REVIEW: STAR WARS-THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (2019)

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (2019)

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The Rise of Skywalker is the ninth and supposedly final chapter in the Star Wars saga, or at least the Skywalker family involvement in it. It takes place a year after The Last Jedi with the galaxy horrified at a signal sent out claiming to be that of the Emperor himself, Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). The Sith lord has amassed a fleet of Star Destroyers, all with Death Star-like cannons and plans to take over the galaxy once and for all. Now Rey (Daisy Ridley) must bring to bare all her Jedi powers and find a Sith device that will lead the rebels to where Palpatine and his doomsday fleet are hiding, to strike them before they can deploy. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and his Knights of Ren are in pursuit and rebellion heroes Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Isaac), Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) along with General Organa (Carrie Fisher) and the legendary Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) must somehow unite a galaxy against this overwhelming threat.

This final chapter is written and directed by J.J. Abrams (The Force Awakens, Star Trek) who co-wrote the script with Chris Terrio. As you can tell by the plot synopsis, this is an overloaded mess, but it’s an action-packed and entertaining one. It is still an improvement over the lackluster retread that was The Force Awakens and more fun than the moody Last Jedi. What will really irritate hardcore Star Wars fans is Abrams takes a lot of liberties here with the mythos, giving new force powers whenever he’s written himself into a corner, like Rey having healing powers and Palpatine able to drop fleets of ships out of the sky with his fingertips. We also have yet another doomsday weapon…or fleet of them…that can easily be stopped by blowing something up. Will the Empire ever learn? Speaking of which, when Palpatine re-emerges, the First Order seems to just disappear like a small company being absorbed out of existence in a corporate merger. Suddenly everyone, except for a vengeful Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), seems to now work for The Emperor. The flick also jumps from one place and adventure to another very quickly as Rey tries to find her way to a lair that Palpatine wants her to come to all along. Why not just send her an invite with a nice fruit basket? A lot of it seems to be made up as it goes along, though it’s not an unpleasant ride. First off, we are all pretty endeared to the new characters and Abrams does let us visit the classic characters one more time. Also, there is a lot of spectacular action and it might be the most visually impressive Star Wars flick yet, with so many worlds and characters to visit. It’s a fun 142 minutes, even if you will be scratching your head at times as to where it’s all headed and if you are inflexibly loyal to the classic canon, you might be in for a rough ride. At least the very last scene does sentimentally provide a nice farewell, yet also hints that maybe we haven’t seen the last of Rey, now that her involvement in the Skywalker saga is at an end.

There is a big cast here. Daisy Ridley has really grown into Rey and it would be fun to see her strike out in her own series of adventures now free of this storyline. Ridley is charming and likable and can exude a strength that make her ascension to powerful Jedi believable. Issac and Boyega are good as her rebel buds Poe and Finn and there is a bit of a rivalry between the three that was fun, though underdeveloped. Driver is once again good as the conflicted Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, though his story thread didn’t end with the impact it should have, especially during the very convoluted final confrontation. We get to see Carrie Fisher (unused footage from the previous installments), Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and even Billy Dee Williams again in various incarnations and it was nice to see the classics one more time. If one thing Rise of Skywalker gets right is all the nods to the previous films. We even get some Ewoks. As for new characters, most go underdeveloped and were unnecessary at this point…spin-offs maybe?…but at least Kelly Marie Tran got some better dialogue as Rose and seemed more sturdy in a somewhat abbreviated role. There are also some vocal cameos, see if you can catch them all.

Overall, chapter nine is a bloated mess of a series finale, though one that still manages to dazzle and entertain. The story is convoluted from the beginning and sometimes seems made up as it goes along. It is filled with some spectacular action and eye-popping visuals and it’s final frames are satisfying as a goodbye to this classic series. Now as Rey was one of the best things to come out of this sequel trilogy, maybe she can strike out with her own adventures, the character deserves more attention and Ridley could certainly carry her own flicks. As a whole, this trilogy disappointed and did not give us the send-off to the classic characters that we wanted, but there was some spectacular action along the way and we did get some new characters worthy of their own adventures, or at least a Disney streaming series.

-MonsterZero NJ

  3 (out of 4) Millenium Falcons.

