Rise of Skywalker Review (spoiler free)

The moment the opening crawl hit the screen and that first triumphant blast of brass filled the theater was the moment I knew that Star Wars Episode IX was going to be a disappointment. I had gone into the cinema that day hopeful for at least a decent, reasonably satisfying conclusion to the "Skywalker Saga," and, having kept somewhat aware of leaked plot points I thought that JJ Abrams might manage to deliver on some of the hype surrounding the film. However, with that opening chord and that yellow, all caps font scrolling up the screen comes the weight of over four decades of beloved mythos and all the expectations of one of the most significant cultural phenomena of modern times. It was when I saw that first text, "Episode IX," and heard Williams' now forty-two year old score that I knew I was going to be disappointed, that this film could not possibly live up to it's predecessors. It was then that I finally admitted to myself that these new Star Wars films were always destined to fall short of holding a candle to what came before.

Over the next 140 minutes, the film seemed to answer me: "Amazing. Every word of what you just thought was wrong."

Beginning in the first few moments and continuing onward until the end, The Rise of Skywalker just feels like a Star Wars film. Of the Disney era outings, it's certainly the most reminiscent of the classic and prequel films - and I don't mean that it lifts from them in the way that The Force Awakens is often regarded as having taken from A New Hope. There might be a few plot elements here or there that one might consider to be especially similar to events in The Return of the Jedi, but by and large this film is its own.

No, The Rise of Skywalker feels like Star Wars in its tone, in its themes, and in its characters. The best way to put it may be that if The Force Awakens seemed like an attempt to make a film that commemorates the Star Wars of old and The Last Jedi seemed like an attempt to make a film that moved on from the Star Wars of old, The Rise of Skywalker seems like a film that simply builds on and continues the Star Wars of old. In other words, it's the first film of the Disney era that really feels like the next chapter in Lucas' story rather than one which is just offering remarks on that story as if it were some old relative to be remembered or laid to rest.

This doesn't mean that there is not some fan service in The Rise of Skywalker. There certainly is, but it's fan service done well. This film is packed with references which honor moments and characters from the previous films without feeling out of place, superfluous, or tacked on. This may be because rather than trying to treat those beloved moments or characters as a kind of fodder for easter eggs or cameos the way that Episode VII, and to a lesser degree Episode VIII, did, The Rise of Skywalker looks back in order to fulfill arcs and to pay off on the emotional investments that those earlier films made. For example, there are a couple of scenes involving C-3PO and R-2D2 which very much evoke memories of these characters from as far back as their first scenes in the Tunisian desert in 1977, but here The Rise of Skywalker uses these moments to bring a kind of emotional closure to the characters, a catharsis which draws meaning from those previous eight films rather than simply pointing to them in some kind of ostensibly clever reference.

As for the new characters introduced in The Force Awakens, there is no question that The Rise of Skywalker makes the best use of them and gives them the most genuine character development out of their three films. Characters like Poe and Finn, badly underutilized and left to stagnate or to repeat already completed character arcs in the previous films are finally able to shine. It helps that for the first time we actually get to see all of our heroes together for most of the film. One of the things that made the original Star Wars films successful was the dynamic of the various main characters playing off one another as the plot moved them from place to place. Until The Rise of Skywalker, the new generation of heroes hadn't really had a chance to do that. This film provides that chance and pulls it off well. It also handles the headliners much better. Rey finally feels like a fully realized character complete with weaknesses and personality that shows some evidence of having developed in all those years before we first met her on Jakku. She was certainly the most interesting character in either of the other two sequel films, but given what those films did with everyone else that doesn't say as much about her as it otherwise would. In The Rise of Skywalker she feels much more well rounded, almost like the difference between (if the cross-franchise reference can be forgiven) the difference between a season one Star Trek: The Next Generation character and the same character from the show's final season. The film even manages to do something with Kylo Ren that is much deeper than either of the two extremes we saw from him in previous films. Most importantly, all of these improvements feel natural; I never felt like I was being shown a scene just to make up for the inadequacy of some other film.

This film also does a much better job of incorporating the older heroes than the previous films. Where in Episodes VII and VIII Han Solo, Chewbacca, Luke, and to a lesser degree Leia felt at times more like transcendent legends who were just there to guide or inspire the new heroes, here Chewbacca finally feels like one of the gang, Leia feels like a peer to the new characters (which is especially amazing given the constraints that Carrie Fisher's death placed on the production of this film), and even Luke (minor spoiler?) comes across in a way that just works better than in the previous films. When Lando shows up, he never feels like someone so much larger than life that he can't fit with everybody else. (As an aside, Lando's character is one of the most uplifting parts of this film and I don't think anyone in the theater got away without smiling at his scenes.)

