A Little Good In A Whole Lot Of Bad

Rating: 3/10 (7 January 2020)

While there are a few fun things about this movie, most of it starts to fall apart under even the barest scrutiny. The plot is nonsensical (a macguffin quest for another macguffin to find a big bad macguffin) and the character arcs are completely abandoned. There's no growth for Finn or Poe, there's no Rose at all, Rey's arc takes her completely backwards and ruins everything good about her character, turning her into a vehicle for nostalgia and OT worship. And Kylo/Ben is completely reverted back to his TFA caricature until one blinding moment and then it's over, rendering the motivations of Han, Luke, and Leia over these last three movies completely pointless.
Jj and Chris Terrio ruined Leia. They turned her into a heartless monster who abandoned and ignored the needs of her son. They turned the Jedi ancestors into elitist snobs too. And there is absolutely no reason Palpatine needed to have returned. That decision alone undermined this whole story.
I could write a dissertation about why this movie was terrible, but let's put it succinctly: terrible pacing, plot holes galore, bizarre retconning, and the characters were all sacrificed for nostalgia points.
Such a shame this was the big finish.