 

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TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: NIGHTHAWKS (1981)

NIGHTHAWKS (1981)

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Nighthawks is a flick that has some nostalgic importance to me as I saw it at the long gone Rialto Theater in Ridgfield Park, N.J. which, at the time, was a block away from my home. It’s also a pretty good movie with some gritty NYC atmosphere and tackled the subject of terrorism on U.S. soil years before it would become an actual concern.

Story has two loose cannon New York City cops, Deke DaSilva (Sylvester Stallone) and partner Matthew Fox (Billy Dee Williams), being transferred into a new anti-terrorist unit headed by British operative Peter Hartman (Nigel Davenport). Their first objective is to track down a vicious international terrorist, who goes by the name Wulfgar (Rutger Hauer) and who may be headed for the Big Apple for his next strike. Despite not quite seeing eye to eye with Davenport’s methods, DaSilva and Fox have bigger problems to worry about when the merciless Wulfgar indeed shows up in the city and starts his reign of terror. Can the two NYC cops stop this stone cold killer before he brings the world’s greatest city to it’s knees?

This 1981 action flick still feels very 70s as directed by Bruce Malmuth from David Shaber’s script. It does have that gritty, backstreet NYC vibe and that goes a long way in making this enjoyable. It has that 70s style such as a police chief who shouts everything he says (the late, great Joe Spinell), a few disco scenes and a very Serpico-esque hero in the bearded and ear-ringed DaSilva. There are some nice action and chase sequences, though nothing groundbreaking and the film really makes good use of the film’s NYC locations. That and we get a strong villain for our heroes to try to bring down and with that, you have a recipe for a really good thriller. What holds Nighthawks back from being on a higher level, closer to something like French Connection, or at least The Seven-Ups, is a weak script and rumored studio interference that edited out some important character development, such as the relationship with Deke and his estranged wife (Lindsay Wagner), who is hardly in the finished film. Apparently some of the violence was edited down as well, to please an MPAA who was very strict at this time due to some of the slasher film backlash. The result is a film that moves almost too quickly for it’s own good and lacks some real meat in-between the bare bones. DaSilva and Fox track down Wulfgar basically due to a plot convenience and a ‘hunch’ instead of demonstrating the detective skills and street savvy the characters were supposedly chosen for…then you blink and the film is at it’s climactic set piece. Also, after being portrayed as a total badass early on, DaSilva suddenly becomes hesitant when faced with the terrorist in earlier confrontations. Doesn’t quite jell without a bit more backstory. Obviously, production issues effected this film, from the original director (Gary Nelson) being fired, to rumored tension between Stallone and Hauer, to the hatchet editing job by the studio and reportedly by Stallone, too. The result is a fun action flick instead of the well-rounded thriller with a lot more substance that the filmmakers supposedly set out to make. On the plus side, there is some atmospheric cinematography of old NYC by James Contner and a fitting score by ELP’s Keith Emerson to give the film some needed mood.*

The film has a good cast. Stallone is Stallone as DaSilva and it would have been nice to see excised footage that may have made this a meatier role for him. His military record is briefly mentioned, but there are hints it played a larger role with DaSilva’s character. Billy Dee is solid as Fox, but is basically a sidekick and we really don’t get much character development on him, either. Hauer is really effective as Wulfgar and his performance overcomes having some of his character development edited down as well. Davenport is the tough as nails as the director of the A.T.A.C. and he makes a good foil/mentor for Stallone’s rebellious DaSilva. Lindsay Wagner is long suffering/estranged wife, Irene and gets far too little screen time to make an impact, but serves her purpose well enough. Joe Spinell is dead-on as the gruff NYC police chief who seems to be drinking way too much caffeine and Persis Khambatta makes for a suitable cold killer as an associate of Wulfgar’s named Skakka.

I like this flick, but do wish a director’s cut would surface one day, so we could find out if the studio and star re-editing saved or hurt the movie we got. There was also violence removed to satisfy the MPAA which may have hurt some of the flick’s intensity, too. It’s still a fun, nostalgic action movie about a dirty, grimy, crime-ridden NYC, before the city got it’s act together in the 90s, and and features Stallone in a more human role before the success of Rocky III and First Blood would turn him into a larger than life character, for the rest of the 80s. There is also some personal sentimentality attached, but overall it’s a good Saturday night trip back to 80s NYC that is still worth taking.

-MonsterZero NJ

*(Additional information concerning production details as per Nighthawks‘ Wikipedia page)

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