Let’s talk about the term “fan-service.” This term gets bandied about all the time, and often for good reason. However, it will inevitably be used heavily in reference to The Rise of Skywalker and I believe that’s a mistake. Here’s why.
There are those who speak of fan-service as if it’s some kind of cardinal sin. Often these are the same people who think fan-service is simply giving the fans what they want. But they’re mistaken.
Fan-service is giving the fans what they want IN SPITE of what the story needs. That is when fan-service is actually a mistake.
However, there is nothing wrong with giving the fans what they want if it is ALSO what the story needs. When these two things line up, you have a win-win situation.
I believe that’s (mostly) what we have in The Rise of Skywalker.
It is an enormous weight off my shoulders to say that The Rise of Skywalker is better than I could have hoped.
Is The Rise of Skywalker perfect? By no means. I could go beat by beat and give you an itemized list of what was good and what was bad. But rather than do that, I will first give you my main criticism of the trilogy, then I will give you my main criticism of The Rise of Skywalker:
The incongruent nature of the three films in this trilogy all comes down to a lack of a general outline for said trilogy. I’ve said this before, but Disney and Kathleen Kennedy had no overall plan before they started production on The Force Awakens. They made it up as they went along, and there wasn’t one single person with a vision flying the starship.
In short, they should have had either an outline or a visionary, preferably both. They had neither. That’s a colossal, unfathomable mistake. You can feel it throughout the entire trilogy, and every film suffers for it.
That includes The Rise of Skywalker. My main criticism of this movie is that there simply isn’t room for everything it tries to do. Important events occur off-screen. Things from The Last Jedi are ignored (perhaps a good thing). Questions are left unanswered. The plot has to rely on convenience and contrivance at many points. Some of it feels like simple box-checking. Some of it feels far too easy. And yes, there are some moments of fan-service. The list goes on.
Had the filmmakers started the trilogy with an outline, they could have shared the weight of that heavy-lifting evenly across all three films, and created more room to explain and expound on some key points that are never really unpacked.
Those are, and have been, my criticisms from the very beginning. However. Given what The Rise of Skywalker had to work with, given everything that came before it…
…I don’t know how you end it better than that.
Where The Rise of Skywalker absolutely succeeds is as a conclusion to a nine episode saga that has spanned forty years of cinematic history. It takes everything that came before it – good and bad – and brings it together. It manages to fix – or at least, explain – many of the errors or omissions in The Last Jedi. Just as The Last Jedi retroactively made The Force Awakens worse, so The Rise of Skywalker retroactively makes The Last Jedi better. The Rise of Skywalker not only improves the perspective on the previous entry, it elevates the entire sequel trilogy.
And in the process, it becomes one of the best Star Wars movies I’ve ever seen.
My mouth fell open, awed at the spectacle of certain moments. I wept like a child during one particular sequence that is a highlight of the entire saga. I said goodbye to beloved characters I’ve known since childhood. I feared for the outcome of our heroes. And I rejoiced in their triumphs.
The last five minutes of the movie are immaculate.
But most important, The Rise of Skywalker draws the curtain on a story that I’ve been following my whole life, and it does so in a way that left me enormously satisfied.
I don’t feel cheated. I don’t feel disappointed. I feel happy and at rest knowing how it ended.
I feel like I received an imperfect and amazing conclusion to an imperfect and amazing story. Yet amidst that imperfection, there are perfect moments.
The question is, are those perfect moments enough? Do they add up to a worthwhile experience, a rewarding conclusion, a satisfying end?
In The Rise of Skywalker – and in the entire Skywalker Saga – I believe the answer is a resounding, or perhaps a whispered…yes.
There is so much more I could say. But in closing, that is perhaps the most appropriate way I can end this review.
Star Wars has always been a part of my life. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know what Star Wars was. And if Star Wars is an analog for life, then these words will suffice:
Imperfect, with perfect moments.
May the Force be with you.
Always.
-a.
Originally published December 20th, 2019