J.J Abrams returns to finish what he started with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In true finale fashion, this film sees Finn and Rey (John Boyega and Daisy Ridley) and what little remains of the resistance, prepare to fight The First Order and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), one last time.
In terms of cast, 'ensemble' feels a bit of an understatement. On one side (excluding those mentioned above) we have the likes of Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson and Richard E Grant. Then on the other side you have Antony Daniels as C-3PO, Joonas Suotamo taking over Chewbacca, Jimmy Vee as R2-D2 and Billy Dee Williams - and Carrie Fisher, whose presence in the film, despite obvious circumstances, never seems distracting. Let's also not forget the much-anticipated and advertised return of Ian MacDiarmid as Emperor Palatine.
So what do they all bring to this film through their performances? Well, most just seem to settle for what worked before, they're likeable enough and you feel you can root for them. Most of them don't get that much screen time and perhaps their talents are being neglected. But I do think that Ridley and Driver work very well together and demonstrate their capabilities as dramatic actors with great credibility and potential. MacDiarmid, after 14 years of not playing the part, effortlessly falls back into the role. He may just be doing more of the same, but it worked back then, so why shouldn't it work now?
Moving on to the script by Abrams and Chris Terrio, it's everything you would expect from a climactic Star Wars film. There's plenty of action with lightsabre fights, lasers and spaceships, that are all tailored to feel very exciting and crowd-pleasing. But it does have problematic moments that can be found in some of the directions the characters go in, as they feel very sudden and not properly built up. Where the story chooses to pick up with some of these characters could have done with some more explaining, rather than just throwing us into the story with them in some random place with little or no information as to what happened before.
I have very little to say about Dan Mendel's cinematography, except for maybe some of the angles he tries out during any scenes involving flying spaceships, even if they come off as a cheap way to make the scene feel more exciting. A brief note on the effects by Industrial Light and Magic who provide nothing ground-breaking in the special effects but it's still decent work.
It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone to know that the most memorable parts of the score by John Williams are when he plays his most iconic pieces of Star Wars music. It would be easy for me to look down on this and put it down to a lack of inspiration, but in this case I don't think I really expected anything more than what I got.
Moving on to the flaws of the film, there are two that this film cant seem to shake- it's very repetitive and it drags. Even with a two hour and twenty-two minute runtime, and constant action onscreen, the film has quite a number of scenes that go for far too long, and some scenes feel like exact re-treads of scenes from earlier in this film and the two films that preceded it. The dialogue between the characters does change slightly, but what the scene is trying to convey stays the same. We have so many repeats of particular scenes that by the time all is revealed, it's hard to care.
So The Rise Of Skywalker has brought the saga to an end with good if mixed results. There are good performances from Ridley and Driver, lots of action, but questionable directions taken with the characters lack of explanations. But the film is flawed in scenes dragging on for too long and being far too repetitive. This may not be the grand finale to a beloved saga that the world was hoping for, but it's very clear to see that with a little luck, Star Wars can still be saved and have a future.
C+
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