Ancestral Forces

Rating: 6/10 (15 January 2020)

The conclusion to the latest Star Wars trilogy, "The Rise of Skywalker" is cluttered with characters of trivial interest. I couldn't care less about the new, wannabe Han Solo's relationship with the helmeted woman, for instance, nor his friendship with the former stormtrooper, nor that guy's with another ex-stormtrooper, and so on. None of that is significantly developed or consequential here, so why would I be interested? The series' continued introductions of cute robots (the new one here being reminiscent of Pixar's Luxo lamp, the logo of another former studio of George Lucas since sold off to Disney) and small creatures continues to be a nuisance, whereas moments of humor generally fall flat (e.g. the shot of the guy holding a flashlight next to Rey's lightsaber, I can tell was meant to be funny, but I don't see how it actually is so). The movie is bloated in plot and runtime, with deus ex machina (essentially Lando Calrissian's entire role in this one, besides also seemingly setting up some spin-off or paratext when he suggests an adventure with some other character in the end), red herrings, MacGuffins and plot conveniences abounding. The underlying struggle, too, as with much of the Star Wars universe, between good and evil is the epitome of banality.
Try to avoid being distracted in the weeds by that stuff, however, for there is a more appreciable conclusion here in the commitment to building atop and reconstructing the original series. J.J. Abrams and company revived the first trilogy so as to add new characters and storylines, which in turn were reworkings of the original ones. It's as circular and repetitive as the continual chases and stand-offs in the plot. But, there are characters able to pass between scenes and between Star Wars movies. The Millennium Falcon jumps through planets and scenes in space early on. The three stars from the first run--Leia, Luke and Han--all do likewise as spirits, from the dead or otherwise to another space they're not physically present. They are past films remembered onto and sutured into the new ones. Luke's image being projected in "The Last Jedi" (2017) was another twist on this. Of the characters new to this trilogy, only Rey and Ben share this power. Not coincidentally, these five characters are also the only interesting ones. Even if Rey and Ben's relationship recalls Luke's attempts to convert Darth Vader in "Return of the Jedi," at least it develops and is consequential to this narrative, which is more than can be said about all the distractions and road bumps in the plot that are just there.
Although the repeated lightsaber swashbuckling may grow tiresome or the constipated looks and raising of hands to battle over moving objects or project lightning or whatever by forced telekinesis may be ridiculous--no matter how gripping John Williams' score--this psychic connection between Rey and Ben is compelling. It's more than a banal struggle between good and evil; it's between ancestral cults, Jedi and Sith. It's the force of past Star Wars films... which, after all, is also what compels many of us to continue to appear for screenings of these franchise additions: the memory of their filmic ancestors. The otherwise distracting side characters tend to be, like the main ones, preoccupied with their ancestry or their past, as well. Heck, even the business with C3PU's memory connects to this thread. The best part of Rey and Ben's duels, too, is that they perform them atop of the old films (thus, suturing themselves and the spectator into multiple scenes and films simultaneously): swashbuckling over Darth Vader's helmet, the drowned Death Star and, ultimately, among the spirits of all the past Star Wars films to harness these ancestral forces.