STAR WARS : THE RISE OF SKYWALKER - Monday 23rd December 2019.

'STAR WARS : THE RISE OF SKYWALKER' has an M Rating, and so it is with much fanfare, hype and anticipation that the final instalment in the epic space opera franchise which I saw earlier this week and which had its humble beginnings way back in 1977, finally draws to a close. 'The Rise of Skywalker' marks the third instalment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following 2015's 'The Force Awakens' and 2017's 'The Last Jedi', and the final episode of the nine-part 'Skywalker Saga'. The 'Star Wars' franchise has spawned multiple films and animated movies and television series. The original trilogy was released between 1977 and 1983, the prequel trilogy between 1999 and 2005, and a sequel trilogy began in 2015, and comes to an end this year with the release of this film. In between the sequel films, two anthology films were released, 2016's 'Rogue One' and 2018's 'Solo: A Star Wars Story', both set between the prequel and original trilogies. The combined global Box Office revenue of the films equates to over US$9B and is currently the second-highest-grossing film franchise, behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 'Star Wars : The Force Awakens' currently sits at the top of the sales ladder with US$2.07B, followed by 'Star Wars : The Last Jedi' at US$1.33B, then 'Rogue One : A Star Wars Story' at US$1.06B with 'Star Wars : Episode I : The Phantom Menace' also in the one billion dollar club at US$1.03B. This films sees J.J. Abrams returning to the Directors and Screenwriters chair following his success with 'The Force Awakens' and after the ousting of Colin Trevorrow following creative differences with the Studio and a breakdown in his relationship with Producer Kathleen Kennedy. The film saw its worldwide release last week, has so far taken US$517M off the back of a production budget in the region of US$275M and has garnered generally mixed reviews.

Set a year following the events of 'The Last Jedi', the surviving Resistance led by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) intercept a mystery message beamed across the galaxy by the apparently dead Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Meanwhile Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the Supreme Leader of the First Order locates just one of two Sith wayfinder devices that directs him to the planet of Exegol, in the Unknown zone. Arriving there, Ren finds an almost physically disabled Palpatine rigged up to some sort of vast life support machine who proceeds to tell him that he created Snoke (the former Supreme Leader of the First Order whom Ren sliced in half at the waist in the last film) as a puppet to control the First Order and lure Ren to the dark side. Palpatine reveals a secret army of Star Destroyers and tells Ren to find and kill Rey (Daisy Ridley), who is still undergoing Jedi training with General Leia Organa, so that he can take his rightful place as the Emperor.

In the meantime, Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) receive official word from a spy within the First Order confirming Palpatine's return. Rey uncovers notes in Luke Skywalker's Jedi texts about a Sith wayfinder device that will help them locate Palpatine. Rey, Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, BB-8, and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) all leave for the planet Pasaana to seek the wayfinder, while R2-D2 stays with Leia. Arriving on Pasaana, the group comes across a once in every 42 year carnival with the locals out partying like it's 1999.

Ren quickly learns where Rey is located through their shared bond of the Force and travels there with his Knights of Ren. When an advance party of Knights arrive the group are quickly given shelter by Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) who directs them to the wayfinder's last suspected location. Rey and the others discover the skeletal remains of assassin Ochi, his ship, and a dagger inscribed with Sith text, which C-3PO's programming forbids him from deciphering.

Sensing that Ren is rapidly approaching, Rey goes out into the desert to confront him. The First Order captures the Millennium Falcon, takes Chewbacca prisoner, and Ochi's dagger which Chewie had stowed away in his satchel. Rey slices through the wing of Ren's advancing ship causing it to bounce across the desert dunes and explode into ball of flame. However, Ren walks away from this completely unharmed and in attempting to save Chewbacca, Rey inadvertently destroys a First Order transporter with Force lightning in a stand-off with Ren. The group escapes on Ochi's old, yet still serviceable ship, assuming Chewbacca was killed in the resultant explosion.

