Review: Star Wars - The Rise Of Skywalker (fifth-pass)

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (fifth-pass / 3D / SPOILERS)
Cert: 12A / 142 mins / Dir. J.J. Abrams / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

This is your spoiler-break. Courtesy rather than necessity at this late point in the year, but as anyone who's shared a cinema with me will attest, I aim to be unfailingly polite. Unless the BBFC-card has passed but the end-credits haven't yet started, and the glow of a phone lights up someone's face when they should be watching the movie in which case I'm fairly sure it's legally permissible to snatch the offending rectangle out of their hand, quickly zip out of the auditorium and drop it in one of the toilets nearby before returning to the film, punching the owner right in the corridor if challenged*¹.

And with that delightful image settling over your consciousness, it's my duty to inform you (and not as forcefully as you're doubtlessly imagining) that the following article features plot-spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker. And really big ones this time, as befitting the flow of the story itself. If you haven't seen the film yet, leave the rest of this until you have. Do watch it though, it's quite remarkable. Although you'll probably need to give it a couple of passes to get the most out. As previously noted.

But I digress...

So. When was Emperor Palpatine slotted into the puzzle of the Sequel Trilogy?

At what point did JJ Abrams, Rian Johnson or Kathleen Kennedy come up with the idea that The Emperor should make a comeback? Was this always the plan? Because watching The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi immediately before The Rise Of Skywalker, it really doesn't feel like it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm cool with Palpatine rearing his head once again, albeit surprised that it happened so early in the film and with so little build-up. But along with Starkiller Base from TFA, wheeling him back out of the cupboard as the ultimate weapon feels more like content-recycling than putting a new spin on an old feature, something you'd imagine Abrams would want to steer clear of at this point. While there was admittedly some disquiet over the direction of events in TLJ, no one was seriously clamouring for Darth Sidious to come back and restore order for the close of the trilogy.

Indeed, the whole subject of The Sith has been politely not mentioned until now. Mutterings persisted from 2015 that Supreme Leader Snoke could in fact be Sidious' old master, Darth Plagueis, having laid low for decades with his apprentice under the impression he'd been successful in his usurpation of the 'Master' role. With the game only beginning, Lucasfilm played that card close to their chests. But by the 2017, the official Visual Dictionary for The Last Jedi by Pablo Hidalgo (in conjunction with the LFL Story Group) seemed to draw some sort of line under things by stating that Snoke was categorically not a Sith.

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Visual Dictionary', 2017 DK Publishing.

And of course technically, that hasn't changed with The Rise Of Skywalker. Snoke wasn't really a Sith. But for obvious reasons, the Visual Dictionary from two years ago didn't tell us that he's a genetically engineered meat-puppet on remote control to the somehow-resurrected Palpatine. And the more I think about it, the most obvious of those obvious reasons is that two years ago this wasn't the case. Just like Rey's true lineage, there are no seeds planted in the preceding episodes to suggest this reveal was coming down the track.

As much as I love the Star Wars films, old and new (in case you hadn't noticed), The Emperor's return serves to highlight one of the more pressing weaknesses with the Sequel Trilogy. That Lucasfilm have made it up as they went along. Although George Lucas variously stated that Star Wars was going to be twelve, nine or six movies (depending on which interview you read), he at least had a clear vision in his head/notepad at the time of beginning each trilogy. Even then, there are exceptions of course. Vader never 'became' Luke's father until The Empire Strikes Back script was in development, likewise the sibling relationship between Luke and Leia is unlikely to have been committed to paper at the time of Empire being made. But the core story - its ups, downs and turns - was in George's mind all along. And when those massive ret-cons do come along, shining a new light on previously-told events, they're that most precious of revelation: one which the audience wouldn't reasonably have guessed beforehand, but which in retrospect couldn't have played out any other way.

