Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (tenth-pass)
Cert: 12A / 142 mins / Dir. J.J. Abrams / Trailer Previous reviews:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
So Finn is a Jedi, now. Okay that's not strictly true, Finn is Force-sensitive, now. Or rather he always was, a bit. It's the thing he was trying to tell Rey for the whole of The Rise Of Skywalker. And that's fine. It's great, even. We've known since 1977 that this mysterious essence exists in all living things, indeed it's created by them. And Finn is a living thing. We just know that some beings are more adept at tuning into it. And those beings are typically Jedi, whereas Finn was a conscripted Stormtrooper.
But there's nothing precluding him from having a high midichlorian-count, of course*1. With the best will in the world, Palpatine and Vader wiping out the Jedi over fifty years earlier was never going to prevent new ones from being born. Force powers are inheritable, but mini-Jedi are born to non-Force-sensitive parents all the time. It's why the Jedi Order had a reputation for being child-snatchers, that wouldn't have spread if the only new Jedi were born in the temple, somehow to a largely celibate order.
FLAG
But speaking of abduction, why didn't the First Order flag Finn as one to watch? You'd expect them to have some screening equipment in place for the kids they recruit, at least. Based on the Empire-model, the organisation would either quietly dispose of potential Force-wielders or move them across to the Inquisitor-corps and make use of the bonus abilities. Who needs a bunch of fire-starting five yr-olds running around the place?
Let's not forget that Finn wielded a lightsaber on his character-poster for The Force Awakens, something we assumed at the time was related to him holding his own against Kylo Ren on Ilum (well, for longer than most would be expected to anyway). But Finn's power is demonstrably much lower on the scale than Rey's, and without any formal training. TRoS is the movie, after all, where he sees his friend using the Force for healing and suggestion, not just combat and telekinesis. While he's in awe of Rey's abilities, it's more a quiet reverence and a niggle of familiarity. Now that Finn's aware of the Force tingling within himself, it's growing every day.
BETTY So it's not beyond the realms of plausibility for one of the Sequel Trilogy's new heroes to find himself coming to the Jedi party a little later. But then, the film seems to suggest that newcomer Janna might be Force-sensitive, too. And the entire squadron she deserted with on Kef Bir. Although in my own personal head-canon, I think that where Finn describes the Force to her as "a feeling", Janna's agreement may be closer to "a conscience". Because unless they were a special project put together by the First Order and hadn't begun their Sith-intern training, the implication there is that anyone can be a Jedi.
And while that's charming in the same way as everyone running a race getting their own medal, the knock-on effect of that optimism is that Anakin, Luke and Rey Skywalker aren't particularly special by virtue of their bloodlines or abilities, only their choices (there is a separate post to be written about the importance of choice, though). The whole narrative of The Chosen One is pretty much diluted when anyone could have trained and become powerful enough to take down Vader and the Emperor, they just didn't, or didn't want to.
We can all be heroes without the Force, that's what Han Solo is there to show.
But I'm very cool with Finn being a Jedi-in-training. Much like Rey building her own orange-bladed lightsaber, it's another foundation laid for future adventures, be they on the screen or the page.
And apart from anything else, Broom Boy is going to need a sparring-partner...
The Star Wars.
Obvs.
Obvs.
That one's up for debate, but probably not.
Try me.
Not that I can tell.
Level 0: It is Star Wars.
...but if you wanted to go around the houses with it, The Rise Of Skywalker features Lupita Nyong'o, who starred in Black Panther alongside Forest Whitaker from Taken 3 which had Liam Neeson in it. Neeson was also in The Commuter with Andy Nyman, who starred in 2000's Dead Babies next to Paul Bettany, who was of course in Wimbledon with Jon Favreau, the director and voice-artist behind 2016's The Jungle Book which starred... Lupita Nyong'o.
*1 Hahahaah, oh yes I went there. FIGHT ME. [ 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.
Okay you know the drill, this post is less a cumulative appraisal and more a list of 'notes as we go' through The Rise of Skywalker. Because of this, it features spoilers. Great, whacking, Star Destroyer-sized spoilers. So if you haven't seen the film yet, stop reading now. Apart from anything else, there's no real context for most of them as I assume you've seen the movie, so they won't make sense to you coming to this review blind. But because I'm nice like that, the spoilers don't start until after this bump.
