Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
As a life long fanatical fan of Star Wars (I’ve read hundreds of books, comics, played more video games than I should have, and have watched every movie countless times), I find it interesting how each trilogy has it’s own followers and detractors. I was one of those kids that at 18 years old walked 3 miles (due to not having a car at the time) to my local cineplex to buy opening night tickets for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, only to be hugely disappointed with how the movie turned out. I was more impressed with Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith (which is actually not a bad movie AT ALL), and have a love hate relationship with the prequel trilogy of Lucas’s. While it wasn’t perfect, Lucas had a mastery of world building, which the trilogy has in spades.

Fast forward to 2015 where Star Wars fans got the chance to FINALLY see a Skywalker Saga on the big screen again thanks to Disney buying out Lucasfilm. And here is where things get sticky. I’m going to preface what I’m going to say next with a disclaimer. “These thoughts are purely my own, and in no way are meant to downplay other people’s opinions on the sequel trilogy from Disney”. There, I said it. Whew, out of the way. This new trilogy has become one of the most controversial Star Wars trilogies of all time, and in my opinion, for good reason. The Force Awakens was one of those movies that was pure J.J. Abrams. Lots of puzzle boxes, and secrets to be told another day, and basically reached out the hand with the baton for other directors to keep it going. The story really played things safe by cloning 1977’s A New Hope REALLY closely, and while I took some issue with them not expanding the story by playing it TOO safe, felt it was a serviceable fun attempt as Disney needed to solidify the old fanbase with what they want to do outside of Lucas. Then came Rian Johnson and The Last Jedi. This was the movie that literally fractured the fan base, and tore them into two opposing sides. It’s purely a love it or hate it movie, as Johnson basically slapped the baton from J.J. Abrams aside, and completely did his own thing, which ended up with a movie that feels really odd and out of place for long time fans (although, to be fair, there is a very vocal segment who love what Rian Johnson did). I was one of the “haters” who LOATHED The Last Jedi, and really wondered where the series could even GO after this.

Well, it seems that I’m not alone with that question. The director for The Rise of Skywalker (Colin Treverrow of Jurassic World fame) was let go, and J.J. Abrams was brought back in to wrap up the story. I can’t say with absolute certainty and this is purely my own speculation, but I feel it was as if the Disney focus groups realize how polarizing The Last Jedi was and pulled in the director with a more favorable fan reaction to sort of “clean up” the mess that Rian Johnson created in his sequel to The Force Awakens. That includes throwing back “member berries” at an incredible pace, even going so far as to bring in the infamous Emperor Palpatine in a rather awkward splicing job.

The film doesn’t even try to hide the fact that the Emperor is back, but instead slaps it all over the running yellow title scrawl, filling us in with the little fact that after the events of The Last Jedi everyone finds out that Palpatine is alive after he sends out a message to the galaxy saying basically “I’m back, bend to my will or be destroyed!”. As soon as the title scrawl ends we find out that Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) has felt the power of the Emperor emanating from somewhere, and using all of his powers traces it back to a hidden planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy known as Korriban…..errr, sorry...Exegul, where he finds Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Originally intending to Kill the long thought dead Emperor, Kylo is given an interesting offer. Follow Palpatine’s wishes of revenge and he will give the young Ren the power he so desperately craves. An empire to rule over.

Simultaneously a rebel spy leaks the revelation that Palpatine is on Exegul, and has amassed an ENORMOUS fleet of star destroyers, each with the planet killing capability of the Death Star built into them. Rey (Daisy Ridley), who has been training with General Leia (Carrie Fisher, using spliced in scenes meant for The Last Jedi) thinks she can find the way to the mythological Exegul using Luke’s notes (it seems the old Jedi had also wanted to find a way to the hidden Sith home world). Thus begins the first hour of the film as a video game side quest, as the heroes find a clue, that leads them to another clue, which gives them a mystical artifact that allows them to find ANOTHER clue, and if held in the right position at the right time, can reveal the way to Exegul (which seems a bit counter productive, as all they would have had to do was capture one of the soldiers or workers who had gone to Exegul to create Palpatine’s fleet, as they would have had to have a map to get there).

