Review: Rise of Skywalker
Dec. 21st, 2019 12:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dramaticironyLike most Star Wars flicks, Rise of Skywalker isn’t a good film. (1)
On the other hand, it is a decent conjuring, in modern form, of the charm of old serials. Appealing protagonists lurch from trouble to trouble, complication to complication, very occasionally pausing for a snatch of dialog or a vague gesture at character development. Then the run time is over, and things are resolved with the pleasure and grace of a Band-Aid being ripped off.
Interpolation of the story beats can reveal vestigial traces of theme. Something along the lines of “When fascists do bad things, people should come together to stop them.” One might object to this as overly simplistic; but current events have shown that even something this basic is beyond the moral capabilities of an unfortunate number of people. But fear not, even if you have the willful blindness and shriveled heart of an editor at the New York Times you can at least coo at the excellent costumes designed for the villains.
If you want a film that subtly uses character, plot and myth to explore oppression and solidarity, attraction and betrayal, go see Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which is easily one of the best films of the year.
But very few people are going to watch a French feminist historical drama, and tons will see Rise of Skywalker. Most of them will probably enjoy the uncomplicated pleasure of freebasing action scenes, even as critics deplore the absence of Last Jedi’s middlebrow affectations.
Rating: C+ execution of a B film
(1) By my reckoning, the original Star Wars, Empire, and about half of Last Jedi are “good”
On the other hand, it is a decent conjuring, in modern form, of the charm of old serials. Appealing protagonists lurch from trouble to trouble, complication to complication, very occasionally pausing for a snatch of dialog or a vague gesture at character development. Then the run time is over, and things are resolved with the pleasure and grace of a Band-Aid being ripped off.
Interpolation of the story beats can reveal vestigial traces of theme. Something along the lines of “When fascists do bad things, people should come together to stop them.” One might object to this as overly simplistic; but current events have shown that even something this basic is beyond the moral capabilities of an unfortunate number of people. But fear not, even if you have the willful blindness and shriveled heart of an editor at the New York Times you can at least coo at the excellent costumes designed for the villains.
If you want a film that subtly uses character, plot and myth to explore oppression and solidarity, attraction and betrayal, go see Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which is easily one of the best films of the year.
But very few people are going to watch a French feminist historical drama, and tons will see Rise of Skywalker. Most of them will probably enjoy the uncomplicated pleasure of freebasing action scenes, even as critics deplore the absence of Last Jedi’s middlebrow affectations.
Rating: C+ execution of a B film
(1) By my reckoning, the original Star Wars, Empire, and about half of Last Jedi are “good”
no subject
Date: 2020-02-15 09:01 am (UTC)What's the half that isn't?
no subject
Date: 2020-02-17 12:15 am (UTC)At I high level what I thought was ineffective:
A long stern chase isn't a great fit for an action movie from a pacing perspective. Martha Wells also notes that it compresses the setting in a way that fights against the nature of space opera. It breaks with the worldbuilding about space travel/battles in Star Wars, which isn't the end of the world, what is worse is that it doesn't seem to have been thought through in its own terms--the Resistance fleet's fuel issues force them into the chase, but it's really unclear why the First Order doesn't jump ships in front of the the people they are pursuing. The Canto Bight plot doesn't bear much scrutiny in it's own terms either.
Some of the dialogue is so stained and clunky you can imagine it being written by George Lucas.
Lucas at least can quickly sketch a character one can understand, but characterization is a real problem in the B plot. The film discarded all sorts of interesting potential in Finn's backstory in favor of repeating a variant of the character development from the last movie. More generally, the only characterization that occured for Finn, Poe and Rose seemed to be the minimum needed to drive them to participate in the film's thesis points. Strong acting *partially* mitigates *some* of the harm in *this* film, but I can't help but feel that we're looking at disconnected cyphers, rather than rounded characters that later filmmakers, people writing comics or novels, or kids playing with actions figures can *do* anything with.
If the film fully landed for you, or anyone else, that's great, I'm happy. But for me it's a case of taking the bad along with the good.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-17 04:38 am (UTC)I haven't seen it, because I haven't seen any of the sequel films, but I was curious because I heard such consistently good things about The Last Jedi. I'm always interested in what does and does not work for different people.