brings nostalgic poignancy to Leia, while John Boyega and Oscar Isaac are charismatic and do their best with what they were given (which was quite weak in my view) and how great it was to see Ian McDiarmid again as Palpatine, again his material was not great but he does a good job with it. Chewbacca is as adorable and funny as ever and C-3PO provided a few amusing moments. Babu Frik was a nice new addition and there were a couple of touching and nostalgic moments. Some of the action is thrilling, namely the extended blaster battle and Rey and Kylo's force-based clash.

For all those good things, 'The Rise of Skywalker' has a lot of major flaws. With so little time to breathe in the story, the film feels far too rushed which made it very difficult to digest the more convoluted parts of the story. There is also too much going on so the film feels very cramped by the final act, and also too many characters. Some are fun but too many of them are underused or even pointless and tacked on, such as Lando and Rose Tico. Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford only seemed to be there for nostalgia purposes and are merely walk-ons.

Although the action has its moments, too much of it doesn't rouse like it should do and is in a way forgettable. The big reveal that has been much discussed here made absolutely no sense (the atmosphere felt at that part in the packed auditorium in the cinema was like a uniform "what the heck?") and really convoluted the storytelling later on, leading to a conclusion that felt rather too anti-climactic and made a waste of the characters involved in it. A long way from a bang. Morever, the dialogue is as bad and even downright laughable than the worst of the prequel trilogy's with far too much exposition and unrealistic conveniences.

Overall, have seen far worse but a big disappointment. If some people liked it, good for you. It just didn't work for me and many others, for reasons that are valid, and it is inexplicable as to why people have an inability to accept that, and not just for this film but for almost every film here. 5/10

... 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.

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.

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.

Now, I actually don't have a lot of issues with this film. Only 3 issues really stand out to me, but they are 3 very major issues. The first is the pacing. Were the prequels or The Last Jedi too slow for you? Well, this movie moves along so fast it barely gives you any time to breathe! For some who just want to go on a fun ride, this might be a good thing. For me though, slowing down and letting the characters just talk to each other is really important. This movie barely does that. There is always something going on or a plot twist being dropped. It went so fast, I didn't even have time to comprehend a lot of it! This movie feels very rushed. It does slow down a little later on, but it's still a major issue with a good chunk of the film. There are also WAY too many new characters introduced! You have a large enough cast as it is, just work with what you already have! My second issue is Palpatine. It's no spoiler that Emperor Palpatine returns in this movie. His voice can be heard in every trailer and he's on the teaser poster. You're supposed to know this going in. Palpatine's return is handled horribly. He's supposed to be the main villain even though he's been completely absent from the last two movies. It's completely anti-climactic. None of the characters know who he is or have any real connection with him. We're supposed to accept that he's somehow still alive even though we saw him die! He fell down a pit and EXPLODED!!! It's not like bringing back Maul or Boba Fett. They literally tell you he came back to life in the opening crawl and then go on to hand-wave it away with a prequel meme. That's it. I'm not kidding. It's embarrassing how poorly-written he is. They never explain where he's been all this time, what he's been up to, why he's been doing it, how he's been doing it, why he's waited so long, or how he was resurrected. Did someone fish his body out of the Death Star? Is he some kind of clone, like in the old Dark Empire comics? Is he a ghost? I have no idea, and I bet the filmmakers don't either. It's insulting. The third issue I have with this film is the lack of continuity with the other movies, The Last Jedi especially. A lot of that movie is either ignored or undone by this movie. Rose is replaced with a giant slug monster and relegated to a background role, they bring in an Emperor figure when the last movie made a point to get rid of that and have Kylo Ren be the main villain, and let's just say that Rey isn't exactly a nobody. Could you imagine if Richard Marquand got rid of Lando and made Luke not actually Vader's son in Return of the Jedi? It's so frustrating. JJ Abrams sacrificed a flowing narrative for this trilogy for his own original vision. It's selfish and it's childish. Again, this may be a positive if you hated The Last Jedi. I really like The Last Jedi, so this really bothered me. It's clear that there was no plan for this trilogy from the beginning and the filmmakers didn't have enough communication with one another. It's not only TLJ that this movie retcons. Bringing Palpatine back really diminishes Anakin's sacrifice at the end of Return of the Jedi and kind of rewrites the entire Star Wars mythos. He was the chosen one, prophesied to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. He did that by killing Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. Only he didn't, Palpatine survived. I had the same issue with the old Expanded Universe. I thought the reason they got rid of the EU was so that they could improve on the post-Jedi storyline, not repeat the same mistakes it made, only somehow worse. Who's the chosen one now? What's the point of the prophecy? What did Anakin die for? I have no idea! This movie also contradicts some of the newer books and comics. Again, I thought the point of getting rid of the EU was to create a more cohesive universe with the films and the non-film material. If the movies are still going to ignore or contradict the books and comics, why did they find it necessary to discontinue the old books and comics from coming out at all? They could have two timelines going on at the same time, I don't think it would be confusing! Anyway, I'm getting very nerdy and off-topic. From how much I'm trashing this movie, you might think that I hate it. I don't. I still had fun watching it and there was quite a bit that I enjoyed. Rey and Kylo Ren are still great, the effects are excellent as always (The integration of the Carrie Fisher footage is pretty seamless.), the action is thrilling, there's good comedy, the acting is good and there are many surprises that got me genuinely excited. I also liked how it didn't retcon the Luke storyline from TLJ, they just made it more clear for those in the audience who didn't fully understand the point of it in the last movie. This movie also explains why Hyperspace ramming isn't a common tactic in warfare in the Star Wars universe, after it was shown to be so deadly in The Last Jedi. Overall, this movie is an absolute mess and a major disappointment, but it makes for a fun time out at the movies. Just don't think too hard about how it connects with the other Star Wars movies and you'll be fine. I can see why people like it, it's just not for me.