Star Wars, Ep 9 [Spoilers]

If the essence of understanding is prediction, the essence of narrative is satisfaction. Does the story feel right? The issue is that…

If the essence of understanding is prediction, the essence of narrative is satisfaction. Does the story feel right? The issue is that gargantuan franchises can lumber to just about any conclusion and claim it was the intention.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a bit like that. Perhaps I’m dim, but I was not predicting a finale which was so enamoured with the original 3 films. Now it’s “The Skywalker Saga, Episodes 1–9”. Was it always intended to be like that? I’m not saying it doesn’t work, but it felt like the 1 in a million shot we attempt when everything else has already failed. Reminds me of my days flying X-wings…

Ep. 9, The Rise of Skywalker succeeds largely because it pushes The Last Jedi (ep. 8) down an elevator shaft. The earlier film has its plot retconned, character development ignored and key themes overwritten. If feels as if this is the film that J J Abrams wanted, while ep. 8 was the one he wished hadn’t happened (Abrams directed of eps. 7&9, someone else directed 8).

This leads to a bumpy start. The opening crawl is so far removed from the previous film as to give whiplash. If my memory serves, it literally asks you to recall elements from ep. 8 which didn’t happen. The first hour or so is spent like this, cramming in plot point after plot point, introducing characters and rapidly killing them. The Empire suddenly has a million more Star Destroyers, the Rebellion has meaningfully the same number of troops it did at the beginning of the last film. The Knights of Ren are back in all their woefully underutilised glory.

After a while, the film starts to get itself together. We need to find a cough magic cough compass to find and kill Palpatine (!). From here on in it’s pretty good. Some funny lines, some beautiful shots and an epic climax.

I’ve never found Rey that interesting as a character — her questioning about her ancestry never really chimed with me. She always succeeds, but we are meant to empathise with her. Only in this film do we start to see her mess up and struggle. She accidentally blows up a ship in her anger, just after performing some healing. Rey giveth, Rey taketh away. It feels like the first moment where she might actually open up to the darkness inside here. Sadly there isn’t enough of this. If it is canon that being a sith turns your lightsaber red, why not have hers begin to waver in her fight with Kylo?

I guess this would have led to questions the director would rather not answer. The film is philosophically shallow. It turns out that the much-vaunted prophecy about bringing balance to the force just meant “kill the bad guy”. Surely killing the bad guy leaves the force unbalanced? No answer. I think this question could have been the thematic heart of this trilogy, but instead it’s largely ignored.

Cos it’s a problem isn’t it. People are always telling me that balance is good. Should I stop drinking? I think it’s a balance. Should I spend more time working? You have to find a balance. Should I become a serial killer? Balance is… wait. Why is balance a thing the Jedi seek? If there are some goodies protecting and some baddies torturing, why is balance the answer? The jedi have spent too much time talking to Thanos.

Can Kylo be a Sith who uses his rage for good? Does Rey have to give up her powers to bring balance. I suppose this was something that Luke’s character tried to explore in ep. 8, if Abrams will still let me talk about that film. Maybe their are other force uses paradigms which aren’t so unnecessarily monastic.

Many of its best moments are unearned. The arrival of the Rebel fleet was requested about 1 day ago in movie time. Was Palpatine remotely foreshadowed? Rey being his granddaughter felt almost pantomimed. Oh no she isn’t. Oh yes she is.

Whatever the case, I enjoyed it. The sith have their own force ghosts who live inside Palpatine and dwell in a gothic underground amphitheatre. Cool. Robo-Palpatine great. Evil C3P0. The sky-wide Force lightning. Kylo and Rey’s fight scene in the waves is stunning, particularly juxtaposed against Fin’s humanity. “I have to follow her” “You can’t.” I could imagine watching this again just for those big moments.

Overall, I think it’s the best film of the trilogy. But it felt like it was salvaging a story, rather than telling one. What would the trilogy have looked like if Abrams had made all three? Maybe we can get a redo given what we now know? It highlights once again how impressive the storytelling within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is. So yeah, it’s good that it landed the series well, but one can’t help but feel that any ending would have been called a victory.