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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Movie Review
A watchable Star Wars movie
Ajit Duara
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21 Dec, 2019
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Director
J.J. Abrams
Cast
Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver
Producer
Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Michelle Rejwan
Music Director
John Williams
Theme parks have evolved over the last 40 years, but the new ones built for millennials are quite different. The majesty of the galaxies of old have been reduced to a second generation struggling to occupy leadership positions, for which they have neither the bearing or mindset. The grandeur across the horizon is missing. The perspectives of the protagonists are not engaging.
But something seems to have changed in the last episode, ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’. At the end of the film, Rey (Daisy Ridley) meets a stranger and is asked her name. She says, ‘Rey’. The wanderer pauses and asks for her last name. After an endless silence, Rey draws herself up with honour and dignity and says: ‘Rey Skywalker’. The combination of the desert landscape, the wizened and elderly woman looking quizzically at her, and a sense of her own achievement and identity finally dawning on her, makes the moment memorable.
The script as a thought process, and not just as a series of wondrous scenes, seems to have made a comeback in this film. It is a story of a woman obsessed with wanting to redeem her pledge, but who lives in two worlds. The ‘real’ world is one in which she is about to lead a mission for the Resistance, and for which she has received Jedi training. The second universe is her mind, which her antagonist, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), and the Dark Lord of the Sith (Ian McDiarmid), want to sway. They fight for space within it. She talks on a practical level to her colleagues, then suddenly switches off to communicate in another world. This schizophrenic state is described very well, with audio changes in the resonance of her voice, and the holding back of the image of the person she is talking to, till the last moment.
The smaller characters, the robots and the droids, make an entertaining come-back as well. C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) the robot with the English accent, is in a pickle. He has the ability to translate any language in the galaxy, but is now asked to translate a ‘Sith’ document. His system forbids it. But a spunky little IT expert droid called Babu Frik says he can extract it, but at the cost of destroying the rest of C-3PO’s memory. It is a poignant moment.
The tender mercy of this episode is that there are few, if any, sub-plots in the film. This allows the narrative to move in a linear path. The surprisingly focussed performance of Daisy Ridley, helps too.
As for the special effects, one scene stands out. This is when Rey, armed with her lightsaber, does a back somersault and slices through the wing of an attack ship behind her. It is simply breathtaking.
In short, ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ is a watchable Star Wars movie.
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