Well it's finally over. Disney's misguided attempt to continue George Lucas' saga has come to a close. I didn't see this movie in theaters (hence my late review) but my younger siblings finally convinced me to check it out. I was fully expecting this to be the worst
Star Wars movie, but nothing could have prepared me for how baffling bad this was. The amount of incomprehensibly bad decisions that went into the writing filming and editing of this movies staggers the imagination.
The plot, if it can even be called that, is the stuff of juvenile fan fiction and, at times, borders on parody. The Emperor has returned from the dead (with no explanation whatsoever) and takes over the First Order (which he renames the Final Order) seemingly without any resistance from their current leadership. He has somehow amassed a fleet of star destroyers so vast that the frame cannot contain them all. One might think that our intrepid heroes would be hard pressed to counter this threat, but no, they're own powers have been inexplicably expanded to a degree heretofore unimagined.
The force projection introduced in the previous installment can now be used by any force user at any time, and physical objects can be exchanged through this medium. What's more, Rey, who is now strong enough in the force to bring down an escaping starship, has discovered how to heal wounds using the force, a skill that Kylo Ren learns almost instantly. We also learn that the two former enemies are a dyad in the Force (whatever that means). Finally it is now definitively confirmed that force ghosts can interact with the physical world, though when and why they choose to do this seems rather random.
As for the giant fleet, the star destroyers rely on a navigation tower to guide them because "they can't tell which way is up". Taking out his tower proves more difficult then anticipated but, not to worry, Lando Calrisian arrives in the nick of time with a fleet of patriots from throughout the galaxy, one of similarly comic proportions. Since ships can now be tracked through lightspeed, the film also features a chase scene where the Falcon is chased through hyperspace by two tie-fighters (how short range fighters now have light-speed is not explained).
As for the characters, this film sees them going through the motions once again. Rey longs to discover her true lineage, only to find (again) that it's not her ancestry that determines who she is. Kylo Ren continues to be conflicted, only to turn back to the light on a whim in the third act. Finn is wasted on a side plot and gets no real character development. We also learn that Poe Dameron was a spice runner and we meet his old flame, Zorii Bliss. The original characters show up for their pay check and are regulated to glorified cameos. At this point, with two of the characters and one of the actors dead, it is too late for any meaningful reunion to take place.
It doesn't help that, oftentimes, the film is edited more like a trailer then a piece of cinema. It opens with a slow-motion action scenes and moves along at a frantic, erratic pace that I, at least, could barely keep up with. The film rarely spends more then five minutes on one location before shuttling our heroes off to the next set piece. Even John Williams score seems lost amid all the frenetic action. It's a mind-numbing experience.
The original movies and the prequels both have their die-hard fans, most of whom saw the films as young kids and who grew up with each respective trilogy. It's difficult to imagine what it would be like for a young child to grow up with this "trilogy" without having seen the earlier films. Would they be able to follow the plot at all? I find it rather strange that, while Lucasfilm has forged ahead with the intention of focusing on the new characters, these films have relied so heavily on the audience connection the the older movies. At the same time there is almost no reverence for, or meaningful connection to, Lucas' movies.
When he made
Star Wars, the young filmmaker wanted to give young kids a magical experience, like the one he had when watching
Flash Gordon as a boy, but also to give his audience something to think about. He hoped, by evoking age old myths and synthesizing various religious and philosophical ideas, to encourage people to reconnect with their spiritual side in an increasingly secular age. 40 years later his legacy is now overseen by a faceless corporation that doesn't care a wit about any of these things and a divided fan base that is more interested in squabbling about canon and coming up with elaborate fan theories then in trying to look for any deeper meaning within the films. Is it really such a mystery that that the movies themselves have become so insipid?
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