It's also worth pointing out that as sarcastic as I'm about to be, I do love The Rise Of Skywalker and I'm feeling more 'at home' with it on each subsequent viewing. This is playful joshing.
And this is your last chance to turn back...
The Bad Guys
• Right, this galaxy-wide broadcast from the Emperor who's been thought dead for the last 35+ years is quite an important thing, right? Am I meant to have read the lead-in novel to get this? Will we get to hear the broadcast? Surely we would if it's important enough to be the first thing the crawl mentions, right?
• Is this the longest gap between the start of a Star Wars movie and the first line of dialogue? That's quite a bold move.
• Wow, the Knights Of Ren really are the briefest window-dressing in this movie, aren't they? Almost as much as those red-armoured Sith Troopers.
Vader: "So there are only two of the Wayfinders, is that right?"
Emperor: "Yes, and they're totally safe. Don't worry, I'm on it."
Vader: "And can I ask where you keep them?
Emperor: "Well one of them is in a vault behind that door ten feet away from you. I mean it's not out on display but always close at hand so I can grab it if I have to leave here in a hurry for any reason."
Vader: "Ooh, nice touch. And what about the other one?"
Emperor: "I've left it upside down under a garden ornament just out in the open on some planet you've never heard of. Got a couple of lads watching it though so it'll be safe as houses."
Vader: "..."
• Y'know what? If Rian Johnson had brought The Emperor out of absolutely nowhere at the beginning of his movie and had him say "I have been every voice you have ever heard inside your head", toxic-fandom would have been calling him every EXPLETIVE under the sun for it.
The Good Guys
• Wait, the rebels have to fly all the way to a hidden base to transfer a message through a cable? Is the e-mail down? Get onto IT about that, lads.
• In the lightspeed-skipping sequence, are those pipe/towers at Bespin?
• I'm very much enjoying grumpy, sarcastic Poe Dameron in this. Ironically, he's far more likeable than his gee-whiz pirate-lite from the previous two movies.
• Oh, Rey is trying to summon the spirits of deceased Jedi. I wonder if this will come up again later in the film?
Poe: "Somehow, Palpatine survived" Rose: "...do we believe this?" Poe: "I hope so mate, there'll be no further explanation of how, so just take it as read, yeah?"
• So the secret Sith world is Exegol? Not like, say, Moraband or something? Okay, that's fine.
Finn: "Rose, last chance?" Rose: "The general asked me to stay here and literally study schematics of old ships rather than go on an adventure to save the Rebellion like I did earlier. It's almost as if my screen-time has been cut for some reason while retaining my contractually stipulated appearance in the movie." Finn: "Okay, somebody's touchy." Rose: *looks over spectacles*
• Evil space-chimp is running Sith hat repair-shop now. Okay, that's fine.
Pasana
• Guys, stop making desert locales which aren't Tatooine. Or like return to Jedha instead. Please.
• I am loving C-3PO's humour in this movie, he is fantastic.
• Oh, Rey has been asked her surname and she's stuck for an answer. I wonder if this will come up again later in the film?
• Oh, a physical object has been teleported using the Force between Rey and Kylo Ren. I wonder if this will come up again later in the film?
• So wait, Ochi's ship is just "there", parked on a rock? You can just leave stuff out on Pasana and it doesn't get stolen, ransacked or vandalised? You'll be telling me next the ship is working and ready to go.
• Bonus points for six-legged elephant droid in the desert, serving precisely no practical purpose. Lovely stuff.
• The speeder-bikes with massive wheels seemed cumbersome and impractical in the trailer, and here they're shown to be cumbersome and impractical. Fair play.
• Oh, Rey has healed another living creature by transferring life-energy using the Force. I wonder if this will come up again later in the film?
Poe: "Okay, we've only got eight hours left!" Finn: "Are we doing this literal countdown-thing again? Like last time, in the film that everyone complained about? Poe: "Shut up, Derek."
• Okay, I love Joonas Suotamo but why does Chewie look like a guy in a suit for this film? I know Joonas is around the same height as Peter Mayhew, but they're built differently (Joonas is a basketball player, Peter was a hospital porter with bad posture) and they move differently. Peter coached him for TFA and that seems to have been forgotten. It totally looks like there's padding around his middle under the yak-hair. It's very much a guy in a suit. Less of this, please, bit of respect.
• OMG! Chewbacca's dead!! Haha, not really.
Kijimi
• Okay, where is my 3¾" figure of C-3PO wearing a coat, please?
