Having now seen J. J. Abrams ending for the 3rd Star Wars trilogy I can't help but think I'd have preferred to see how Rian Johnson would have wrapped things up. Though flawed Johnson's 'The Last Jedi' at least knew how to take risks, Abrams plays things much safer and the few times it appeared as though their might be real unexpected consequences in 'The Rise of Skywalker' he backed off. This is a crowded, often pandering movie, that far too often felt rushed. Not there are not good things in it, I really liked seeing our trio of lead characters spend some much needed time together, Adam Driver remains the strongest of the younger performers in franchise, I liked one supporting players decently set up character flip, Keri Russell's voice, and the snowy planet Kijimi whose German occupied Europe vibe I thought a nice touch.
Abrams however didn't seem to know what to do with the supporting players, Kelly Marie Tran's Rose getting particularly short shift. There is much in this that does not feel very well set up, including the (this is not a spoiler he is on the teaser poster) return of Emperor Palpatine, this felt like a really big cheat that knocks much of the air out of Vader's sacrifice at the end of Episode 6. Never quite as rousing as it would like to think it is, I was surprised at the paucity of audience reaction in the half full theater I saw it in. I suppose Abrams did what he could given what seems to be a barley concealed animosity towards what Johnson did with the previous film. The biggest culprit here of course is that this new trilogy was not plotted out in advance, which seems a really dumb decision given that for far too long no one seemed to know what they were setting up for as the final payoff. You'll want to go see this for completeness sake, but I found it more then a little bit of a disappointment and a real mixed bag. ***
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment