The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Here's a review of the latest Star Wars film.

For many, the big moment is here. The final story of the Skywalker saga officially hits theaters this weekend. But I for one wouldn’t be surprised if there were more film entries in this series, with or without Skywalkers. After all, Star Wars does have the backing of some studio that uses a mouse as its mascot.

But onto the movie itself.

Although never explicitly stated, the film begins one year after the events of the previous film The Last Jedi. The opening crawl says that there’s a radio transmission being heard in certain parts of the galaxy and it’s the voice of the Emperor (Ian McDiamid), who somehow survived when Vader tossed his hammy ass down that shaft in Return of the Jedi. Leia sends people out to investigate the matter, while her son Kylo Ren does the same with the intention of destroying the Emperor, which isn’t surprising since Ren killed his master Snoke in the previous film.

Ren has what’s called a Sith wayfinder device and traces the Emperor’s signal to the planet of Exegol. He hears the Emperor’s voice, along with Vader’s, saying they’re the voices Ren has heard all his life. The Emperor is indeed here, although somewhat physically beaten (Vader’s toss was obviously hell for the Emperor’s fingernails). He tells Ren that he’s the reason Snoke existed at all, and has been biding his time creating a new fleet of Star Destroyers. Ren is promised this fleet if he kills Rey.

Speaking of Rey, she’s on the latest Resistance base, honing her Jedi skills with Leia’s help (Carrie Fisher, thanks to deleted footage). She’s a bit pissed, though, when the Millennium Falcon returns and it’s on fire. This was because of Poe, Finn, and Chewbacca using the gas pedal erratically after escaping bad guys while getting info on Ren’s wayfinder device from a spy inside the First Order.

But the group does manage to tell the Resistance that the Emperor has returned. One of them (Dominic Monaghan) says that the Sith have been known to dabble in cloning (which is actually how the Emperor was able to return in the comic Dark Empire). Rey realizes that Luke’s notes refer to a Sith artifact which could help them out. His notes state that it may be on the planet Pasaana. After hugging Leia goodbye, Rey is off, with Poe, Finn, Chewbaccca, BB-8, and C-3PO. Rose declines because Leia needs her help if First Order ships arrive.

They arrive on Pasaana and quickly get in a skirmish with First Order troops, but get help from Lando Calrissian. The group is honored to meet him, and Lando says that he and Luke searched for the artifact on the planet years earlier and takes them to the spot where they last heard it was located. Meanwhile, Ren and Rey’s Force telepathy is activated and he’s able to determine where she is.

Our heroes are soon engulfed in what seems to be quicksand. But instead of killing them, it basically tosses them into an underground cave. They find a dagger with Sith text inscribed on it. However, 3PO states that his programming forbids him from translating it. They’re all suddenly startled by the sight of a huge serpent-like creature. But Rey sees that the creature is wounded and she uses the Force to heal it, before the creature darts off.

Poe suggests that they could get the info out of 3PO’s head at a planet called Kijimi, which he’s familiar with. They find another ship to take them there, as the Falcon is too recognizable. But before boarding, Rey senses Ren and goes out to confront him, doing an awesome Force somersault over his TIE Fighter. During this fight, Chewie gets captured by First Order troops, along with the dagger. Rey uses the Force to prevent the transport holding Chewie from leaving, while Ren does the same in order to release her hold on the ship. This leads to Rey shooting Force lightning, destroying the ship and apparently killing Chewbacca. The shattered heroes quickly leave, while Rey briefly tells Finn about her fears that she’s now getting about herself.

Alas, the next scene is on Ren’s ship, with the audience realizing that Chewie is still alive, and he’s brought before General Hux.

On Kijimi, Poe is able to make contact with his old acquaintance Zorii Bliss (Keri Russell). Rey, Finn, and the others are startled to learn that Poe was a smuggler, while Zorii wastes no time telling Poe how pissed she is at him for basically going off to join the Resistance. But she agrees to take them to a place where the info can be gotten out of 3PO’s head. This operation results in his memory being wiped. But before he can get reacquainted with everyone, Ren and his troops arrive. Rey senses that Chewie is still alive and she and the others board Ren’s Star Destroyer, thanks to a special ID badge that Zorii gives Poe.