• OMG! C-3PO's going to be lobotomised!! Haha, not really.
• When they're all like 'mate, doesn't R2-D2 back up your memory?', why doesn't Babu Frik just make a backup before he performs the procedure? He's such an expert slicer he's forgotten that making backups is the cornerstone of IT?
• Zori Bliss is great. Which comes as something of a pleasant surprise because I've only ever seen Kerri Russell being absolutely dreadful in stuff before.
• Why is D-O here, though? I get that there's toy-potential, but he doesn't really do a lot, does he? As soon as he starts giving the Rebels information about Exegol, Rey just transmits markers from her X-Wing anyway.
• C-3PO: "Oh, my first laser-battle!". A smashing callback to Attack Of The Clones there, and illustrating the full factory-settings extent of his wipe.
• Speaking of which, the change in mannerisms between the C-3PO who sat down in Babu Frik's chair and the one who got out of it is remarkable. They're both definitely Threepio, but it shows how much Daniels has evolved the characterisation over four decades.
• The split-screen of Rey and Kylo's conversation here is lovely, especially the way the locations intersect and overlap.
• Oh, thank you for the reminder of the teleporting objects through the Force with Vader's helmet. I wonder if this will come up again later in the film?
• Actually, why didn't Kylo just give Vader's helmet to the space-chimp to repair as well?
First real point of order though, when Kylo admits to Rey "I didn't lie, your parents were nobody, they chose to be", that's not Abrams trampling all over Johnson's writing from The Last Jedi. When Kylo made that assertion in the previous film, he was doing so based on information planted by Snoke (indeed Palpatine, as we now know) specifically to disrupt the protagonists' faith. Pretty much every line spoken by Kylo Ren can be attributed to lies, arrogance or being flat-out wrong about the subject at hand. And while I'm happy to put my hands up and say I was incorrect about claiming Rey would turn out to be Han and Leia's daughter (ie Ben's brother), I'll reiterate that I never believed for a second that the 'nobody' hypothesis would turn out to be literally true. Short version of all this: it's not a retcon lads, it's the reveal to the existing buildup*1.
Kylo: "My mother was the daughter of Darth Vader, your father was the son of Palpatine-" Rey: "Yeah I'll be honest, it sort of feels like everybody's turned over two pages at once, there. I'm meant to just accept this with no context, yeah? Who is Palpatine other than some dead guy that everyone frowns about?"
Endor
• Horses on Endor. Okay, they've got tusks, but it's still a fantastic callback to the Battle For Endor movie.
• Love that the Sith-dagger has that Jonesian Staff Of Ra feel, not least since it seems the blade was forged as part of a prophecy of the second Death Star being destroyed. Although much like the staff, it really seems like you have to be in the exact elevation, distance and angle for it to work. Fair play.
• Okay, Chewie said that the Falcon's landing gear was out of action, but why does that mean they have to come to a skidding stop churning up half a field in the process? Couldn't he, like, slow to a stop and then just drop the ship down?
• I know LFL are making the absolute best of the footage they've got with Carrie Fisher, but her exit in this movie makes absolutely no sense. Although given Padmé apparently died of a broken heart...
• OMG! Ben Solo's dead!! Haha, not really.
• So Han is-- ...y'know what? Okay, I'll give you that one. Although as they both admit he's figment of Ben's imagination, obviously this means we're going to see actual Force-spirits of actual former-Jedi later in the film, right?
Ajan Kloss
• That transmission that Finn, Poe, Rose and Beaumont hear, the one Beaumont translates. Is that the transmission mentioned in the crawl? Because they're acting like they're only hearing it for the first time, but they're really not surprised about it. This strand of the plot really needs more time allocated to it.
• Alright Billy Dee, I know you're pleased to be back but you don't have to grin your way through every scene like you're Gina Carano in The Mandalorian.
Ahch-To
• And the second point of order is Luke, here. Let me assure you that when he walks on-screen, makes a wry quip about 'respecting' the weapon of a Jedi and admitting he was wrong about staying on Ahch-To, that's not Abrams reversing Rian Johnson's script, it's him underlining the point. It was clear in The Last Jedi that Luke was wrong. That was the point; he's fallible. The Last Jediis a film about failure. Although obviously (and I know this is not the place to get into this) a lot of people seem to believe that their childhood hero should have precisely the same personality and outlook he did 35 years earlier, as if they themselves have been completely unaffected by what life has thrown at them over three and a half decades. Luke was wrong, and there's no redemption for a fallen hero without sacrifice. Or weren't you paying attention to Return Of The Jedi?
