There’s a fascinatingly human struggle at the center of the new “Star Wars” trilogy, the likes of which we’ll probably never see again in a franchise of this size. It’s a tug-of-war between JJ Abrams (director/co-writer of “The Force Awakens” and “The Rise of Skywalker”) and Rian Johnson (writer/director of “The Last Jedi”). Each director has a wildly different idea about what “Star Wars” should be, and each has been forced to roll with the previous filmmaker’s decisions and try to make sense of them from his point of view. JJ initiates a mystery about Rey’s parents in TFA, Rian extinguishes that mystery. JJ creates a new super-villain in Snoke, Rian yawns and kills him off. It’s like watching an argument in real time, waged with hundreds of millions of dollars in the biggest franchise on Earth. It creates some narrative nonsense, but it’s so damned fun that it’s kind of worth it. (Side note: I don’t know how this argument was allowed to happen, seeing as JJ was certainly reading drafts of Rian’s movie while making TFA. You’d think if he didn’t like what was going on, he’d have had the power to stop it. But hey, whatever).
“The Rise of Skywalker” is the final word in that debate. It’s JJ’s final attempt to wrestle control back from Rian and make a statement about how he sees “Star Wars.” The early critical reaction has been a drubbing, with some calling it the worst “Star Wars” movie ever made. I was pretty shocked by that; even the prequel trilogy was usually well-received on release. What on Earth could’ve gone so wrong?
It turns out, nothing. TROS is not the worst “Star Wars” movie. It’s actually a pretty good one! My two second review goes like this: the first half is as good as anything they’ve done in this trilogy; the second half falls off a bit, and is just okay. The reason for this is because, as ever, JJ is not good at climaxes. He gets the spectacle, but he’s terrible at letting his stories crescendo on cue, and there’s never any really meaningful drama left to mine when you need it. “The Return of the Jedi” masterfully stretched Darth Vader’s redemption arc until the last possible second, until you’re screaming at the screen “come on, Anakin!!!” TROS lands on an interesting, worthwhile final plot point, but rushes it, doesn’t quite earn it, and is left without anywhere to go dramatically in its finale. I buy the choices they made in the abstract, but I didn’t feel them in the moment as much as I wanted. TLJ was incredibly deft at nudging the characters along their arcs without spelling it out. TROS isn’t nearly as skilled in that regard.
It’s also, as you’ve maybe heard, a very safe movie. If TLJ was an invitation to “let old things die” and strike out into brave new territory, TROS is a stubborn refusal to do anything of the sort. I didn’t mind this narrative whiplash, because “Star Wars” has always been a frantic act of retrospective rewriting; does anyone REALLY buy Obi-Wan’s “I told you the truth from a certain point of view” nonsense? Soap opera twist-and-counter-twist is all pro forma here. And again, it’s strangely satisfying to watch two directors bicker with each other. It gives the franchise an unpolished kind of humanity. I think TLJ and TROS are both better movies because they slap-fight each other.
Ultimately, TROS is a satisfying, worthwhile finale for the new trilogy, and one of the stronger third entries in a trilogy of recent memory, up there with “War For The Planet of the Apes.” Third movies are always damned hard to get right, and they performed above average here. There’s tons of fun banter, some really great action, and real emotional stakes. I’m a stickler about clunky dialog and I felt TROS was above-average as “Star Wars” movies go; not as sharp as the Lawrence Kasdan-penned stuff, but nowhere near the clunkers that Lucas himself penned a few years back.
Some people have bickered about the MacGuffin-chase nature of the plot. These people need to pop a Xanny and remember that “Star Wars” movies are always a chase for some dumb little object, or particular radio tower, or what have you. I had fun hopping around the galaxy with the gang.
If I were in charge of the franchise, I’d have taken TLJ’s invitation to do something really new and different. I think there was an opportunity to make an even better version of this movie (I even had a rough outline for it in my head). But the road they chose instead is perfectly valid, and I got my money’s worth out of it.
Moving forward, though, I think we have to acknowledge that “Star Wars” needs to change. I accept that we needed a palette cleanser after the prequels, and maybe hemming a touch too close to the original trilogy was appropriate. But now that work is done, and it’s time to let it go. JJ’s path was fine for this, but Rian is ultimately right about where this thing needs to go if it wants to flourish long-term. It is time to let old things die.