Poe reluctantly suggests traveling to Kijimi to have the Sith text extracted from C-3PO's memory banks, although he has bittersweet memories of his time on this planet and vowed never to return . . . but when duty calls! The process wipes C-3PO's memory, but reveals coordinates to a wayfinder on Kef Bir. Rey, through her Force sense, sees that Chewbacca is in fact still alive, and the group mounts a rescue mission. While Ren searches for Rey, on Kijimi the group infiltrates his Star Destroyer with the help of Zorii Bliss, a seemingly former love interest of Poe's. Rey recovers the dagger and has visions of Ochi killing her parents with it, while Finn and Poe rescue Chewbacca. Ren   informs Rey again through their shared bond of the Force that she is Palpatine's granddaughter and that Palpatine had ordered Ochi to find Rey as a child, but her parents hid her on Jakku to keep her safe. Finn and Poe get into a firefight with a bunch of stormtroopers and are captured and ordered for immediate execution. General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) thwarts the execution squad and reveals himself as the spy, allowing the group to escape on the retrieved Falcon. Hux is promptly executed as the known spy in the ranks for treason by Allegiant General Pryde (Richard E. Grant).

The group land on the windswept planet of Kef Bir. Jannah (Naomi Ackie), a Resistance sympathiser, leads them to the remains of the second Death Star, where Rey locates the wayfinder having traversed massive ocean swells to get there. Ren, having tracked the group to Kef Bir, and not far behind Rey destroys her newly found wayfinder and asks her to help him overthrow Palpatine.

Rey and Ren duel on the wreckage of the downed Death Star amidst ever mounting seas. Leia, now dying, calls to Ren through the Force, distracting him, and Rey impales him with her light sabre. Sensing Leia's death, Rey heals Ren's life threatening injury and exiles herself on Ahch-To. There, Luke's Force spirit encourages Rey to face Palpatine, and he gives her Leia's lightsaber and his old X-wing so that she can get off the island.

Rey leaves for Exegol, using the wayfinder from Ren's ship. Still on Kef Bir Ren speaks with a vision of his father Han Solo (Harrison Ford), ultimately seeing the error of his ways and throwing away his lightsaber assumes his true his identity as Ben Solo. Palpatine sends one of his Star Destroyers to destroy Kijimi as a show of force.

At the Resistance base, the group reconvene minus Rey, and learn that Leia has since died. R2-D2 restores C-3PO's memory. After a brief period of mourning, the assembled Resistance follow Rey's coordinates to Exegol. Meanwhile, there she confronts Palpatine and he demands she kill him to transfer his spirit into her so that she can claim her rightful place as the ruler over the galaxy. Lando in the meantime has mustered reinforcements from across the galaxy to join the battle. Ben arrives to help Rey, overpowering the Knights of Ren. Recognising that Rey and Ben are a rare Force dyad, Palpatine drains their power to reinvigorate himself. He attacks the entire Resistance fleet with Force lightning and sends Ben careering backwards into a deep ravine.

Rey, weakened, hears the voices of past Jedi, who lend her their strength. Palpatine attacks her with his lightning, but Rey deflects it back at him using the Skywalker lightsabers, killing him and herself in the process. Ben has picked himself up, dusted himself down and clambered out of the dark depths of the cavernous ravine into which he was thrust, and revives Rey by transferring his life force into her. They kiss, and Ben dies. The Resistance destroys the remainder of Palpatine's vast armada of attack ships. As the Resistance celebrates its great victory, Rey visits the now long abandoned Lars homestead on Tatooine. There she buries the Skywalker lightsabers in the sand, having built her own.

'Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker' is all style over substance for me. It's impressively filmed with more than its fair share of action set pieces to keep the viewer entertained, and these are all delivered with spectacle and an eye for attention grabbing detail. But conversely, the film is way to busy thrusting us from one fight sequence to another without seemingly any let up whether its one on one, group on group, the Sith on the Jedi, or The First Order on the Resistance, its relentless at the expense of any further character development, imagination, emotion or time to really comprehend what just went before.  And what's with the indestructible Kylo Ren/Ben Solo who should have died from his injuries on at least three separate occasions by my reckoning only to bounce back each time completely unscathed - like he's Wile E. Coyote! This final instalment is entertaining enough but it treads largely down a familiar path that we have seen before over the course of its eight predecessors. The end when it comes feels rushed to get there, and it will offer few surprises as the end is the title of the film, and our heroine of the last three films rises as Skywalker somewhat unpredictably. Worth seeing on a big screen with glorious surround sound, but don't go in with too high an expectation to see anything especially new or inventive in the storyline narrative.

'Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

SOLO : A STAR WARS STORY - Tuesday 29th May 2018.

