Give Yourself to the Dark Ride with ‘Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance’ (Review)
Disney Imagineering’s pièce de résistance takes many of its cues from immersive theatre
It’s hard to talk about Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance without spoiling it, even just a little. So: you’ve been warned.
It was supposed to be the main draw at Galaxy’s Edge, Disneyland’s most immersive land yet, a grand experiment plunging guests straight into the world of Batuu, a remote planet on the Outer Rim in the world of Star Wars. This “e-ticket” attraction opened at the Anaheim theme park in mid-January 2020, and then, well, you all know what happened. But many months of being shut down before the park reopened at the end of April 2021 means that the anticipation of finally being able to try it grew and grew for many fans. At least, it did for me, bolstered by the thinking that perhaps the Imagineering team had made some improvements in the meantime, having tried to ride it twice last year and failing to get on.
The buzz around Rise of the Resistance and the elusiveness of getting a spot in its virtual queue means you’ve probably seen at least one of the ride’s Insta-ready epic reveals on social media: a Star Destroyer’s hangar bay, in which an entire company of Stormtroopers is set in front of an enormous window looking out into deep space. We gaze, slack-jawed at their intimidating formation as TIE fighters whoosh by and another Star Destroyer lingers in the distance. The neon glow of the window’s edge is reflected in the shiny, black floors while stern First Order officers, clad in all black, stare back at you, at the audience.
And yes, I do mean audience, here, because this is perhaps the most immersive and theatrical “ride” I’ve ever done, complete with casting the audience as new Resistance recruits and using a single plot line that is carried throughout the experience; the conceit of the ride is that this is all happening specifically to you in real time. The boundary between when the queue portion ends and where the ride itself even begins is made blurry on purpose. There’s a complex on-rails traversal filled with multiple reveals across what feels like three separate sets and vehicles. You’ll also find cast members who scold you in character as First Order officers should you step out of line, with just the right amount of sharpness as to not scare off the kids (though the shocked expressions of the two young boys I was standing by to provided quite a bit of comic relief during this moment). Or the staff take on the role of fellow Resistance members who egg you on and usher you onto the next step of your journey as you try to complete your mission. At some point you sit down and an R5 droid also joins you on this adventure; it reacts appropriately with bleeps and bloops and head spins to what’s happening all around you. At the same time, you’re still, for the most part, you: sweaty, perhaps a little disheveled, carrying your backpacks and souvenirs about, alongside all the other similarly clad visitors. And the storyline within the ride — as well as Batuu itself — is that you’re inhabiting a specific place and time, as Black Spire Outpost exists after the events of The Last Jedi have occurred but before The Rise of Skywalker has taken place, as opposed to the ambiguity and occasionally anachronistic or timeline-jumping elements you’ll find elsewhere in the park.
The attempt at 360-degree immersion using high tech animatronics, practical sets, projections, and other special effects during Rise of the Resistance produces at least six holy shit moments from my count. I won’t go into too much detail, though, to preserve the surprise for future visitors. But I will say the use of scale and verticality during the experience is both surprising and magnificent. However, there’s also a stark contrast between the rough, dusty, beat-up appearance of the rest of Batuu and the more sleek feel of Rise — which takes place mainly on the aforementioned Star Destroyer — which may not seem especially Star Wars-esque to some, at least on an emotional level. While yes, the good guys are often trying to run away from the bad guys in these movies, it feels a little disingenuous to be spending so much time and energy on, well, appreciating the level of detail that went into bringing characters like Kylo Ren to life here, up close and terrifyingly personal.
In hindsight, I also have to note it’s a tad bit too easy to see through the façade at a few key moments during the roughly 18 minutes of the ride, particularly if there’s a delay in moving from one scene to the next or when you get too close to an animatronic element. Our continual curse is that the uncanny valley loves to pop up its head, even if you’re a true theme park believer who desperately doesn’t want it to. (The complexity of the Rise of the Resistance experience also explains why the ride seems to be constantly delayed or taken offline for one reason or another during the course of the day. I felt very lucky that my initial experience wasn’t marred by any obvious technical glitch, like others I know.)
With all that said, when Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is actually able to maintain its intended illusion, it works. It really works.
So to this resistance fighter, it was indeed worth the wait.
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