Bad ending to a bad trilogy.

Rating: 4/10 (21 December 2019)

(Sigh), this film felt like a hasty attempt at compensating for TLJ, as well as explaining why Rey is so immensely powerful, and her origin story, oh and let's not forget the overload of fan service that they threw in as an attempt to win some nostalgia points.
First off, the conveniences were annoying and killed the tension that this could have had. For instance, Chewie is captured by The First Order and is about to be flown away in a transport ship, but then Rey and Kylo pull it with the force until it explodes. But later on we found out that Chewie was on a DIFFERENT transport ship, of course he was..... there's also a scene where C-3P0 has a Sith message in his memory but is forbidden to say it due to his programming (of course he is) and the only way they can get the message out of him is by finding a droidsmith that can encrypt it, and we learn that this will wipe his memory clean (of course it will). C-3P0 loses his memory, but then, wait for it.... R2 finds a way to get his memory back! (Of course he does). Also there just happen to be these "Sith wayfinders" that lead to a Sith planet!!! (Of course there are!) And Rey just happens to be Palpatine's granddaughter!!! Wait, what? Point is, I wouldn't mind seeing old characters disappear or be changed, because then it would show true sacrifice, stakes that would lead iconic characters to their end, and that would've made me feel tension, and it would've made me appreciate those characters even more for what they did to fight back against the dark side. Speaking of Rey....
Rey in this film is straight up ridiculous and over-the-top, to the point where she's like Starkiller from The Force Unleashed (a non canon SW game). There are some really silly scenes of her with Kylo on a desert planet near the start where she cuts off one of Kylo's TIE fighter's wings, sending the cockpit crashing down into the sand and exploding. Kylo surely died or was at least heavily injured, right? Nope, he just walks straight out and is in perfect condition, (sigh, of course he is), and then she starts pulling a transport ship out of the sky and Kylo battles her with the force, which I mentioned before and it was another awful scene. There's also this hilarious vision ahead has in the ruins of the Death Star where she fights an evil version of herself with a folding lightsaber and pointed teeth ðŸ˜‚, it just looked comical, and it could've been executed in a better way. Oh, and another thing, we could've seen Rey do some evil stuff, considering the fact that she had heritage from Palpatine (oh, here's another one: OF COURSE SHE DOES), I would've liked to see her join the Dark side and become Empress Palpatine, and then we'd get the true final conclusion in a sequel. I honestly feel like there was too much that needed to be covered in just one movie, TLJ is largely responsible. Disney could've done what they did with Avengers, and made it so that the enemy won and then we'd see the true final showdown between good and evil in the next film. But no, they had to rush an ending here....
I'll give the film credit where credit is due: the effects are spot on, as well as the music, the action seq- actually no, the action sequences sucked (especially the one where there were horse riders attacking a Star Destroyer, yes, I'm serious) and the performances from the actors were decent, they did their best with what they were given. Also some of the dialogue was great and genuinely made me chuckle. Other than that though, the film was quite a mess, and it failed to give us a satisfying conclusion. It also ended up wasting what could've been great new characters (e.g. Snoke and the Knights of Ren), since Snoke is revealed to be some product created by Palpatine, and the Knights of Ren barely do anything other than stand there and then get swiftly beaten by Kylo. All that teasing at the start of the trilogy for nothing.
But here's my final point: the ending. It sucked. Gigantic rebel fleet come out of nowhere to attack Palpatine's destroyers, Palpatine sucks the force power out of Rey and Kylo, Palpatine raises his old man hands and shoots force lightning at the rebel fleet, Kylo stands up but gets pushed away into a hole, Rey then stands up and Palpatine pauses his force lightning strike on the rebel ships and then they're back in power and start obliterating the star destroyers, Palpatine then shoots force lightning at Rey but Rey blocks it with her lightsaber, grabs another lightsaber and pushes the force lightning back, killing Palpatine in the process. Then the whole place starts crumbling and the star destroyers all get destroyed. But wait, there's more: Kylo climbs out of the hole to find Rey unconscious. Kylo mourns over Rey but then she wakes up, they kiss and then he dies. Amazing....
So there you have it, the Skywalker saga ends with a stinker, and I thought this film smelt bad on the outside (haha, get it?).