An attempt to retcon episode 8 and please every fan leaves this film feeling hollow

Rating: 6/10 (5 January 2020)

I think it's important to start my review of The Rise of Skywalker (TROS) by saying that I was a huge fan of The Last Jedi (TLJ) as I think that is relevant to my feelings about the final installation in the Skywalker saga. I'm also a big Star Wars fan and have been since watching A New Hope/Episode 4 at the age of about 7. Going in to watch TROS I was expecting several of Rian Johnson's intelligent choices to be reversed, but the extent this happened did detract from my ability to appreciate the film on its own merits. So, I went to see it again and tried hard to leave my feelings about TLJ at the door, and I hope I'm now able to make a fair assessment of the film.
My brief summary of the film is that it's highly ambitious, beautiful to look at it, funny at times (if a bit corny) and very enjoyable in a lot of places; but on the downside the film feels incredibly rushed and is packed with a convoluted plot, often told by shoe-horned expositional scenes, and there is just too much clunky dialogue and lack of emotional connection. I know there are rumours that J.J Abrams isn't happy with this final cut and wanted a 3-hour cut, and I expect a 3-hour cut would address some of the issues I have with TROS (but not all of them) but I can only review what was released. What follows is a much more detailed analysis, if anyone is interested!
Overall TROS is an enjoyable film, and I found that much more so on the 2nd viewing. The film is gorgeous cinematically, and the space battles and lightsaber scenes are wonderful to watch (although there was a lot going on in the final ground battle which made it hard to follow). I think Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver are mostly great, even when given poor dialogue. The supporting cast are a mixed bag, Dominic Monaghan for example is wooden, and although Oscar Isaac and John Boyega do their best, they seem to struggle to re-create the on-screen presence they had previously shown. There are lots of interesting sub-plots which are introduced, but the film moves so quickly that they don't get explored fully or seem out of place. The film shows a lot of potential at times, but it seems that either execution, editing or writing lets it down.
The main problem with TROS is that it tries to achieve far too much, namely it wants to create an explosively exciting conclusion to the saga, whilst retconning most of TLJ and simultaneously pleasing all the fans (especially those who hated TLJ), and it just isn't possible to do all of that in one film. Whatever they may say in interviews the film makes clear that J.J Abrams and Chris Terrio didn't want to pick up from TLJ and take the story from there, they essentially wanted to pick it back up from Episode 7 (The Force Awakens), but that means several sections of the film have to be spent reversing decisions made in TLJ, taking up precious time in a film that is already packed far too full of plot and explanation. Fans should always make their voices heard and I get that TLJ wasn't what a lot of fans wanted, but by seemingly trying to address the major fan criticisms of TLJ this film is badly weakened.
The first thing to deal with is the return of Palpatine; this is a huge plot point, but one that has had no prior build-up in this final trilogy. Therefore, they cram it in within the opening crawl before the film fully starts. Palpatine's existence is treated with very little surprise from Kylo Ren, or subsequently by The Resistance, and we are just meant to accept some very sketchy and brief explanation of how he has returned. I know there is enough material in Episodes 1-3 to suggest that he could be back, and it isn't entirely without warning if you're a Star Wars fan and read extended materials, but for something this big to be introduced so lazily simply doesn't work dramatically - you barely have time to get your head round it before the film moves on. Palpatine was brought back to tie the 9 films together and give the saga a climactic ending. The issue is that the rationale behind his continued existence is the very thing that robs the film of the climax he is there to provide. Palpatine clearly died at the end of Return of the Jedi/Episode 6, and the Rebels celebrated wildly at his demise and the destruction of the empire - does that ring any bells? So, when Rey destroys him, at the cinematically impressive climax to TROS, why should anyone celebrate? Surely he can just return again? His death has been robbed of meaning, why can't he return again and stay 'in the shadows' as Leia says, and oversee the rise of a new evil organisation? The drama is taken out of the climax by the plot device they used to create it.