'SOLO : A STAR WARS STORY' which I saw earlier this week is described as a 'Space Western' and is the second film in the Star Wars standalone anthology series which follows on the heels of 'Rogue One : A Star Wars Story' released in 2016 and is set prior to the events in 'A New Hope'. That first standalone instalment was Directed by Gareth Edwards and took in excess of US$1B at the global Box Office off the back of a US$200M Budget outlay. This film Premiered in Los Angeles on 10th May, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival on 15th May and saw its US release last week too. Filming began in January 2017 under the Directing leadership of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and after almost five months of principle photography the pair were fired from the set due to creative differences. They were replaced by Ron Howard who completed the last four weeks or so of principle photography and about another five weeks of reshoots. Lord and Miller are credited as Executive Producers. Made for a reported US$250M, early Reviews have indicated generally positive press, but a fairly lacklustre Box Office take so far of US$198M.

This film, as the name implies, centres on a young Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) whom we first encounter on the heavy industry planet Corellia, where he and his girlfriend Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) are being chased down by a bunch of underworld criminal types. Using his expert driving skills, Han and passenger Qi'ra manage to evade those in hot pursuit, and wanting to get off that Godforsaken planet they bribe an Imperial Officer at the airport with a small but extremely powerful and very valuable sample of Coaxium - a hyperspace fuel. Passing through screening having accepted the bribe, the two are momentarily separated causing Qi'ra to be captured on the wrong side of the departure terminal while Han has secured safe passage outta Dodge on the other. As Qi'ra is carted off, Han vows to return for her. He quickly signs up as a flight cadet in the Imperial Navy. The recruiting officer asks him which family is he from, to which Han replies he has no family, he's alone. The officer takes a few brief seconds and calls him 'solo'! From this early introduction and piecing together the approximate timeline, it is safe to assume that this film is set somewhere between 15 and 20 years before the events of 'A New Hope'.

Fast forward three years and Han is serving as an lowly canon fodder infantryman during a battle on Mimban where he happens upon a small but well organised group of criminals masquerading as Imperial Soldiers, led by one Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and his wife Val (Thandie Newton). Han was discharged from the Imperial Navy flight school for gross insubordination in then intervening years. Han tries to wrangle his way into Beckett's gang but instead winds up getting arrested and thrown into a muddy pit to meet his fate at the hands of a marauding beast, who turns out to be a Wookie, named Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo). Fortunately Han is able to speak limited Wookie and is able to communicate with the woolly beast, persuading him to join forces to effect their escape. This they do, as Beckett is about to take off, but comes back for the pair of escapees recognising that extra hands on deck won't go amiss. Beckett's plan is to steal a huge consignment of coaxiam from the planet Vandor.

On snow covered mountain terrain on Vandor, a high altitude speeding monorail train carrying its cargo of coaxium comes into sight with Beckett's hijacked ship hovering above. Beckett, Solo and Chewbacca jump down onto the roof of the speeding train in an attempt to attach grappling hooks which are connected by wires to the above ship, with a view to uncoupling the carriage carrying the precious cargo, and winching the sole carriage away, job done! Not so easy however, as a gang of pirates known as the Cloud Riders led by Enfys Nest (Erin Kellyman) have plans to take the haul of hyperspace fuel for themselves. What follows is an impressive action set piece that ultimately sees the cargo plunge into a mountain side destroying said mountain in the process by reducing it to mere rubble, with the Cloud Riders and Beckett's ship escaping in opposite directions high above.

Back on the ground Beckett reveals that the coaxium was being stolen for Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) - a high ranking crime lord associated with the Crimson Dawn Syndicate, and who has history with Beckett. Thinking on his feet for fear of death for loosing the shipment, Beckett wants to go it alone to explain himself to Vos, but is convinced otherwise by Solo. Accompanied by Chewbacca, the three travel to Vos's vast ship.

Upon entering, Vos is entertaining a cacophony of  high ranking officials and criminal types from all walks of life. Han finds Qi'ra who in the three years since they last saw each other, has become Vos's top ranking lieutenant. With Vos none too pleased about the loss of his shipment and ready to kill all three of them, Han suggests a risky plan to steal unrefined coaxium from the mines on the planet Kessel. Vos approves albeit somewhat reluctantly, but sees that their outlandish plan might just work. He insists that Qi'ra accompany the team on their mission, and warns them not to come back empty handed, or attempt to cheat him out of the coaxium consignment.

