"Let the final battle...begin."

"Taking one last look, sir, at my friends."  

C-3PO, The Rise of Skywalker 

"This will be the final word in the story of Skywalker."  

Emperor Palpatine, The Rise of Skywalker

When Karli and I invited her sister Stefanie to join us on Boxing Day to see The Rise of Skywalker, she initially wasn't sure if she wanted to attend or not, but finally decided to come, commenting that, "...the upside of the movie is participating in a cultural phenomenon".

And she's completely correct in her description, not only in the case of this movie, but for Star Wars in general.  Fond though I am of Star Trek, it doesn't have anything close to the extreme depth of cultural penetration that Star Wars has achieved.  One of the characters in the movie talks about finishing the fight that their parents started, and it's pretty much the same for the audience - Star Wars has become a multi-generational tradition that parents share with their children.

 

On our way to the movie, Karli asked me if I thought that she would enjoy the movie more than I would because she had no expectations about the ending.  When I thought about it, I realized that, surprisingly, neither did I.

Because, really, how do you end a story which spans over 40 years, a story that has ended each chapter with a monumental struggle between good and evil, between the dark and light sides of the Force? How do you pull all of the strands of the Skywalker family's story together to create an ending worthy of a saga like this?

The Rise of Skywalker certainly does its best to answer that question by providing an epic conclusion to an epic story, a conclusion which is monumental in scope and presentation, while offering appropriate codas for the character arcs of Rey, Po, Finn and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo - as with C-3PO's quote, this movie takes a last look at the characters in order to say goodbye to them.  It also ties the story's past into its present, as symbolized by brilliantly using the wreckage of the Death Star on the ocean moon of Kef Bir as a setting, and by placing the final scene of the movie on Tatooine, where it all began.

However, there are some odd turns on the path that the movie takes to reach that final scene.  The Rise of Skywalker is full of plot points that we should have found out about sooner - in fact, there were times when it felt a bit like I was learning things that really should have been in the second film:* the power of the Force to heal (which could have easily been introduced at the end of The Force Awakens when Finn is wounded); Leia's Jedi training; Po Dameron's background as a spice smuggler - odd that he managed to make it to the third film without any sort of back story;   Finn's unexpected connection to the Force;  the true nature of the power behind Snoke and the First Order; and, in spite of her experience in the caverns of Ahch-To in The Last Jedi, the critical - and unexpected - importance of Rey's parentage.*

 

There are also some less than perfect decisions in the script.  The character of Rose Tico, who is so beautifully introduced in The Last Jedi, is completely pushed aside,* C-3PO's "sacrifice" really isn't, it's just a mechanism for some jokes, the presence of a spy in the First Order is used once to allow for an easy escape and then tossed away without any further development, and the focus of the final battle seems to jump around for no reason  - not to mention the ongoing convenience of easily destroyed critical failure points for the bad guys.  Oh, and in traditional Disney style, a supporting character is apparently killed but then miraculously turns out to be alive, thereby allowing them to have their emotional cake and eat it too.

I also would have liked to see some kind of interaction between Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren, who finally make an appearance in this movie, rather than just have them be silent, faceless opponents.**

After the movie, as we were walking to the car, Stefanie asked if that was really the end of Star Wars.  Karli laughed and said, "It's made a lot of money, and Disney owns it - of course it's not the end."  And she's completely correct too - it's impossible to imagine Disney turning their back on a cash cow of this magnitude, as evidenced by The Mandalorian and the planned Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney +.

Really, though, this isn't about the end of Star Wars - as the Emperor points out, it's about the end of the Skywalker saga, and ultimately, the movie does signify that ending, while still leaving the door open for a new beginning.

Now that the saga is over, I'd like to be able to change one thing in the final trilogy:  the end of Luke's story.  It would have made me very happy to see him make his last stand in the final conflict with the Dark Side, thereby allowing a Skywalker to finally bring balance to the Force as was foretold all those years gone by.

 

But at least Chewbacca finally gets a medal - that only took 42 years.

- Sid

* Logically, this is what happens when you alternate writers in the creation of a trilogy:  it would be interesting to contrast a Rian Johnson script for the third movie with the J. J. Abrams/Chris Terrio version that's on screen.

