Tom Jolliffe on whether audiences are sleepwalking into the latest and possibly final Star Wars instalment…
Christmas is almost upon us. The Christmas ‘event’ movie is something that has historically drawn crowds with some years proving more enticing than others. The three year run of Lord Of The Rings proved exciting and something of a genuine event. More recently Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a film greeted with absolutely huge excitement and fanfare. The return of a dormant franchise looking to right some of the wrongs of the prequels which failed to please the fans who grew up with the original trilogy.
Sure Star Wars is a huge money making machine but something seems to have happened of late, and this comes in conjunction with the changing cinematic landscape. Star Wars, at least as a movie entity, stopped being fun. The backlash for The Last Jedi sapped that feeling of unity from a being a Star Wars fun, and it became a pitched, near political divide from both sides of an argument, but most vociferously from the naysayers who felt the film shat on George Lucas’s legacy and their own ideas of what Star Wars should be about. The spinoff movies felt like those that saw them went out of some kind of obligatory routine more than a fervent passion to see them. With a spinoff, that’s sort of understandable, but something feels odd about The Rise of Skywalker.
Maybe in that internet battleground that saw Rian Johnson defending his film with a heavy sigh against such classics as ‘The Last Jedi needs to be reshot entirely’ the vitriol and hyperbole of a minority caring far too much has seen a general lull in the rest of us caring much at all. The most fevered passion with Star Wars existed in the 70’s and 80’s. In the 90’s Star Wars returned (whilst many adults hated The Phantom Menace) gaining a young audience who have since grown up with fond memories.
Cinema has changed though. Far more than ever before, the blockbuster landscape is disposable. Star Wars might attract young fans still, but there’s not that same fever as before. The box office returns on the last of the current trilogy have fallen below expectations and tracking. Daft as it might sound when it’s cranking huge numbers, are they huge enough? What of next weekends drops and beyond? The Last Jedi couldn’t keep pace with its predecessor, in part because of that divide. In a touch of irony, whilst fans at the most passionate end, hated The Last Jedi with a passion and critics loved it, it would seem the opposite has been true this time (to an extent). Reviews are largely mediocre, bar some watching through a forgiving nostalgic haze, but fans seem generally to be pleased with a film that’s almost apologetic.
Bad reviews won’t particularly keep people from going, but perhaps that first wave of passion that we re-encountered in 2015 with The Force Awakens has died down slightly (in fact the film almost feels forgotten). The grown adults, who might have outgrown this kind of film but made a nostalgic revisit because it was Star Wars, may have had their fill. Two films on (four, if you count the asides) and do people care that much? I know people seeing it because it’s Star Wars but as a point of routine, of obligation almost. Younger audiences now will forget a film quicker. ‘Next!’ Nothing now can have the same legacy as Star Wars once had. Even Marvel seems a relentless and perpetually revitalising engine which offers quick appeasement to be replaced by the next. Will people passionately recount the Avengers in 20 years? Or by that time it may have been remade.
It would seem a particular point was made with Rise of Skywalker, to bring the recipe back to its most palatable and easily consumed. Lacking in auteur vision and singularity and opting for safety by numbers without risks. This isn’t even as a defence of Johnson’s film which was unnecessarily blasé about Star Wars lore and apart from anything, a sloppy film, but still, some of those risks at least injected a personality to proceedings. For critics casting an analytical eye this has crossed disappointingly far too much to the opposite of the last film, and without even the cohesion of the safe as houses Force Awakens. Ultimately, the film will be successful but without instilling as much excitement as the franchise historically has. From every uninspiring trailer up to release, a big opening seemed inevitable without necessarily feeling fiercely anticipated. The Rise of Skywalker could well ‘Meh’ its way to well over a billion dollars… but that’s a Disney monopolised cinema these days.
Tom Jolliffe is an award winning screenwriter and passionate cinephile. He has several features due out on DVD/VOD in 2019/2020, including Cyber Bride and Scarecrow’s Revenge both available on Prime. Find more info at the best personal site you’ll ever see here.
Originally published December 24, 2019. Updated November 29, 2022.
