“Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker” Movie Review

    To call the supposedly last Star Wars film in the ‘Skywalker Saga’ one of my most anticipated films of 2019 is a bit of an understatement.  Star Wars have been an important part of my life since I was a kid.  I watched the original trilogy countless times growing up and enjoyed the expanded universe material with dreams of what that universe had to still explore.  When the prequels and later the Disney era films came out, “Star Wars” has continued to hold a special place in my heart.

    This review will continue no spoilers, only brief descriptions of events already shared through trailers or plot summaries before the film’s release.  The film follows our new generation of heroes Rey, Finn, and Poe as they seek to bring peace to the galaxy from the grips of Kylo Ren (formally Ben Solo).  A mysterious force from the past may prove a greater challenge, and danger, to both the Resistance and the First Order than anyone could have imagined.

    There was a lot for me to process upon finishing the movie but long story short, I enjoyed this movie quite a bit and I don’t feel the movie deserves the negative reviews it has been getting.  That being said, the movie is not without some flaws (some minor, a few major).  The film has many moments of jaw dropping visuals and moments fans will discuss for a long time to come but some of those moments will surely divide fans.

    The film is paced at a breakneck speed with little time to rest and makes the film feel a bit rushed at times.  Some of this was the fault of the last film, “Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi”, for not building towards a climax in regards to the trilogy.  J.J. Abrams was forced to set up a conflict and resolve it in a satisfying way over the course of this single film.  For the most part I feel like Abrams has succeeded in his efforts.

    Another divisive element this film will face is the same complaint people had against Abrams’ first Star Wars film,  “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens”, in that it feels like a copy of an original trilogy film.  Instead of borrowing story elements of ‘A New Hope’, this film borrows elements from ‘Return of the Jedi’.  Abrams has always seemed to struggle with originality, regardless if it’s Star Wars or Star Trek.

    One interesting note is that this film also seems to borrow quite a bit from the non-cannon expanded universe material from years ago.  Parts of this film feels lifted from the pages of “Star Wars: Dark Empire”.  Fans who have read that and have seen this film will know what I am referring to but if you haven’t, trust me, it does.

    The main complaint people will have about this film is the ending.  Of course I can’t really talk about what happens, but for a film that bills itself as ‘the end of the Skywalker saga’, it certainly leaves plenty of obvious doors open to continue.  I am not even saying that is necessarily a bad thing, but it will make some fans upset.  From Finn’s secret that never gets addressed (though hinted at) to mysteries that are left unsolved, there are plenty to explore in regards to more Star Wars films.

    I will say that I love the way this film manages to tie all the episodes together.  While most of the fan service is in regards to the original trilogy, this film doesn’t shy away from the prequel trilogy.  I also absolutely loved what this film did with the character of Chewbacca.

    The cast did an excellent job in this film with the highlights being Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Oscar Isaac, and Billy Dee Williams.  Carrie Fisher’s scenes were handled well and very carefully crafted into the movie in an organic way which was a huge concern of mine.

    “Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker” isn’t a perfect film but it is still very fun and a step above ‘The Last Jedi’.  Like this film or hate it, this was a Star Wars film clearly made for the fans so we have no one to blame but ourselves if we don’t like it.  I had a good time personally and while I think most fans will need some time to digest the film, I think they will ultimately look at this film favorably.

Grade: B

“Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” Movie Review

    After the release of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”, we Star Wars fans just accepted the fact that the franchise had officially ended.  We knew that there would always be cartoons, books, video games,  and comics but we accepted that live action Star Wars movies were now a thing of the past.  There would be no more chapters to add to the Skywalker saga and perhaps it was better that way.  No one wanted another prequel situation, where Lucas promised for more than a decade he would make more films but didn’t.  The Star Wars saga was now one with the force.

     Unbeknownst to almost everyone, George Lucas was working on a sequel trilogy and had even started to get his cast in line.  One key cast member was Mark Hamill who would once again play Luke Skywalker but would take on a more Obi-Wan Kenobi role training a young Jedi Padawan named Kira.  This obviously changed by the time the movie started filming for a number of reasons but Lucas supposedly even had a finished script.  Then Disney came along throwing around crazy money.  George Lucas had been considering retiring and when Disney got wind of this, the mouse house offered Lucas a little over four billion dollars for Lucasfilms.  George Lucas accepted the offer and the transition began with Lucas and Disney agreeing to apoint Kathleen Kennedy as the new head of Lucasfilms.  Disney also received George Lucas’ script for Episode VII in the deal which they wasted no time in throwing away.