• I notice Luke's spirit is translucent, not solid like Yoda's was. Okay, that's fine.
• Please for the love of God stop CGI'ing young Leia. It looked terrifying in Rogue One and that hasn't changed.
• And that X-Wing is just going to work out of the water like that, yeah? With or without a navigator droid? I mean was the cockpit watertight? Because the padding of the seat and helmet-interior is going to have perished years ago, otherwise. Okay, that's fine.
Ajan Kloss
• C-3PO: "You want to put what in my head? Under no circum-" is the greatest joke in this film. Bravo.
Exegol
• When I first heard that Richard E. Grant was in the new Star Wars film I figured he'd have a couple of lines as an officer in the background, but he's really bloody in this isn't he?
• Two best snatches of dialogue in this movie:
"Jam their speeders."
"...I can't sir"
"Why not?"
"they're not using speeders..." and
"It's not a navy sir, it's just... people" Both showing that the Final Order is every bit as blinkered as the old Empire. Beautiful writing.
Palps: "Kill me and my spirit will pass into you, as all the Sith live in me..." Rey: "Right, wait, is this something that's always happened, or have you just invented this? Explain pls."
• Ben Solo just rocking up in a black sweater to take care of business. Where did he get the working TIE fighter? Can't have been on Endor. Did he call through for it pretending to be still-bad? Never mind, add it to the list of questions.
• Oh look, Rey's force-teleported a weapon to Ben. Well isn't that a thing?
• Although Ben's John Wickian shrug when he gets the lightsaber is the second-greatest joke in this film. Bravo again.
• Hahaha, hi Wedge. I see they brought you back for literally three words. Oh mate.
• Oh look, Rey has managed to communicate with the spirits of deceased Jedi. Well isn't that a thing?
• Although you do realise cinema is a visual medium, right? Just running a load of voices - many of which sound quite similar by the way - maybe not the best way to communicate this breakthrough?
• OMG! Palpatine's dead!! Yeah, really. Apparently. But seriously tell me why he won't just rock up in another movie in ten years' time? He even said himself that he's died before, and I see nothing of permanence here any more than being dropped screaming into an exploding Death Star.
• When Ben is crawling his way across the floor to Rey, is anyone else's brain playing Superheroes from the end of Rocky Horror?
• Oh look, Ben has transferred life-energy to Rey using the Force. Well isn't that a thing?
• So #ReyLois a thing. Okay, that's fine.
• Right, there are a lot of people dying on Exegol, there. It's not just stormtroopers and officers, there's the maintenance and support crews, the cleaners, the caterers, the plumbers - this is like the red jumpsuits and the scissors in Us, where did all this stuff come from? How is this a secret base when hundreds of thousands of people have disappeared here to populate it? I mean they've got to have been brought here because if they've been born and raised on Exegol then where are the schools, the hopspitals, the pubs and the shops? The First Order massed in the Unknown Regions, and now Palpatine's Final Order are massing in a different part of the Unknown Regions. I know they're big but is no one noticing all the shit going missing? Anyway, here they are all dying. That's a bit harsh, mate. Mind you, with two Death Stars and Starkiller Base under their belts, I suppose genocide is pretty much in the Rebellion's HR manual by now.
• And the not-inconsiderable remnants of The First Order are still around in the 'regular' galaxy, right? All that was destroyed here was Palpatine's secret-navy and the officers who'd flown in to command. Back in The Last Jedi, The First Order dudes had pretty much taken over the galaxy, so there were definitely more of them about than the destroyers chasing the Resistance fleet. I mean yeah, any First Order presence is now rudderless, but as it's an organisation seemingly made up of utter sociopaths, it's not going to take too long for some a-hole to rise and fill the vacuum. More fodder for the novels and comics, and that's all good.
Ajan Kloss
• Okay, I am totally here for that kiss between Commander D'Acy and Rebel Pilot Tyce, because a) representation is important especially in smaller, throwaway moments, and b) I know it will infuriate the movie-gammons and I feed on their high blood-pressure like a facetious vampire. Bring that shit on.
• Why do we get that shot of Bespin? Endor and Jakku I understand, but we haven't been to Bespin for years. Unless that was Bespin in the lightspeed skipping earlier?
