The power crumbles

Photo: PR, Film Forum

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Busy, superficial, struggling and mostly lost in an impossible script. The third and final movie in the new "Star Wars" trilogy tries hard to highlight V any possible cliché. The result is a longing attack for the films that came before it

Movie Star Rating - 2 Star (Photo: Image Processing)

Ilan Kaprov

In 2015, just before a sparkling new trilogy emerged into the world, the clamor surrounding Star Wars movies was immense. In the shadow of the huge deal by Disney and Lucas Film, the most successful film history brand has once again proven its power. Big competing films were blowing in the wind and escaped, and revenue highs didn't stop shattering. Only four years have passed since then, but they have been able to do what the previous 38 years did not dare: to diminish the power of the brand.

Maybe it's the big disappointment about "Solo" or the heated debate and party around "The Last of the Jedi", maybe the fact that "The Mandalorian" and Baby Yoda have been settling down and grabbing the attention, and maybe it's the stimulus that can't contain so much culture at the same time. One thing is certain: "The Rise of Skywalker" is another movie, another never-ending chain event. Even the devout fans come to him more by the power of inertia and less of the same fiery fervor. When it's the atmosphere around the movie that locks the nine Skywalker saga movies, it's hard not to remember the warning from adult Luke to Ray: it's not going to end the way we think.

Disney is a well-known risk-averse fan, which would indicate that the directors who lost their job in the series in recent years have been in the background of creative controversies. But without intending to do so, "The Last of the Jedi" was just the standard deviation from the sacred consensus they feared at Mickey Mouse Studios. A courageous and surprising film, breaking conventions on the subversive threshold - one that eradicates villainy casually and without a fight, strives to disengage from the past and produce a new interpretation of the ways of power. To Disney's credit, it was said that JJ Abrahams' decision to return to the director's seat in "The Rise of Skywalker" came before the harsh reactions of some fans to Ryan Johnson's film. Her condemnation is said to have not been brave enough to deal with the development of the plot she herself created.

When Abrahams was chosen to direct "The Force Awakens" in 2015, many feared the gimmick repertoire that characterized it, but it was fully erupted precisely in "The Rise of Skywalker." Together with screenwriter Chris Trio ("Argo"), the two built what is probably the biggest fan service in history in the bad sense of the word. Sometimes it seems more glamorous than a movie. The nature of giant end films like "The Avengers: War of Infinity" tie edges and provide a circle closure. But while in Queen Paige's kingdom, this tying is done with loyalty to a decade-long story line, in "The Rise of Skywalker" the feeling is of a suave cycle meeting. Everyone arrived, but became their own shadow. Faded imitation of a glorious past.

Already in the first half of the film, Abrahams and Trio are clearly in a hopeless race to erase any trace of "The Last Jedi." Processes that are typically spread across a number of perfectly flawed films: Heroes move dizzying from site to site, dropping a jarring exposition sentence to justify a whole storyline being spared, and rushing to the next encounter. New, old, iconic and refreshing characters emerge for a moment and disappear as they come, most of them without any fictional necessity. Destroyed stars, huge fleets are born, new characters are introduced casually and immediately thrown into a heated battle. Poe Demeron (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boigha), who were at the center of the previous films, wander wide-eyed with no real purpose. Druids beep, shatter stars. And the part that really sucks inside this mighty cacophony? Nothing about this happening is exciting, exciting or interesting.

One of the most controversial decisions made by Abrahams in preparation for "The Rise of a Skywalker" was the return of Emperor Palpatine to the backstage. It has a lot to say about the whole movie. Palpatine was used to pull in the threads of the previous two trilogies, but nothing in the development of the current trilogy plot justified its return. The coarse stitching done to justify it nevertheless leaves the film with a huge weight on the neck. On the one hand, the tremendous plot load does not allow to properly address the villain of this magnitude and the circumstances of his recapture. On the other hand, its very presence attracts attention so that it cannot be ignored. Thus, the film manages to simultaneously erode every possible palpatine cliche to thin (from wicked laughter to lightning) and still make every scene starring strange and unnecessary.

Druids beeping, shattering stars and sucks. From "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" (Photo: PR)

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (Photo: Film Forum, PR)

The director came equipped not only with a series of clichés chewed by the history of the film, but also with the ambition to take advantage of every computer effect in the book. Not sure anyone would be surprised if one day we found out that the Skywalker Rise editorial strategy was "let's just push all the buttons on the console and see what happens." Lightning (so many lightning), light and shadow games, rain, winds, crashing waves, blasts, sword-clash. What George Lucas did with a simple battle between rivals, makes Abharms a rousing, eye-popping exaggeration. Johnson's impressive aesthetic has been neglected in favor of all the bad in modern action movies. And as the "rise of Skywalker" adds more and more elements to the fray - the greater the indifference it produces.

Ironically, the good parts of "The Rise of Skywalker" are precisely the remnants of the film's vision that preceded it. The connection between Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Ray (Daisy Ridley) produces what is almost the only tension here, and shows the devastating potential of the effect of power. The endless dance of the two between hatred and love, combined with the impressive abilities of the two actors, provides a relationship that even better hands could have produced for reasons. In their absence, it is precisely the quiet and pathless scenes between them that produce the strongest effect.

Endings, as already written in the context of "Avengers: End of the Game," are always tough. The challenge of combining plot needs with fan desires and enormous studio pressure. "The Rise of Skywalker" is not even a worthwhile attempt to withstand all of these. On the contrary, it is a conscious decision to be noisy and exhausting, to be safe and to fire all guns. Through this fire and sulfur, one of the most successful stories in cinematic history ends with what turns out to be an emotion-free, passion or aesthetic mess. Characters and moments that have moved millions in the past suddenly become banal and gray, fading into the background and evaporating from consciousness. Just as it would happen to "Skywalker's Rise" after finishing his round on the movie screens. And perhaps then, precisely through the dust of the debris he left behind, who would return "Star Wars" to its great days.

A movie that will soon evaporate from consciousness. From "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" (Photo: PR)

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (Photo: Film Forum, PR)

Twitter is furious and this time rightly so. From "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" (Photo: PR?)

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (Photo: Film Forum, PR)