The Rise of Rey — Disney Princess

(Caveat — this essay will be full of spoilers, so please don’t read this until you have also been disappointed by this movie. I’m not a Star Wars devotee, I’ve never read a novelisation other than the old Splinter in the Mind’s Eye, have no idea what Clone Wars is and have not seen a single episode of The Mandolorian.)

Star Wars — the Rise of Skywalker is a disappointment. The previous two movies in the final trilogy, with their first female lead, first lead black character, first lead asian female character and the stories that were crafted around them showed promise. The indication that the Force was there for any ‘nobody’, even a young stableboy, were all very good moves in the right direction. The Last Jedi was about rebellion in the face of impossible odds, where there was still hope at the core. These movies are artefacts of a culture reflecting the rise of the far right across the world, as well for the first time actually in power in the US, UK and other European states, challenging those postions as well as the patriarchy and privelege that dominates our culture. And if you think that is quite a statement to make about what are for all intentional purposes commercial movies rather than ‘art’, just remember the opprobrium they received and where that came from.

This final film however has no story to tell. Its only message is consumerism, devoid of any heroic mythology, of any heart warming enthusiasm, in fact devoid of hope, as all the hope we saw raised by the earlier movies is dashed on the throne of the Sith Lord…