Maz: "Chewie, this is for you" Chewie: "Oh, while everybody's busy hugging and having their own reunion parties. Getcha. No award-ceremonies is enough for me, thank you."
Tatooine
• So wait, the Lars Homestead is still just "there" on Tatooine and no one else has moved in? No new tenants for an operational moisture farm, or just squatters or anything? The place doesn't get ransacked or vandalised? Okay, that's fine.
• As I mentioned before, this film is great at wrapping up the Sequel Trilogy, but not the OT and certainly not the prequels. Anyone telling you otherwise is doing marketing. This is the close of a trilogy, not the nine-part saga.
• And apart from anything else, Rey burying those sabers like that is a clear sign that we will be back, even if it's with the stable-boy from The Last Jedi. This shit is not over.
• And where does that black-handled saber with the orange blade come from? She just rocks up at the homestead with it clipped to her belt. How much time has lapsed between Exegol and Tatooine?
• Oh look, someone has been asked her surname again. Well isn't that a thing?
Woman: "There's been no one here for so long. Who are you?" Rey: "I'm Rey". Woman: "Rey, who?" Chippy Imperial recruitment officer pops into frame: "Well you're on your own, so... Solo it is! There, I've written it down, it's legal now and that's that."
Rey looks at camera.
Iris-out. Credits.
The Star Wars.
Obvs.
Obvs.
Adam Driver spends the entire third-act without a single line of dialogue; that is magnificent.
Already have once this week...
Okay, I think there's a Wilhelm buried low in the mix coming from Ben when Palpatine blasts him into that pit. But the acoustics weren't great in the auditorium today so it was less clear than my second-pass.
Level 0: It is Star Wars.
...but if you wanted to go around the houses with it, The Rise Of Skywalker stars Naomi Ackie, who was in The End Of The F**king World with Geoff Bell from that RocknRolla, a movie which also featured Thandie Newton who was in 2018's Gringo with David Oyelowo, who had a role in 2009's Small Island alongside Hugh Quarshie, a regular on Holby City at the time in 2011 when Silas Carson was in a bunch of episodes, an actor who appears in 2019's The Corrupted with Naomi Ackie...
*1 Although I would be genuinely amazed if Rian Johnson had "she's Palpatine's granddaughter" scribbled in the margins of his Last Jedi pad. One of my few bugbears about this trilogy is the way the newly-organised Lucasfilm have been winging-it and just hoping everything will turn out for the best, and writing the Saga-films on the hoof is by far the worst offender here. More on that another time... [ 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.
Now, it would be unfair to compare Olivia Wilde's directorial debut Booksmart with the 2008 comedy, Superbad from the off. That said, Booksmart is very much like Superbad from the off, so they started it.
Set in the present, we open on the day before high school graduation, in which best friends Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) realise that in studying hard to pass their exams, they've missed out on a whole lot of fun - not least because many of their contemporaries have been partying all year and have still managed to achieve similarly impressive grades. With this in mind, the pair decide to attend the one end-of-year party that everyone will be at, including their prospective crushes, in a last hurrah before Summer and college-life beckon. But getting to the party will be an adventure in itself, as Molly and Amy discover the wild side of town that's been out every night while they've been studying...
HEROINES Even without our heroines being hormonally charged, socially awkward misfits who attract misfortune as easily as they do ridicule and the party Macguffin lending a sense of foreboding impatience throughout, yeah this is largely Superbad. But given that Greg Mottola's coming-of-age bromance is very much near the top of a crowded pile of teen-comedies (and is now over a decade old, obviously), that's neither an unusual nor a bad thing. Writing the movie around young women rather than young men is a great chance to show that dorkiness and bad decision making are gender-blind, and the audience should be likewise.
However. With Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins and Katie Silberman all on screenplay duty, Booksmart is certainly a crowded and chaotic affair, often suffering the same haphazard focusing problems as any movie with a quartet of authors. As a result, it often feels like Olivia Wilde struggles with the full grip of a script this busy. This feels like it would be a director's second or even third film - that Wilde has produced this straight out of the gate shows her ambition and commitment, if nothing else.
COCAINES Because Booksmart begins pretty much 'on 10', there's no time to really get to know the central characters before we're thrown in at the deep end of their lives. And as we're then finding our way with Molly and Amy, much of the first act seems like white noise as we try to get up to speed.
