The Rise of Skywalker: Professional Reviews

The Rise of Skywalker domesticates whatever wonders existed in this franchise and sticks them in a cage.

So it goes with The Rise of Skywalker, which feels like a checklist that director and co-writer J.J. Abrams is systematically working through. The movie doesn’t so much resolve conflicts as revisit them, and even when it does something vaguely surprising — like resurrect a beloved character for a brief dream sequence — it then buries whatever power the scene might have had by repeating it endlessly with other beloved dead characters.

From its opening scenes, which show our heroes in hot pursuit of a MacGuffin, to its final line of dialogue, which inspired audible groans from moviegoers (myself included), this film is a disaster. How sad that the third and final chapter in a trilogy that launched in 2015 with such high hopes would end like this — not with a fond and timely farewell, but with a wheezing death gasp.

The Rise of Skywalker fails as a movie for three reasons: its pacing, its script, and its attempt to do too much at once.

On the first count, the sequencing and placement of the film’s events, the Rise of Skywalker is nearly incomprehensible. It is a convoluted collision of explosions and action, broken up occasionally by lines such as, “Don’t tell me what things look like. Tell me what things are,” “Nothing’s impossible,” and “Never be afraid of who you are.”

None of it makes much sense as the sequence of events has been slapped together by a completely confounding editing process.

Other problems include that the script constantly rewrites the rules of its own universe, leaving the viewer distrustful of the narrator, and that nearly all of the characters have contradictory, poorly defined, or totally baffling motivations

Further, the Rise of Skywalker’s attempt to perform retroactive continuity on the Last Jedi does not come across as clever or genuine. It certainly does not come across as subtle. It comes across plainly as a corporation’s calculated attempt to recalibrate after its last two efforts to capitalize on its $4 billion investment came up disappointingly short at the box office.

Does the Rise of Skywalker tell an entertaining, coherent, and worthwhile story?

The short answer is: No.

The longer answer is: No, and if you are starved this December for a movie starring Adam Driver, go see the one where he gets divorced for two hours. It is far less dreary.

Though Lucas’s writing has often come in for criticism, one of the things that defines the original trilogy of “Star Wars” movies written by him and his collaborators was how natural the characters usually sounded, and how carefully their dialogue filled in a fictional galaxy without turning into exposition.Nearly every line of dialogue in “The Rise of Skywalker” is written and acted as if the characters are speaking to people watching them in a theater rather than to actual humans who ostensibly occupy the same fictional universe. (It is a measure of Adam Driver, who plays Kylo Ren, that he’s the only person who ought to come out of this franchise with his reputation substantially enhanced.) There are portentous pauses intended to increase the gravity of certain conversations that instead make the characters’ pronouncements seem utterly ludicrous. I wish I was kidding, but there is a scene in which one character reveals themselves to be a spy and actually says, “I’m the spy!”

But while the Martin Scorsese comments that kicked off the most heated phase of this discussion were aimed at Marvel and superhero movies, the dismal state of the Star Wars franchise might provide a better warning about where we’re headed. The Marvel movies, for all their homogeneity, remain reasonably competent in a way “The Rise of Skywalker” is not. It’s one thing to get exactly the familiar entertainment you want when a certain level of quality is guaranteed. It’s another to be haunted by a zombie version of your childhood and to feel as though you conjured it into being yourself.

Saracene wrote:Chris Stuckmann (who loved Kylo/Ben but didn’t like the kiss):

“If you’re going to kill him off, don’t have the kiss. If you’re going to have the kiss, let him live.”

FrolickingFizzgig wrote:

ZioRen wrote:This is all so deserved. TLJ threw down the guantlet, leaving interesting and challenging story threads for TRoS to work from. It asks what happens when the one running the show is now Kylo when he's obviously slated for a redemption arc? How does that change the dynamic of the story, since it's harder to work from that than from a pure evil big bad hanging over everything? What will the future of the Jedi look like when Rey, and Kylo technically, are the only ones with that knowledge now? How will Rey cement her place in a saga when she's not related to a character we know? How will the Resistance rebuild to take on the future threat? Hell, they could have even pulled from DJ's plot (though I wasn't thinking that thread would be followed. I respect the effort to insert some grey, but it's a bit out of place within Star Wars).