    Disney didn’t trust George Lucas after the prequels received generally negative feedback.  They wanted to make a film for the fans.  They wanted to sell nostalgia.  In a nut shell, they wanted to remake “A New Hope” but wrap it up like a sequel and hope no one noticed.  Well, plenty of people did and it wasn’t exactly like it was a fact they were hiding.  They even hired lifetime Star Wars nerd J.J. Abrams to direct the movie.  No one really knew what a Disney Star Wars movie would be like.  We were all a little scared but also incredibly excited to see what Force Awakens had in store for us.

    The movie is set thirty years after “Return of the Jedi” and sees the galaxy has once again fell into turmoil.  The Empire was destroyed but in it’s ashes, the First Order arose.  The First Order is basically just the Empire with a different name, they even have the same stormtroopers and tie fighters and guns and so on (not much has changed).  They are led by Kylo Ren who is a Darth Vader fan boy with a secret of his own.  Kylo Ren is definitely one of the highlights of the film.  His unhinged emo and spoiled brat personality seems very different from Darth Vader’s calm and reserved demeanor.

    “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” largely ignores the legacy material which came before it.  So any event that happened in a book or comic became non-canon.  This was a wise decision in my book because so much has happened in the books that would be hard to go over in a single movie.  They did borrow fairly heavily from the legends though.

    The film stars Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and a non speaking cameo from Mark Hamill.  I like the new characters and Ridley, Boyega, and Driver are among the three best standouts.  Harrison Ford is a delight as Han Solo, one of his greatest characters.

    The film sets up a lot of interesting questions, or as Abrams describes them, mystery boxes.  The only problem with these mystery boxes is that it passes the buck onto the next filmmaker so the success of that movie is tied into the success of this movie.  John Williams once again scores this Star Wars film but it isn’t the best in the saga.

    The new characters act as stand ins for the original characters.  Rey is essentially the Luke for this trilogy.  Han is the new Obi-Wan,  Maz is the new Yoda, Poe is the new Han, Finn is the Leia of this franchise, BB-8 is the new C-3PO and R2-D2, and Ren is the new Vader.

    The film rehashes a lot of aspects from the original Star Wars but if you are going to steal and sell it as nostalgia, you can’t beat Star Wars.  The force really did awaken with this film.

Grade: A-

"Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi" Movie Review

    The Last Jedi had all the fixings to be the dark second chapter of the sequel trilogy.  The Empire Strikes Back to The Force Awaken’s A New Hope.  It was set to feature the return of fan favorite Luke Skywalker and fans were practically salivating with excitement.  So many questions were poised in The Force Awakens and while no one expected all of those questions to be answered, we were hungry for even hints.  Needless to say, when the movie finally hit and Rian Johnson decided to subvert expectations, the fan base was decidedly mixed and it has led to a huge ugly nerd war that still rages on to this day.

    Perhaps neither side is completely right or wrong.  The fans who applaud the movie have every right to do so.  The film is fun and a pleasing popcorn film.  The fans who dislike the film for not respecting the previous installments are correct as well.  I would argue that any sequel should respect the source material of previous films.  A Star Wars fan can not ignore the fact that Luke Skywalker’s character went from someone willing to risk everything to redeem his father to someone ready to murder his nephew over a vision of what may come to be.  Luke Skywalker wouldn’t do that.  Mark Hamill even expressed the same feeling during the development of this film.  The movie also took all the questions we had and basically said those answers don’t matter.
    The movie picks up almost directly after The Force Awakens and finds Rey trying to convince former Jedi Master Luke Skywalker to train her which he is very reluctant to do since he also trained Ben Solo who later became Kylo Ren.  The Resistance is on the run and things are looking dark for our heroes.
    Much of what makes the film so entertaining is it’s cast.  With Harrison Ford no longer in the new films, Mark Hamill takes up the role of the wise mentor.  Daisy Ridley once again delivers a strong performance as Rey, a young Force sensitive whose powers scare even herself.  This film is also noteable for being the  final film Carrie Fisher shot before passing way.
    While the cast is undeniably talented, the script leaves a lot to be desired.  I am not sure the reason for some of Johnson’s choices but I feel like he went for the easiest solutions to questions set up by J.J. Abrams.  Who is Snoke?  It’s too hard to explain how he is more powerful than Palpatine so let’s just not explain it and get rid of the character.  Rey was hinted at having parents of importance, well that would be hard to explain so let’s just say they were nobodies.  So many seemingly lazy script writing decisions beyond what he did with Luke.
    The Last Jedi is a good movie but just isn’t a great Star Wars film.  I feel like it’s the type of chapter that will be mainly glossed over in the future.  I just hope the next episode is a step in the right direction for a change.

Grade: C+