Palpatine's return at least scores half of this with ease. Over the past four years, both casual and hardcore audiences alike were not expecting to see the face of Ian McDiarmid back in the Galaxy Far, Far Away, at least not in such a central, prominent role. As for the pre-destiny of this, though? Well not quite. The Sequel Trilogy's third-act could easily have taken other paths toward the redemption of Ben Solo (because that was inevitable). Rian Johnson taught us to take our hands off the Star Wars rule book, to expect the unexpected.

So it should probably come as no surprise that the unexpected happened. Emperor Palpatine returned from the dark netherworld, seemingly as a lesson to us all that peace and balance are impermanent; a prize to be nurtured and cherished rather than attained then stuck on a shelf to show off. Or at least that's the lesson I'm going to take from it. And not a bad one as we close out this troublesome decade.

And in the end, it works. Because the resurgence feels tonally valid, because of the obvious vacuum left in Snoke's passing, and because the majority of the audience has already bought-in to whatever Mr Abrams has to offer*². Time will tell how smoothly this conclusion is received, as well as if this conclusion turns out not to be a conclusion after all - do not be surprised about this potential eventuality*³.

But hey, always in motion is the future...

The Star Wars.



Obvs.



Obvs.



Some possibly, not all.



That's possible.



There isn't.
Unless you've heard one.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.

...but if you wanted to go around the houses with it, The Rise Of Skywalker stars John Boyega, who was in 2013's Half Of A Yellow Sun with Thandie Newton, who was in Run Fatboy Run alongside Simon Pegg, who appeared in Ready Player One with Ben Mendelsohn, who rocked up in Darkest Hour as did Pip Torrens from Patrick Melrose, which also starred Harriet Walter who guested in the 'Survivor's Guilt' episode of Law & Order UK along with... John Boyega.





*¹ No wait, not legally permissible. What's that other thing which is like legally perm-... morally sound, that's right. Put your phone on flight-mode before the BBFC-card and don't look at it again until the end. Waiting for an important text or call? Wait at home. Bored during the film? Go home. 'Morally sound'. That's it. Not 'legal'. Probably. I always get those two mixed up. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² Because the people who disliked the left-field character turns of The Last Jedi were more into the retro callbacks of The Force Awakens, and the vast majority people who loved Rian Johnson's movie also appreciated the nostalgia of its more cinematically-safe forebear. Put bluntly, it's a small crossover of people in the Venn Diagram who'd still be going to see The Rise Of Skywalker, but would then complain going "No, we didn't want you to bring that much of the Original Trilogy back! We want things to feel the same without being actually the same, but still being the same please...". ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ Because as anyone who's been watching the studio's output knows, Disney really don't like putting numbers at the end of film titles. "Star Wars Episode 9" encourages franchise-fatigue and instantly excludes the casual viewer who knows they haven't yet caught up with 1-8. "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" on the other hand is more likely to attract impulse-viewers and casual cinemagoers. With The Rise Of Skywalker however, Disney can use the "IX" to create a sense of occasion, also lulling people into believing they're going to be present for the 'final' Star Wars movie. Y'know, as if the House Of Mouse paid $4bn for the name just to shunt everything over to TV within half a decade. There will be more Star Wars movies, and soon. It's just that the publicity-machine is no longer constrained by that section of the timeline (even if Rogue One, Solo and The Mandalorian suggest they're terrified to leave it). ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Star Wars - The Last Jedi (eleventh-pass)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (eleventh-pass / 2D)
Cert: 12A / 149 mins / Dir. Rian Johnson / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10


Ah, what more can be said about the Star Wars movie on which everybody has An Opinion? Taking as read the fact that I obviously love it (hence the above string of links) and you, dear reader, probably don't detest it all that much since you're reading a review of the movie two years after its debut, it's worth nothing that The Last Jedi is still an oddity coming as it does in the middle of a trilogy.

NORMAL

There are elements of Rian Johnson's movie which would, under the normal run of things, be introduced in the first of three films. This features slow-motion sequences, both in the battle above D'Qar and later in Skoke's throne room. Lucas' approach was closer to documentary-style filmmaking, so that stylistic emphasis wasn't employed. And then the flashbacks. Not the wavy-Force-vision of Anakin Skywalker's nightmares, or even the Force-assisted hallucination of Rey touching the lightsaber under Maz's castle. We get actual flashbacks here from both Luke and Kylo, as they recount their differing versions of Luke's downfall (and what's best is that since these differ so crucially, we know we still haven't seen a definitive, impersonal rendition of that night).

