Review: "Star Wars - Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker"

In the world of Physics, time is relative. In the world of literature and art, relevance fades away with time. It is unlikely for a franchise born in the 70s to be able to preserve its zeal and excitement with time; impossible if it refuses to evolve. The Last Jedi had set my hopes high for this film. I wrote more about it in an earlier post: Does 'Star Wars' still have it?

The Eighth installment in the multi-billion dollar franchise had a very compelling underlying theme of letting old things die and delivered a modestly unpredictable plot. The same cant be said about the closing chapter of this saga, despite having spanned over four decades and influencing pop culture more than any other movie franchise.

The plot of the movie seems compelling at first glance but the story quickly turns preposterous; with the writers devising new and unheard ways to float the boat ahead and arrive at the pre-planned plot points. In a world where Marvel creates One-shots and TV shows to explore every tiny detail of the primary franchise, throwing new ideas and characters towards audiences is in poor taste. I understand that with the arrival of Disney+'s Mandalorian recently and the two spin-off movies, I cant really blame the writers for not wanting to explore the story; but as of December 2019, I have no prior knowledge of what a Force Dyad is or how it's possible to transfer Life Force (because that sure sounds like the sort of thing that could have been used several times in the last 40 years) from one person to another. The plot doesn't make sense and has no boundaries which is understandable to an extent because the story is after all set in a 'Galaxy far far away' where light speed travel is possible and weird stuff happens. But (without giving away any spoilers) the writers did seem to have been on crack when they made certain decisions that I will talk about in a future post on my Instagram page. Also, the end of the longest running Sci-Fi movie franchise on earth could have used with a longer run time.

Light saber battles are always cool but they are more a work of camera movement and CGI than real human risk and flexibility. And other than a few one on ones between Rey and Ren, there's not a lot of credible action in this movie (shooting storm troopers doesn't count). Even the CGI star fights aren't unique and inventive. They are just 'not bad'.

Cinematography has been fairly strong in the last six episodes in sequence. The same is true for this installment. The scenery is just as magnificent as one expects from a billion dollar film. Nothing out of the world but good enough to earn a decisive thumbs up.

Dialogue hasn't been particularly strong in any of the films in the franchise. The writers try too hard to be funny and fail. Standard use of medieval English to spark a sense of grandeur and intimidation, only to fail. Nothing memorable. Clearly childish. 

The Visual Effects and CGI are the strongest suit of this film. The imagery is indistinguishable from reality. The death of Carrie Fisher is no secret. Her character was put into the sequence as CGI but you wouldn't know it wasn't her unless someone pointed it out. The space ship rubble, sea waves, collisions and explosions are all as close to real life as possible. A big fat thumbs up to Lucasfilms for remaining true to their legacy on this front.

Binary Sunset and The Imperial March are gems in the history of cinema scores. They are used abundantly in the film and spark fear, terror and hope adequately. There is no audible innovation though. The Last Jedi had variations of Binary Sunset play throughout the run of the film. Rise of Skywalker fails to do so. But I have scored the music high nonetheless, out of respect for John Williams and as a thank you to him for creating such wonderful sound tracks 40 years ago. The Binary Sunset scene is unforgettable for billions of us around the world. Yeah, I am biased here.

In conclusion, I add that though Episode IX disappoints, it doesn't shatter because we saw this upset coming. The franchise isn't what it was. I watched George Lucas trying to explain to the press how they are trying to create a call-back to the original trilogy in this new age trilogy and he didn't sound very convinced either. Maybe it's just a money grab or maybe they actually think they've done a good job. Either way, it's saddening. But we can finally conclude this long story and look back at the peaking moments. I will talk about Star War's legacy and explore the reasons behind its closing failure in a future post.

May the Force be with you.