It’s simply the most emotional and dramatic film in the entire Star Wars franchise. A solid “A” rating. All I can say is get your tickets as fast as you can and don’t believe the fake fan boys who are adolescents and flooding the internet with negative reviews.
The key to success for this next installment of the franchise that opened world wide today, was always going to be: what questions will be answered?
Would we finally know from where Rey came?
The trailer shows Rey and Kylo Ren engaged in multiple lightsaber battles. Would there finally be a victor, a resolution, no matter how baked in tragedy?
J.J. Abrams returned to direct, as he did on “The Force Awakens,” so would this be more than a mashup of the original trilogy? Don’t worry; Abrams comes through in delicious fashion with new, cute little creatures and cinematography.
Sure, there are all the marvelous gas flare explosions with hundreds of imbedded flashes, but the costumes and set design look plain, how we like it. “The Phantom Menace” was too Milan-runway like with those yellow planes and everything-made-of-marble structures. Towers too phallic, too.
I’m fine with seeing a rebel shoulder armband and thinking, wow, that’s some spray painted plastic fakeness right there. This war happened a long time ago, remember. (The distance of the galaxy to us isn’t relevant in terms of technological advancements.)
Did I cry? The answer is yes. Don’t judge — a lot of my reality has been lived through these now nine feature films.
Not every fan saw the movie in as favorable of a light as me.
“Today’s ‘Star Wars’ movies are much like today’s Jedis: they can do literally anything and you will buy it. The real hero of the Star Wars franchise is John Williams,” Bill Perry said after watching the motion picture.
He’s at least correct concerning Williams. The best score producer in Hollywood instantly gives any movie audio luxury.
Another huge component in this film was the emergence of the female leader. Rey and other women were quite capable of, I don’t know, running, planning, battling, thinking, eating — all without help. Crazy. Even the trailers showcased female heroes in Mulan and Wonder Woman (don’t get me started on how amazing that new movie looks, set in 1984.
Daisy Ridley should get an Oscar nod — don’t care if it’s within a space opera; she was absolutely brilliant.
There’s an obligation for every film critic (they would be ‘remiss in their duties’ otherwise) to talk about the cultural significance of “Star Wars.” Older generations will reminisce about going to see “Star Wars: A New Hope” in 1977. I’m in that same lot.
In the spring of 1999, my friends and I camped out all night in full costume at the Cinemark movie theater in Wooster, to ensure we’d get tickets to the first showing of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.” A reporter from The Daily Record interviewed us as we were first in line. We teenagers had nothing better to do than to choreograph lightsaber duels as the bugs smacked off the bright white security lights surrounding the cinder-block-built building. (Say that five times fast.)
Most critics have not responded well to the film. “Rise of Skywalker” was hovering just over 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the Redditors were absolutely losing their crybaby minds this morning. There are plenty of micro things to pick apart, sure. But I’d argue that’s more about your personality than the movie. One of the main characters of this saga is a Wookiee, so try to keep things in perspective.
Listen, you will either like the film or you won’t. But don’t decide before you get there. It’s a “Star Wars” film made by Disney in 2019. You know that. We all have that one relative that, no matter what they do, they ain’t gonna have a good time.
“The ice cream is too cold.” Even Darth Vader doesn’t want you to be that person.
Source Media film critic Adam “Doc” Fox has been in the credits of “45365,” that won the Grand Jury prize at SXSW Film Festival. Fox attended Sundance and was in the credits for “Western,” and the same for “Contemporary Color” at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC.
Fox will be at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, for the premiere of “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.”
