Star Wars thrilling effects: " The Rise of Skywalker"

Ask any Star Wars fan and they'll happily tell you how the saga that began 42 years ago should have ended. Only almost half a century ago (the idea of ​​the film originated back in 1971), no one, including George Lucas himself, knew what an attempt to shoot a classic fairy tale in a science fiction wrapper would result in and how this story would end. So the version of JJ Abrams presented by the director in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has a right to exist. Another thing is that this version will like the maximum number of fans of the universe.

No matter how puffed up Lucas, talking about his own vision of the future of the series, no matter what legends about the twelve scenarios and St. George, who laid his hand on one of them, walked in the fan environment, the truth is that at first Lucas, foaming at the mouth, argued that three films - this is the whole saga and no sequel is planned. Then the director changed his mind and shot a trilogy of prequels, and the creator of Star Wars thought about the next films only on the eve of the sale of Lucasfilm in 2012. And even then, the sketches that Lucas made could hardly be called full-fledged scripts, rather a set of general wishes for those who will continue its work.

In general, the problem of such huge, complex and extended in time sagas, even if only one person is working on them, is that such works begin to live their own lives, subjecting the author to their logic. Ask Robert Jordan or George Martin if you don’t believe. When Lucas directed the work on the Star Wars films alone, it was still possible to talk about some order, but in the last trilogy the baton was passed twice from one director to another, so it turned out that the first and last films of the new trilogy somewhat contradict the second film. which should have been the core of the whole story.

Filmed two years ago by Looper and Knives Out director Ryan Johnson, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was well received by critics. It is the most highly rated film in the series to date since Disney took over the Star Wars brand. At the same time, The Last Jedi aroused violent indignation from fans who did not like literally everything in the picture. Perhaps this was one of the reasons that J.J. Abrams decided to use in the final part of the technique that proved to be good in Star Wars: The Force Awakens - focusing on fan service and an abundance of references to the events of the original trilogy, in particular to Star Wars VI. Only the second time, for some reason, this trick did not work.

Before we start scolding the writers of The Rise of Skywalker for blatant bloopers, broken storylines and too frequent use of the "piano in the bush", let's still remember what Star Wars actually is. Star Wars was conceived from the very beginning as a transposition of classic fairy tales into the language of science fiction cinema. This is the same good old story about the Princess, the Dragon and the Knight, only instead of the Dragon there is an evil Emperor, the horse replaces the space fighter, and the elusive midi-chlorians replace magic. Now let me ask you ... what other kind of logic do you expect from a children's fairy tale?

Reviving the dead is a typical fairy trick. Suddenly found parents, children, brothers, sisters, grandchildren - a typically fabulous reception. Gigantomania is also a fabulous technique. The logic of sleep, where not all events follow from the previous ones, is the same. Returning to the places where the previous events took place ... you get the idea. If you remember that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is still a fairy tale for senior school children, the mass of claims that can be made against the picture will disappear by itself. The only problem is that the schoolchildren, for whom the first film of the saga was designed, managed to get old in 42 years and such explanations no longer suit them.

Okay, then let's try to look at Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker from a different angle. Many things that will surely make viewers raise their eyebrows in surprise, for example, the revival of previously deceased characters or the same new powers and skills of an almost divine level suddenly discovered in the Jedi and Sith, have already appeared in Star Wars. That's just not in the movies, but in the "Expanded Universe", transferred by Disney to the status of non-canon Star Wars Legends. The same cloning is a completely standard practice within Legends, which, however, has made its way into the canon (The Clone Wars say hello to you), and if you recall the powers available to Starkiller in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, then the new skills of Rey and Kylo Ren do not seem so extraordinary at all. Yes, J.J. Abrams borrowed a lot from non-canon Star Wars, but I can't say it's that bad.

Much worse is that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker doesn't even try to answer many of the questions that viewers have after watching The Last Jedi. Not only that, he seems to be deliberately ignoring them, as if the Ryan Johnson film had never happened. What is it, JJ Abrams jealousy? Who is Supreme Leader Snoke, why was he even needed in this story? The Force is available to everyone in the Universe, or is blood stronger than the Force? Why did Leia give up her Jedi identity after all? Why were the Knights of Ren needed? Etc. No, to some of these questions, Abrams's film seems to even answer, that's just in passing, as they say, “get off”.

However, The Rise of Skywalker has enough problems besides interacting with the previous film in the franchise. The fan service so beloved by Abrams, which is crowded with the last part of the saga, is working very badly. It turns out that it is not enough just to bring the audience to locations that are well known to them from previous films of the saga - this will cause, at best, only a fleeting smile of recognition, a strong emotional connection between the past and current events is needed, which is precisely what this film is lacking. Many of the characters in the classic trilogy that appear on the screen seem to have been introduced only to say, "Hey guys, do you still remember me?" it's insulting and, frankly, stupid.

The only two heroes in The Rise of Skywalker that really feel chemistry between them are Kylo Ren and Rey. Moreover, Adam Driver is here overplaying Daisy Ridley, pulling on himself all the incredible emotionality of this connection. Yes, if you didn't get it back in The Force Awakens, the new trilogy is a love story. By and large, a kind of reflection of the plot of the prequel trilogy. Love that will not lead to anything good. And The Rise of Skywalker itself is a mix of reshoots, and sometimes literally frame by frame, Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith with the predominance of the sixth film in the saga.

Another problem with the final film of The Skywalker Saga is the acute lack of truly vivid, visually memorable episodes. There is nothing close to equal to the battle in the white and red sands of Crate or the hyper-jump of Admiral Holdo from The Last Jedi. The gigantomania of the last battle does not cause admiration, except for some dismay, because most of all it looks like the final battle from Ready Player One . It's just as stupid, straightforward and chaotic. The only episodes that are pleasing from an aesthetic point of view are the interdimensional battles of Kylo Ren and Rey. They are filmed very ingeniously, and the combination of two different environments in one shot is really impressive.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker leaves an ambiguous impression. This is a really weak film that has a lot of problems, but ... this is the end of a story that we have all been a part of for 42 years, that alone deserves respect. I can't give The Rise of Skywalker less than what you will see at the end of this article. Still, I got my share of the pleasure from meeting old friends and from parting with them. Yes, it may not be the ending that I would like to see, but this is the ending.

It's a shame that from the 2019 Star Wars strike triad, the main film turned out to be weaker than the essentially related media products, The Mandalorian series and the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order game . But it just so happened. At the same time, I am not at all worried about the commercial performance of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - the film will surely attract a lot of people to cinemas and earn a billion or two for Disney, because this, after all, is the last big Star Wars, and when will the next , not yet known.

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