The second half of the film is drastically different from the first half, and really solidifies my opinion that most of the first hour of the film was a lot of the stuff that J.J. Abrams had outlined for The Last Jedi, that Rian Johnson ignored. That first half is extremely awkward and compressed/rushed, with Rey, Finn, Poe and C-3P0 jumping from one location to the next at breakneck speed trying to find the uber artifact that will lead them there. The second half, however, takes a bit more time with itself as it focuses on Rey and Kylo’s trip TO Exegul and the final confrontation with Emperor Palpatine. This part was where I actually started to relax a bit and enjoy what was going on. The nerd in me saw where J.J. drew from the extended book/comics universe with his portrayal of Exegul (e.g. Korriban from the extended universe), even going so far as to borrow the force bond from KOTOR 2 between Kreia and the Outcast). Both of which was REALLY awesome. Once again Kylo Ren becomes the most interesting person on screen, and it’s journey that finally pulls the most emotion out of that conflict. I will say this, while I have sometimes been frustrated with character actions on screen, Adam Driver has consistently given a stellar performance, even if the writing sometimes betrays him a bit.

Action wise, this one is through the roof. We’ve got speeder battles (filled with horrible dialog), and the lightsaber battles are finally top notch again. One of my biggest complaints with the first two movies was how limited the saber battles were. I completely understand about The Force Awakens, as Rey had no Jedi powers, but The Last Jedi’s infamous throne room battle was one of the worst choreographed lightsaber sequences I’d ever seen, made all the most disappointing considering Kylo was supposed to be a master at it. Anyways, the saber battles here are fluid, and once again Kylo becomes an intimidating person when wielding a blade (something that I think was forced on him as a plot contrivance rather than him actually BEING a weakling).

I’m a bit mixed in my feelings for The Last Jedi. There’s a lot to enjoy, but you can just FEEL the desperation coming off of it as well. The desperation to fix the issues that happened in The Last Jedi, and the desperation to please fans who were angry about said previous movies and try and heal the divide between fans. To be fair, some of it is understandable as Rian Johnson sort of painted J.J. into a corner in The Last Jedi, but unceremoniously killing off the main villain Snoke, and just ignoring several pertinent plot handoffs from The Force Awakens. As such he had to create a villain to fight against, and what better way to get the old fans back than bring back the oldest villain of all, The Emperor. It’s awkward and smells badly of desperation, but Ian McDiarmid is flawless at playing the same character he’s done so well for over 40 years.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action




4K Video: Video:

Wow Disney, you didn’t pull any punches here. The Blu-ray is a great looking 1080p disc, but the 4K UHD disc most CERTAINLY fixes most of the glaring issues of the Blu-ray disc. The biggest one being milky looking blacks, and finer color control. The opening scrawl looked a bit milky and washed out in the background, but the 4K disc is deep, inky and perfectly balanced with the more tightly constrained yellow of said scrawl. The rest of the movie is just about as perfect as can be as well, and shifts color schemes and visual styles depending on where everyone is. The desert planet where they find the Sith dagger is earthy and sun drenched in yellows and brows, while the wave filled battle on the destroyed second Death Star is gray/blue in tone. Insides of starships are more glossy and I-pod white and black, while the rebel home base is more rural looking, with craggy rocks and dimly lit shadows. Overall this is a fantastic disc, and a nice upgrade over the already good looking Blu-ray. It’s use of HDR makes the colors richer and deeeeeeeeper than expected. They don’t focus on getting brighter and more visual pop, but just feel richer and more tactile, which is most likely a side effect of contrasting off the slightly milky black levels on the 1080p disc.