The Rise of Skywalker is far and away the most thematic of the sequel trilogy and this is one major way that the film feels more at home among the original films than among its more immediate predecessors. The first six films of the franchise, to one degree or another, were thematic; the better of them had an almost literary quality. In The Rise of Skywalker, there are several themes, two of which stand out very clearly: first, that a person is not defined by their identity, and second, that a person is never alone when they stand up for what is right. (There is a third that is worth listing here, but due to the risk of revealing a major spoiler I will omit it here). What really stands out to me is that these are the kinds of themes which transcend the confines of whatever conceits exist in a given story and so elevate the story to something greater than the sum of its parts. Without getting into a lengthy diversion, I will say that the thematic quality of this film is one of the reasons I think that in the long run it will stand the test of time along with predecessors like The Empire Strikes Back.

Before closing, it would be remiss not to address this film's relationship with The Last Jedi. It is no secret that film was extremely divisive, with some regarding it as the second best film of the franchise and others considering it an unforgivable offense against all that has ever been good in Star Wars. It is also no secret that The Rise of Skywalker is widely regarded as having taken efforts to walk back or to "fix" things which many fans disliked about that film. There is no question that on some points The Rise of Skywalker does look at things from The Last Jedi from a different point of view," to quote Obi-Wan Kenobi. Nevertheless, what stands out to me about these elements is how subtle and well-executed they are. Nothing in The Rise of Skywalker ever flatly contradicts or even dismisses anything from The Last Jedi. Nothing ever feels forced or as though it's only there in the film in order to revisit something from the previous film. If anything, most of these moments are so well executed that they make it seem as though they were always the direction that Rian Johnson's outing was planning to take them in the first place. In fact, I would say that on balance The Rise of Skywalker honors The Last Jedi more than it re-frames it, for those two major themes mentioned above (your identity does not define you and those who do what is right are never alone) are two of the closing thoughts that Johnson leaves viewers with in his film. The Rise of Skywalker may indeed "amend" a few things from The Last Jedi, but in the end, more than anything it builds on the direction and message that that middle installment took us in all while doing so in a way that should more than please The Last Jedi's critics.

The Rise of Skywalker is not a perfect film. There are a few plot threads that seem to have been dropped or forgotten about, although these are nothing major. There is also one moment in particular towards the end of the film which seems like a genuinely bad example of fan service, one which I think the film would be far better off without, but I can say that, knowing about it and dreading it going in, the rest of the film is so good that I think in the end it's only a minor annoyance that didn't detract at all from my enjoyment of the film. There are some force powers introduced which on the surface don't seem to make a lot of sense, although if you think about them enough I think they can be explained (which ameliorates the problem but is nevertheless really not ideal). It also does a disservice to Kelly Marie Tran by relegating her character to very much the background of the story. Indeed she's hardly present and could be removed altogether without changing anything else about the film. Part of the problem is that her character never really seemed to have a purpose in the first place, and this film is very tight, leaving little room for that which doesn't factor into the story it's trying to tell. Still, if she was going to be established as a major character in the previous film this one probably should have done something with her. I have read in many other reviews that the first half of the film has too rapid a pace or that it moves too quickly from one sequence to another. I could not disagree more, and in fact my wife and I both felt that the worst part of the film was when the pace briefly slows down in the first half.

On the whole, The Rise of Skywalker is an outstanding film when taken on its own. When taken as the final word on a nine-film saga which began with an all-time cultural phenomenon, it is not perfect but it is still very much a satisfying conclusion. I hate to keep comparing it to the other Disney era films because it is worthy of being spoken of on its own, but I know that this is the context in which many will think of it. The Rise of Skywalker is far more substantive than The Force Awakens, so those who found that film to be empty or to be a rehash of the original trilogy ought to find much more to chew on here. Those who hated The Last Jedi should find a lot to like in this film and should find it much more to their liking, but at the same time those who enjoyed that film should be able to see this one as a natural progression. I would already place it above all of the prequel films - which some may not regard as a significant accomplishment - and even perhaps above one or more of the original three films - which most would regard as quite an accomplishment. I doubt many will share my opinion in ranking this film quite so highly as to displace any of the original trilogy, but in the end the point is that even if not everyone ranks it quite so highly as I do, it is nevertheless a very strong film which is worth your time and which deserves a place in the pantheon of the more beloved of the Star Wars films.