A Message of Hope Sometimes Falls on Deaf Ears

I stumbled on a tweet and it got me back into commentary mode after our joint SFR Brigade blog about Rise of Skywalker: The Brigade Speaks Out last week.

Yeah, I realized I'm not done speaking my mind yet.

Besides that, I had an opportunity to see the movie again, and I absorbed so much more the second time, and I genuinely enjoyed it. It seemed a very fitting end to the saga. But considering the push-back this film has received, I'd like to explain why it worked so well for me.

Rise of Skywalker has had some serious negative feedback online, but let's be fair. Star Wars (later titled A New Hope) opened with NO expectations in 1977, a different time and era. But the film was so far beyond anything that had come before, so visually sweeping and huge onscreen, that it ignited the flame of fandom that would burn for four decades.

These were some of the initial scenes from the first of the franchise (borrowed from Twitter) that will be with me forever. How about you?

Let us begin the week with some #MondayMotivaton for those who have the #MondayBlues let us begin the week with... Hope. #StarWars #LukeSkywalker #Online pic.twitter.com/6AF8l5sFIr

— Luke Skywalker (@MentorSkywalker) January 20, 2020

Those images! That score! You could sense that this was the beginning of a great journey, a great story, that would span history. The young seeker always looking to the future, forever longing to be a part of something bigger, something better, than the simple life he knew.

Yeah. Be careful what you wish for, Luke Skywalker. :)

Someone recently commented that Star Wars would never have become what it was without that amazing score by John Williams. I agree it was (and still is) an essential component of the whole that made Star Wars such a monstrous blockbuster when it first hit the threaters. NO ONE expected it to do what it did. Not even George Lucas--who later admitted he thought the film would bring in about $16 million like all the Disney-esqe "kids" films.

But Star Wars wasn't just for the kids. It was for everyone, and the box office numbers and subsequent merchandising reflected its mass appeal in some HUGE numbers.

The original Star Wars was then followed by two sequels that are probably the most famous and successful sequels in cinema history. But after that, the expectations for future Star Wars fare were so high, that the prequels were doomed to fail the fandom's expectations in a big way. And, for the most part, they did. Nothing could live up to the initial stunned amazement that the original Star Wars trilogy inspired.

Fast forward forty-two plus years to the last episode, Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, which opened with the MASSIVE weight of expectation of the fandom as the wrap of the trilogy of trilogies. With all the controversy--and let's face it, outright hatred--from some of the fanbase for the first two films of the final trilogy, it was swarmed by negativity before it even unveiled its first scene.

The film was set up to fail, being forced to satisfy a standard so high that there was no way it was going to live up to those lofty expectations. No way it was going to please everyone or appease a rabid fandom who wanted it to be the do-all and end-all of all stories. Popularity-wise, in the words of C3PO, it was doomed. It now has the distinct infamy of holding the worst Rotten Tomato score ever. It felt flat on its cinematic face.

But did it really?

The last trilogy was the story of Rey and Ben, their conflict and their struggles with both the light and the dark side. The former characters of Star Wars -- Luke, Leia and Han -- all played major roles in their internal battle to rise, but they weren't the key to their ultimate outcome, only the catalysts.

And the outcome of Rey and Ben--their triumph or failure--was tied to the fate of the universe.

I think this video does a great job of capturing the evolution of their relationship through the final trilogy. (There will be spoilers--be warned).

The Rise of Skywalker again did what all the Star Wars films had done, and left us with a message of hope. Yet a legion of fans seemed to want something more, something better, something different. I have to admit I haven't read their many arguments against the closing story. Maybe I just don't care anymore. I went into it thinking "Please don't be another Game of Thrones" and I came out of it with a bit of a wistful smile. So it my mind, it succeeded, and it was an epic piece of entertainment. It lived up to it's original theme--rebellions are built on hope, and the strong bonds between the underdogs can overcome a powerful tyranny.

I dunno. With all the depressing and downright ugly films coming out of Hollywood in the last three years, to me it was a breath of fresh air. A story that left me feeling that not only had the tale been completed, it had a satisfying ending.

Maybe in this day and age a message of hope simply falls on deaf ears. We live in an age when we can no longer buy into hope or happy endings. Everything must be doom and gloom and darkness and struggle with no reward. I'm glad this franchise stuck to the message that it had carried for so long.

I know a lot of fans probably wanted to see Ben and Rey get together at the end. And so did I, to a point. Still. Ben--as Kylo Ren--had committed murder, mass genocide and maybe most horrific for the fans--patricide. He'd killed his own father. He'd killed Han Solo. And that, in many eyes, was unforgivable and damning.

I admit after the pain of seeing that scene for the first time, I didn't know if I could stand to watch another episode. But time passed, I processed and found I was wrong. Because this story is bigger than even a giant icon like Han Solo.

I loved how Ben channeled his father after he turned, using some of the same mannerisms, expressions and gestures that were so completely Han Solo.  Loved. It.. And I loved the very unexpected scene between father and son, with Han appearing as Ben's memory. And their bit of dialogue, where Ben says, "Dad...." but he can't say the words that he loves his father. And Han replies, "I know." That was a classic. And I love how Ben charged to Rey's aid, and how the two of them, as a rare Dyad, confronted the Emperor side-by-side.

Yet Ben Solo could not right all the wrong that Kylo Ren had inflicted on the universe. There had to be a price for his actions. And when he paid that price, it set the universe right again. And gave Rey and the Resistance the key to overcome their many failures.

So at its heart, this story was about redemption, about getting up again and again, every time you fall. Every time you're knocked down, getting your feet under you...to rise once more. Every single time. It's about the power of history and the "light side" being behind you and giving you the strength to do the unimaginable. I think that's a pretty strong message to carry out of a theater.

So, yes, for me it was all about hope. And Rey and Ben together, creating that hope. They created something stronger than evil and darkness, no matter their sacrifice. And that, in this storyteller's eyes, makes for a great story.

Just perhaps not the perfect story that the world expected.

I'd like to offer this in closing because...This. Was. Glorious! That incredible soundtrack once again underpinning our emotions and inspiring a sense of wonder, something that we seldom get from a  motion picture this days.

In Rey's words: "I am all the Jedi!" (Turn on sound.)

And I am all of the Jedi. #starwars

pic.twitter.com/NVHYC0sTnX

— Lacey “Space Trash” Gilleran (@laceygilleran) January 19, 2020

May the Force be with you...always!