Hey everyone: press pause on your post-Thanksgiving antics, because there’s more Star Wars to be had. New Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker posters have arrived, reminding us that this series has had its fair share of incredible poster art…and its fair share of total mediocrity. And on top of that, a new TV spot has slipped past Imperial blockades and arrived online, so you know what that means: the hunt begins every new sliver of footage.
Let’s start with the good poster, a new IMAX poster, which is beautiful and deserves to hang on some imaginary wall alongside the best poster art the Star Wars series has ever seen. It’s painterly and simple: Rey stands on a cliff, while the visages of General Leia Organa, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, and fascist whiny-baby fanboy murderer Kylo Ren loom over her. It leans heavily into recognizable imagery, but in a way that feels fresh. Good work, everyone!
Less succesful is this RealD 3D poster, which feels like a rough draft that was emailed out and accidentally sent to the printers. There’s nothing wrong with the composition here. It works, in theory. What is wrong is the fact that the awkward placement of the characters feels painfully photoshopped, as if someone cobbled this together as a proof-of-concept before sitting down to actually paint the damn thing. This is a real A-for-effort situation and a reminder that a good composition utilizing terrific imagery is only as good as the final execution.
And if you prefer your Star Wars characters to be in motion, there’s this new TV spot, which features enough new footage to obsess over for the next…well, however long you choose to obsess over it. This footage arrives alongside the news that The Rise of Skywalker will open in China on the same day it opens everywhere else, which is always a big deal for a Hollywood movie hoping to grab those sweet, sweet Chinese audience moneys. However, Star Wars has traditionally underperformed in China, where the franchise doesn’t have 40 years of fandom to keep the hype alive. Will this one prove different?
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Mark Hammll, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher. It hits theaters on December 20, 2019.