TRoS obviously found these questions too challenging to answer and either tossed them in the garbage or answered them in the laziest possible way. Except the fact that Reylo exists. The only plot that was solid from the start. And to some degree I think they knew this would cause some problems, so they tried to appeal to those who hated TLJ in hopes that they would give the movie the boost it needed out of spite and mask some of its shortcomings. Say what you will about TLJ but it DID answer TFA's questions, just in a way that many fans didn't expect or like.

This is a roundabout and ranty way of saying that I'm glad professional reviewers aren't letting the creative decisionmakers for TRoS get away with this without being called out for it.

@ZioRen
Indeed, TLJ left the narrative with some of the most interesting, compelling, unique and nuanced themes and character conflicts in the franchise. There were ideas that made you truly question what it means to be a Jedi, what it means to have the Force, what balance really is, how the dark side bends one's mind, the impacts of war and and loss. That first sequence with Paige Tico is one of the most emotional moments in Star Wars, and the film continues to deliver thought-provoking and beautiful narrative tied in with meaningful visuals and acting. It's unbelievably painful to me as a writer to see an artist who put his heart and soul into his creation get sidelined in favour of the most nonsensical, lazy drivel to every come out of LucasFilm. It also hurts to see critics raging because of this - because they're furious that something like this can happen, that the most unsympathetic and impossible to satisfy fans can whine and be handed everything they said they wanted on a silver platter by two truly bad writers who also somehow managed to craft an extremely bad film visually, thematically, via editing, etc.

I'm never going to stop finding things I hate about this film even with the few moments I love. Just today I had a five minute internal screaming match about Rey using Force Lightning and becoming a vessel for the literal f****ing powers of a man. That's not how the Force works, that's not how lineage/bloodline works, that's not how any of this works.

Critics are furious because they feel helpless, and that's also part of the reason I'm angry. I now fully expect this film to underperform in comparison to TLJ and that's the only win anybody who favoured mature, smart, meaningful writing will ever get. It's not a win because it's just sad and highlights the truth: these fans are not pleasable even if some are glad solely because this film undermines Rian Johnson's decisions so horrifically. They don't care about the movie. They're not going to ensure that it makes lots and lots of money, and it's just going to end up a tragic reminder to everybody at LucasFilm who was dreading this.

Kylo Men wrote:

This is brutally funny.

Kylo Men wrote:

This is brutally funny.

Kylo Men wrote:

This is brutally funny.

Gemini wrote:

Kylo Men wrote:

This is brutally funny.

@Kylo Men

Great video

What a mess this has been.

The getting a thing that leads to another thing BS story line was far too disorienting. I loathe all the new things introduced in the last installment. There was no time. Just stick with familiar objects, places and people (then add twists). At least tie up the loose ends from the ST instead of raising more questions with new people, places and things. It should have been a return to old places, people and things only. How is anyone supposed to care or process new meaning at this point? Especially if you are jumping around at light speed, everywhere without giving us time to process.

A key twist or piece of info in regards to rey could have been found on Jakku or something. It would at least feel attached to the story as a whole  and not sudden retcon. The access to Palp, should have been made through the death star. Imo.

The importance of Anakins saber and why it called was diminished in TLJ, so I guess JJ may have needed to use new props and explanations for the bond....but still, no.

He could have easily continued with what he had set up.  I feel like he felt pressure to suddenly introduce new things for fear of being called lacking in imagination.

God...i dont know.

Kylo Men wrote:

This is brutally funny.

nickandnora wrote:One thing I am sort of happy about is that if the box office for the film is much lower, at least (even though the narrative will be: "it's because of TLJ" for awhile) with time if someone is looking up why the last film in the Skywalker saga did so poorly, they will have the critic reviews literally right next to the box office count. That at least makes the reason look pretty straightforward: that it's not a good film. I appreciate the heck out of critics a lot right now. As I said before, I have historically sided with them except in rare cases.

