Rey and Kylo's Third Act Lacks That Special Something

Rating: 5/10 (28 January 2020)

Evidently upset by Rian Johnson's contribution to the series in The Last Jedi, JJ Abrams has returned to the Star Wars universe to set the record straight, often directly contradicting the plot points and character arcs set in motion by the preceding film. That makes for an awkward sort of arm wrestling competition, as Johnson himself often seemed intent upon bucking the conventions established by earlier chapters in the franchise. In other words, "you undid my work, now I'm going to undo yours."
The result, in this case, is an overstuffed mammoth of a film that tries to do too much while also, somehow, accomplishing very little. Not the first time a Skywalker film has been messy, but the lack of enthusiasm and excitement is certainly new. Even in the much-maligned prequels, there was something unique and special about seeing a Star Wars movie. This time, despite the enormous budget, eight films' worth of lead-in, tons of new environments and alien races, plus constant callbacks to please the die-hards, the final product is rather bland and pedestrian. And that's probably the most damning thing I could say about it. This isn't the grand conclusion to a generations-long space epic, it's just a nondescript, run-of-the-mill science fiction shelf-filler with a billion-dollar sheen. It's a mass of writer's room concepts, tossed into a tumbler and belched out onto the screen without much connective tissue.
Episode IX does have successful moments. The law of averages says, given enough options, something's bound to stick. Yet, even when they hit upon a winner, Abrams and company's lack of conviction, their reluctance to take a risk and get firmly behind any one direction, lessens the meaning of the whole. How disappointing that it's come to this.