So, I like Star Wars. Like, a lot.
Watched all of the numbered films more times than I'd care to admit, played most of the games, read about half of the books and quite a few of the comics for good measure. Hell, I've even seen the two Ewok movies.
There are obviously corners that I don't much care for, some of the books were dreadfully boring (which shouldn't be confused with stupidly fun, which quite a few more were) and there are of course the three films that didn't really feel like Star Wars. (The two Ewok films and Rogue One)
But the new trilogy? The new trilogy is doing well so far in my book.
The Force Awakens played it safe to allow for the room to introduce a new set of characters and factions (though not a lot of new ships..., something I care disproportionally about.)
The Last Jedi took that feeling of safety and smashed it into a thousand shiny pieces that then formed a mirror to the audience about hero worshipping and expectations. Which is a pretentious way of saying that I really liked it.
So all The Rise of Skywalker has to do is...
- Wrap up the primary conflicts from the new trilogy (First Order vs. Resistance, Past vs. Future)
- Round off the entire trilogy of trilogies in a satisfying manner
- Finally tell us who Rey's parents are already.
Except I don't really believe that second and third point, and I'd like to go through them in order.
1. Wrap up the trilogy
The trickiest film in a trilogy to get right is the last one. It has to ideally stand on its own, but also wrap up everything that came before. When done right it is ~automatically the best one in the trilogy, when it's done wrong it all just sort of falls flat. (A lot of people disliked The Matrix: Revolutions, for example. It worked for me.)Star Wars has been very good at finishing off trilogies so far. Return of the Jedi is my favourite original trilogy film by far (I know most of you prefer Empire, but it doesn't have an ending!) and Revenge of the Sith did very well to connect the two trilogies while also working on its own and as a finale to the prequel trilogy. (An aside about the prequel trilogies, fan expectations were impossible to meet. I really like the prequels, warts (and sand) and all.)
So now we have The Rise of Skywalker, which I really would rather prefer to be called Rise of the Skywalker to stick with the naming scheme of "R of the <something>", but whatever.
It's set up much in the same way the original trilogy was. The first film shows us a win for the heroes, the second film primarily has the villains win one, and now in this third film it should all come together for the heroes to triumph for good.
As long as they focus on the character work, which they've been excellent at so far, we should be fine. All we need is...
- Rey getting her showdown with Kylo Ren (and maybe a surprise big bad to face together)
- Poe coming to terms with being the right kind of hero
- Finn defeating the spectre of his past in the First Order (and maybe Phasma again?)
- Rose realising that she is allowed to be a hero
- Kylo Ren being redeemed
Five characters, five wrapped up character arcs. It shouldn't be too much to ask.
Ooh, and space battles. Give us the space battles!
Ooh, and space battles. Give us the space battles!
2. Wrap up ALL the trilogies
So, the creators have made it very clear that they intend for this to be "the big one that wraps it all up", part of that is hype nonsense of course, but part of that does feel like a sincere objective.And... well, I'm not sure we need that. Will it be fun to see the various confirmed recurring characters popping up on screen? Sure! But is that going to help any to get the aforementioned characters arcs finished off? I seriously doubt it. There is a LOT going on in each of these trilogies.
I'm really kind of worried that the desire to please everybody will hold back what should be the core intent of the film, telling a fulfilling story. Even... and this is hard to say for me, even if it means fewer space battles.
3. Rey's lineage
Of course the latest trailer had to drop a hint that this isn't over with the line "Rey: People keep telling me they know me..." so that people can once again obsess over what this means. I, for one, truly hope that this doesn't have anything to do with Rey's parents, and is instead more about the archetype that people (both in-universe and us as the audience) automatically put her into, and how that is wrong.Having Rey be a Skywalker, a Kenobi, a Palpatine, whatever, would undercut the entire message the new trilogy is trying to make. That legacy is important, but that it is in the past.
At least the stinger for the D23 trailer wasn't revisited again, meaning it's more likely to be the red herring that I dearly hope that it is.
So, what does this trailer set out to do? Aren't we all going to see this already anyway?
Is there really a point to teasing that "character X might die!" when people are already poised to go see it?
I appreciate that there is an art to trailers, and quite a lot of skill went into this latest (last! *dramatic gasp*) one, but I don't see the point to whipping the fanbase into a frenzy.
It's Star Wars, people will go see it. And I'll probably be first in line.
I think you brought up two really interesting questions. What *is* the point of a trailer? Obviously it’s to build hype. But this simplistic explanation kind of robs them of all artistic value. I don’t know, I think it’s kind of interesting to see the cinematic art as having extended outwards from the movie itself and leaning into expectation. The idea of like, a live screening, the communal anticipation — how are these things any different from the suspense of the first act of the film itself? Are they materially different than the recurring themes inside the boundaries of the actual film? And I muse all this as someone who doesn’t even engage in hype-culture (which is to say that I might not know what I’m talking about, but also that I’m not just trying to justify an activity I already enjoy).
ReplyDeleteSecond, the difficulties of what people want versus being a good story. These are often not the same things even though I suspect they are not quite as far apart as we think. The trick of good fan service is to give people what they want while also turning it into a good story. Or wait, no, maybe that’s not it. Maybe the trick is to know what people want and to so expertly subvert, toy with, or attend to their expectations that it’s even better than what they wanted, but that they feel “taken care of”. You didn’t just shirk their anticipations, but you said, yes, I know them, but wait — here is something better. Just give me a chance. And to signal that while also delivering a good film seems difficult. But I do wonder if there is a natural intrinsic story that this universe (to say nothing of the auteur behind it) wants to tell, and I am curious to see how audience expectations can muddle that, although I wonder, arguable, if it can alter that trajectory for the much, much better.
0) Yay, a comment! Thank you.
Delete1) I think there's definitely something to be said for the type of microstory a trailer is trying to tell beyond the marketing aspect of it. That only applies to good trailers, of course. Bad trailers just bash together the three best jokes and the fanciest explosion and call it a day.
2) I think the dynamic of how a piece of media is "allowed to" surprise an audience is shifting. If the ending to the Sopranos had happened today then I feel the backlash by people that weren't ready to accept an ambiguous ending would have overshadowed any praise for it.
Part of this is because vocal minorities have gotten more power to shout over general opinion, but I do feel there is an actual shift happening where people feel less comfortable to be challenged.