Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

All things must end, even a mega-successful film series that started forty-two years ago. The sci-fi powerhouse that has produced about a dozen on-screen films, several television shows, and countless other novels and games is finally coming to an end (sort of). The Rise of Skywalker is the ninth and final episode of the so-called "Skywalker Saga" of Star Wars that detailed Luke Skywalker and friends defeating the Empire in the original trilogy, Anakin Skywalker being corrupted by the Dark Side and becoming Darth Vader in the prequel trilogy, and now Rey and friends fighting the First Order in this sequel trilogy. Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, who directed The Force Awakens as well, it is not as bad as most critics have claimed, but it also feels like, despite a successful payoff in the film's final act, there are a lot of dull movements one is required to sit through to get there.

This one is a bit more convoluted than its two predecessors. "The dead speak!" the film proclaims. Palpatine, the emperor of the Galactic Empire who first appeared in Return of the Jedi and whose rise to power was chronicled in the prequel trilogy, apparently is still alive despite being thrown off a bridge by Darth Vader. Palpatine is again played by Ian McDiarmid. To prevent this mysterious return of the Dark Lord of the Sith, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) searches the galaxy to find Palpatine and eliminate the threat to his power. At the same time, Rey (Daisy Ridley, the star of this trilogy) continues her Jedi training under General Leia Organa (the late, great Carrie Fisher in her final role), who hopes to conclude what her brother Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) started. When the Resistance finds out that Palpatine has returned, they too seek him out to destroy him once and for all. So Rey takes a hiatus from her training to join Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac), along with Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels, the only actor appearing in all nine episodes), and BB-8 (the most adorable Star Wars character until Baby Yoda took that over this year) to find the location of Palpatine while avoid being hunted by Ren and his knights.

Joining the cast are Keri Russell (who worked with Abrams on Felicity) as Zorii Bliss, an old acquaintance of Poe's; Dominic Monaghan (who worked with Abrams on Lost) as a Resistance fighter named Beaumont Kin; and Naomie Ackie as Jannah, a former Stormtrooper who now fights against the First Order. But the biggest return besides McDiarmid is Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, who (despite appearing several times as the character through voice work) has not appeared on screen as his most famous role since 1983's Return of the Jedi. Also returning from previous films are Lupita Nyong'o, Kelly Marie Tran, and others. But while the cast can seem a bit overcrowded, it is a joy to watch the delectable performance of Richard E. Grant as Allegiant General Pryde, a loyalist who is suspicious of General Hux (the returning Domhnall Gleeson), at ease following the orders of the Supreme Leader, and ever faithful to Emperor Palpatine. It's a role that might not be as complex or interesting as Grant's previous work in films like Can You Ever Forgive Me? (which earned him an Oscar nomination earlier this year) or Withnail and I, but it's one of the most enjoyable on the screen; he looks like he's relishing every moment.

I do, though, wish the film had given Russell, Nyong'o, Tran, and Ackie something as interesting to do as it had for Grant. Tran, the victim of vicious attacks from trolls after The Last Jedi was released, does not have a major presence in this film. Co-writer Chris Terrio has defended this by explaining that some of the problems with making her scenes look believable with Fisher and the CGI were why they were cut. Audience members can make of that what they will. Some will undoubtedly not believe Terrio and conclude that the trolls have won.

Let me try to be as clear as I can: I liked The Rise of Skywalker. I found that it has some noticeable problems (more on that later), but I wouldn't call it a bad film. I appreciated that we finally get to see Rey, Finn, and Poe all together in a way we used to see Luke, Leia, and Han. I like that C-3PO is utilized more. And while it can drag, it does not do so in a way that feels too taxing. It does not drip with unfeasible visuals like the prequel trilogy did, but it does not possess those unforgettable moments of The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, or the standalone film Rogue One. As a result, it can sometimes (or often) feel like a bit of a bore. It is the only time I can remember looking at my watch during a Star Wars film.