As Poe and Finn rescue Chewie, Rey and Ren have another telepathic Force chat while she secretly makes her way to his quarters. Ren tells Rey that the Emperor is her grandfather and that he killed her parents and wants to kill her because he fears Rey’s power. She’s torn over this, and the two exchange lightsaber blows. Rey knocks over Ren’s burnt Vader mask, which leads him to realize that she’s on his ship.

Elsewhere, Poe, Finn, and Chewie are captured, but discover that Hux is actually a spy when he kills the troops about to gun them down. He arranges their escape, even asking Finn to shoot him to make it seem like they overpowered him. When they ask why he’s doing this, Hux basically says he hates Ren.

Ren confronts Rey in the hangar, but she’s able to escape with the others on the Millennium Falcon. Hux himself is killed by Allegiant General Pryde (Richard E. Grant) for treason, and I hate when movies kill annoying characters just when they start to become interesting. The Star Destroyer then destroys Kijimi using its Death Star-esque laser.

The Sith dagger leads our heroes to Kef Bir, specifically the remains of the second Death Star which blew up near Endor. Once there, they encounter a group led by Jannah (Naomi Ackie), who like Finn was once a Stormtrooper. The violent ocean tides are separating them from the Death Star wreckage, but that doesn’t stop Rey from going there herself. As Finn and Jannah follow, Rey finds the wayfinder, and briefly fights a vision of herself as a Sith lord. Ren appears and fights with Rey after destroying the wayfinder. Rey pushes Finn aside with the Force when he attempts to help her.

But Ren is briefly distracted when a dying Leia contacts him via the Force. This allows Rey to impale him, but when she senses that Leia has died, an anguished Rey uses the Force to heal Ren. She’s so shaken that she takes his ship and departs to Ahch-To, where she trained under Luke. After Finn and the others leave, Ren is on the Death Star remains and sees a vision of his father Han. Han says that, while his mother is now gone, what she fought for is still alive. This convinces his son to toss aside his lightsaber, reclaiming his true identity as Ben Solo.

Rey is burning all her links to the Jedi, but Luke’s Force ghost appears and prevents her from destroying her lightsaber. He tells her where Leia’s lightsaber was kept, and that she deliberately put it aside after getting a vision of her son’s eventual death, but that it would one day be used again. With Luke’s encouragement, Rey goes off to face the Emperor, using Luke’s X-wing to get her there (I guess it can fly without an R2 unit?).

Poe and Finn are now the Resistance leaders, although the former has doubts that he can honor Leia. But Lando gives him encouragement just as Rey transmits Exegol’s location to the Resistance, and all the available ships are soon airborne. The Emperor encourages Rey to kill him in order to transfer his spirit into her. As the Resistance arrives, they face a crap-ton of Star Destroyers, all with Death Star weaponry.

Ben arrives and fights off his former troops to help Rey. But the Emperor neutralizes both of them with his Force lightning. He then uses it on the Resistance ships. But after he tosses Ben down a cliff, Rey slowly but surely gets to her feet, hearing the voices of Luke and the other Jedi. She deflects the Emperor’s lightning with both Luke and Leia’s lightsabers, which ends up killing him. This stops the attack on the Resistance, which is soon joined by reinforcements led by Lando and Chewie in the Falcon. Zorii is also part of the cavalry, as is Wedge (Denis Lawson).

The super-duper Star Destroyers are soon all taken out, but the destruction of the Emperor destruction kills Rey. This prompts Ben to use the Force to revive her. They briefly kiss before Ben quietly dies, vanishing like Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Luke did before him. After our heroes celebrate (with glimpses of Cloud City and Endor), Rey goes to Tatooine. At the farm where Luke was raised, she buries Luke and Leia’s lightsabers. A passerby asks her name, and seeing the spirits of Luke and Leia, Rey says “Rey Skywalker.”

Like The Last Jedi, this film has some plot holes. For instance, I hate that we’re just meant to assume that the Emperor (I know his name is Palpatine, but that name always sounded like a generic mouthwash to me -'Maybe he's born with it, maybe it's Palpatine') is alive again. I would’ve preferred it if Ren would try to contact him, just as Rey tries to contact the other Jedi at the film’s beginning. The revelation that Rey herself is the Emperor’s granddaughter has turned off some people, and I can see why, although I’d take that over George Lucas’s midichlorian crap any day. Also, having a fleet of Star Destroyers that can blow things up like the Death Star was definitely pushing it.

