Analysis, Commentary, Opinion
12.28.2019
Star Wars
I
saw Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. I
am going to try to tell you how utterly disappointing it was.
Let
me begin with this. We have been told through the media that this is the final
episode in the Skywalker saga, that this is the ninth and final movie focused
on these characters and their story arc; so, why did they name it The Rise of Skywalker. People rise to do
something, they donot rise to fade away.
The
title itself is just another stroke of cognitive dissonance in a three part
series that is replete with it.
Don’t
let anyone try to say that the title has some other meaning, that it isn’t
related to some future action, that it merely summarizes the story and its
conclusion. Don’t believe it, because Rey, the so called last Jedi, takes the
name in the final scene, when she takes up residence in the abandoned moisture
farm that had belonged to Luke’s uncle on the desert planet of Tatooine.
It
is not as if people will not seek her out, she is a Jedi, and she is not going
into hiding as Luke did, she is taking up residence on a planet long associated
with the Skywalker name. Where Anikan was born, where Luke was raised. These
are figures whose names ring out throughout the galaxy. But never mind this,
those stories have yet to be written, rest assured that they will.
This
is just another glaring example of the cognitive dissonance these movies are
steeped in. Remember how in The Last Jedi,
we were shown images of children on far flung worlds in whom the force was
present and active. How is it that Rey would be the last Jedi if that were the
case.
It
is just poor writing.
It
is kind of like the title of the first film in this trilogy, The Force Awakens; had the force been sleeping?
No, the force does not sleep. Obi Wan Kenabi tells us in the original Star Wars
film, A New Hope. The force is permeates
the entire universe and binds all things together, it touches everyone. The
force is not good or bad, light or dark, it is by whom and how it is used that
gives it those characteristics.
What
is so utterly disappointing about the J.J. Abrams vision of Star Wars, is his
utter lack of understanding about what the force is. It is not just the bad
story telling.
Let’s
dwell on the bad story telling for a moment.
The Force Awakens
was merely a retelling of A New Hope, capped
off with the destruction of a new Death Star, only a bigger-badder death machine,
one with the power to destroy stars and not merely planets.
The Last Jedi
was merely a retelling of The Empire Strikes
Back, and though they changed the
order of the plot, it repeated all of the elements, a long chase through space,
a Jedi training camp, a pitched battle with lines drawn up in front of a rebel
stronghold.
In
the most recent bastardization of the original trilogy we are given a remaking
of the great conflict above the Emperor’s throne room, while he attempts to
turn the Jedi Rey into a vessel for his own dark power, only to be destroyed in
the nick of time to save the rebel armada which succeeds at destroying his
massive fleet of super ramped up Star Destroyers, each with their own planet
killing gun, mounted weirdly on the underside of their hulls.
The
writing was terrible. It was replete with nonsensical cameos, storylines that
began from nowhere, and went nowhere. New characters with no back story, old
characters returning with explanation of where they had been how they had been
found what they had been doing.
There
were flying Storm Troopers. There was light-speed-skipping. There was widespread
and diffuse knowledge of Sith lore. Including commands built into C3PO’s
programming that forbid him from translating the Sith language.
There
was the completely unexplained reappearance of the Emperor, stowed away on some
hidden planet for decades, living in some dank and dirty dungeon like workshop
on some uncharted wasteland of planet.
How
did that happen? Where did the tens of thousands of cheering sycophants come
from who filled the theatre where the final conflict with Rey come from? What were
they doing on that secret world? What did they eat? Why did they build a fleet
of hundreds of starships (perhaps thousands) on the surface of the planet?
Where did the crews for that fleet come from? Where did they get their
training? How did they keep it all secret?
None
of that made any sense. It just doesn’t make sense.
Do
you remember how in The Attack of the
Clones, George Lucas took some time to tell the story of how the clone army
came to be. Obi Wan discovered it while he was on an investigation. He learned
how decades earlier a Jedi came to a remote planet in the outer rim whose
inhabitants specialized in cloning, and army building, and they were commissioned
by that Jedi to build a Grand Army of the Republic.
There
a back story, it tied things together, it assisted in the plot development, and
it enriched the broader narrative by providing a backstory for the notorious
bounty hunter Bobba Fett.
The Attack of the Clones
was not a great movie, but at least it did that.
Bad
storytelling and plot holes, and plot theft, poor acting and an overreliance on
special effects is not what makes this movie such an utter disappointment.
What
is so utterly disappointing about Disney’s new Star Wars films under J. J.
Abrams so bad is J. J. Abrams total lack of understanding about what the force
is.
Abram’s
is a moron, and Disney should know better, after all Disney also produced Rogue One, and that film was a
masterpiece, it was completely in tune with the ethos of Star Wars, while the J.
J. Abrams films are totally destructive of it.
J.
J. Abrams seemed to think that the force is all about power, the power to
freeze a bolt of laser fire from a blaster in mid-space, the power to stop a
ship from taking off until it tears itself apart, the power to teleport, the
power to blast a fleet of ships out of the sky, more power, more power, more
power.
J.
J. Abrams concept of the force is a long way from what Obi Wan told Luke in A New Hope, when he said that the light
saber was the weapon of the Jedi, elegant, made for a more civilized time.
Abrams
should understand that the force is subtle, sure there is power in it, but its
real strength comes in the power of self mastery, the power to understand, and
the power to persuade. A Jedi can do amazing things, but it is not their raw
power that makes them amazing, it is their commitment to peace and justice.
Remember
what Yoda said when Luke referred to him as a “great warrior.” Yoda said, “wars
do not make one great.”
You
may argue that while this may be true of the Jedi, it is not necessarily true
of the Sith. You may argue that but you would be wrong. The Sith were also
subtle, just one Lord and one apprentice, ruling from the shadows,
manipulating, controlling.
J.J.
Abrams’ movies were a disaster for the Star Wars franchise, worse than the prequels,
I hope he never gets offered the chance to make another one again.
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