WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, in theaters now.
The concluding chapter of the nine-part Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, has met with a decidedly mixed reception, with many finding it a satisfying ending, while others were disappointed by what ended up on-screen. That's to be expected, as even critically lauded Star Wars films divide the fanbase. However, with The Rise of Skywalker following the controversial eighth film, The Last Jedi, the audience is only further fragmented.
The Last Jedi actively ignored what fandom wanted, which runs in accordance with director Rian Johnson's typical desire to subvert expectations. This has been a thread running through career. When applying this subversive style to noir (Brick), science fiction (Looper) and whodunnit mystery (Knives Out), audiences and critics alike have adored it. Yet this same approach, when applied to Star Wars, only led to controversy. That's because many Star Wars fans have a particular vision of what they want the franchise to be, and anything contradicting that is bad in their eyes.
However, as The Rise of Skywalker proves, maybe fans getting what they want isn't always a good thing. Perhaps they need to be challenged by having their heroes deconstructed. Perhaps Star Wars, in its future, needs Rian Johnson -- or, at the very least, needs directors like him.
The Greatest Teacher Failure Is
Fans want to see their heroes win. They want to see an epic confrontation between good and evil. Fans of the prequels like it when Jedi fight with their lightsabers, even when it adds little to the narrative. Yoda and Palpatine didn't need to have a lightsaber duel at the end of Revenge of the Sith, but it happened anyway. The Jedi's fight with Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace while mind-blowing does little to resolve the conflict of the actual film.
In The Last Jedi, Johnson uses conflict as a means to make the situation direr. Every flashy scene pushes the plot forward, but it pushes it in a way that makes it more clear the heroes are in over their heads. Holdo lightspeed ramming those ships? It's beautiful and epic, but it also leaves the Resistance vulnerable. The Kylo/Rey fight against Snoke's guards? That's a crowd-pleaser, but it also ends with Kylo Ren leading the First Order.
In every fight, there was some risk. And, as Yoda puts it in The Last Jedi, "The greatest teacher failure is." Every character learned from their failure, no matter how severe it may be.
There is plenty of fights in The Rise of Skywalker that are intended to entertain fans of action, but they add precious little. Chewie dying? Oh, no, he's fine. Wait, a planet blew up? Oh, no, don't worry, all the relevant characters on the planet escaped. Hold on, Palpatine electrocuted every ship in the sky? Oh no, none of the characters fans liked died. Don't worry. It's a lot of style, but we never get that substantial loss.
Tossing Out Lightsabers
Everything in Star Wars has become cultural mythology. Lightsabers are these holy relics, of sorts. In The Force Awakens, Maz Katana giving Rey the legacy lightsaber becomes this glorified passing of the torch added to the fact that the weapon, apparently, can trigger visions in her brain. This is seen as the lightsaber calling to her. In The Last Jedi, Luke tosses that lightsaber over his shoulder like it doesn't matter. From film to film, it goes to "holy relic" to unimportant trash.
This is a terrific decision. As The Last Jedi argues, characters like Luke Skywalker are elevated into myth when they probably shouldn't be. Luke is treated like a messiah by everyone around him -- both in and out of the fandom -- yet he really did precious little in the original trilogy to merit this reputation. He is a Jedi, yes, who does defeat Darth Vader and helps bring Anakin to the light. However, Palpatine easily overpowers him with Force Lightning in Return of the Jedi. He makes little impact in any of his major battles -- save for the destruction of the Death Star in A New Hope. What Johnson proved is that the legend of heroics and the reputation surrounding them are always larger than the reality. Luke wins the final battle of The Last Jedi not with strength, but with wisdom. The lightsaber doesn't matter. The idea of it, however, does.
Compare that to how Luke catches the lightsaber in The Rise of Skywalker. Now, obviously, this is Luke after emerging from his depressive funk from The Last Jedi, but him catching the lightsaber is a pretty heavy counter to the irreverent tone established in the last film. In addition, the idea of legacy plays a huge role in this film. Palpatine is the legacy of the past brought back almost like a God of Evil. He literally has a cult that worships him, both inside the First Order and on his own planet of Exogol. Rey isn't just some scrapper, but, rather, a thousand generations live inside her. Everything is elevated to mythic status, which feels, strangely enough, expected.
"No One Cares About Your Snoke Theory"
When Kylo Ren kills Snoke in The Last Jedi, he takes the plot in a very different direction than audiences expected. Many thought Snoke would end up serving the role of Palpatine in the sequel trilogy, and that the whole franchise would build up to him being the final bad guy. But that wasn't the case didn't, and that's great because the person who became the real big bad is the far more nuanced, emotionally complex villain, Kylo Ren.
Fans spent years speculating who Snoke actually was, but, ultimately, Johnson determined that the potential a character served was less important than the role they practically served in the plot. He chose, rather than spend time speculating who a person could be, to just make them who they are: an evil jerk who helps push the development of the better characters.
Furthermore, Rey's family was a mystery with a deliberately disappointing answer: she wasn't important. She came from nothing. That was difficult for audiences and Rey to hear because it wasn't what anyone wanted. It forced people to grapple with the idea that a hero could come from nothing. You didn't need to have a pre-existing tie to the narrative to be relevant in it. However, in The Rise of Skywalker, as though to calm down the fans who were disappointed by this deliberately disappointing twist, we learn Rey is the grand-daughter of Palpatine. While it is a shocking twist, fans expected her to be related to someone major in the franchise. We already had the twist that the hero was related to a huge villain in The Empire Strikes Back, so this feels familiar enough for fans to accept. Which also gives it less impact.
Johnson understood that fans expected certain things to happen. By deliberately not delivering on those things, he forced fans to reconsider what they wanted. Because, ultimately, The Last Jedi is one of the best Star Wars films in the Disney Era. It approaches tough themes: the idea of legacy, mythologizing your heroes and building off of failure. The Rise of Skywalker is by no means a bad film at all -- and fans deserve fan-service fun once in a blue moon. However, we also need films that challenge us. Star Wars needs more Rian Johnsons in its galaxy.
Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant.