I enjoy Star Wars on a very visceral level. It looks cool! It sounds cool! But I don't tend to worry to much about the mechanics of mythology. It is an attitude that extends to my wife and daughter as well. We're not ignorant of Star Wars mythology. We really just don't care that much.
So this past weekend, the fam made its way from the Fortress of Ineptitude to go see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
My review of the film? It looks cool! It sounds cool!
But despite my efforts at willful ignorance of Star Wars minutia, I do have some concerns and they all start with Palpatine.
Since the man's name is not even so much as mentioned in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, the inclusion pf the former Emperor and Sith Lord as the big bad in Rise of Skywalker is a bit forced. Oh, all that bad stuff the First Order was doing, Palpatine was behind the scenes making stuff happen.
Supreme Leader Snoke? It appears Palpatine grew him in a clone lab!
One of our new crew of adventurers has a link to the dark side of the Force? It seems Palpatine has been manipulating events to get control of his grand daughter.
Yep, Rey is a Palpatine.
One of the more controversial plot points in The Last Jedi was that Rey's parents were of no importance or consequence. Given Rey's quick adept use of the Force, Star Wars fan expected that she had to have some connection to the some element of Star Wars mythology. Is she related to Luke Skywalker? Obiwan Kenobi? Hell, maybe even Darth Maul? Yoda, for crying out loud?
But the idea that Rey's story began with no connection to this sprawling mythology did serve to underscore a larger point made in The Last Jedi, that anyone can be adept at using the Force.
But Rise contradicts the message of the previous film to tell us that Rey is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine.
If some part of Palpatine's legacy or legend had been part of the previous two films, perhaps this revelation that Palpatine is still alive and Rey is his living descendant would have carried more power. Instead it doesn't seem to matter to Rey. Ultimately, Palpatine is just another bad guy who must be stoppped to save the lives of millions throughout the galaxy. Rey is not going to shirk that mission no matter who the pasty faced mummy in a cloak says he is.
The return of Emperor Palpatine also serve to undermine a key point from Return of the Jedi. Darth Vader's turn againt the Emperor to save Luke Skywalker's life is a powerful moment. Killing Emperor Palpatine is the ultimate break to separate Darth Vader from Anakin Skywalker and find the redemption that Luke felt was possible all along for his father. Emperor Palpatine not being dead kind of diminishes the power of that moment.
Is there redemption for our Dark Vader wannabe, Kylo Ren? I've had little patience for this impatient, petulant pretender to his grandfather's helmet but Adam Driver this time out makes Kylo less annoying for me somehow. Kylo Ren's final epic battle with Rey changes things dramatically. Thanks to a fatal long distance Force intervention from Leia Organa, Rey is able to defeat Kylo, fatally wounding him. But then she uses the Force in a way she utilized earlier in the film to heal his wounds. Between Leia and Rey, Kylo Ren is finally gone and Ben Solo remains.
Rey in her final confrontation with Emperor Palpatine accesses the highest level of power of the Force to defeat him but the effort leaves her lifeless. Ben Solo arrives to repay Rey's efforts, using the Force to restore her to life.
Then Rey kisses Ben.
Yes, the Rey-Lo shippers will be all ecstatic over that one but I will counter that was NOT a Rey-Lo moment. It was a Rey-Ben moment.
Then because Rey's injuries were more severe or Ben's just not as adept at using the Force to give life or the shock of actually being kissed by a girl probably for the first time ever, Ben Solo dies and his body fades away.
Speaking of Leia Organa, Carrie Fisher's final performance on film is carried out by the use of previously unused footage shot for The Force Awakens with some judicious CGI editing. Fisher's untimely death sadly leaves a hole in the middle of Rise of Skywalker where a more forceful and direct role for Leia Organa would've done so much for this narrative. As such, Leia's final sacrifice to save her son relies on a body double and a voice over from a supporting character telling us what she is about to do. The patch job works as well as it can but still, it reminds us how much we miss Carrie Fisher.
Poe Dameron gets better treatment this time out. He can still be reckless; his use of "light speed skipping" catches the Millennium Falcon on fire. But the bone headed thinking that severely undermined his character in The Last Jedi is not present here.
Finn seems to have a mystery where he seems to just "know" stuff; the insinuation is that he might be Force sensitive.
If you liked Rose in The Last Jedi, bad news but she gets jack to do in this film. Which feels like a victory for the anti-Rose trolls that came out in force in the wake of The Last Jedi.
And more bad news? No appearance by this guy.
Nope. No baby Yoda.
Good news? Our buddy and pal (if only!) Lin Manuel Miranda has a blink or you'll miss it cameo as a Resistance fighter.
There are a lot of fun moments in The Rise of Skywalker with some genuine laughs. The bit where the burning Falcon has landed and everyone has escalating descriptions of just how much on fire it is is particularly funny moment.
There was some fun to be had at my daughter's expense. A lot of the action revolves around a planet called Exegol which every time any character pronounced it, it sounded like "testicle". So any time any one referenced the planet Exegol, I would translate it for Randie.
"I have the coordinates for the planet Exegol!"
"Psst! They have the coordinates for testicle."
"The ship has landed on Exegol!"
"Psst! They've landed on testicle."
"I've got to get back to Exegol!"
"Psst! They've go to get back..."
"Psst! Shut up, dad!"
Yes, a good time was had by all.
And in the end, the movie does indeed end. The bad guys are defeated. Some people have died but many more get to live. And Rey, that lonely lost scavenger we met on a desert planet at the start of The Force Awakens has learned a lot and has made peace with her legacy, her place in the galaxy and her future.
This trilogy is over and so ends this story of Star Wars. But in Rey, the saga of Skywalker will live on.
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UPDATED 12/31/2019
You've got to watch this "pitch meeting" video. You know the joke I made earlier about how "Exegol" sounded like "testicle". They do the same joke at the between 5:15 and 5:30.
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