Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

This saga which began in 1977 ends now with episode nine, unless you’re cynical... but as a saga it’s no spoiler to say that it is complete. It seems weirdly resonant that a little science-fiction film that was the weird imagining of young George Lucas would turn into a four-decade long cinematic epic that would dominate the director’s reputation; weird that he would be feted for a while; weird that he would upset some people enough for them to make a film called The People Versus George Lucas; and weird that when the whole lot was sold to Disney for $4.2bn, they would fire creatives at the drop of a hat before letting Rian Johnson make an episode which alienated a lot of people who weren’t already disenchanted with the whole thing.

Making a Star Wars film is a trick that few people would master, and maybe someone will one day write about why, and about fan feelings has to be balanced with the need to sell as many tickets as possible. It’s a saga that began with a farm-boy discovering the galaxy around him and immediately becoming involved in the Rebellion against a dictatorial empire, led apparently by an evil man called Darth Vader. Vader wasn’t the worst villain though, and to find out how he was manipulated to become so apparently nasty led to the prequels... and a weird thing is happening because ultimately people are growing up having seen those films as kids, and decided that they’re actually okay. So Lucas might have “destroyed” people’s childhoods, but he did so in the service of making something memorable for a new generation. And the tinkering with his original movies has actually led, more or less, to a coherent visual look which is really essential for such a lengthy story.

The trouble was that telling more story went against people’s imagination. We never, possibly, needed to know how the Death Star plans were originally (although Rogue One was awesome), and it wasn’t really necessary to learn Han Solo’s history (although yes to Lando!). And Rian Johnson is an auteur director who puts his own spin on a franchise, and Star Wars is not an art movie thing. It is a story about family and friendship and staying together; it’s about a character’s individual potential in a vast universe; and it’s about a great struggle between good and evil, between dark and light. And much as I love JJ Abrams as a director, I fear a lot of people think that he’s a film-maker fan who just delves into the Star Wars paintbox and throws it at the wall. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing that, in fact it’s great, but in this movie he has delved back into some of the key Jedi storyline from Episode I and II, as well as the original trilogy. He has also neatly swerved around The Last Jedi (which I still love, by the way) and the sad death of Carrie Fisher.

And what comes out at the end is a film that delves into the light and dark within Rey (Daisy Ridley). The trilogy is about her and her relationship with The Force, which she has within her in abundance. There are some moments in the film where her fight with the power within her is stark and palpably moving. She wants to take on her situation alone (as Luke did in Empire Strikes Back) but the film’s big theme is staying together and uniting in the hope of success. In a brisk opening which takes us straight into the conflict, the temptation is to try and keep track rather than just sitting back and letting fresh Star Wars was over you. It is so much fun! Rey’s relationship with Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) is super-fun. But of course Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is the element of “Reylo” that needs to resolve and do so in a satisfying way. It does.

The genuine lightness and fun banter between Poe and Finn is a welcome part of the sheer joy of having all these characters together. You get the sense that they’ve been around and had a few laughs and adventures, and we don’t have to see that stuff, although Poe’s reputation around some seedy locations powers the plot very nicely. The film shifts between this and Rey’s struggle with the Dark Side as a new enemy emerges. The First Order are really in the hands of Dark agents and - as in Star Wars - it’s a bit of a bizarre “confidence and supply” thing.

Crucially Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver are exceptional together, and all the theories that arose from the various trailers are not all entirely correct. What is so good about these final three films is that they have used the themes of dark and light to come up with two characters whose conflict is something new and interesting in Star Wars. While a lot of it is about space battles and sticking together and being nice to droids, there has been new dramatic material and it is, at its best, engaging and interesting.

And the rest is for the fans! I’ve heard people talk about “fan service” as if it’s a bad thing, but the niche references and cameos, to say nothing of the final correction of a forty year old mis-step, is part of the big thing about this film: it is for the fans who’ve stuck with this series, whose life has been enriched by it. Many big films these days are plotted and planned in detail, and they’re great sagas that run to dozens of films. They all exist because this particular cinematic saga did it first, did it different, and ended up doing it right.