Well, so much for thinking that Joker would be the most
contentious cinematic release of 2019. Sure, the reactions to this one haven’t
been nearly as alarmist, but for a film at the centre of one of the
largest-waged fan wars of the last decade… is it just me or is no-one
vibing with this? People who saw Last Jedi as a healthy direction for the
franchise aren’t happy with it, people who thought Last Jedi was a betrayal of
the series aren’t happy with it, and looking at the critical response, it is
currently the second-worst reviewed entry in the series, only 3% higher than
The Phantom Menace.
Add to that how fucking exhausting the discourse has been
around this entire series, and quite frankly, I was dreading having to watch
this. And in fairness, I can definitely see where its detractors are coming
from… but I can also see why there’s quite a bit to like about it as well.
Let’s get started with the main crux of the criticism: Its
place as a follow-up to The Last Jedi. Now, for as sporadic as the reactions have
been seemingly-non-stop since it came out in 2017, all of the reactions fixated
on how the film treated the larger series. Namely, that it basically served as
a DS9 moment for the franchise, a moment to re-examine what came before and
genuinely question what was worth holding onto. It was a bold move, one that
writer/director Rian Johnson will likely get shit for for the rest of his
working career, and one that this film doesn’t really follow.
It has the same fixed gaze on the franchise’s past, but this
story is far less interested in recontextualising anything or challenging what
anyone believes about the series. While part of me wants to argue about this
decision, basically letting one of the biggest turning points for the series
lie where it is… quite frankly, that just makes this film even more Star Wars.
This isn’t exactly a series well-known for its forethought
and intricate continuity between entries. If it was, Luke and Leia wouldn’t
have had their retroactive incest moment, an official Star Wars guide wouldn’t
have suggested that it was Anakin’s cyborg hand that turned him evil, and
midichlorians wouldn’t have been completely dropped between films. It’s not
meant to be taken that seriously, people, and I would’ve thought that after all
the Fandom Menace shit that’s been going on the last few years, we wouldn’t
need a reminder of that.
Of course, that only goes to explain away the teething
problems in going from the last film to this one. What it doesn’t manage
to excuse is how the bulk of this film really isn’t anything that special. The
Abrams ‘we’re using actual sets’ aesthetic is still intact, but his
storytelling here feels like he’s still in Force Awakens mode, focusing on
set-up and reminding the audience of what made the older films so good. I don’t
know whether this is solely on his shoulders, or on co-writer Chris Terrio
whose work on recent DC features left a lot to be desired, or even on Colin
Trevorrow and Derek Connolly’s original story, but regardless, this turns out
pretty lacklustre.
It lacks the plain-faced iconic grandeur of the previous
films, where every seemingly-minor pit stop on the road to saving the galaxy
was memorable for more than just being part of the build-up to the finale.
Nothing found here carries that same level of engagement, to the point where it
all ultimately feels like the film itself is just waiting for the final act to
kick in. The characters themselves are mostly fine, if underutilised in too
many places (C-3PO’s place in the plot is so lacking in importance, it makes
the trailer more impactful than the final product), but they ultimately turn
into chess pieces on a narrative board, where their movements mean far more
than anything about them as individuals… for the most part.
While I maintain that this film takes its sweet-ass time
getting into gear, it does eventually get there in the final act… and quite
frankly, it made me forget that I even had any grievances with this film’s
connection to The Last Jedi alone. When the heroes finally encounter a reborn
Emperor Palpatine in the flesh (that’s another note on the continuity thing:
His re-entry into the plot is done in the opening text crawl, with all the
grandiosity of reading a Wikipedia article), the film’s place as the finale to
the entire series up to now locks into place.
The space battle reaches a scope never before seen, the
character arcs for Kylo Ren and Rey reach their respective zeniths, and while
what amounts to the final confrontation isn’t the flashiest thing in the world,
it still feels like the culmination of every clash between the Jedi and the
Sith that has come before. And on a spoiler-dodging note, given the series’
history (in particular the ultimate reason why Anakin Skywalker became Darth
Vader in the first place), it hits a thematic note that makes this film’s
inherent want to respect what came before feel like it was worth the ride.
Including the middling two acts that lead into it.
In a year that is likely to go down in the history books as
one of cinema’s most disappointment moments, I was already prepared for it to
be capped off with an absolute crusher on this one. And again, I can totally
see why this has gotten the lukewarm reception it has so far. But as someone
who has always been on the outskirts of the fandom, despite also growing up on
the franchise, and someone who hasn’t needed hindsight to see what parts of the
franchise were unfairly maligned (The prequels really weren’t that bad,
and Revenge Of The Sith is one of the series’ biggest high points), I am
honestly quite happy with what we got here.
As I’ve said in the past, how a film ends factors heavily
into how I receive it, and this film has a finale so goddamn pristine, it
genuinely makes me think that my iffyness with the rest of it was worth dealing
with if it meant seeing that glory for myself. This isn’t so much a surprise as
it is a much-appreciated sigh of relief: After all the shit that’s gone down to
do with the perception of Star Wars in the public consciousness, even before
Abrams got his hands on it, it ended on a good note, one that reinforces the
film’s biggest point about hope in the face of insurmountable odds.
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