download the new version for android Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

In a world in which a cast list can be a plot-spoiler, and death (both real and fictional) is no impediment to resurrection, suffice to say that all the key characters return, including Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia, thanks to repurposed cut-scene footage from The Force Awakens.Īs for the narrative, Abrams (who shares screenplay credits with Chris Terrio) returns to the core themes to which he and Lawrence Kasdan had “projected forward” when writing The Force Awakens, largely sidestepping (or just flat-out ignoring) the more intriguing googlies of The Last Jedi. We pick up with our heroes still pluckily fighting back against the First Order, unaware of a greater phantom menace lurking in the background. John Boyega and Naomi Ackie ride into the fray. While Rian Johnson delighted in wrong-footing viewer expectations (Luke comically ditching a sacred talismanic object in Episode VIII raised laughs, gasps and shrieks of dismay in equal measure), Abrams keeps things closer to home, reviving that strange sense of quasi-mystical cod-reverence that was the hallmark of Lucas’s original productions. Stylistically, The Rise of Skywalker returns to the aesthetics of The Force Awakens, juggling rocket-fuelled action sequences – dogfights, desert chases and saber-battles abound – with straight-faced “dark v light” standoffs, retaining the thread of humour that dates back to A New Hope while still taking the unfolding events deadly seriously. After the reinvigorating thrills of The Force Awakens (the best Star Wars film since Empire), some fans howled with frenzied derision at Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, feeling “betrayed” by its somewhat iconoclastic take on the series’ ever-expanding mythology, a complaint Abrams appears to have taken to heart.

With The Rise of Skywalker, the stakes are raised not only because it attempts to wrap up a story arc spanning three trilogies, but also because it follows what proved to be the most divisive episode in the entire series.

Download the new version for android Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker