Maryann Brandon, the editor of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, recently spoke out in defense of the much maligned "fan service" in the movie. The Rise of Skywalker is the last film in the nine-picture Skywalker saga, and although some critics praised the film for its fan service, most Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker reviews were surprisingly negative, arguing the film didn't do enough to satisfy fans.
It wasn't very long ago that Star Wars fans were embroiled in a different yet similar civil war over the direction of the franchise, as 2017's The Last Jedi proved to be a massively contentious film. The Last Jedi received near universal praise from critics, but many of the series' most passionate fans staunchly disagreed. With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the critic and audience situation has been reversed, with the film receiving far more fan than critic support.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's editor, Maryann Brandon, recently spoke out in defense of fan service in the film on The Rough Cut podcast, first reported by The Playlist. In responding to the criticisms both she and director J.J. Abrams have received, Brandon said,
"Look, sure, it’s fan service, and if you didn’t service the fans, it would be, ‘Oh, he didn’t go along with the history of “Star Wars” and what it all means."
Brandon goes so far as to say that The Rise of Skywalker was put in a "no win situation" by Disney. The film had a far shorter production schedule than J.J.'s last Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens. As such, they felt rushed to deliver results and were forced to edit on the go rather than in a traditional editing bay. Brandon also talked about the enormous stress the project had on the team both physically and emotionally, saying, “About a third of the way through, Kathy [Kennedy] was like, ‘JJ has got to spend more time in the cutting room.’ And I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not with the schedule that we were on. Not with what he was dealing with on a daily basis… he was just exhausted at the end of the day."
It's unfortunate that professionals like Maryann Brandon feel the need to respond to widespread criticisms of The Rise of Skywalker, as the responsibility of rushing the project should fall entirely on the shoulders of Disney. Brandon is a well-decorated film editor who earned an Academy Award nomination for her work on The Force Awakens. For all the muck and mire that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is currently stuck in, it's certain there was once a coherent story at its core, and fans should take some solace in the editor's statements that the film's central takeaway should be to believe there’s always hope.
Source: The Playlist
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