The State Of Star Wars Heading Into The Rise Of Skywalker
By: John Sherrod
Tags: Culture, Movies, Star Wars, Review, TV

The State Of Star Wars Heading Into The Rise Of Skywalker

“Dude, you post a lot about Star Wars.” That’s more or less what a coworker said to me the other day. And that’s true. Or at least it is right now as we’re coasting toward the arrival of The Rise Of Skywalker in theaters later this week. And that’s because Star Wars means something to me. It always has. Seeing the Bespin scene in The Empire Strikes Back on TV at my grandparents house is one of my earliest memories. So to is a memory of us getting in the car at my Granny’s house to head home. My Dad’s in the front seat saying, “You know what’s coming on TV tonight? Star Wars.” To which I replied, “The one with Obi-Wan Kenobi?” (This was the mid-80’s so don’t get any ideas, Prequel fans.)

And here we are in 2019 and Disney owns Star Wars and has released four Star Wars films to date with one more slated for a few days from now. They’ve also launched the first live-action Star Wars TV show in The Mandalorian. And… we’re in a weird place with Star Wars. At least half of the fanbase (and I suspect it’s a good deal more than half) hated The Last Jedi. And Solo, the last Star Wars film released in cinemas was an outright bomb, and an expensive one at that. And that’s led Disney execs and Last Jedi defenders to come up with all sorts of excuses for that failure (and the divisiveness of The Last Jedi) ranging from “racism and misogyny” to “franchise fatigue.” Anything but acknowledging that The Last Jedi made plot and character decisions that were, at best, deeply divisive and that Solo was an entertaining but clumsily executed film that no one asked for or wanted.

In 2015 I was nervous, very nervous, leading up to the release of The Force Awakens. After all, the Star Wars Prequels had left a bad taste in the collective mouth of the fanbase and the last film that JJ Abrams had made was Star Trek Into Darkness, a film that enraged long-time Star Trek fans like myself and ultimately led Abrams to apologize. But I left TFA happy. Happy that for the first time since Return Of The Jedi Lucasfilm had released a good Star Wars movie. And yes, it made some choices I don’t care for. And yes, it’s largely a retread of the original Star Wars, but it was entertaining and brought everyone back on board the Star Wars train in a really entertaining way. 2016 added to that newfound Star Wars enthusiasm with Rogue One, a movie that I think only gets better as it ages. So I was actually pretty excited heading into The Last Jedi, despite a “I have a bad feeling about this” sense that was quietly gnawing at me from the trailers. But that movie, for reasons I’ve elaborated on elsewhere, left me disappointed and angry, principally because of the way it handled Luke Skywalker, but for a number of other reasons also.

Going into The Rise Of Skywalker I just feel completely numb toward this trilogy and toward Star Wars as a film franchise in general. I hope it’s good. I hope it’s great. I hope that JJ Abrams can salvage this trilogy from the wreckage wrought by Rian Johnson. But I fear he can’t. And I fear that the JJ from Into Darkness is going to come riding over that ridge. Not the JJ from The Force Awakens. I hope those fears are unfounded.

Meanwhile, we’ve had one bright glimmer of hope that there’s still good in Star Wars. The Mandalorian, the first live action series in Star Wars history is getting rave reviews from just about everyone, myself included. It’s not perfect. There are flaws. But it’s entertaining, it’s not offensive to long-time Star Wars fans, and Disney’s got a hit on its hands in Baby Yoda and all the memes that have sprung from him. There’s no question that Baby Yoda has a galactically higher mindshare online than The Rise Of Skywalker currently has.

So let’s all sigh and go see a Star Wars movie this weekend. And hope that JJ Abrams finds a way to deliver the goods one more time before riding his Tauntaun off into the sunset, sure to freeze before he reaches the first marker.