Part 2 of 43 Individual Scenes from ‘Rise of Skywalker’
Demonstrating the power of this fully armed and operational randomiser, we are thrown from the start of the film to the very end. It’s a good scene to get out of the way here though, because it’s entirely disposable but it gives us an introduction to near every major character appearing in this film: Poe, Finn, Rey, Chewie, C3P0, BB-8, the nerd, the slug, fan favourite returning champion Maz Kanata, someone named Jannah, Zam Wesell Zori Bliss, miscellaneous other droids, and of course Lando Calrissian himself: the great Billy Dee Williams. Collectively they are team ‘good guy’ and they’ll be operating out of this forest-jungle positioned at the exact midpoint of Yavin and Endor for most of the film.
Something the film never quite manages to convey properly as an image is that they’re working in and around the good old Tantive-IV of A New Hope fame. Because the Tantive-IV is not particularly notable in its details, owing to how it was created by ILM as a kitbash model, there’s no real moment of recognition from seeing odd corners of it. Rather than a recognisable (if slightly aged) point of reference, it ends up working more like the generic sets TV shows used to use in studios; like they’re moving around four or five large white boxes to give the impression of a larger space. Plot-wise, it contributes to the sense that this is a Resistance that is working out of a suitcase, but really it’s the entire film production – some of the toughest material in the film will be set here, in among these anonymous fronds where all the actors listed above will be rattling off lines at an unruly pace as they attempt to keep the plot coherent scene-to-scene.
As a parallel to the celebration ending of Return of the Jedi this is oddly curtailed, a whistle-stop tour of all our favourites being just about happy. John Boyega is a great actor, but he is tasked with delivering a superhuman number of slightly ambivalent smiles here. Still, Poe and Finn get to share a platonic, non-suggestive reunion. Which is nice.
Fan favourite character Maz Kanata, who is one of several characters who are going to be doing a lot of odd proxy behaviour for an absent Leia, gives Chewie a medal. It’s an odd acoutrement for a character who doesn’t wear clothes. Perhaps he can put it on the wall of his parents’ house.
Much like the extended universe novels, Rise of Skywalker knows there’s one decision that will improve any situation and that’s to hit the “Also, Lando’s there” button, so he makes his first (non-chronological) appearance right here, sharing a curiously loaded scene with Naomi Ackie’s Jannah, a new character for this film of whom I know nothing. Fortunately I can simply turn to Google to find out what’s going on here:
Phew.
Lando count: 1