There's a reason that hope existed at all: Flawed as it may be, The Force Awakens did a lot right in the world-building and character department. But to watch this movie for the first time while still harboring any small hope that it might pull the whole conceited mess together in the end is to subject yourself to frustration, disillusionment, and emotional whiplash. Unsurprisingly, Rise of Skywalker is-like both movies that came before it-gorgeous to look at, beautifully scored, and extremely impressive in a technical sense. What should be the movie's most emotional moments are undermined by the weight of exasperating absurdity. Uncanny CG puppets of familiar actors' younger selves haunt flashbacks to better times. Characters you thought must certainly be dead pop up later inexplicably unharmed, while others simply keel over with little explanation. Events that should be monumental are immediately undercut or undone, without breathing room for the audience to absorb what's taking place. Rise takes great pains to hastily establish answers and payoffs for mysteries established in The Force Awakens, waving away plot points from The Last Jedi with repeated dumps of confusing dialogue. As the movie progresses, it makes less and less sense. Kylo Ren ( Adam Driver), meanwhile, searches for the former Emperor, who he considers a threat to his power.įrom there, the story leaps at lightspeed between set pieces, from an alien version of Coachella to encounters with fantastic creatures that rarely last more than a few moments. Rey ( Daisy Ridley) continues her training under General Leia Organa ( Carrie Fisher), while Finn ( John Boyega), Poe ( Oscar Isaac), and Chewie ( Joonas Suotamo) rendezvous with an alleged First Order mole who wants to feed them information. Rise establishes in its opening crawl that the galaxy has received a mysterious transmission from Emperor Palpatine (something that would have been exciting to actually see onscreen). But much more than its predecessor, Rise of Skywalker exudes petulance-like Abrams is mad someone played with his toys wrong, and his only remaining recourse is to scoop them all up and go home. Rise of Skywalker bends over backward to undo what The Last Jedi did, just as that movie subverted all the mysteries set up in The Force Awakens. The result is a movie that feels less like the conclusion to a Star Wars trilogy, and more like the casualty of a behind-the-scenes battle between the visions of two diametrically opposed directors. Instead of continuing down the path that Johnson set, Abrams swerves the franchise into yet another hard u-turn, cramming enough story for two movies into one, and largely acting like the previous film never happened-or actively retconning it. Johnson sought to establish a fresh direction for the Star Wars saga, but in Rise, Abrams is interested in killing only the parts of the past that he disagrees with. Abrams doesn't seem to have fully grasped Johnson's message in The Last Jedi-that we have to "let the past die" to move forward. Unfortunately, The Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Many fans agree it didn't stick the landing, but the parts that arguably worked-like Kylo and Rey's intimate rivalry, or Luke's shocking cynicism and triumphant redemption-successfully remixed familiar Star Wars tropes into something that felt new-ish. With the much-maligned Star Wars: Episode VIII, director Rian Johnson attempted to make a statement about the insipid allure of nostalgia and an over-reliance on the past. Disney's influence was obviously too much here.However you felt about The Last Jedi, at least it had something to say. I wasn't a giant fan of the remake of Last Hope by Abrams, but at least it had some originality with set pieces. What happened to the spark to ignite the rebels? What happened to the child at the end of the last film? Too many holes, and characters left to the side. Where's the risks? Disappointing conclusion after the great work done in The Last Jedi. It's all for fan service, essentially box office glorification, Lucas never did this. ![]() This film has forced story beats, nothing flows. ![]() It's a shame Rian Johnson didn't write and direct this trilogy. The storyline is tedious and a stepping stone for the so called fanboy groups that called The Last Jedi a mess. Uninspired and meaningless film, and it's a shame. Things do ramp up towards the end, but Abrams and Disney have really nailed the coffin shut here. We're suppose to swallow a villain has been alive this whole time without any explanation. The first hour is tough, really tough to sit through. This feels like a remake of Return of the Jedi.
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