Star Wars Rise of Skywalker review: Episode Nine brings story to an end
The final conclusion of the epic Star Wars trilogy of trilogies is out today, and it has failed to live up to expectations. READ THE REVIEW
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Yes, the Force is strong with this one.
However, it is how this Force is deployed by Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that will leave some lingering doubts in the minds of passionate devotees of the franchise.
Saddled with the daunting task of bringing the official Skywalker Saga to a definitive close, this ninth episode keeps switching between alternating states of good-natured incoherency and controlled panic.
In particular, the first two acts of the new movie are uncharacteristically messy, convoluted and disjointed for a Stars Wars release.
Many key sequences are over-edited until they become underwhelming, cut together by someone who’d either had too much coffee, too many people looking over their shoulder, or both.
The plotting can only be likened to a heavily stacked shopping trolley with at least one wonky wheel. You never know which direction this scattershot tale will go, or for how long.
Without straying into the spoiler zone, it can be revealed that a sinister villain long thought to be dead is back in business.
He wants Jedi poster girl Rey (Daisy Ridley) gone to extinguish all threat to his reactivated power, and dispatches her telepathically connected nemesis Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to put a light saber to her throat ASAP.
Now that he is Supreme Leader of the First Order, Ren seems to be a bit too high-ranking to be jumping whenever some black-hearted blast from the past says so.
As for Rey, she commences The Rise of Skywalker at a Jedi training camp run by Leia (the late Carrie Fisher, still very much to the fore via some digital magic).
What is Rey training for, exactly? She already nailed her signature go-to move a few episodes ago: spotting something worrying in the far-to-extreme distance, making a frowny-yet-determined face at it, then throwing some carefully choreographed physical shapes should the threat come up close at her.
As for other fresh developments in Rise of Skywalker, there is not a lot to report.
Rey’s fellow freedom fighters Poe (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) are now back at her side after spending the last episode running a long-forgotten errand elsewhere in the galaxy.
While two liven up the mix in terms of casting camaraderie — Isaac and Boyega have always looked as if they have really enjoyed being in a Star Wars movie — they also have a lot of explaining to do throughout the picture.
Lazy screenwriting leaves Poe, Finn and many other characters in the odd position of describing what is happening as it is happening.
At the height of a ground battle or during a space chase, it can be like watching a sporting contest where the commentators are calling the action while playing the game.
Not all that exciting, just confusing, really.
What else is new in a non-spoilery sense?
Well, Storm Troopers can now fly with the aid of some pimped-out jetpacks. The whole who-is-Rey-related-to? thing will be resolved once and for all.
Two very familiar faces from the original Star Wars trilogy (neither of which are Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill) pop up inside the movie briefly to remind us all of how far the whole thing is come.
In terms of new recruits to the cast this late in the saga, only Richard E. Grant stands out as a freshly-minted baddie playing for Team Ren.
A few key characters stare near-certain death in the eye. And, err, that is just about it.
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After 2017’s The Last Jedi divided fans by straying too far from key tenets of the Star Wars canon, director J.J. Abrams spends the first 100 minutes of Rise of Skywalker trying anything to right as many of those perceived wrongs as possible.
While Star Wars movies have always been eager to please, this one is way too desperate to be liked. The difference is telling, and as a result, Rise of Skywalker almost always feels as if it is in a nervy, needy rush to get the job done.
It is only upon rounding the home turn to deliver a distinctly gripping and unexpectedly elegiac finale that Rise of Skywalker finally hits the impressive stride true believers would have hoped for.
The balance struck between storytelling, spectacle and genuine emotion generates both real excitement and a sombre realisation that this is the end of something that has meant so much to so many for over four decades.
But does the great stuff come too late in a movie that spends so much time struggling to be any good?
To be frank, the answer is yes.
— Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in cinemas today.
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (M)
Rating: **½
Originally published as Star Wars Rise of Skywalker review: Episode Nine brings story to an end
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