Now that tension has been cooled to a low simmer, all the better to make room for a bunch of lackadaisical lightsaber duels.
The psychic connection between these two, tinged with destiny and even a hint of attraction, was a major invention from the last movie. Will this new First Order prevail? Scarfaced Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) tear-asses around in his TIE fighter, less a sullenly rejected partner than back on his villainous business Rey (Daisy Ridley, thirsty for dramatic opportunities that never materialise) continues her rock-levitation practice. Right from the start, you feel the soft reboot: ghostly zombie destroyers rise up out of a planet’s dirt, not quite vanquished. It feels like a massive retrenchment – privately, a rebellion seems to have been fought and lost – and only the most loyal fans will be happy about it.
‘The Rise of Skywalker’ marks the return of a plodding dullness, the kind that George Lucas peddled with his second trilogy, laden with pointless plot curlicues, witless imperial intrigue and boring heroism. Now Abrams the droid is back, scurrying around to clean up those untidy messes that made things interesting for a parsec. But Rian Johnson’s follow-up, ‘The Last Jedi’ (2017), executive-produced by Abrams, was something else entirely, subversive and churning with dark emotions. Abrams’s ‘The Force Awakens’ (2015) was a pitch-perfect summoning of old magic: thrilling and nostalgic, even if the trick remained stubbornly unimaginative.
He revived this brand from his childhood memories, unarchiving it from his data banks and dutifully projecting it, just like Artoo does with Leia’s hologram in the 1977 original. ‘Never underestimate a droid,’ we hear several times in the new ‘Star Wars’ – and why would you? For the most part, droids are hard-headed, sturdy companions, opening doors at the last minute with a minimum of beepy fuss.
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