No better than Cobra or the Silver Surfer

Star Wars titles have never been a paragon of cleverness, but sometimes they have at least been distinctive (The Phantom Menace) or poetic (The Last Jedi).

Rarely are they derivative of trends that have been so beaten into the ground, I wrote a blog post parodying the trend a whole five years ago.

That was this post, in which I bemoaned the lame over-usage of the word "rise" in movie titles. Now, a Star Wars movie has succumbed to that deader than dead trend.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the title of the last movie in the Skywalker saga, the implications of that title notwithstanding. It's not a great title (and does have me asking a lot of questions), but I don't object to the Skywalker name drop. It's the use of "rise" that gives me pause.

You may recall (if you haven't clicked on the link above) that the impetus for my complaints over "rise" was The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro, though it turned out that was only a title used in Australia and some other non-U.S. territories. But other titles with some variation on that naming convention, that were used domestically in the U.S., were Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Any time a Star Wars movie is taking leads from Fantastic Four and G.I. Joe, it's time to be worried.

Of course, I don't for a moment believe that a title previews the potential quality of the film itself, so I'm not really worried. However, questionable decisions are questionable decisions, and it's hard to know for sure to what extent they permeate the project.

Unlike millions of people I have not watched the teaser trailer, and I think I will continue with what has been my standard practice for a good five years now, which is to take whatever measures I can to avoid trailers of movies I'm excited about seeing. But I have seen a couple stills from the trailer (accidentally, while googling for the image above), and I must say it's exciting to be within eight months of another full-on, non-spinoff Star Wars movie.

I just hope it's not the last one I ever care about. I'd like Star Wars to keep rising, even as the Skywalker saga falls.