On another, kind of off-topic note: what is it with trilogies and why haven't I learned my lesson yet? Like, it should be easy to create something in a damn three act structure. But so often the third one is flawed. I remember another last third chapter that I was disappointed in was the Hunger Games series (the book). The issue I had with that was the pacing and the quality of the writing, not necessarily the events. Then I remember when Mockingjay Part I came out on film I actually REALLY liked it and was excited thinking that because they had done justice to the actual most difficult part of the book, then maybe they would end satisfyingly and with a bang! But then it was just like... oh. Again, it wasn't the events, it was the way the story was told: lackluster and soulless (IMO). As much as I like the story in general and like how it ends, I haven't revisited that last movie, ever. Of course that was still different because at least I KNEW what was going to happen (and it ends on an actual hopeful note).

It's like I'm doomed to be unsatisfied with the ending of a saga in perpetuity, lol.

FrolickingFizzgig wrote:Sadly I just can't get the feeling off my chest that this film was them cutting their losses on the Skywalker saga while trying to throw bones to all the groups of fans in the hopes that they would feel okay with a small win each. I'm not at all convinced that an easily predictable underperformance and low critic scores - look at the film, it's pitifully constructed even as a standalone and if one ignores all the unfortunate implications and apologetic pandering to toxic fans - is an outcome they were ignorant to. There was no way they didn't know it would have poor reception and I think the sort of low energy of the various premieres and cast interviews speak for themselves. There was no confidence at all, and it's just unlikely to me that LucasFilm wasn't fully aware that this would be the outcome.

nickandnora wrote:

FrolickingFizzgig wrote:Sadly I just can't get the feeling off my chest that this film was them cutting their losses on the Skywalker saga while trying to throw bones to all the groups of fans in the hopes that they would feel okay with a small win each. I'm not at all convinced that an easily predictable underperformance and low critic scores - look at the film, it's pitifully constructed even as a standalone and if one ignores all the unfortunate implications and apologetic pandering to toxic fans - is an outcome they were ignorant to. There was no way they didn't know it would have poor reception and I think the sort of low energy of the various premieres and cast interviews speak for themselves. There was no confidence at all, and it's just unlikely to me that LucasFilm wasn't fully aware that this would be the outcome.

@FrolickingFizzgig

You don't feel like the energy for this film was different in April, though? Like, right after the teaser came out? A lot of those April interviews and comments (which, funnily enough, were delayed and released more recently) seemed like they were discussing a different movie. I admit I wasn't paying very close attention to the marketing, and just observing things in snippets, but now that the movie has come out I can kind of see it all coming together, and the narrative (of the promotion) is strange.

It's like something happened in the summer, which concluded with Pablo going dark on twitter and that first release of the leaks. Does it coincide with them doing reshoots over the summer? Maybe. I keep going back to Jason Ward of all people saying that it was strange because it was as though he was hearing about two.different.movies. Then of course he and Paxis just grew obsessed with being right (which, at this stage, with this aftermath, who the heck cares), but I'm honestly HONESTLY starting to wonder about the motivation of our dear source. What was he/she trying to accomplish? Were they trying to put the story out there in the hopes that it would get a lot of negative feedback and they would reconsider their edit? I'm skeptical because they truly seemed like a Kylo/Ben hater, but maybe the movie at that point was even MORE uncharitable to him and they were just communicating the truth. I don't know. I know I don't like thinking like this, that's for sure.

FrolickingFizzgig wrote:No, I really don't. I just think the movie was originally a lot longer and a lot more coherent. When the actors and JJ were doing the early promotions in April nobody had seen the film. They didn't know how it would turn out. It was still being constructed and the bare storyline probably came across a lot better at that time even to them. The true low energy emerged after the cast had seen the film if you ask me. That was when it really became obvious to me that something was wrong.

motherofpearl1 wrote:Does anyone have any idea how this mess could be rectified?