Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker. This one is going to cause some debate.

It’s difficult to explain the intangible love for Star Wars for the non-believer or, God forbid, the uninitiated. How we can watch the prequels whilst mocking every line, laugh deliriously over mocking memes and point out the shoddy scripting and those student-like screen wipes.

It’s the only franchise that, to many, gets an absolute free pass due to the sheer joy it provokes. It goes beyond nostalgia; everything about Star Wars instils that fizzy feeling in the true fan, just talking about it gets us excited. Sure, it’s a love borne from childhood, but that grows stronger with time. We truly, deeply love it (there’s a prequel line for the haters.)

The new trilogy has only served to prolong this love affair. We all love the prequels but The Force Awakens was (GASP) an actual, proper, capital F Film; a carefully curated, created and constructed piece of brilliance. Then The Last Jedi went further, bolder, throwing some of our long-held rules out of the window. It was brave but fitting.

The two films are not without their fair share of backlash though, rightly or (definitely) wrongly, and The Rise Of Skywalker is JJ Abrams' attempt to round the trilogy off in a way that can be all things to all people.

It, like its predecessors, is an awe-inspiring spectacle but it’s also (whisper it) a little safe.

Abrams effectively wipes The Last Jedi from the map as he resolves all of the story beats he himself dropped into The Force Awakens whilst quite literally ignoring or glossing over everything Rian Johnson dropped into its sequel.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. We get the ending that this series has earned and, quite frankly, deserves. Most of the arcs are handled brilliantly. Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver have been the carriers of this series and top their already brilliant work as Rey and Ren here, Abrams wisely making their journeys the centrepiece of the film and each is perfect.

He handles the tragic passing of Carrie Fisher with dignity and grace giving Leia, and Luke, Han, Chewbacca and Lando, a final tip of the cap. He ramps up Poe and Finn’s characters suitably as well, making both the vocal leaders of the Resistance. Both get a lot of screen time without quite actually developing character but they’re eminently fun to watch as a double act.

He does try and be a little too deferent to those haters though: reintroducing the Knights of Ren to absolutely no effect, shoving Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico completely to the side (allowing her to explain her absence coming across as a little brazen) and dropping a couple of bizarre nods to Snoke without the actual substance to explain just who or what the original Big Bad was.

Certainly not going to drop any spoilers but the film does lack a truly ‘wow’ moment. There are some suitable twists (all appropriate) but they’re quite heavily hinted at early on and the return of Palpatine was too easily given away in the trailer. Ian McDiarmid is actually fantastic here though, hamming it up once again as the Emperor, dropping the inconsistencies that blighted the prequels and sticking with pure menace and pantomime villainy.

Everything else is absolutely tick box Star Wars brilliance: some cracking space battles, brilliant new characters and some of the best lightsaber work of the whole saga.

It’s the Endgame, and Harry Potter-aping, ending we deserve and gives a final flourish to what has been a jaw-droppingly brilliant few years for Star Wars as a whole. I, personally, adore this new trilogy and will share and treasure it alongside the originals and prequels for evermore but feel everything written above must be acknowledged and discussed when critiquing this particular film.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll get goosebumps. Your inner child will have butterflies of delight, your sceptical adult-self will be satisfied.

Sadly, though, The Rise Of Skywalker can’t wrestle the crown from The Force Awakens.

Bring on those comments…

4 stars ****