Just as the two previous films fell into the trap of copying various moments and emotions of the original trilogy, so too does The Rise of Skywalker. It is great seeing McDiarmid again in his most famous role, and it's not necessarily a bad (if implausible) idea bringing back this character one more time. But unlike in the prequel trilogy, where the actor was given a variety of moments to really shine, with this film it does not feel that way. Sure, the character looks and feels different, more like a ghoul than an emperor, but it's not enough to justify his presence. And while at times The Rise of Skywalker is surprisingly quite unpredictable, it also keeps hitting the same notes one would expect. By this point in the trilogy, it seems many fans and nearly a majority of film critics have had enough. I don't blame them, and perhaps it's best that Disney and Lucasfilm have decided to put a pause (hopefully a permanent one) on the films and instead focus on television.

One thing though that the team does seem to succeed in is finding a way to conclude such a grand, multi-generation story arc in a way that is sure to satisfy many fans. Kathleen Kennedy, the producer and president of Lucasfilms, has not been given nearly enough credit for this. Sure, there have been bumps along the way (Solo), but just look at the success of this trilogy and of the new Disney+ show The Mandalorian. Yes, critical response to The Rise of Skywalker has been so-so or negative, but again, many fans will come away likely enjoying this film. As I left the theater, I overheard a young boy talking with a man I assume was his grandfather. The boy asked the man if it was his most favorite film. Politely dodging, he responded that he really enjoyed the film, and began explaining that he saw the original Star Wars film way back in 1977. He later joked with the other members of the family that the boy had joined the Dark Side as he began misbehaving. This sci-fi fantasy is a permanent part of our culture, and an unsuccessful new trilogy would have made that less likely.

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Annihilation

The directorial debut of writer Alex Garland, whose most famous novel is The Beach and whose screenplays include 28 Days Later (and its sequel, 28 Weeks Later), Sunshine, Never Let Me Go, and Dredd, was Ex Machina from three years ago. It was a bold yet subtly eerie look at AI; not quite dystopian, but bordering on it. In his follow-up, Garland has adopted the novel by Jeff VanderMeer called Annihilation. In this story, there again is a "not-good place", called "the Shimmer", a quarantined expanse where creatures mutate, and yet this film is grander and features a lot more big swings. One of them is that Garland is not going to give a lot of answers, and while that may still work fifty years on with something like 2001: A Space Odyssey, it doesn't work here.

It's not as if Annihilation doesn't try. It does often look like Annihilation takes inspiration from the avant-garde 2001 (along with Alien, Jurassic Park, and a touch of Pan's Labyrinth), certainly in terms of visuals. But pretty images do not make up for a lack of story and character development, and they certainly don't, on their own, inspire and excite viewers, or at the very least wake those who are bored out of their mind. Such is the problem with Annihilation.

The movie starts in an ominous way. A character named Lena sits answering questions, not sure of much, especially the whereabouts of her colleagues. She wears white medical clothing, quarantined, being questioned by a character played by Benedict Wong, and she seems totally dazed and confused, unable to recall anything of her nearly four months in the Shimmer. We can deduce that she is the sole survivor. Lena is a cancer professor and former soldier going through grief after the death of her partner, Kane (played by Oscar Isaac), a soldier who has died in a mission she knows little about.

This would certainly make Kane walking into her home even more surprising to her, but that he does. Still, something is certainly off about it. He doesn't feel well, and he is rushed to a hospital after falling into a seizure. Here, Lena meets Dr. Ventress (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh), who tells Lena about the Shimmer, how the scientists have "many theories, few facts" regarding the mysterious entity. Is it religious in nature? Extra-terrestrial? No one knows. Kane was part of team that tried to find out; they failed. He's in good company, as everyone and everything they have sent in to try and discover answers has never returned. Perhaps the environment kills them, or perhaps they go crazy and kill each other. Lena, determined to find an answer to what ails her lover, joins Ventress and other scientists: Anya Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez), Cass Sheppard (Tuva Novotny), and Josie Radek (Tessa Thompson). She pointedly does not tell them about her connection to Kane, fearing it would "complicate" things.     

The Shimmer is like a macabre version of Neverland, a state park with a lush, green forest surrounded by a transparent layer that looks similar to oil mixing with water. Flowers have mutated into gorgeous new species. But almost immediately, the characters start to lose their memories. They've been there for days, and yet they can remember almost nothing. Adding to the Neverland quality is giant crocodiles, but these ones happen to have teeth similar to sharks.