Speaking of The Force, Yoda is solid now. The Force is developing. Or rather, characters' ability to use it. Yoda still has the blue glow around him, but he blocks out the fire as he's silhouetted against it, something that visible Force spirits haven't done until now. This is indicative that the little green fella has not been idle in his downtime, and has advance 'coming back' to the point where the user has physical agency, presumably a technique he goes on to teach Luke after Rey has left to join her friends, enabling his Force-projection for the finale.

Speaking of the finale, Luke dies in this movie. No problem with that at all, obviously, but in the past the wizard/mentor archetype meets the protagonist in the first chapter, introduces them to the Force, then dies by the end. It's Ben Kenobi in A New Hope, Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace. It's that step in The Hero's Journey where they're on their own, the teacher having passed on all they can. It's that first step into a larger world, as somebody once said. All of these concepts usually occur in the first part of a Star Wars trilogy, here they turn up in the second.

HOOVER

But then...

Not only does Supreme Leader Snoke not survive until the end of the trilogy, he doesn't even make it to the end of this part. We know now that's because his place is taken by Palpatine for the closer, of course, but it's a bold narrative move to take him out so early in the game, yet still have that sequence mean something. This is usually the kind of fight which would occur at the final crescendo, intercut with ground and space battles.

The film's title, 'The Last Jedi' has an air of confrontation, a level of finality which seems more fitting for the conclusion of a three-act story. That's carried over into the film's marketing; whereas the The Force Awakens resurrected the classic yellow-on-black for the logo and publicity material, here it's rendered in a stark, urgent red. While it makes sense to switch up the colours when releasing chapters of the same story in such a close timespan, the usual method would be to use blue for Episode VIII (as they ended up doing for The Rise Of Skywalker), and saving the red for last. Alas not.

And then there's the sign-off. The group-shot on the Falcon is the natural ending point for a Star Wars film. Instead we jump back to the stables on Canto Bight, a callback to the youngsters we met there earlier. And while that final shot brings a tear to my eye every damned time, the whole thing feels like a post-credits stinger that had to be incorporated into the movie because Star Wars Doesn't Do Those. The scene's motif of hope for the future, so evocative of Luke Skywalker watching the binary sunset as a young man, is the kind of Easter egg you'd drop at the close of a trilogy. Or even the close of three trilogies. Instead it appears here. We'll almost certainly see those kids again, but will it be in The Rise Of Skywalker? Well, I'll be able to answer that in a few hours...

I'm a big, big fan of The Last Jedi. Not in spite of its differences from the rest of the Star Wars cinematic saga, but because of them.

This is both the salt-flat and promontory rock-seat that I will die on.

The Star Warses
Or not The Star Warses, depending on who you talk to.



If you can, yes.



It is.



For a few of them, it just may be.



That's possible.
Already happened once this month.



There is.



Level 0: This is Star Wars







DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Long Shot

Long Shot
Cert: 15 / 125 mins / Dir. Jonathan Levine / Trailer



If anything, I find it surprising that a politically-framed film so intent on recycling its joke about focus-grouping appears to have landed in cinemas without undergoing any test screenings itself. Or perhaps it did and what we saw tonight was a last-ditch attempt to fashion a hybrid which satisfies everyone before sacking the whole thing off and going to the pub, deadlines-be-damned. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

The phrase "all over the place" has become an easy go-to in recent times, round this parish as surely as any other. It can feel overused, in lieu of deconstructing the internal combative forces jostling for position within a movie, and when further analysis seems futile or overwhelming. But occasionally a title really steps up to the bar to claim full and rightful ownership of that sobriquet.

Long Shot really is all over the fucking place.