In terms of emotional drama, it's not just the immortality of Palpatine that is an issue. In TROS, there is no real threat to the main characters in The Resistance, they all just proceed to the obvious conclusion of the film. There was a great chance to increase the emotional involvement of the audience after Chewbacca's 'death' (which seems to be partly at the hands of Rey). This tragic death would then increase the motivation of Rey, Poe, Finn and their companions, and indeed it does briefly. But, not long after Chewbacca's death, he is found not to be dead after all; the writers just didn't want to risk upsetting any fans. C3PO needs to have his memory wiped and says an emotional farewell to his friends, but the meaning is lost again as R2D2 later just restores his memory. In perhaps the most narratively dangerous advance of Jedi powers, Rey (and later Ben Solo) can now heal the injured, and in fact restore the dead to life. Rey gives Kylo Ren a mortal blow, but then immediately heals him; then later Rey seemingly dies after defeating Palpatine, but Ben Solo brings her back to life, though he fades away before Rey can return the favour again. It seems severe or fatal consequences are now in fact inconsequential, creating a universe in which death has little meaning.
One of the most common criticisms of TLJ was that Snoke had no backstory and was just killed off before we found out more about him. To me, it was always a ridiculous criticism - you can't fit in backstories for every single character, and Rian Johnson used Snoke to develop Kylo Ren's story instead of focusing on Snoke. Yet, that choice by Johnson is retconned in TROS. I wonder if those fans who complained about the lack of Snoke's backstory are satisfied that they now have it. In one short sentence Palaptine simply says "I made Snoke", which is coupled with a shot of a chamber containing Snoke clones. So that's Snoke's backstory, it certainly didn't work for me. Good filmmakers have the confidence to leave some questions unanswered.
The next retcon I want to address may seem a minor one, though I think it is very instructive in how regressive the writers of this film were. Kylo Ren decides to weld his mask back together, seemingly after looking at Darth Vader's destroyed helmet. In TLJ it was such an important part of Kylo Ren's development that he destroyed the helmet after being called "just a child, in a mask" by Snoke. He is moving beyond the need to mimic Vader and is determined to prove himself on his own merits. In fact, Kylo Ren says many times in TLJ that it's time to let the past die. However, he's apparently forgotten this and has decided it's not time to let the past die but conversely, it's actually time to resurrect it, to cling to it - much like J.J Abrams and Chris Terrio have done with the re-introduction of Palpatine. It's disappointing screenwriting.
Now to the most egregious retcon: Rey's parents. In a film packed with explanation, a fair chunk of time is spent explaining how she's not a nobody after all. This for me is the biggest disappointment of the film and clearly a direct response to fan criticism of TLJ. In TLJ Rian Johnson attempted to take the film beyond the shackles of the previous 7 films. By making Rey someone from outside the main families of the saga we can see how the Jedi can rise again, without the need for further 'secret' children of characters like Obi-Wan or Yoda to be found. Why can't someone be a Jedi and not come from a bloodline containing previous great Jedis or Siths? At the height of the Jedi there were seemingly hundreds, if not thousands, of Jedi, were they all related to the main protagonists from these films? But, the writers of TROS couldn't let Rian Johnson's move stand, Rey simply had to be related to someone important. To be fair, I hadn't expected Rey to be related to Palpatine, but it's just unnecessary and wastes so much time which would have been better spent fleshing out some of the superficial plot in other areas. In some particularly clunky dialogue (though delivered earnestly by Adam Driver) Kylo Ren explains that he wasn't lying when he said Rey's parents were nobody, because they were nobodies, but only because they pretended to be nobodies, even though really they were somebodies .... OK? J.J Abrams and Chris Terrio are bending over backwards so far here to please the haters of TLJ that it's a wonder their ankles didn't snap. This kind of fan service doesn't make a good film.
Well, the fact I've written this much and still feel I have more to say makes me question the amount of time I spend thinking about Star Wars! I think it's time to bring this to a conclusion. TROS isn't a bad film at all, and if it wasn't for TLJ then I might appreciate it more because there's much to like packed into the 142 mins. It's just so disappointing to me that everything that was set up in TLJ has been discarded, and as an aside it makes episodes 7-9 a very uneven trilogy. I do recognise the massive challenge presented to J.J Abrams and Chris Terrio as they tried to find a way to satisfactorily conclude this epic saga of 9 films, and perhaps it was an impossible task in many ways. I give the film 6.5/10. I'll still probably see it once more whilst it's at the cinema!