It's a real, real shame that a film with such intriguing female roles for great female actors has turned out so dull. In Ex Machina, women also had a majority of the roles, but it felt exploitative at times. Not so here. Thompson is a real marvel in the movie. Her performance is so unlike her recent work in films like Creed and Thor: Ragnorok. She transforms into this character, a shy but clever individual, not in an ostentatious way, and the subtle choices she's made make her almost unrecognizable. I was a little more disappointed in the performances of Leigh and Rodriguez, who both overdo things, mostly in different ways. Portman is mostly fine, yet her being cast is another example of whitewashing in Hollywood, as the character in the original book series is described as Asian. (Additionally, Leigh's character is described as half-Native American.)

Annihilation certainly requires a lot more patience than Ex Machine does. It's a lot sillier, too. The motivation of Lena's character to go on such a mission is too difficult to believe. Like Sam Neill or Jeff Goldblum before her, it is not plausible for her to accept. This movie is more Prometheus than Alien, and yet it thinks the reverse is true. The characters certainly seem like they're straight out of the former, as they don't feel they need protective masks when walking around the Shimmer. Garland and team try the whole less-is-more approach, and yet it often does not pay off. There are horror moments that are not frightening in the slightest, action scenes that aren't thrilling in the slightest, and the whole thing feels like it would work better as a spooky short story written by someone in middle school.

Is Annihilation pretentious? Most likely. Boring? Definitely. Ultimately, there is not a single exciting or interesting moment throughout this film. Annihilation might challenge you to think, but who would be inspired to engage in such inquiry about a movie like this?

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Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the eighth part of the nine episodes in the series, is as operatic as this fantastic franchise has ever been. In the hands of a new writer and director, Rian Johnson, this is a film that enjoys embracing the formulas that have made these films so endearing for so long while also taking risks unlike any of its predecessors did. It is possibly one of the reasons why fans reportedly have been more turned off by this film than critics, even though the reverse is usually true for blockbusters. Despite this, listen to the critics. They're definitely right this time.

Why are they right? The movie looks fantastic, the actors are having fun, the dialogue ain't perfect but there is no crying about how coarse sand is. There are a variety of surprises throughout -- most good, some not. This is a franchise that has been around for forty years. It's about time they start spicing things up.

The Last Jedi starts immediately after the events of The Force Awakens, in which the First Order (the remnants of the Galactic Empire defeated in the original trilogy) took a few mighty strikes against the Resistance, a militarized offshoot of the Republic, which practically was destroyed in the last film. While the Resistance and the First Order engage in a fierce battle among the stars, Rey (Daisy Ridley) seeks out the assistance of Jedi legend Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who has forced himself into exile on a remote island far away from anyone. Even after having the stakes explained to him, Luke is not interested in the slightest. His guilt over training Ben Solo (Adam Driver), his nephew who turned to the Dark Side and became Kylo Ren, has led him to believe that the Jedi must end. Luke may no longer be a whiny teenager bellowing about power converters, but now he's an cagey old man complaining about youth culture.

Rey will not give up in her pleading with him to help. Meanwhile, the First Order is chasing down the final ships of the Resistance, picking them off one by one. The sibling rivalry between General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) and Ren continues, and they have a tough father figure in the form of the Supreme Leader, Snoke, to please. Snoke is played in yet another motion-capture performance by Andy Serkis, whose voice is menacing. Hux and his fleet hunt down the Resistance while Kylo Ren searches for Rey and Skywalker.

These actors and the characters they play are as enjoyable to watch as they've ever been. Some have become more interesting, even if that also means they've become more problematic. Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac), for example, the hotshot pilot for the Resistance is more three dimensional here than he was last time around, probably because in the last film's script he initially was meant to die, which is why he just sort of disappeared for the second act. Here, he's charming and adventurous, but also stupid. It's hard to like him while he does a lot of mansplaining to his superior, Admiral Holdo, played magnificently by Laura Dern. Only several years ago, a studio would have set up this dynamic to get the audience to sympathize with the male; now, it's impossible to do that, and for good reason. Holdo is a calm, reasonable, and brave presence on the ship as the First Order chases them, and yet Poe, a cowboy who demands action, is too short-sighted. Poe thinks he's Indiana Jones in space; Holdo knows that "bitches get things done." But often throughout their confrontations, Dern displays a persona that expresses a lifetime of having had to listen to men push their way into battles and risk everything. There's a reason the Rebel Alliance, the Republic, and the Resistance are led by women like Mon Mothma, Holdo, and General Leia Organa.