**For that matter, why does Ben Solo change his name to Kylo Ren in the first place?  Did I miss something in a movie where that was explained?  I understand why he changes his name, obviously he wants to turn his back on his original life as Ben Solo, but why Kylo Ren?  If you're a Sith, you take the title of "Darth", which apparently means Dark Lord in whatever ancient tongue is native to the Sith, but everyone treats Kylo Ren as a name rather than a title.

Geekmas 2019: Unlimited.

In my posting on the geek-themed Christmas gifts that I received this year, I left out the best gift of all - and it's certainly a gift that will keep on giving, as cliché would have it.  My wonderful wife Karli was generous enough to purchase me a subscription to Marvel Unlimited, an online service from Marvel Comics that essentially opens the doors to the collected history of the company, with an ever-growing catalogue that currently contains over 25,000 comics.

We set up my Unlimited account on Christmas Day - there's an option for either monthly or annual subscriptions - and I instantly fell in love with it.  The quality is astonishing: the pages are in high resolution, and look incredible on my 27 inch 5K iMac display.  That being said, the web browser interface is a bit clumsy - it's much better to read the comics through Marvel's Unlimited iOS app.

Both the browser and the app offer the option of reading comics as the original full pages, or in Smartframe mode, which shows individual frames in full-screen animated transitions, a much better option for readers on smaller iPhone screens.  Subscribers also have the option of downloading comics for off-line reading.

I took a look at some of the older releases, and they're the same high quality as more recent digitally created issues.  Rather than scanning copies of the screened four-colour artwork, Marvel has apparently scanned black and white line art and digitally coloured it, and the results are incredible. 

The Unlimited service, which debuted in November of 2007, is obviously a work in progress. Because the list of available comics is so gigantic, I started out looking for things that I used to own, and there are selections from the back catalogue, such as the 1979 Micronauts series, or Ghost Rider 2099 from 1994, that don't appear on the list - or, perhaps more accurately, don't appear on the list YET.  This isn't a complaint:  it would be an epic undertaking to convert the complete Marvel archives, and the service has come a long way from its initial 2,500 comic book offering.

Unlimited also trails behind the newsstand editions by six months, which makes sense in terms of maintaining print sales.

For myself, I don't consider either one of those factors to be a problem.  Marvel Unlimited offers readers access to the full print runs of Marvel standards like the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and all the rest of the Marvel universe.  And because it's all-inclusive, I've found myself reading comics that I would never have purchased as individual issues - simply because I can.

Overall, I would completely recommend Marvel Unlimited.  Merry Christmas, Karli, and thank you for such a wonderful gift - or is it more appropriate to call it marvel-lous?

-  Sid

Geekmas 2019: And A Partridge in a Pear Tree.

 

I have to say that I'm gratified by the degree to which people followed the suggestions from my Geekmas gift posting this year (with the obvious exception of my Secret Santa at work and my friend Chris, and I really can't complain about the results in either case). In fact, Karli has suggested that in the case of her family, the shopping process was based on screen grabs from the posting, which is probably why I didn't receive anything that didn't have an image in the post - because it would have been challenging to read the fine print under those conditions.

In practical terms, this means that I received a glow-in-the-dark Canadian Space Agency t-shirt (which does glow in the dark as advertised); Ruthanna Emrys' H. P. Lovecraft-inspired* novel Winter Tide; The Five Doctors, The Android Invasion, and The Sea Devils episodes of Doctor Who on DVD, and the Batman: White Knight graphic novel, which I've already found time to read - it's an intriguing take on the Batman - Joker relationship that turns things around several times in the process.

 

In addition, Karli broke away from the pack and picked up a copy of the Epic Yarns adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back,** by Jack and Holman Wang - which I've also already finished, but to be fair, at a total of twelve cleverly chosen words it's not a challenging read.

My thanks to all the parties who saw fit to indulge my interests once again this year - merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

-  Sid

* This originally said "Cthulhulian" but my internal copy editor has issues with that particular turn of phrase.

** She actually wanted to get me A New Hope, but they were out of stock.  This resulted in my receiving an enigmatic text asking which movie I liked better, The Empire Strike Back or The Return of the Jedi.  Fortunately I get this sort of text now and then, so it didn't spoil the surprise.