- Location: Regal Lakewood 15
- The past two Star Wars movies have reminded me of a political debate in which the participants are focused more on opposing one another than on intelligently discussing the issues. Unless you've been living as a Jedi hermit for the past few decades, I imagine this experience sounds familiar. As a result, J.J. Abrams' The Rise of Skywalker comes across as a carefully written rebuttal rather than a film, which works to the detriment of the entire series. Sure, The Last Jedi was lousy, but why allow its problems to bleed into this film? Wouldn't it have been nice to break away and do something new?
- But alas, The Rise of Skywalker focuses entirely on resurrecting old material, and I mean that quite literally in the case of the villainous Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), last seen really most sincerely dead in Return of the Jedi. But force magic, blah blah, he's back and broadcasting hate-filled messages over the spacewaves, compelling both Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) to seek out pyramidal MacGuffins that eventually lead them to the Emperor. In the process, the audience is treated to several huge-yet-stupid revelations, including: Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter, Snoke was grown in a vat, Jedi can exchange life force, Kylo and Rey are a "force dyad", and Jedi can teleport objects to one another. I imagine all of this is explained more fully in the tie-in novel that I have no intention of ever reading.
- But hey, Lando (Billy Dee Williams) is still alive, so that's one piece of good news! Carrie Fisher gets an appropriately thoughtful sendoff after the actress' untimely death, and even Luke (Mark Hamill) and Han (Harrison Ford) return for cameos. Characters like Poe (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) get much more to do this time around, even if neither ends up being as interesting as The Force Awakens promised. Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) sits this one out on the sidelines, an event that presumably already has its own hashtag, while newcomers Jannah (Naomi Ackie) and Zorii (Keri Russell) prove to be more interesting than anybody from the previous film. Strange as this may seem, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) delivers the film's funniest and most touching moments. The scenery, featuring a run-down imperial ghetto, a tumultuous ocean, and a lightning-riddled evil stronghold, is more creative than it has been in recent memory. While I will admit that The Rise of Skywalker improves after its distractingly hectic first half-hour, it is never really very good. The few remaining reasonable Star Wars fans in the Universe might well be glad that this trilogy is finally over.
