This time around in the Star Wars universe, our heroes from the resistance learn that Emporer Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) of the Sith is indeed alive and has a huge fleet of destroyers hidden away on his home planet, the location of which is unknown. So Princess/General Leia (Carrie Fisher) sends out our heroes Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe (Oscar Isaac), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) to find said planet and defeat Palpatine before he can launch his fleet into space, because then their case would be lost. They soon embark on a wild goose chase through the galaxy, because to find the planet you first have to find some dagger, then a pathfinder, and only that will lead you to the planet.

Meanwhile in evil central, the First Order's emo leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is contacted by Palpatine, who offers him everything if only he destroys Rey. But as seen in past episodes, Kylo is rather fond of Rey and would rather rule the universe with her than to see her die. So he goes after her to try to persuade her to go with him on a mission to destroy Palpatine and take his place. So basically, our heroes go on a wild goose chase and Kylo Ren goes on a wild goose chase after them, and ultimately, when Rey finds the pathfinder, Kylo Ren destroys it and then offers her to take her to Palpatine's planet if she'll eventually share the Emperor's throne with him. But the two only start to fight until Kylo Ren telepathically gets the message that his mother, Leia, has died, and when he loses concentration for one second, Rey is whisked away by her friends.

With no pathfinder, our heroes' mission was a failure of course, and Rey sets off to Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) planet to become a hermit like he did - but then the ghost of Luke appears to her and gives her a pathfinder, and the fight is on again. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren is visited by the ghost of his father, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who persuades him to renounce evil.

The resistance storms Palpatine's planet, but soon they have to find out there are too few of them to destroy Palpatine's fleet - until Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) arrives with an unorganized fleet of spaceships from all over the galaxy that vastly outnumber and eventually destroy the evil fleet. Meanwhile, Rey goes to face Palpatine - whose granddaughter she has turned out to be by the way. Palpatine offers Rey his evil empire if only she kills him - which oddly enough is what she has come to do, but now she refuses and he prepares to kill her ... when Kylo Ren arrives, and the two of them are strong enough to destroy Palpatine - but it costs Rey's life. Yet Kylo Ren is a good guy now so he uses his force to heal her, even if it kills him. And the universe is saved, and Chewbacca gets his medal that was refused him in the very first Star Wars (really).

Now this is by no means great narrative cinema - as truth to be told none of the Star Wars movies were - but it's a well-told simplistic fairy tale that's rather perfectly structured and paced to keep the tension high most of the time and that places its spectacle well inside the story rather than the story being a hanger for spectacle scenes. That said, the film also has its downsides, like all the characters are just paperthin, some of the dialogue leans dangerously towards kitsch, and the plot fails to really surprise. That said, it might not be a masterpiece, and there will be endless debates if it was a worthy final film of the third trilogy, but it's certainly an enjoyable piece of strictly mainstream cinema that at least knows how to entertain.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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