The script isn't as consistently funny as it would perhaps like to think, although it's frequently charming even when deliberately trying to rub the viewer up the wrong way. There's a constant battle between being an emotionally candid snapshot of teenage turbulence, and not wanting to let go of the gross-out fratboy comedy roots. The film is most enjoyable when it's speaking with its own voice.
HARIBO TANGFASTICS Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever are that voice, their chemistry effortlessly selling the nonsense, bickering, sarcasm and upfront love between best friends of any age. They are very much the Seth and Evan of this piece. Although not to be upstaged, Billie Lourd has a borderline scene-stealing role as Gigi, a psychotic party animal who's to be found around every corner waiting to make things worse. And for my money, the animated sequence in the middle could have gone on for longer. I could feel the audience's nervous confusion in the room, and I loved that.
Booksmart is bigger than the indie-energy which runs through its veins and onto the screen with abrasive camaraderie, but it's nowhere near polished or accessible enough to be a breakout hit with its cinematic release. Hopefully this will find its audience once it hits disc/streaming, but even then it's more likely to be a cult-favourite at Logan Lucky levels, rather than The Big Lebowski.
But hey, some movies aren't built to be taken too seriously, that just happens around them. Go see Booksmart and just enjoy it for the haphazard ride...
It's a bit like Superbad (I think we've covered that), with notes of Clerks and Mid90s.
Eighth Grade wishes it had this film's heartfelt adrenaline.
If you're in the right frame of mind, it is.
It is.
Difficult to say, but it should be at the top of everyone's CV.
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.
This is your spoiler-break. The section at the top of the post which acts as a buffer between the start of the page-code and the bit with the actual spoilers, so that any previews or auto-pulled segments of the review don't present the reader with unwarranted plot-details. After all, the movie's only been out for two days, and if you haven't seen it yet you really shouldn't be here. But this is your last chance, because I'm nice like that.
This post is about Princess Leia, I think I can tell you that much at least. It was always going to be a tricky move releasing The Last Jedi less than a year after Carrie Fisher's untimely passing (that's definitely not a spoiler), not least because Episode VIII is the second-act of a trilogy and not yet the one where Leia was meant to have a pivotal role. After the news came through, Lucasfilm quickly went on-record to confirm that her character wouldn't be digitally recreated as she had been in Rogue One. And not that I suspected they would anyway, it came as a relief as that's one aspect of the Death Star heist which I didn't particularly enjoy.
That's all history, of course. Nonetheless, it's interesting to watch Leia Organa-Solo's character arc in The Last Jedi, knowing that these concerns will have been present in the room throughout the pre-production of IX and post-production of VIII. Speaking of which…
You're still here, smashing. Now, there appear to be many people gleefully moaning about The Last Jedi on social media at the moment. I'm not one of them, and this isn't one of those moans. I love this movie, I love that Carrie Fisher has more to do in it, and I love that Rian Johnson has given her the script and direction she needs to do it well. While the principal photography for TLJ had been completed by last Christmas and the story pretty much 'locked down', there were - no doubt - many long discussions of how Carrie's loss affects not only future projects, but also the one mid-way through production. What's the best way to honour someone who won't be around to watch their final movie? All credit to Lucasfilm that they went for dignity without mawkishness*1, celebrating Leia while celebrating the galaxy she's been instrumental in saving.
But what the hell is going on with Super Space Flying Leia™?
There. I said it.
I don't imagine I was alone in expecting Leia to meet her in-universe end during the running time of The Last Jedi. So when the bridge of the Resistance cruiser Raddus was targeted by Kylo Ren's support-pilots, shattering the viewport and pulling everything out into space before the blast-doors kicked in, I also don't imagine I was alone in watching Leia looking just off-camera as a huge fireball engulfed the room and thinking 'so this is it'. Not a particularly peaceful exit, but in times of war you can't really have people going down with tetanus from an infected paper-cut. Even the general herself acknowledges here that things get blown up. So if you are going to write (or retool) an exit for a character for practical, IRL reasons - getting pulled out into the airless void during a space battle is a solid enough way to do it.
Except dear reader, as you know*2, that's not the end. Moments later, we cut to the exterior and find a largely intact general floating gently away from the Raddus, the physical signs of explosive trauma as scarce as emergency breathing equipment. And as she gradually regains consciousness, Leia opens her frostbitten eyes, sets her sights on the shellshocked crewmembers through the other side of an impromptu airlock, and summons enough Force-power to move through the zero-gravity towards them; all the while gesturing like Superman's cool mum. Leia is rescued and put into recovery on the stricken starship.