Qi'ra leads them to Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), a smooth talking and debonair smuggler of some repute and a pilot who she hopes will lend them his ship to take the crew to Kessel. Han challenges Lando to a game of sabacc, betting on Lando's ship. Unbeknown to Han, Lando cheats to win the game, but agrees to join the mission in exchange for a 25% share of the profits. The team boards his ship, the Millennium Falcon, and heads for Kessel.

Upon reaching Kessel and infiltrating the mine disguised as high ranking officials, Lando's droid co-pilot L3-37 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) instigates a slave revolt, so creating a diversion to allow Han and Chewbacca to steal a consignment of coaxium. On exiting the mine and before reboarding the Millennium Falcon a firefight breaks out between the heavily armed guards of the mine, the escaped workforce and the crew. Lando sustains a shoulder injury and L3 is severely damaged during the escape. 

With the coaxium stowed away aboard the Falcon, Han must navigate the ship along the dangerous and previous uncharted 'Maelstrom' in an attempt to evade an Imperial blockade located at the only point of exit/entry. Narrowly escaping the clutches of what can only be described as a giant space octopus the size of a small planet, and being dragged into a fire & brimstone black hole, the Falcon uses light speed and a small drop of coaxium injected into its fuel line to give it the oomph to get the Hell outta there. Badly damaged, the Falcon lands on the planet Savareen, where the coaxium is to be processed before handing it over to Vos. 

On Savareen, the crew are ambushed by Enfys Nest and her gang of Cloud Riders. During their frosty reception Lando flies off in the Falcon leaving the remaining crew grounded. Enfys reasons with Han that she and her crew are not pirates, but rather rebels trying to prevent the syndicates and the Empire from gaining power. Han understands their cause and tries to trick Vos with the now processed coaxium, but Beckett has already alerted him to the double cross. Vos sends his guards to kill Enfys, but the Cloud Riders turn the tables killing them instead, so leaving Vos without any defence. Having anticipated Vos' double crossing strategy, Han tries to take the coaxium, only for Beckett to escape with it taking Chewbacca hostage in the process. Han, Qi'ra and Vos battle it out with Qi'ra ultimately killing Vos. She sends Han after Beckett. Now alone, she contacts Vos's superior, Maul (Ray Park, and voiced by Sam Witwer), to inform him of the mission's failure and claim Vos's position within the Crimson Dawn Syndicate. Maul, orders her menacingly post haste to join him by his side, wielding his double sided lightsaber.

Han outruns Beckett and kills him. He and Chewbacca turn the coaxium over to Enfys and she offers Han a chance to join the rebellion against the Empire, which he declines. Upon leaving she gives him one vial of coaxium which should easily be enough to buy his own ship. Han and Chewbacca locate Lando and challenge him to another game of sabacc, once again betting on the Millennium Falcon. Han wins, having rumbled that Lando was a cheat and pick pocketed the card Lando was keeping up his sleeve in order to win. He and Chewbacca leave for Tatooine aboard their new ship, where Han has heard that a gangster is putting together a crew for a heist.  

I would have to say that compared to 'Rogue One : A Star Wars Story' that was the first hugely successful and well regarded stand alone film in the spin-off series that 'Solo' left me feeling a little disappointed and short changed. The casting is solid enough and for me Alden Ehrenreich delivers a convincing enough turn as the younger Han Solo, bearing in mind he has huge shoes to fill as quite possibly the most recognised and iconic movie character of all time. The visuals, action sequences and production values are also well rendered, but there is little new to see here in the story that we hadn't picked up before in Harrison Ford's earlier outings in the previous films. In this respect the film plays it safe taking us down a largely familiar path with an origin story that is a join the dots offering made good by fast paced action and relatable characters. But you can hardly blame Ron Howard for these shortcomings - after all he inherited to a very large extent the film we see today. There are nods that tie 'Solo' into the greater Star Wars universe - Solo and Chewie heading to Tatooine, and of course Qi'ra being inducted into the way of Maul (who made his first appearance in 'Star Wars : Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace', but these are fleeting nods thats serve nothing more than window dressing, at this stage, but then perhaps Disney has more in mind with future instalments. The film also features Jon Favreau voicing Rio Durant, Linda Hunt voices Lady Proxima and Anthony Daniels cameo's as Tak. 

For me this film merits three claps of the clapperboard, from a possible five. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-