movie review

“The Rise of Skywalker” is the 9th and final episode in George Lucas’ Star Wars saga that began in 1977. Directed by J. J. Abrams, the film was released for Christmas 2019. However, Good Friday/Easter is a better time to reflect on its philosophy of the Cross and Resurrection. In the previous episode (8th), “The Last Jedi”, Luke Skywalker chooses to sacrifice himself. His “death” saves the remnant of the “Resistance.” The tiny band becomes the spark that ignites the fire which burns down the Darkside of the Force. Luke predicts that he will not be the last Jedi. In episode 9, Skywalker rises again. This time as a female Jedi — Rey (?). I liked the female Savior. She is different from other Hollywood Superwomen (e.g. as in the last “Terminator”). Rey’s super powers do not obliterate her femininity. Her power is awesome because the Force is with her. Yet, she loves as a woman who brings a healing touch. She never loses the gift of crying. Her tears flow out of compassion not helplessness, just as the original Messiah’s. Rey was an orphaned scavenger who did not even know her surname. Her parents had been snatched before her eyes. Yet, Rey did not seek power to take revenge. She sought her identity, her destiny, her place in the universe. Her world was too heartless, ruthless and mean to care for orphans. She had to learn to look after herself. She also cared for the oppressed. Although she was self-sufficient and did not need parents to take care of her, she wanted her family so that she might know who she was. During the final confrontation between Light and Darkness, Palpatine, the Dark Emperor (Satan) revealed to her that she was his granddaughter. His throne was her’s. She could become what she was born to be. All she needed was to hate him enough to kill him. She had the weapon — the lightsaber. She needed to let her anger and hatred make the decision. By killing him, she would receive the spirits of all the dead Siths (powerful demonic spirits) that now lived in the Emperor. Satan himself would live in her and Rey would become the Galaxy’s Ruler — the Empress. Rey manages to retain her “Balance.” Anger, hatred and ambition were not able to rule her. She had leaned to meditate and keep the “Balance.” Getting mad at opponents was the Emperor’s nature. He got mad at Rey for not even trying to kill him. Enraged, he directed his dark mystical energies at her. No previous Jedi, neither Luke nor Yoda, had withstood the power of the Darkside of the Force. How would Rey protect herself? In self-defence Rey crosses two lightsabers. The “Cross” reflects Satan’s murderous energy back to him. His own evil energy ends his life (at least for now). For Rey the Cross meant confronting, not escaping, evil. She sought no rapture for her mission was to be an overcomer. The Emperor had told her that he had been killed “several times” before. What does that mean? Watch James Cameron’s “Terminator” saga. Evil keeps resurrecting, for Yin/Yang, Light/Dark, Good/Evil, male/female are two sides of the same Force. They co-exist as ONE. So, who is Rey? The film ends with Rey choosing her own identity. That is exactly what anti-philosophers such as Sartre, Camus, and Heidegger would have advised her to do. When a Postmodern man chooses to be a woman, he defines who he is or wants to be. No one has a given identity. For, there is no God who made you male or female. You have no permanent individual self or soul. Individuality is an illusion. A baby is not a person until she is given a name, an identity, dignity and rights by her family. The Postmodern/Buddhist belief is that your ‘self’ is a non-existent (Anatman) as a metaphysical entity. It is an artificial or illusory construct. For all of us are one with the Force. Meditation is the path of becoming one with everything. The Force is everything. Rey knows that genetically she is a Palpatine. But there is no fundamental metaphysical distinction between you and I, Palpatine and Skywalker, between the Light and the Dark sides of the Force. The film closes with her declaration: I am “Rey Skywalker.” She sees the spirits of Luke, the Jedi Warrior, and his twin sister, Princess Leia, the Commander of the Resistance. Rey chooses to receive their spirits or the Lightside of the Force. She becomes their heir. Skywalker rises again. Luke and Leia were Skywalker siblings born to the Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker. But they were raised by the Jedi. The Emperor offered to teach Anakin the secret of immortality that only the Sith teach. The desire to find immortality for his wife pregnant with Luke and Leila seduced Anakin to join the Darkside as its Commander. The Jedi Masters had perceived that Anakin was the “chosen one.” His destiny was to rid the galaxy of Sith. He joined the Dark-side because he lost his balance. His son Luke saved him by refusing to kill his father, the dark lord. Eventually, Darth Vader did fulfil the prophecy about him. Although mortally wounded, he “killed” the Emperor to save his son Luke. [In the transcendent realm of mystery, the unknown non-normal power of immortality raised the Emperor back to life. He went into hiding and assembled the team which built the ultimate weapon-system of the Kingdom of Death. The system had the power to destroy entire planets (the allusion — we are destroying the planet today by causing Climate Change!). That is why the Resistance was out to destroy the Emperor and the ultimate weapon-system of The Final Order.] Worldview Background: Postmodern intelligentsia knows that philosophy has failed. The Enlightenment’s ‘Age of Reason’ is dead. It cannot tell you who you are. Neither human logic nor scientific observation (Empirical experience) can know the Truth. Therefore, our new (pagan) age presupposes that humanity has NO way of