Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) - John Williams

Best Achievement in Visual Effects - Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, Dominic Tuohy, Roger Guyett

Best Achievement in Sound Editing - Matthew Wood, David Acord

Let's give you a little context as to why I already loved Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker before I even saw it.
1. Even seen every single film.
2. I've loved every single film (even 1, 2, and 3) and I'm not annoyed by Jar Jar Binks.
3. I went to an 8:30 a.m. screening of this film before I got on a 16 hour flight.  Did I need more sitting on that day?  No I did not.  Was there any chance I would miss opening week?  No, there was not.
4. I am a tried and true Star Wars fan.  I have nail stickers with Princess Leia on them.  This is not a drill, people.
5. In my first conversation with my now husband, we confirmed that we both were Star Wars fans, and now we are married.

Ok, have I undermined my own credibility on this film enough?  I believe I have.

So this installment puts a lovely little bow on the most recent of the Star Wars iterations.  There were so many easter eggs and just out and out references for the original films that I cried multiple times while watching it.  Ewoks! Tatooine! The X-wing Fighter!  Impressive CGI reproductions of Carrie Fisher, young and old! Surrounded by a really beautiful and compelling story, there was so much bloody red meat in the water for Star Wars fans that there was no chance I wouldn't love it.  It's an against all odds battle of the resistance versus the First Order, and the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and we still have a glimmer of hope that a door was left just open enough for us to hope that there will continue to be more films ever after.

By the way, John Williams is nominated for his 52nd Oscar, 6 of which have been for Star Wars films.  He won for the very first Star Wars and it is likely that he won't win for this one, but his score is magnificent, as always.  I believe only Walt Disney has been nominated for more Oscars than Williams has (59), but John is a very young 88 years old, so let's not count him out.

That's as many spoilers as you're gonna get.  See the movie.  It's awesome.  (Trust me.)

If you loved Star Wars, obviously you have to see them from the beginning.  There is no substitute.

Here's the trailer:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 4 nominations

Original Score, John Williams (his 51st nomination, and remember the rabbit hole I went down during Costume Design? John Williams has been nominated against HIMSELF for two movies in the Original Score category 5 times.)

Sound Editing, Matthew Wood and Ren Klyce

Sound Mixing, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects, Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould

Fans of the blog know that I loved Star Wars: The Last Jedi before I even saw it.  I love Star Wars.  I'm obsessed with Star Wars.  I liked the prequels, I like Jar Jar Binks, I'm just all in on the franchise.  So when I say that this film was excellent (with a few plot holes), I'm certainly coming from a biased point of view, but I'm also being honest when I say that it's a really great film.  

This is the second installment of the recent franchise in which scavenger Rey finds Luke Skywalker and begs him to train her in the ways of the force.  Skywalker is reluctant to get back into the Jedi training game.  Having been scarred by his experience training young Kylo Ren who turned to the dark side and who has become the now powerful sith eager to continue Darth Vader's dream of ruling the galaxy.  Kylo Ren is under the tutelage and leadership of the evil Snoke and uses the force for evil and not for good.

Meanwhile, back at the resistance, General Leah Organa (Carrie Fisher, and yes, I did cry almost every time she was on screen, what's it to ya?) is doing her best to keep all of our beloved characters focused on overthrowing the sinister First Order.  

There is much more to the story and there are some terrific newcomers into the Star Wars universe.  But one of the most interesting pieces of this film is the connection between our young Jedi hopeful Rey and Kylo Ren.  They communicate across space and when they are finally together, they join forces to fight a brief battle.  And here's one of the most compelling pieces of the film. The two have fought off enemies together, and they realize that the resistance is heading toward a trap spelling certain destruction by the First Order.  Ren says to her, let's forget about all these people, let them destroy each other and then let's start together afresh and make the world the place we want it to be together.  Now, we know that a moral and ethical person like Rey could never accept the destruction of good people fighting the resistance.  But it is easy to see how Kylo Ren can frame this situation as neither good nor bad, and let's just embrace a fresh reality without good and without evil that is just right.  Lots of morally relativistic questions in this proposal, but it goes to show that good and evil are frameworks that depend on the lens that you look through.  What an important idea in the midst of an excellent piece of entertainment.  