But, again like The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker is watchable thanks to the interaction between our heroes. While we get a cliched “I have to tell you something” moment between Finn and Rey (which is never resolved, by the way), there’s at least some sense of the comraderie that the heroes in the original trilogy had. I liked that we learn that Leia did, in fact, train as a Jedi and it was cool that Rey built her own lightsaber that’s yellow, since the original Luke action figures Kenner put out came with a yellow lightsaber. It’s great seeing Williams as Lando again and Ford’s brief cameo was a nice surprise.

Hence, like The Last Jedi, this isn’t a great film per se, but it is watchable. It just fails to achieve the promise of the moments presented in the previous film. As a result, the ending is rushed!

The Grinches

This Agony Booth article looks at the different screen version's of Dr. Seuss's classic Christmas story.

It’s the holiday season again, and one of the most beloved of all Christmas stories is How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The book was written by Theodor Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Seuss.

Published in 1957, the title character is a monstrous unfriendly sort who’s disgusted with how the populace in the village of Whoville, below his mountain home, are always so giddy at Christmastime. With the reluctant help of his dog Max, the Grinch attempts to give the Whos their worst Christmas ever by stealing all their food, presents, and decorations. Crudely disguising himself as Santa Claus and disguising Max as a reindeer, the Grinch goes to Whoville in a sleigh, and as the Whos sleep, he and Max take all their possessions. They’re almost caught in the act by young Cindy Lou Who, but the Grinch convinces her that he’s really Santa Claus, and taking their tree to his workshop to fix a light, and with that he sends her back to bed.

After dumping all their presents and decorations over the mountain, the Grinch waits eagerly for cries of anguish from the Whos, only to hear joyful singing at the arrival of Christmas. While shocked at getting the opposite reaction he was expecting, the Grinch begins to realize that the holiday season is not so much about material possessions, but rather love, joy, and family. He subsequently redeems himself by preventing the Whos’ possessions from falling over the abyss and returns with his huge load to Whoville, where he and Max join them in their annual feast.

The book would go on to be adapted for the screen three times. So, which is the best of these three? Let’s find out!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)

The first version originally aired on CBS on December 18, 1966. The story was animated by Looney Tunes legend Chuck Jones and narrated by Boris Karloff, who also voiced the title character. In addition, there were three songs created for the special: “Welcome Christmas”, “Trim Up the Tree”, and “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. The latter was sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, best known for voicing Tony the Tiger in commercials for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes.

An uncredited June Foray voices Cindy Lou Who. Foray also voiced other classic animated characters such as Rocky from Rocky & Bullwinkle and Tweety Bird’s owner Granny. Curiously, Karloff would voice the character in the subsequently released soundtrack version of the story, which was released at the same time the special aired.

Unlike the other two filmed versions of the story, the plot of this Grinch adaptation is pretty much the same as the book, as summarized above.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Over 30 years later came a feature-length film adaptation of the book, directed by Ron Howard and with Jim Carrey as the title character. As this was a bona-fide movie and not a half-hour special, it was perhaps inevitable that some additions were made to the story for purposes of length. In this version, the Grinch still hates Christmas and the Whos, but the feeling is mutual here, because he’s known for pulling harmful pranks on them. Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) believes her fellow Whos emphasize the material aspect of Christmas too much. She also encounters the Grinch one day and learns that he has a tragic past.

As a child, the Grinch was adopted by two sisters. He grew up shy and with a crush on Martha May Whovier (Christine Baranski). Her friendship with the Grinch led to jealousy from Augustus Maywho (Jeffrey Tambor), who began to pick on the Grinch. The other kids, save Martha, laughed at the Grinch when he attempted to shave off his beard. This led to him shouting that he hates Christmas and running off to live on Mount Crumpit.

This story prompts Cindy to nominate the Grinch for Whoville’s “Holiday Cheermeister”. This displeases Maywho, who’s become mayor of Whoville, but the Grinch accepts the offer when Cindy climbs Mount Crumpit to invite him. However, just as the Grinch is beginning to have fun, Maywho reminds him of his past bullying by giving him an electric shaver and even proposes to Martha in front of him. This angers the Grinch, who lashes out at the Whos and returns to Mount Crumpit.

It’s at this point that the Grinch begins plotting to make Christmas miserable for the Whos by stealing all their things as they’re sleeping. Disguised as Santa and with Max disguised as a reindeer, the Grinch returns to Whoville and breaks into Cindy’s house first. She catches him stealing the tree, but he lies to her in order to get away. The Grinch hits the other houses before returning to Mt. Crumpit.

That morning, the Whos are horrified by the massive theft. Maywho blames Cindy for allowing this to happen, but her father Lou Lou Who (Bill Irwin) defends her by repeating her stance that Christmas is not about gifts or possessions but love and family. The other Whos agree and begin singing.

Hearing the joyous caroling, the Grinch has his epiphany. This gives him the strength to prevent his massive bag of stolen goods from falling down the mountain, saving Cindy as well, who had stowed herself away in the bag in order to spend Christmas with the Grinch. They ride back down to Whoville, where the Grinch apologizes and surrenders himself to the police. His apology is accepted, overriding Maywho’s orders to arrest and pepper spray him. Martha rejects Maywho as the Grinch joins in the Whos’ feast.

The Grinch (2018)

This third version of the book is both a feature film and animated. Benedict Cumberbatch voices the title role here, and as with the previous version, there were additions made in order to make this feature length.

Christmas is coming and the Whos are excited while the Grinch is not, but Cindy Lou Who (voiced by Cameron Seely) is noting how stressed her mom (Rashida Jones) is from taking care of her and her brothers. En route to mailing a letter to Santa Claus (with a wish to help her mom), Cindy meets the Grinch, who snidely says that she’d have to personally chat with Kris Kringle in order to help her mother. Cindy decides to trap Santa after her mother says it would take too long for her to travel to the North Pole.

The Grinch, meanwhile, unsuccessfully tries to ruin a tree-lighting ceremony, which leads to him remembering his lonely childhood in an orphanage. He decides to deal with this pain by ruining the Whos’ Christmas. He buys a big reindeer he names Fred and steals a sleigh from his neighbor. But the Grinch lets Fred go after learning that he has a family. This prompts the Grinch to draft Max into taking his place.

But upon arriving in Whoville on Christmas Eve, the Grinch falls into Cindy’s trap. Although he’s touched by Cindy’s request to help her mom, the Grinch carries on with his task. After his massive theft, the Grinch returns to Mt. Crumpit with Max. The Whos awake and are shocked that all their things are gone. Cindy blames herself because of her Santa trap, but Cindy’s mom reassures her that Christmas is not about presents but about love, which she has so much of for Cindy.

The Grinch is puzzled at hearing joyful singing from the Whos, but listening to it makes his own heart soar and prompts him to save his massive bag of stolen goods, with the help of Fred and his family, before it falls off the mountain. The Grinch returns the stolen goods, and after apologizing, returns to his home, ashamed of himself. Sympathizing with the Grinch, Cindy invites him to celebrate Christmas with her family. He accepts, saying that it wasn’t Christmas he hated, but being lonely.

Which is best?

This may seem like a no-brainer to some, but the original 1966 version remains the most famous version of the book, not to mention the most faithful to its source material. Karloff, who was already known and loved for his roles in such classic films as Frankenstein and The Mummy was the perfect choice to voice the Grinch. He would even win a Grammy for his voice work on the album of the special. Likewise, Jones’s animated work here is every bit as great as his Looney Tunes work.

Ironically, Thurl Ravenscroft was not credited in the closing credits of the special, which may be why many attributed the singing to Karloff. This led Seuss to call Ravenscroft to apologize, as well as to write letters to reporters across the country to ensure that Ravenscroft’s contribution would not be overlooked. Ravenscroft would go on to voice the later Seuss TV specials Horton Hears a Who and The Lorax.

The 2000 film has its moments (having Sir Anthony Hopkins narrate the story was a nice touch), and that may actually be its problem as well: it stuffs way too much into what should be a simple story. Carrey certainly has the control over his facial expressions needed for such a role as the Grinch, and the legendary Rick Baker does his usual great job with the Grinch makeup (it even won Baker another of his many Oscars). But the unnecessary backstory of the film, along with the innuendos (although this proved to be nothing compared to those in the later big-screen version of The Cat in the Hat) fail to make the film as enjoyable as the earlier version.

Fortunately, last year’s version of the story delivered something more enjoyable. Like the previous version, it had unnecessary backstory added to make it longer. The Grinch worked perfectly fine as a character whose backstory unknown; all that was important was how he finds reason to smile. The good news is that Cumberbatch delivers (as with Doctor Strange, he utilizes an American accent) as does the rest of the voice cast, which includes Angela Lansbury as the mayor of Whoville.