SECRETARY

So, Charlize Theron plays Charlotte Field, Secretary of State for the US government, ridiculously capable in her job but finding it increasingly difficult in a world which won't take female politicians seriously - especially if they're attractive. As she runs for President, this becomes a major problem. Seth Rogen plays Fred Flarsky, a recently-resigned investigative journalist who writes great copy, but has no social filters. The former used to babysit for the latter when they were younger. Work throws them together, a faltering, odd couple romance blossoms, the powers-that-be disapprove, politics gets in the way, some things explode, there's some crying, and Seth's character is shown jerking off into his own beard. Yeah, they didn't put that in the trailer.

Which leads us to the crux of the problem. That trailer isn't sure what kind of film it's trying to sell. A sassy romantic comedy? A political satire? A light action-movie? Who knows. It's reflective of the finished movie at any rate. It spins far too many plates in a bid to show how clever it is, coming off as an unfocused mess as a result. At its core, this is a comedy - and there are plenty of laugh-out-loud funny moments in there. They just feel like sketches which were assembled after the fact.

The political element is particularly worrisome. While Field's denomination is never openly addressed, the sitting President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk) is depicted as a terminally stupid TV star who's fumbled his way into the top job and is now bored half way through his first term and is looking to make the shift into movies. He's manipulated at every turn by the white-haired right-wing media mogul Parker Wembley (Andy Serkis), the owner of newspapers and TV channels who enjoys a direct line to the Oval Office and wants to keep things that way.

In terms of satire, Long Shot isn't so much delivered with a scalpel as a cricket bat.

CRASH

Seth Rogen is great, although Seth Rogen very usually is. Anyone likely to struggle with that aspect shouldn't bother at all, frankly. His bewildered everyman persona (if 'every man' just wants to get wasted and forget about how complicated the world is) is a constant thread throughout the haphazard fabric of the film. Similarly, Theron gives it her very best as the straight-man archetype to Rogen's clown. Viewers of Arrested Development already know Charlize has a natural talent for deadpan humour, and she displays it with perfection here. But that comedic performance requires building a wall between the character and the audience, a separate aloofness, a barrier to sympathy. And that becomes a bit of a problem when the character turns into a slightly repressed one-note gag.

And so we limp along as screenwriters Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah frantically try to find an appropriate gear, one step away from going full SNL, the early-90s nostalgia employing two full scenes soundtracked by the same Roxette song - as if overtly referencing a classic movie is the same as writing one. By the time we get to the third act, Long Shot actually has the audacity to lecture its audience on open political dialoguing and the crossing of social barriers. Almost as if it forgets that up until five minutes earlier it was quite content being a Liberal Hollywood™ wank-fantasy. Literally. All that's left is realisation, a heartfelt stick-it-to-the-man speech (complete with an actual mic-drop, naturally) and the race-across-town for this to be every piece of shit rom-com from the last thirty years.

The film has long since stopped trying and doesn't care when you noticed.

KEYS TO TULSA

Twenty years ago, Long Shot would have starred Adam Sandler and been absolutely dreadful. Going back ten, Jason Segel would have landed the role in a production which felt horribly misguided. The weird thing is, the Seth Rogen version of this film is probably the best that can be made. And it's still not good enough. It wants to be Forgetting Sarah Marshall meets Vice, but has the insight and commitment of neither.

Long Shot is so busy trying to be all things to all audiences in a desperate play for relevance that nobody involved seems to have realised there's no actual message at the core of it all. How very 2019.

Do you remember how scattershot and unfocused Gringo was? Well, that..



It is not.



Stream it, but if you give up after half an hour I'll completely understand.



For the cast? Fuck no.
For director Jonathan Levine? Still fucking no.

That said, Boyz II Men cameo as themselves here, which will leave you wishing for the hardest first-act nuclear strike since UB40 rocked up in Speed 2…



I'd say that's likely.



I thought there was at one point, but let's go with no.



Level 1: Supreme Leader Snoke is in this. Technically, Mace Windu is as well, briefly.







DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Black Panther (second-pass)

Black Panther (second-pass / 2D / SPOILERS)
Cert: 12A / 134 mins / Dir. Ryan Coogler / Trailer



Perhaps only I could spend half a review wringing my hands about trying to be A Good Liberal™, while at the same time taking seven weeks to re-watch the most culturally-significant Marvel Cinematic Universe film to date. And it only stands out because I'll usually give these movies a second-pass in a week of them being released. But no, I'd spent the time between mid-February and the end of March looking at the listings and saying 'oh good, it's still on next week - I'll catch it then'. What can I tell you? I've had a lot of absolute filler to see in the meanwhile.

But on the plus-side, I've also had plenty of time to let my initial viewing of Ryan Coogler's Black Panther bed-in. And the good news is that the film is every bit as grin-inducing and awe-inspiring as it was the first time. Perfectly cast and brilliantly directed, what stands out is how effortless everyone makes this look (more often than not, the sign of gargantuan amounts of effort). More politically complex than other MCU entries both on-screen and off, some films in the series seem to fade slightly as they're superseded and sequelled; not so much ageing badly but becoming almost quaint in comparison with newer fare. But like Captain America's first outing, this could be could be one of the movies which gets better with each viewing.

But what I, personally, enjoyed the most about Black Panther is that it features the best and most brazen homage to The Phantom Menace you'll see this year (and quite possibly, ever).

To wit…

i. A Prelude To War...

Knowing a decisive battle is imminent and that they're outnumbered, our rag-tag heroic group goes to see the gruff, disinterested leader of an isolationist clan to ask for vital help in repelling an invading force. The leader doesn't want to get involved in what he sees as 'external' politics, but is eventually swayed by realising that co-operation is the key to larger victory.*¹.




ii. Death Of The Mentor…

A convention of The Hero's Journey, our protagonist sees their elder and mentor - the last connection with the status of being a student - struck down before them, by a foe they too will have to face. It's at this point that the hero has to branch out on their own, only able to rely on what they've learned, and develop it for the fight ahead.




iii. On The Ground…

The finale begins. Out on the grassy plains, tensions erupt in a clash featuring a mix of melee weapons and energy-shields. culminating in a moment where the aggressors suddenly and unanimously cease their attack.




iv. In The Air…

Meanwhile, a slightly meek and surprisingly-gifted pilot, proves his worth in an impromptu mission that sees him taking out enemy fighters (and in a craft which was previously unknown to him) and landing that one crucial shot, just in the nick of time.




v. …and Blade-to-Blade

The climactic duel between the hero and antagonist takes place away from the ground and air battles, in an underground industrial complex where the combatants get separated mid-fight by an intermittent energy shield.

The Phantom Menace is great.
I know it, Ryan Coogler knows it*².

…whose side do you want to be on?

The Marvel films.



Well, tonight's crowd thought so.
Seven weeks into its run, and with Ready Player One, Tomb Raider and Pacific Rim: Uprising playing in the same building, and Black Panther was still packed out.



At the soonest opportunity, yes.



Maybe best so far, but you know everyone involved is on an upward trajectory here.



No, because you're going to think it's great as well.



I'm not hearing one.
*sad-face*.



Level 1: What, apart from the film featuring Maz Kanata, Saw Gerrera, Supreme Leader Snoke and having an hour-long Phantom Menace tribute?
Well okay, the as-yet-unnamed Rebel pilot (Mr. 'God speed, Rebels!') of the doomed medical frigate 'Anodyne' from out of The Last Jedi is in this.






*¹ Although to be fair, while TPM's Padmé convinces Boss Nass to help on-the-spot, Nakia and Ramonda's plea to M'Baku is met with continued petulant neutrality. When M'Baku and his army do appear at a crucial moment during the ground-assault, that's closer in tone to Han Solo's return in the battle of Yavin from A New Hope. ^{[ BACK ]}


*² By this point, some of you may be thinking "oh, so if it's a film you happen to love then it's 'an homage', but if it's a film you think is rubbish then it's 'a shameless rip-off'?'". Yes. Yes, that's almost exactly how that works. Thank you for noticing. ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.