white_hart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
white_hart) wrote2019-12-24 12:33 pm
white_hart) wrote2019-12-24 12:33 pm
Watching: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
We went to yesterday's 4pm showing of The Rise of Skywalker at the Phoenix, Picturehouse Cinemas having thought better of their intial decision not to screen it there in favour of Cats (a decision which only seems more bizarre in the light of how busy it was - as busy as I've ever seen the big cinema except for sold-our live broadcasts, and at least one small child who clearly had to be persuaded to turn their lightsabre off for the duration of the film).
Non-spoilery verdict: entertaining enough (I laughed, I cried, I was gripped by mild tension) but really not a patch on The Last Jedi, though that's hardly surprising given that Rian Johnson, who from everything I see appears to be a genuinely innovative and intelligent filmmaker, was replaced by JJ Abrams (again), whose whole shtick appears to be producing big-budget crowd-pleasing reworkings of SF classics which don't really change or update anything.
Spoilery comments follow...
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Plot-wise, The Rise of Skywalker follows in the tradition of the franchise by stringing together a series of McGuffin-quests in exotic locations across the galaxy with some showy but deeply implausible space battles (riding horses on the wing of a star destroyer? In space? With no spacesuits?). There's a lot of fanservice, with various original trilogy characters reappearing in person or as ghosts (I was actually delighted when Billy Dee Williams popped up as Lando Calrissian, and while I'll always be sorry that Carrie Fisher's death meant Leia's role in the film would necessarily be limited, I appreciated that they did what they could with out-takes from the other films and allowed Leia to play a meaningful role), not to mention the completely gratuitous dancing Ewoks. I liked the message that "they win by making you think you're alone, but you aren't" and the Dunkirk-style arrival of a "not a navy, just people" was a truly affecting moment.
I could definitely have done without "Rey's parents were no-one" being retconned into "Rey's parents were someone but tried to become no-one to save her, and surprise! she's actually Palpatine's granddaughter, because obviously an abandoned child on a backwater planet couldn't just turn out to have amazing Force abilities out of the blue". Actually, I think I could have done without Palpatine still being alive, though as Abrams was clearly aiming to mirror Return of the Jedi in the same way as The Force Awakens mirrors the original Star Wars* he obviously needed an Emperor who was more evil than Kylo Ren so that Ren could have his redemption, just as Vader did.
I hadn't thought for a moment that Abrams would actually follow through on the obvious chemistry between Finn and Poe, so I wasn't too disappointed by their storyline. I did love that Oscar Isaac and John Boyega had clearly decided that they shipped it and were going to play it that way, completely sidelining the shoehorned in female love interests for both characters (an old flame from Poe's past! Another black former Stormtrooper for Finn! Could it be any more obvious? And while it was good to have more named female characters, I was sorry that Rose was given so little to do in this film). More disappointing was the fact that Abrams's promised 'LGBTQ representation' turned out to mean one brief, blink-and-you'd-miss-it kiss between two women. But then, that's mainstream Hollywood for you (and T said he did notice the kiss even though he hadn't been primed to look out for it).
All in all, enjoyable if silly, but it could have been so much more in different hands. And I'm looking forward to Little Women next week.
* I refuse to call it A New Hope, as it was always Star Wars when I was growing up
Non-spoilery verdict: entertaining enough (I laughed, I cried, I was gripped by mild tension) but really not a patch on The Last Jedi, though that's hardly surprising given that Rian Johnson, who from everything I see appears to be a genuinely innovative and intelligent filmmaker, was replaced by JJ Abrams (again), whose whole shtick appears to be producing big-budget crowd-pleasing reworkings of SF classics which don't really change or update anything.
Spoilery comments follow...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Plot-wise, The Rise of Skywalker follows in the tradition of the franchise by stringing together a series of McGuffin-quests in exotic locations across the galaxy with some showy but deeply implausible space battles (riding horses on the wing of a star destroyer? In space? With no spacesuits?). There's a lot of fanservice, with various original trilogy characters reappearing in person or as ghosts (I was actually delighted when Billy Dee Williams popped up as Lando Calrissian, and while I'll always be sorry that Carrie Fisher's death meant Leia's role in the film would necessarily be limited, I appreciated that they did what they could with out-takes from the other films and allowed Leia to play a meaningful role), not to mention the completely gratuitous dancing Ewoks. I liked the message that "they win by making you think you're alone, but you aren't" and the Dunkirk-style arrival of a "not a navy, just people" was a truly affecting moment.
I could definitely have done without "Rey's parents were no-one" being retconned into "Rey's parents were someone but tried to become no-one to save her, and surprise! she's actually Palpatine's granddaughter, because obviously an abandoned child on a backwater planet couldn't just turn out to have amazing Force abilities out of the blue". Actually, I think I could have done without Palpatine still being alive, though as Abrams was clearly aiming to mirror Return of the Jedi in the same way as The Force Awakens mirrors the original Star Wars* he obviously needed an Emperor who was more evil than Kylo Ren so that Ren could have his redemption, just as Vader did.
I hadn't thought for a moment that Abrams would actually follow through on the obvious chemistry between Finn and Poe, so I wasn't too disappointed by their storyline. I did love that Oscar Isaac and John Boyega had clearly decided that they shipped it and were going to play it that way, completely sidelining the shoehorned in female love interests for both characters (an old flame from Poe's past! Another black former Stormtrooper for Finn! Could it be any more obvious? And while it was good to have more named female characters, I was sorry that Rose was given so little to do in this film). More disappointing was the fact that Abrams's promised 'LGBTQ representation' turned out to mean one brief, blink-and-you'd-miss-it kiss between two women. But then, that's mainstream Hollywood for you (and T said he did notice the kiss even though he hadn't been primed to look out for it).
All in all, enjoyable if silly, but it could have been so much more in different hands. And I'm looking forward to Little Women next week.
* I refuse to call it A New Hope, as it was always Star Wars when I was growing up
no subject
https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/22/finn-and-poe-should-the-bromance-have-been-a-romance
I saw it on Saturday and haven't managed a review yet, but I enjoyed it a lot. I'd say that it was very Star Wars, which no doubt reflects Abrams. Personally, I put it about equal with TLJ - I loved the latter, but the structure was a dog's breakfast with significant longeurs, and I didn't feel its interesting ideas were followed through effectively. TROS didn't go for the new ideas, but this also meant it couldn't fail to deliver them! But ultimately I suppose I'm something of a Reylo, and both films did that right for me. (Though, Palpatine's granddaughter? Really. They should at least have hinted in an obvious-in-retrospect way - that's what happens when you don't plan your trilogy main plot from the start.)
no subject
Rey's ancestry was definitely the thing which most made the trilogy feel like a game of Consequences with an astronomical SFX budget. I am not a Reylo shipper at all so spent all of their scenes together rooting for her to tell him to take a running jump!
no subject
a game of Consequences with an astronomical SFX budget
That is an excellent way of putting it. They carried off the bit that then had planned and then couldn't do (Leia) well - just imagine if they had bothered to map out the rest first...
Merry Christmas!
no subject
no subject