Audio:

Being that Lucasfilm is a Disney owned studio like Marvel, we have to deal with the infamous “Atmouse” mixes from the studio. And yes, The Rise of Skywalker is most definitely an Atmouse track, it’s just not AS bad as others. In fact, it’s actually quite good in many ways. The space battles sound great, shifting from one side to the other with relative ease, and the lightsaber’s actually have sum deep hums and bass hits during the telekinetic force power scenes. Dialog is crisp and clear, and the entire sound stage feel light and airy most of the time. HOWEVER, there are some definite Atmouse things to the mix as well. The dynamics are most definitely squashed, and those bass moments aren’t as deep, nor as powerful as one would hope. there’s this distinct feeling that the sound is kind of “constrained” when it comes to the dynamic range, and the mix leaves you feeling generally satisfied, but not exited or wow’d by it.






Extras:

• The Skywalker Legacy – The story lives forever in this feature-length documentary that charts the making of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
• Pasaana Pursuit: Creating the Speeder Chase – Dive into the making of the movie's epic landspeeder chase and discover how this spectacular sequence was brought to the screen.
• Aliens in the Desert – See what it took to create the Pasaana desert scenes, from the sheer scale and complexity of the shoot to its colorful details.
• D-O: Key to the Past – Explore the ship that connects Rey to the mystery of her missing parents and get to know the galaxy's newest, irresistible droid.
• Warwick & Son – Warwick Davis, who played Wicket in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, dons the Ewok costume once more; this time joined by his son Harrison.
• Cast of Creatures – The team behind the film's memorable creatures reveal the puppetry, makeup, prosthetics and digital magic that bring them to life!

Digital Exclusive
• The Maestro's Finale – Composer John Williams reflects on his body of work for the Star Wars saga and shares insights on scoring Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Final Score: ​

I almost feel bad about giving my personal opinion of The Rise of Skywalker simply due to the very vocal and passionate divide between the fans on this new trilogy. Some fans will love that I hated The Last Jedi, while others will think I’m a raging dolt who doesn’t understand. But since film critic and enjoyment in general is a mixture of static technical AND personal opinion, it is what it is. I personally enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker a little more than The Force Awakens (about on par with each other score wise), and HUGE amounts more than The Last Jedi. It is definitely problematic as it tries to wrap up a trilogy that has two previous movies that are viciously at odds with each other. Looking back after having binge watched all 3 movies this last week, I have to say that it’s a bumpy ride. I enjoyed pieces of the series, but also disliked parts, and at the end of the day I have to say that this new Skywalker trilogy just can’t seem to justify its own existence. Which is a hugely depressing thing to say, as I’m a massive Star Wars fan, and am not one of those people who hates anything but the original trilogy. I have come to appreciate the world building of the Prequel trilogy, I love the animated The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels along with Rogue One, but this trilogy just had a hard time capturing that magic, as well as was plagued with conflicting directors who were caught in a storytelling tug of war. Enjoyable for sure, and as a Star Wars fan I certainly found enough to enjoy, but it is DEFINITELY not without it’s fair share of problems.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Anthony Daniels
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Written by: Chris Terrio, J.J. Abrams
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, Spanish DD+ 7.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Lucasfilm/Disney
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 142 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: March 31st 2020

Recommendation: Decent Watch

 

[Todd Anderson]

I feel the same way you do, Mike. In some ways, I'm relieved the Star Wars saga is over. Felt like it was getting a little long in the tooth. I
enjoyed this flick for what it was. Certainly it's missing the magic of the original trilogy... but was fun.

Not sure if I want to buy this one or not. I'll probably put it on a watch list and buy it on the cheap.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I saw this in the theaters and enjoyed it. Just watched the UHD again tonight at home and, again, thoroughly enjoyed it.

I grew up with Star Wars. I hated the prequels, but I've enjoyed everything in the past few years. I think they've done a solid job, honestly. But that might also be because even though I enjoyed and loved all the original trilogy, I'm not a Star Wars guy that obsesses over every little detail. I enjoyed them. And I've enjoyed all the latest films, probably because I'm not trying to tie up every loose end and connect every dot with the originals. I almost view them as individual films.

Sometimes you can take a fantastical film too seriously, and I don't think that's healthy.

I like this one a lot. Plus, it looks and sounds great.