Reflections in the Force of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker now out in cinemas, I have been thinking about not only that film on its own but the overall sequel trilogy which consisted of this movie, The Last Jedi and the Force Awakens as a whole and how I feel about it now that the pieces of the puzzle are now in place and we can now see the story in 3 parts instead of just 2.

The Rise of Skywalker on its own was a very disappointing movie and the taste of it felt very bitter when it was over and as it got towards the end I just began to feel sad that this whole trilogy was going to end this way instead of the magnificent ending the original trilogy got with Return of the Jedi in 1983 and the good ending the prequel trilogy got with Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

And as many discuss Rise of Skywalker in the Twittum Realm and the Real World alike, I have increasingly turned my thoughts to the sequel trilogy as a whole and the Force is not with me this time.

For increasingly I feel now that the story of this trilogy has been fully told that Kathleen Kennedy and those in charge at Lucasfilm really had no idea what to do with this trilogy when she was anointed by George Lucas himself in 2012 when George sold Lucasfilm to Disney and Ms Kennedy was chosen to be his successor.

And look I can understand the decision by Disney not to use the treatments for 7, 8 and 9 that George gave them in that sale as I’m certain many had the feeling that the Prequel Trilogy was unpopular, George was very much hated by the fans for those Prequel films and his constant tinkering with the original trilogy while also denying fans a properly restored unaltered original trilogy to go with the revised versions which when adding in his stubborn and inflexible attitude can lead you to why Disney went the direction they did.

But herein lies the problem George for all of his faults and for all of the many faults of the Prequel Trilogy at the very least sat down and had a clear idea of where that trilogy was going and the story those 3 films were going to tell which was essentially the backstory of the original films which Sir Alec Guiness told us all about so memorably in the original Star Wars film.

Same with the original trilogy, George had this crazy idea in his head for a 1930s/40s style Republic Serial movie that thanks to those like Steven Spielberg and Alan Ladd Jr who was running 20th Century Fox when the original film was being made stuck it through and created at that time the biggest movie in history that was ahead of its time and when you got to Empire and Jedi and others came in like Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand and Lawrence Kasdan to take over directing and writing duties there was still a strong sense of cohesion and continuity that makes that trilogy feel like a one big movie told in 3 parts as well as those 2 films now becoming the standard those like it at the time had to reach and that wasn’t easy.

Disney meanwhile just didn’t do that work at all and reflecting back it increasingly feels like they had an idea for one movie (The Force Awakens) and then another movie (The Last Jedi) and then were left with really nothing to think of for the third film (Colin Trevorrow of Jurassic World was going to do it but he ended up being fired and his script was thrown in the bin which left JJ having to start from complete scratch and put a movie out in 2 years.)

Now let’s go back to those previous 2 films as on their own they actually work pretty well, The Force Awakens sets a tone of fun adventure in the style of the original film and borrows very heavily from it while the Last Jedi changes that tone for a more realistic style where good and bad feel much more a shade of grey and goes for some very big and unexpected story and character choices that when melded together as a complete script sadly don’t show the clockwork precision of the writing in Looper and Knives Out.

And when you put the puzzle together it creates this image of a trilogy that was in constant search of a consistent story, idea, tone, vision and characters and their arcs; JJ had his version, Rian had his version and they just to me didn’t fit together at all and just act in reactive panic to each other:

- The Force Awakens going back to the structure and tone of the original Star Wars film to react against the Prequels

- The Force Awakens gets a lot of complaints for doing just that so here’s a new director in Rian Johnson who with the Last Jedi will go his own way with his own style and tone and vision that will subvert all expectations

- The Last Jedi’s subversion of expectations and the more real world tone divides and fractures the fan base so JJ now has to come back and do the same job he did with the Force Awakens all over again

And when you look at it that way you just see this jumping at shadows style of movie making that just does not work and could so easily have been avoided if Ms Kennedy had given the directive to JJ, Kasdan and Michael Arndt who wrote the first script for Force Awakens to come up with a blueprint plan for 7, 8 and 9 much like George had before he sold it off.

And this approach is known to work as the very same studio Walt Disney Pictures put out Avengers: Endgame this year and Avengers: Infinity War the year before, 2 movies that wrapped up 7 years of storytelling by bringing Thanos into the limelight, having all the heroes step up to try and stop him and then end the Infinity Saga in a way that leaves critics and fans satisfied and they fucking well did just that as Kevin Feige had a plan, a vision, a consistent tone all in his head and he hired the people he felt he could work with and trust with his children and who could execute his vision and barring a few missteps along the way they did that very thing.

Sorry to get a bit rambling and long winded with this column but it just felt like the way of the Force to sit down like this and confess into it but before I do wrap up this column fully we have to look forward which as Master Yoda says in Empire is difficult to see as always in motion is the future but I feel there are 2 big things Disney and Lucasfilm must do going forward.

First and foremost is that those in charge if they decide to commit to a new series of films after this have to sit down, come up with a treatment plan for 3 films and commit to that vision and stick with it otherwise we will just end up back where we started where we got a series of reactionary movies that really end up satisfying very few and causing the faith to be tested.

Second and last, I think Disney and Lucasfilm have to commit to doing a 4K restoration of the unaltered original trilogy which I know will be not an easy task given how adamant Lucas was that they never see the light of day again but I feel it has to be done as the fanbase is divided between those who only love the original films and those who love the broader saga and both versions being available will buy peace and bring balance to the Force, it sounds silly I know but this is how I feel.