I'd have given this film many more nominations if I were the Oscars Czarina, but in the meantime, I highly recommend seeing it.  The visual effects, the sound, and especially the score are among the finest in film this year.  Yay Star Wars!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - 2 nominations

Sound Mixing - David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio, and Stuart Wilson
Visual Effects - John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel, and Neil Corbould

We have arrived at the FanGirl favorite, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  Doesn't it just feel good to have Star Wars back in the mix at the Oscars?  Yeah, it does.  I know.

Remember that time when Luke Skywalker and the rebel fleet were able to blow up the Death Star because of a small flaw in its construction?  A two meter opening that would deliver a deadly blow that Luke characterized as not much bigger than womp rats?  If you remember that you're going to love this post and you most certainly already know that this film is the tale of how the Death Star got that flaw and how the rebel alliance came to know about it.  This time, there's a whole new cast of characters and a whole bunch of retcon that will set any Star Wars fan's hair on fire.  (RETCON: retroactive continuity, or, providing an explanation in the history of a storyline, often this serves to explain what could be perceived as holes in the originally presented story)

Rogue One doesn't begin in the usual Star Wars scrawl (which I didn't like), and in fact, the basics for this film come in the very first scrawl presented in Star Wars: A New Hope (the original film).  Jyn Erso is a girl who has had to raise herself (with the help of rebel fighter Saw Gerrera) after her father was taken by the Federation to design and construct the Death Star. Flash forward fifteen years later and through a series of events, she ends up on a mission to help retrieve the plans for the rebel alliance, aided by a group of accomplished fighters and believers in the force.  If you read the scrawl from Episode IV, you already know the fates of this group of heroes, and still, every moment is engaging.  I expected to love it, and I loved it.

I'm frankly surprised that Rogue One didn't receive more nominations - Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound Editing, and Production Design are among the obvious choices.  Perhaps the academy and especially its skilled tradespeople have come to expect the incredible work from the Star Wars franchise, and therefore are reluctant to laud their colleagues.  Last year, when Ex Machina won in the Visual Effects category over Star Wars, my suspicion was confirmed.  Nonetheless, both the Sound Mixing and the Visual Effects are extraordinary and certainly worthy of recognition.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 5 nominations

Film Editing, Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey
Music (Original Score), John Williams
Sound Mixing, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
Visual Effects, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
Sound Editing, Matthew Wood and David Acord

If you have not seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens yet, allow me to encourage you to keep your browser open to this review, pause, go see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and then return to your normal routine and to reading this review.  Don't worry, I'll wait here.

Ok?  Now you've seen it?  Great, and you're welcome.

So just in case you're having trouble remembering what happened while you were out, let me remind you of the plot.  The film begins 30 years after Return of the Jedi (Episode 6) and a new tyrranical organization attempting the domination of the galaxy.  Finn, a stormtrooper with a conscience escapes the space station with a rebel fighter Poe and lands on Jakku where he meets Rey, a scavenger who has been abandoned by her family.  Together they discover the world of the resistance.  I don't want to give too much detail about whom they meet and where, but suffice it to say that the original film, Star Wars: A New Hope has some very similar plot points, including once again having to overcome an evil master powered by the dark side of the force and they have to blow up a space station by depositing a blast into a very small space. 

I loved it.  I love love loved it. Now, full disclosure, I watched all six films in order (as in, episode 1-6, not the order of their original release dates) over the weekend and capped it off with this episode 7. I'm a fan.  I suspect that there would have been few versions of this film I wouldn't have liked, and I openly admit to liking episodes 1-3, which most fans in the Star Wars nerd-verse revile.

But that iconic John Williams music right at the beginning of the film gave me chills and even choked me up a little bit.  All of the Star Wars nominations were locked before the first screening began - the innovation, the visual and sound effects, the battles and the music and the dialogue; they were all so superb that I wouldn't be surprised if the film sweeps all of its categories with wins.  This is John Williams (Original Score) 50th Oscar nomination.  That is not a typo.  If anything prevents him from winning this time, it's only that the music is so familiar, he may be eliminated because voters will fail to appreciate all of the new beautiful music he created for this film. 

Nerd fan girl, out.