The Rise of Skywalker Earns 4 Stars! Has “Star Wars Heart” (Spoiler Free Review)

by Ray Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

December 21, 2019

DisneyBizJournal.com Movie Rating: 4 stars out of 5

DisneyBizJournal.com Box Office Rating:  $$$$ out of $$$$

When I was growing up and the Star Wars-vs.-Star Trek battle raged, I ranked as a Trek fan. However, while still appreciating Star Trek – particularly the Kirk, Spock and McCoy relationship in the original series and related movies – I gradually have become much more of a Star Wars than a Star Trek fan. Why? I came to an answer only recently. In the end, Star Wars has more heart than Star Trek. And yes, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has plenty of “Star Wars heart.”

So, what’s “Star Wars heart”? Well, in the lingo of “The Force,” it’s a feeling emerging from a combination of joy, adventure, courage, determination, optimism, humor, a willingness to sacrifice, and hope, along with characters who moviegoers come to love.

After Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which suffered from a severe shortage of “Star Wars heart,” many people wondered if Star Wars could bounce back with The Rise of Skywalker. Director J.J. Abrams and the film’s cast pulled it off in stellar fashion. The Rise of Skywalker is a worthy end to the nine-movie, three-trilogies Skywalker tale. (Not, of course, the end of Star Wars stories.)

As for the reviewers who either didn’t like The Rise of Skywalker, or found it middling or uneven, I struggle wondering what movie they wound up watching. Because it certainly wasn’t the film I saw and thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe each of those less-than-pleased critics had a bad day, or perhaps they don’t like epic films that excel in storytelling (including some needed repairs after The Last Jedi), visual effects, emotional power, drama, and humor.

And unlike the character mess in The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker stays true to and advances each character, which should be appreciated by Star Wars fans and filmgoers in general

Quite simply, to not like The Rise of Skywalker is to not like a great time at the movies.

As for the box office numbers, things look strong for Star Wars and Disney, with the opening box office tally as of Friday, December 20 (i.e., opening day), registering $149 million globally.

So, grab the popcorn (check out the cool souvenir popcorn bucket I picked up at an AMC theater) and a cool drink, and enjoy Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And when you get a chance, go see it again. That’s my plan.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of The Disney Planner 2020: The TO DO List Solution and the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

Before Succumbing to Dark Side Reviews of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”

by Ray Keating

DisneyBizJournal.com

December 18, 2019

But for the most extreme cases, I never put much stock in the opinions of movie critics. That’s worth keeping in mind before seeing Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

I haven’t seen the movie yet. That’s scheduled for Saturday afternoon. And yes, after seeing the film, I will write my own review. But whether it be my review or any other, it’s always best to see the movie for yourself, and formulate your own views.

And that piece of common sense might be more important when seeing a Star Wars film more so than any other movie. Why? It seems pretty clear to me that movie critics – and I’m generalizing here – tend not to “get” Star Wars. How can I make such an assertion?

Well, consider that the RottenTomatoes.com aggregated critics score for Star Wars: The Last Jedi was 91 percent. And that was for the worstStar Warsfilm EVER MADE. Therefore, when glancing at a RottonTomatoes.com score of 57 percent (as of this afternoon) from critics for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, I am heartened. 

Indeed, consider the following comment from Ryan Parker at The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s amazing. Last Jedi haters will be very pleased.” Yes! Bring on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker!

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of The Disney Planner 2020: The TO DO List Solution and the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.

Star Wars and JJ: Daunting Story and Box Office Challenges

by Ray Keating

Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

October 18, 2019

J.J. Abrams faces some big challenges with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which will hit theaters on December 20^th.  Is he ready? Well, according to an Entertainment Weekly report, Abrams declared, “We went into this thing knowing it has to be an ending. We’re not screwing around.”

Abrams faces the monumental task of wrapping up the nine-movie Star Wars Skywalker saga that began in 1977, and has become a cultural icon. EW also quoted Abrams, co-writer and director of The Rise of Skywalker, saying, “Endings are the thing that scare me the most.” Yeah, I bet.

But Abrams’ job was made far more difficult given that the eighth entry in the Skywalker series – Star Wars: The Last Jedi – has become so universally, well, hated. And quite frankly, justifiably so. The Last Jedi director and writer Rian Johnson turned out to be the exact wrong man for the job. It’s clear that he failed to understand key Star Wars characters – most glaringly, Luke Skywalker – and other story choices were made that made little sense. (For example, why were Rose and Finn off doing what they were doing? And the space ship chase made sense how? And Leia survived what? And Luke was where? You get the idea. Ugh.)

As a result, J.J. must do triple duty with The Rise of Skywalker in terms of the story. First, he has to satisfactorily close out the Skywalker tale spanning eight previous films. He also must deal with finishing specifics to this final trilogy. And he has to somehow repair at least some of the damage Johnson did. No wonder Abrams admitted to being a bit scared.

In turn, his work on the story obviously feeds into the box office. It’s kind of interesting to note that every Star Wars movie was a box office success, until the most recent one – Solo: A Star Wars Story. So, The Last Jedi, which, for example, serves up a miserable audience score on RottenTomatoes.com of 44 percent, still raked in an incredible $1.3 billion at the box office. However, Solo, while scoring notably higher, though still not great, with audiences at 64 percent on RottenTomatoes.com, wound up losing money, pulling in a box office gross of only $393 million. (See our postmortem on Solo: A Star Wars Story and related issues.) It’s like fans went to see The Last Jedi more than once, just to make sure they didn’t like it, and then decided not to bother with Solo at all. (By the way, the more I watch Solo, the more I like; and the more I watch The Last Jedi, the more it dislike it.)

So, J.J. Abrams – and therefore, of course, Disney – faces formidable story and business challenges. The longtime Star Wars fan in me is rooting hard for Abrams to pull it all off (and yes, the trailers have me excited). The analyst in me is cautiously optimistic.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.