After spending so much
cash to acquire these properties, Disney and Iger
were determined to organize
new products that could bring in the largest
amounts possible, and this meant
creating nostalgic films, cinematic lowest
common denominators, they believed
would appeal to the emotions of fans
who wished to relive their childhoods. They had no
intention of gambling
on the semi-artistic decisions of this or that writer or
director, whether he or
she might be the creator of the brand in question or
not.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker—All the gimmicks to rake in the revenue
Directed by J. J. Abrams; screenplay
by J. J. Abrams and Chris Terrio
December 20 saw the release of Star
Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which is being billed as the ninth and final
film in the Star Wars “Skywalker Saga,” the episodic film
series that George Lucas began in 1977. Since Disney purchased Lucasfilm in
2012 for $4.05 billion, the studio has released five feature films, including a
trilogy of films that has now concluded with Skywalker.
Star Wars—Episode IX:
The Rise of Skywalker
The film
opens with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) visiting a dark planet to confront Emperor
Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), the main villain of George Lucas’s first six films,
who has been resurrected 30 years after his death and threatens to take revenge
on the galaxy with a hidden armada of naval ships, each of which is mounted
with a planet-destroying super weapon.
Following the events of The Last Jedi (2017),
Kylo Ren is now the Supreme Leader of the “First Order,” an imperial military
organization seeking to overthrow the galaxy, and it is revealed that this was
actually a machination of the hidden Palpatine who is now issuing his “Final
Order.” Palpatine promises Kylo unlimited power if he can bring the young girl
Rey (Daisy Ridley), the protagonist of the story, to him.
Rey,
meanwhile, a powerful light-side Force user and leader of the Resistance, sets
out with her comrades to find Palpatine’s hidden fleet so they can destroy it
before it destroys the galaxy. They engage on a wild-goose chase to locate
artifacts that will show them the way, and inadvertently come up against Kylo
Ren and his cronies. Kylo reveals to Rey the truth about her family, which has
been kept a mystery until now—i.e., that her parents were the children of
Emperor Palpatine and that she herself is the villain’s granddaughter.
Kylo Ren, who is actually Ben Solo, the only
son of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), two of the
protagonists from the earlier films, has a moment of enlightenment where he
speaks to the specter of his dead father (whom he murdered in The Force
Awakens [2015]). In a mirror image of the conversation
they held prior to the earlier patricidal event, Han convinces Ben to abandon
his dark path and take up the fight for the light. Of course, Ben joins Rey and
helps the Resistance defeat Palpatine and the Final Order.
This is sophomoric stuff. Aside from certain
specific details, for example, who is the offspring of whom, the film is highly
predictable. Director J. J. Abrams stated in many interviews prior to the
film’s release that he was seeking to give not only an end to this new trilogy,
but an end to all of the episodic films released over the last 42 years. The
Rise of Skywalker is therefore chock full of reused dialogue and
visual motifs from the previous eight films and uses parallels to extremes.
The dialogue between Han and Ben is virtually
identical to their lines in The Force Awakens, with a few words
switched around to bring Ben back to the light. Palpatine is also killed by Rey
in a way that mirrors a scene from Revenge of the Sith (2005)
where he is nearly defeated. The filmmakers may feel it was clever to
include so many rhyming beats in their latest opus, but the result is a film
that is thoroughly lacking in substance and merely a parody of the source
material, which was already vapid in the first place.
As with all of the Star Wars films,
the bevy of actors and artists involved in The Rise of Skywalker are
creative and talented. If one were to single out the cinematography, the sound
design or even the acting alone, one could find positive things to say about
this film. This makes it all the more shameful that such talent must be
spent to further the financial interests of Disney rather than making
worthwhile, meaningful art.
George Lucas’s original Star Wars trilogy,
released between 1977 and 1983, was designed to be a morality tale (with
quasi-mystical nods to Joseph Campbell and C.G. Jung) inspired by adventure
serials of the early and mid-twentieth century. Lucas has publicly stated on
many occasions that Star Wars was made for 12-year-olds.
His Star Wars prequel trilogy, released between 1999 and
2005, was designed to build on those motifs, setting out to create a modern
mythology for young people (as well as earn a great deal of money along the
way).
When Lucas sold his production company and
the Star Wars brand to Disney in 2012, he initially planned
to stay on as a creative consultant, to help create a new era of Star
Wars films. However, it became clear over the years that Lucas and
Disney did not agree on the direction his films should go. Lucas wanted to
continue to craft his adolescent mythology with new stories, while Disney was
primarily interested in creating films that depended more on nostalgia and
copying the original films in a retro fashion, appealing to the pocketbooks of
the former 12-year-olds of earlier periods who are now parents and even
grandparents themselves.
In his new book, The Ride of a Lifetime:
Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO (2019), Disney CEO Bob Iger
discusses the deals he carried out to swallow up studios and large media giants
and create an entertainment monopoly under the Disney brand. Those absorbed
include Pixar in 2006 ($7.4 billion), Marvel Entertainment in 2009 ($4.24
billion), Lucasfilm in 2012 ($4.05 billion) and, most recently, 21st Century
Fox in 2019 ($71.3 billion).
After
spending so much cash to acquire these properties, Disney and Iger were
determined to organize new products that could bring in the largest amounts
possible, and this meant creating nostalgic films, cinematic lowest common
denominators, they believed would appeal to the emotions of fans who wished to
relive their childhoods. They had no intention of gambling on the semi-artistic
decisions of this or that writer or director, whether he or she might be the
creator of the brand in question or not.
The Rise of Skywalker, which has become the
third and concluding film in this new trilogy of episodic Star Wars films,
was initially to be written and directed by Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World).
However, after witnessing the reaction to The Last Jedi (directed
by Rian Johnson), the previous entry in the trilogy, which took more artistic
liberties and did not sit well with many of the franchise’s fans, as well as
the lower box-office numbers for Solo: A Star
Wars Story (Ron Howard), Disney executives apparently
decided to change direction and end the “Skywalker Saga.” They announced they
would cease releasing one motion picture every year, and this also meant
replacing Trevorrow with Abrams, who wrote and directed Disney’s first entry
into the Star Wars universe to great financial success.
At this point, Disney’s plan is to hold off on
releasing a new Star Wars film until 2022, focusing instead
on creating new streaming television series for their new Disney Plus platform.
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