Star Wars turns away from its fun side

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the third and final installment in Disney’s sequel trilogy of the popular space opera, is a spectacular mess of a movie that completes the series’ fall to the dark side.

Lost in the din of disgruntled “fanboys” upset with 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s attempt to subvert expectations and director J.J. Abrams’s incoherent rush to deliver a truckload of nostalgia and fan service in the latest flick is a sense of fun and wonder that once made Star Wars so irresistible.

When the initial Star Wars trilogy hit theaters in the 1970s and 1980s, its creator George Lucas thrilled audiences by making good on a simple promise to entertain: slick-looking spaceships, intricate dogfights, a soaring soundtrack by John Williams, and, of course, lightsaber duels.

The special effects were convincing and revolutionary, so much so that two decades later a kid such as myself could still be completely enraptured when a farm boy flies his X-Wing down a narrow trench and uses the Force to shoot perfectly aimed torpedoes down a small ventilation shaft, destroying the planet-killing Death Star.

Lucas’s prequel trilogy, starting in 1999, got wacky and weird, dividing the fan base with its full embrace of digital effects, awkward acting and dialogue, and accusations of racial stereotyping. But, at least for me, all that could be forgiven because, above all else, the movies succeeded in making space war fun in ways we’ve never seen and managed to do so alongside a plot heavily invested in politics.

That story full of politics is all but gone under Disney, which bought Star Wars in 2012 for $4 billion, but it doesn’t take the Force to sense a political agenda undergirding the final trilogy in the so-called Skywalker saga.

Instead of fans debating whether cuddly, teddy bear-like Ewoks should be able to defeat a legion of well-armed stormtroopers, discussions today get stuck on what messages Star Wars has to offer about the consequences of war, social justice, and identity politics.

The Last Jedi, the sequel trilogy’s middle movie, by director by Rian Johnson, offered some interesting introspection about the Buddhist philosophy that underlies the original trilogy but suffered by preaching about the pitfalls of flying gung-ho into battle and the ills of the military industrial complex. The reviews were glowing, but fans were split by a purposeful departure from long-cherished Star Wars lore and a debate over toxic masculinity.

With The Rise of Skywalker, the discourse has turned to seeking “justice” for Rose Tico, a Resistance mechanic whose star turn in the prior film sparked racist and misogynistic attacks against actress Kelly Marie Tran, who is now largely relegated to the sidelines. Some elements of the film appeared to come down to cold calculation to please certain viewers. Particularly, the insertion of a two-second lesbian kiss between two minor characters, which has been dubbed a “step back” for gay representation and is easy for other less progressive countries to cut from the film.

And, both times I’ve seen the latest flick, the only scene to elicit an audible reaction from the audience was when Rey, a rising Jedi, and Ben Solo, saved from his evil alter ego Kylo Ren, share a kiss after the latter sacrifices himself in the final battle against the resurrected Emperor Palpatine. As a female friend explained to me, it felt like an unnecessary romantic turn for a strong leading lady.

This insistence on being socially aware now is not just eating up Star Wars; it has threatened other immensely popular properties. Just take a look at what is happening with Harry Potter and its creator J.K. Rowling in relation to transgender issues.

In Star Wars, too much focus is now being placed on attracting a new generation of fans with certain kinds of messages at the expense of what made the series fun in the first place.

Perhaps the biggest debate right now, as The Rise of Skywalker gets mixed reviews and a relatively underwhelming initial box office haul compared to its predecessors, is whether there is too much reliance on pleasing longtime fans by simply giving them what they loved about the original trilogy in having new characters reliving those events. Fan service such as this begs the question: Why not just go watch the old movies we adore?

This is where Disney’s Rogue One, a 2016 one-off about how the Rebel Alliance obtained the plans to the original Death Star, comes in. A straight-forward war story, it reveled in delivering a fresh and memorable final battle, both on land and in space, that came off like a futuristic Saving Private Ryan. Not only did it capture the spirit of the original trilogy in new, exciting ways, but the final scene gave fans a chance to see Darth Vader tear through a group of Rebel soldiers in a display of savage power that has always been implied but never shown on the big screen.

With Star Wars taking a break at the box office, I hope Disney takes a little time to reflect on what made the series so big and popular in the first place. And that means going back to the basics.

The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars series now airing on Disney Plus, is a good start with its decision to be a stripped-down space western with a gun-slinging bounty hunter protecting an adorable “Baby Yoda” character, who is now a viral internet meme. It is packed with thrilling action and cute moments, yet light on plot and attachments to real-world politics and society. It reminds fans how grand Star Wars can be when the emphasis is simply on escapism and fun.

Daniel Chaitin (@danielchaitin7) is a breaking news reporter for the Washington Examiner.