In 2015's The Force Awakens we are introduced to Kylo Ren and his helmet. It is intact and well maintained. In 2017's The Last Jedi, that helmet is shattered into fragments in an act of anger and defiance. And now, in 2019's biggest disappointment The Rise of Skywalker, that helmet is reforged and stuck back together, though the cracks still show. If there were was ever a metaphor for Star Wars' 'sequel' trilogy, then it's Ren's helmet. TFA was made to revive nostalgia for the originals and bring abroad the three generations of Star Wars fans onto a new story. TLJ effectively retconned its predecessor, obliterating the narrative arc that was set up and trying something new and bold. TROS clutches at the few remaining straws that TLJ didn't eradicate in an attempt to fix and restore some sort of continuity to an overall poorly produced and written trilogy. What went wrong?
I think there is a unanimity that JJ Abrams' TFA is an acceptable Star Wars film; it does retread A New Hope's mythic story but audiences enjoyed it, saw it again and were keen to see where the story headed next. I watched the film several hours before the midnight screening of TROS and whilst there are an abundance of changes I would make (remove Starkiller Base for starters) it is a breezy and fun enough film to sit and enjoy. Then there is TLJ. Unanimity does not apply to this sequel; in fact the only unanimity towards this film is that it is, ironically, divisive. Replacing Abrams for directing duties was Rian Johnson, a talented enough filmmaker. But given both script and behind the camera duties allowed Johnson a reasonable degree of carte blanche and so audiences were given a film that they did not know how to respond to: the heroic Luke was a grumpy hermit, super baddie Snoke was briskly done away with and the film introduced new rules that effectively make you look at other Star Wars films differently. Johnson is a man who likes to challenge genre, to subvert it and the audiences, unlike safe hands Abrams, whose filmography shows more of an appreciation towards George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and the childlike wonder he clearly got from their movies. These two filmmakers are in a way represented by Rey and Kylo Ren: the Jedi who wants to continue and uphold a legacy versus a *Sith* who wants nothing to do with the past.
TFA made over $2 billion worldwide, becoming the third biggest films ever at that point. TLJ made $1.3 billion. The $700 million decline shows that the novelty of a new Star Wars film had run its course and that audiences were not as enthused toward Johnson's bold, risk taking vision. Cries of 'my childhood is ruined' and 'Disney and Kathleen Kennedy are SJWs that don't know Star Wars' echoed around comment sections. Six months later Solo: A Star Wars Story came out. A lackluster film by all accounts, it neither bombed nor profited and the reactions to these films caused Disney and Lucasfilms to shelve all other projects. TROS was to be the last feature film for a while.
Was there hope for this movie? Well, I do not think so.
The changing of directors and writers between TFA and TLJ showcased the flaws in this system. A trilogy should be connected and planned if it going to deal with the same conflict over three films. There needs to be at least one constant; one figure with the vision to oversee the project. George Lucas directed and wrote all three prequels, and regardless of their quality, there is undeniably a vision there and the story that wanted to be told was told. Of course, the original trilogy was not so well planned. 1977's A New Hope could be a standalone film and the Vader and Leia reveals were added late into shootings those films. And yes, the originals had three different directors, but George Lucas was always about and wrote the stories for the screenwriters. And that all worked a treat.
But audiences now are used to intricate, interconnected stories because of the might of the Marvel films. Continuity is vital in franchises. So to take cinema's most beloved property and characters and craft a new set of films without a plan in the age of social media and 'everyone's a critic' is utter stupidity. You know you might have mucked up when the prequels, the most hated big budget blockbusters ever at one point, are now treated with a reverence because of how original they are; Revenge of the Sith is just pure imagination and for Star Wars fans, that can trump things like acting and dialogue. Imagination is pivotal, and the lack of Lucas for the Disney batch is painfully obvious: the planets, vehicles and sets just don't seem as rich and fun anymore.
Which brings us into TROS. JJ Abrams was brought back to direct the final film, sandwiching Rian Johnson's 'stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb' middle chapter. One can imagine the meetings that occurred after TLJ's response: do they continue with what Johnson did or try their best to revert back to what Abrams originally set up? The answer is a mix of the two and that is where the problems lie (in fairness, TFA did not help matters when it came to setting up the future: Luke going into exile and not wanting to be found but also leaving a map in R2-D2 and with the old guy on Jakku that we know nothing about?).
In the film's opening crawl we are instantly told that Emperor Palpatine is still alive (unexplained) and has a fleet of Star Destroyers that, with rather small guns, house planet destroying capabilities. No I do not need to know where they came from or who designed them, mainly because the first thirty minutes is so relentless in playing catch-up there isn't time to question anything. Abrams also made a point about how this film sees the new trio of Rey, Finn and Poe together for sustained amounts of time. Great! That would be fun if they actually had established the somewhat convoluted relationships between them all (so Finn we assume really likes Rey, but then there's Rose who likes Finn but she wasn't popular so has been sidelined, Poe and Rey have great chemistry but he likes this other girl from his past and Rey and Kylo have sizzling chemistry and then it looks like Finn and a new Resistance fighter are going to get it on and oh boy this is too much).
Abrams is a director for audiences, able to make quickly paced crowd-pleasers. But his skill does not include metaphors or ambitious camera work; there is a sense that you are going to get a nice long tracking shot but they seem to cut too early and compared to Johnson's blistering cinematography in TLJ, Abrams' films just seem like any other blockbuster. There are two lightsabre fights between Kylo and Rey, one quite original concept that uses their Force connection, and one on the ruins of a Death Star. The latter felt like the big set-piece fight but there is no John Williams score or excitement to the choreography. I was shocked to find myself less than entertained by it all. And the big final space battle: mediocre. There is a grand Return of the King - Avengers Endgame arrival scene, but in comparison to Rogue One or even the last Lando-in the-Falcon space battle it does not feel as exciting. Then there is the barrage of 'TLJ corrections': Rey is important, Leia is somewhat Force trained, Snoke was just a minion of Palpatine, Luke did make a mistake in giving up and Y-wings are the best bombers. I wonder what Rian Johnson thinks.
The film is not without some quality mind you so here are some of the films I did like: Chewbacca getting his medal, Luke being able to lift his X-wing out of the water whilst Yoda's theme plays, Sheev Palpatine saying "do it", the lightsabre switcheroo at the end, the final scene, the Luke and Leia training flashback, Rey's training and C-3PO who is that annoying friend you just can't live without, getting most of the laughs and some of the only memorable lines.
But this is one rushed film, one that doesn't know the best course to run and relies on going along with things rather than questioning them. The best comparison I have for this film is 2017's Justice League. There was a changing of directors, a predecessor with a divided fanbase, and an attempt to fix a lot of the criticisms at the cost of a too-much-too-soon narrative that overwhelms and yet is hard to remember.
It is a travesty to see a series start with promise, with TFA showing that Star Wars was in the hands of people who love it and all it needed was a fresher story. And four years later the charm has fizzled out. You can blame Rian Johnson, or Abrams or Kennedy or Disney, you could even blame the people that hated on George Lucas so much he sold it in the first place. I personally would blame the generational divides that split the fanbase: the people who watched the originals as the kids then hated the prequels, the people who watched the prequels as kids and loved all original six, and the kids that watch these films and hopefully really like them. You cannot please all these groups, and I think the powers that be know this, but at least a coherent, continued story across all three would be a good way to start.