Now, leaving aside the impracticalities of surviving in hard-vacuum (it's not completely impossible), leaving aside Leia's Jedi powers previously only being shown as needing a bit of a sit down when Han was turned into a smuggler-kebab (and she's in zero-g so relatively little active telekinesis would be required), leaving aside that the momentum of exiting the ship and subsequent lack of gravity would have her quickly belting off into infinity, and leaving aside the fact that opening the blast-door to get her back onboard would rip everything in that corridor back outside with Leia, what is the purpose of that scene?
I know the overall narrative reason is to strip the command-structure to its absolute core and incapacitate Leia so that Vice Admiral Holdo can hold the reins for the second-act, but this pseudo-resurrection comes off as overblown and frankly unbelievable (I know Star Wars isn't a documentary, don't @ me). Even if she'd been rescued from space by a crew-member quickly donning a vac-suit, I could have bought it. Or if she'd been tethered to the bridge by a cable not quite snapped in the blast, or a protruding beam crossing Leia's path and barring her exit. Or by a flock of porgs which happened to be passing. Any of those. Instead we get 'I'm basically invincible so think very carefully now about how you're going to explain my absence on the set of the next film'.
Of course, the explosion is an early point in the movie for writing out a central character*3, and it seems evident that Leia was never supposed to die at that juncture. So how about having her (in a highly injured state after the explosion, say) volunteer to stay behind on the Raddus while everyone else flees to safety? Nope, Holdo's got that. That's leaving aside, of course, the fact that Holdo says someone's got to 'stay behind to pilot the ship', yet the only piloting she actually does in the on-the-fly kamikaze mission once the troop-transports have been rumbled - something she can't have banked on beforehand.
Instead, Leia survives to the end-credits. That's fine, the new Rebellion needs an anchor of wisdom, determination and experience. And I'm never going to complain about seeing more of a character I love per se, but it seems intentionally problematic. Because now the only options are to assemble some b-roll footage and subtle CGI/double work to write the character out in the opening act of Episode IX, or worse - to kill off the princess between movies. I'm not sure which I prefer less.
As much as I'm troubled by the decision-making behind all this, what I'm really bothered about is that ridiculous shot*4 of Frosty-Faced Pointy-Fingered Super Space Leia™. There are enough parallels to be drawn with Guardians Of The Galaxy as it stands with the film's humour, never mind throwing in 'space? pah!' comparisons. If our heroes' lives are shown to be unbelievable, how are we supposed to accept their inevitable deaths? It's bad enough that we lost Carrie, don't make things more painful with Leia…
But the good news is that after watching the movie three times, I love pretty much everything else about it. Well, I might have some thoughts on Canto Bight, but we can save those for another time, yeah?
The Star Wars.
Yes.
Yes.
It's strong.
It's very strong.
That all depends on how wrong you are.
There is.
Level 0: It is Star Wars.
*1 I'm looking at you, 'that clearly too-long shot of Robin Williams in Night At The Museum 3 which the editors hoped would come off as a serendipitous tribute but is obviously a moment when the cameras had been left running and someone then made the decision to shoehorn it into the final print'… [ BACK ]
*2 I mean I assume you know. If you're reading this and you haven't seen the film - after everything I said up there about spoilers - then there really is no hope for you. [ BACK ]
*3 Sorry Admiral Ackbar, they got no love for you, mate… [ BACK ]
*4 Which looks CGI'd judging by the difference in and around Leia's eyes. And while I have no problem with CGI itself, they've already insulted the last ambassador of Alderaan with the final scene of Rogue One, and animating this segment in The Last Jedi would suggest they've done the whole thing posthumously. Which is even more questionable. [ 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.
So Finn is a Jedi, now. Okay that's not strictly true, Finn is Force-sensitive, now. Or rather he always was, a bit. It's the thing he was trying to tell Rey for the whole of The Rise Of Skywalker. And that's fine. It's great, even. We've known since 1977 that this mysterious essence exists in all living things, indeed it's created by them. And Finn is a living thing. We just know that some beings are more adept at tuning into it. And those beings are typically Jedi, whereas Finn was a conscripted Stormtrooper.
