no soul

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2019)

Every movie fanatic should see this movie... to get a clear look into how average dialog, below average directing, and poor story progression can not be disguised by technical excellence.
Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker feels like a project that wants to do everything: do right by every character, fix what people didn't like about the first two films, complete the story, and be fun, grand, spiritual and great entertainment at the same time. But in this quest - the film becomes a chase after one McGuffin after another, with zero foreshadowing, and what feels like very loose plot structure trying to tie everything together. A lot of the content feels unloaded, instead of woven into the story structure. New characters are introduced, but none are well developed within the film, and few even change very much. I was never engaged in the story, nor interested in the characters, and felt almost no SW magic. The Rise of Skywalker is, to my eye, less than the sum of its parts.
There are some nuanced moments that hit a particular chord: emotional, subtle detail, character revelations - but these moments hit like temporary nostalgia and are not sustained.
The villain is not interesting, which is an absolute crime by SW standards. There are no anti heroes or morally textured characters. There are good guys and there are targets, and the consequences of violence carry little weight - which might be ok if The Rise of Skywalker had a lighter, more entertainment based tone, but it doesn't - it is a very serious film, but one that does not build to meaningful emotional payoffs. Perhaps fitting that one of the more consistent characters in this trilogy is hidden behind a mask for most of the film, squandering his presence, and depending upon voice acting for impact. Yea, this worked with Vader wonderfully in the original trilogy... but that is how that character was entirely designed from the beginning! It is one of many poorly conceived elements placed into this film with good intentions, but with no finesse or artistic skill.
The serious tone is visually supported by a lot of grey tones and darkly lit scenes - but visually, I really feel The Rise of Skywalker is at its best with bright colors, and crisp detail - which is there at (fleeting) times. But mostly? It is like a lot of the effects were intentionally blurred and greyed out to create a gritty realistic look. I didn't really like this aesthetic choice, that is consistent throughout the film.
SW is known for its saber duals and space combat - and it astonishes me how much more effective a movie like Return of the Jedi is than The Rise of Skywalker. True, the lightsaber effects, lighting, and sound have improved, but there just is no emotional weight to the saber fights. The mix of music, effects, setting and performance just never add up - and the same can be said of the space combat. Nothing is ever clear. Sure the viewer knows about mission objective in a generic way, but one never feels a part of the combat, or engaged in any meaningful strategy. Again, the cockpit lighting in the Hoth combat scenes in Empire Strikes Back are far superior to what is on display in this 2019 film. I never felt like I was in the cockpit of a spacecraft in the midst of a big battle - the presentation of these scenes is often more just documenting the event than any attempt to make the viewer part of the experience, and the attempt to make things more epic? Just add more! More ships! More targets! More friendlies! But how about a little immersion please! That is just bad directing, or a poor vision going in, but that would also be the directors fault. If I give the film an overall C+, I'd have to give JJ a D - which is tragic. The Rise of Skywalker depends upon its technical merit to prop up the entire experience, which I recognize, but hard work doesn't make a good movie - it takes vision, leadership and (hands off) producers who trust the artistic vision of writers and directors. I bet this film was not a fun one to make, in any phase of production - it just kinda feels that way coming through the screen.
To this point, the only Disney renditions of SW with any merit would be Rogue One and the Mandalorian - and in my opinion, these projects are the bare minimum of what a fan should expect delivered. With the writing and directing talent out there, and the continued fanaticism of SW, the failure of this film to be little more than average? pretty disappointing!