.
Our new film reviewer, James Finnegan, on the conclusion of the Star Wars series, ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Starwalker’…
A LONG time ago, in a cinema far, far away I was captivated by a fresh, entertaining and enthusiastic action adventure film called Star Wars that called to mind the Saturday morning serial films.
There were Good Guys, who were brave and resourceful, a beautiful heroine who was as good, if not better than her teammates, Bad Guys who snarled out their lines and who would have twirled the moustaches if they had any.
There were robots – sorry, Droids – who were the comic relief, sword fights – sorry, lightsaber fights, a fantastic memorable soundtrack and of course there was Darth Vader, one of movies greatest villains. Truly, the Force was with us.
Continued below…
.
So we have had the original trilogy, and the prequel trilogy, and we now arrive at the last film of the sequel trilogy.
.
After forty years of this wonderful, ever expanding universe created by the imagination of George Lucas, and now concluded by Director JJ Abrams, we come to the final reckoning between the Sith (Boo, Hiss) and the Jedi (Hooray) personified by Kylo Ren, played by Adam Driver and Rey, played by Daisy Ridley.
In truth, these two performances are the Skellig Michael that holds this film together while the resurrection of a “Big Baddie” and his Master Plan to take over the Galaxy acts as the catalysis for their interactions.
Now, while I have seen all these films, plus the couple of spin-offs, (but not the Holiday Special whom no one talks about), I don’t have the encyclopaedic recall of all the characters, species and planets that some who follow this series enjoy, and the first half of this film introduce characters and then forgets all about them just as quickly as they disappear into the ether.
There is also a fair amount of “…..and with a bound, they were free” moments.
However, there are some really great action scenes, particularly a lightsabre fight on a crashed Death Star, an emotional and fitting send off for the late Carrie Fisher’s General Leia, and some wonderfully touching cameos which I will not spoil by naming, save for a unique spot for someone whose work is the first striking note all the films in this series share.
Also, Jedi can now heal wounds and the Storm troopers can fly, which would have been really handy earlier in the series.
A personal joy was seeing the great Richard E Grant releasing his inner Cushing, while Domhnall Gleeson who has both the best line and unexpected character development in the story.
This film is great fun, full of energy, but it is now time for the series to end. The fate of the galaxy can only hold in the balance so many times.
I have no doubt that this conclusion will not please everyone, and there will be fevered debate on the “Who? What? Why?” in the way there was at the conclusion of “Game of Thrones”.
This is not the best Star Wars film, but is by no means the worst, and if you go along for the ride, you will see the cavalry come over the hill to the rescue.
All that remains is to do a “Big Bang Theory” viewing of all the films in all their chronological order. Enjoy!
Shockingly, the original 1977 film, later subtitled Episode IV – A New Hope, followed by the sequels Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983), forming the original Star Wars trilogy are by far more superior and anything that followed have become more inferior in everyway.
This movie just like its more modern Star Wars series of movies – are more childish than the originals.
the original Star Wars trilogy is peak performance for that particular franchise.
Sad, but true.