The villains are all much more enthralling to watch this time around. If you were disappointed in the wasted opportunity in how little screen time Gwendolyn Christie got last time, well, you'll still be disappointed by her short time in this film, but not by what she does with it. Driver plays Kylo Ren as a sociopath, and yet like most sociopaths, he contains at least a tiny of drop of qualities that make him at least somewhat sympathetic. In this case it's his very apparent behavior, temper, and anger issues, and the fact that he's bullied by his teacher and leader Snoke doesn't help. (In the reverse, teachers disappointing their students is a common theme throughout.) Gleeson as General Hux double-hams it up with that ridiculously fake accent, which you'll either love or hate. Benicio Del Toro also joins the cast, and he looks like he's having as good a time as he did when he was in The Usual Suspects and Guardians of the Galaxy, though it's so similar to those performances that it might disappoint you. The addition of Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico helps make The Last Jedi feel like it's the most diverse Star Wars movie ever; even the First Order is more diverse. Tran, the daughter of refugee migrants from Vietnam, plays Rose as a tough fighter in the Resistance. The death of her sister only gives her further motivation to take them down.

Mark Hamill, returning as Luke Skywalker, his most famous character, is actually kind of funny here, as Harrison Ford's Han Solo was before him in The Force Awakens. But be warned, apparently fans are angry that there are a few laughs in this film. (People who do not like The Last Jedi do not like laughing.) And then there's Carrie Fisher. Her character, Leia, the princess who became a warrior, is war weary; she remembers how many they've lost, and that was basically how we felt upon learning that she was the latest celebrity in 2016 to pass away (and only a day before her mother, Debbie Reynolds, also died). What else can be written about the acting legend that hasn't already? In her long career, her final performance is one of her truly best, and it is awfully unfortunate that the world will not get one more performance by her as Leia, for Lucasfilm had planned on her having a larger role in the final part of the trilogy.

As a director, Johnson is amazingly talented at shooting fight scenes. The other well-known features in which he helms (Brick, Looper, and several episodes of Breaking Bad) do not have this kind of staccato action; indeed, these scenes here are filmed in a way different from those directed by George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, and others. In fact, the entire pacing of this movie is different. Whereas The Force Awakens started off quite strongly, it fizzled out as it got closer and closer to the end (a common problem in movies directed by Abrams). Here, there's a big bang in the beginning, but other than a far-fetched and dull sequence involving a casino, this movie never lets our interest wane. With few exceptions, The Last Jedi gets better with each passing minute. When The Last Jedi starts, it is evident that it will probably be a better ride than The Force Awakens, but half-way through it is more than obvious it will.

As a writer, Johnson is pretty good, too, and there are two or three scenes in The Last Jedi he and his team came up with that ideally would be worth writing about, but it's virtually impossible to do so without spoiling them. Spoil I shall not. At first, I thought I could simply use a noun to get the idea across, but even that would be revealing too much. Perhaps an adjective could be used instead, and the one used would simply be: wonderful. Still, another adjective that could be used for another scene would be "ridiculous"; it comes early in the film and involves floating (or flying, or something like that). It's stupidly written and while containing a certain meta quality, looks goofy. Additionally, Johnson includes a few shout-outs to the original three films, and many of these are unnecessary, but it doesn't seem as if the film is oozing with nostalgia like The Force Awakens did. Finally, to address one of the largest concerns fans had going into this movie, let me say that if you like the porgs, these adorable owl-penguin hybrids won't disappoint you. If you hate them, rest assured they're hardly in it.

Sure, this film is not without its problems. Isaac and Gleeson starred in a sci-fi movie two years ago called Ex Machina, and yet that old-fashioned devise is employed so liberally here that it feels like it would be a better title than The Last Jedi. This is the longest Star Wars movie, and while for the most part it doesn't seem too long, there are scenes that could have been scrapped (mainly the casino part). Needless to say, I feel happy after watching this movie that Johnson will write and direct a new Star Wars trilogy that apparently won't have anything to do with the previous movies Lucasfilm has made. Fans will run out of patience with this franchise eventually. Star Wars is not Marvel; it cannot last forever. But for the time being, after the immense success of The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi, why stop now?

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