I have a bad feeling about this

Rating: 3/10 (28 March 2020)

When I first watched Rise of Skywalker, I thought it was just ok. I had seedlings of problems with the film, but they were small enough to where it didn't kill the film. However, after letting the film sit for a while and rewatching the first 8 films, those seedlings have grown into substantial issues that big the entire film down. Before I go into more detail, let me get these two things out of the way. 1: Disney clearly had no idea where this trilogy was going, and so a lot of my problems can be blamed on Disney rather than JJ or anyone else who worked on this movie. 2: I liked the Last Jedi. Not because it was an amazing movie, but because it kept me invested. The twists and turns, while maybe not the best decision for the series in the long run, made me wanna keep watching to see what happens next. The overall climax was epic in every sense of the word. The film was just interesting, which is something I cannot say about Rise of Skywalker. In short, my main problems with ROS are that it felt like a fan fiction, contradicted almost every Star Wars film, and was poorly written and boring. As stated before, it was clear Disney didn't know what they were doing, but I think JJ had a plan. I believe that JJ was setting up something with Force Awakens. However, Disney handed the wheel over to Rian, who then steered JJ's plan way off track. But, when the backlash to Last Jedi came in swinging, Disney gave the wheel back to JJ and said, "Fix this please." So, JJ used ROS to repair the damage Last Jedi caused. Which wouldn't be a problem, if that wasn't the only thing ROS felt like it did. To me, it feels like ROS leans to heavily into the "fix Rian's mistakes" camp, rather then the "conclude this trilogy well" camp. This fix it mentality is also what makes ROS feel like a fan fiction. What I mean by that, is that it seems like the whole movie was written by an upset fan after the Last Jedi. This does not bode well for the movie, as it makes the writing feel messy and not like a Star Wars movie. Speaking of Star Wars movies, this film contradicts and rejects multiple ideas from the previous movies via its most heinous addition: Emperor Palpatine lives. You see, there was this great moment in Revenge of the Sith where Palpatine tells Anakin the story of how Darth Plagueis was murdered by his apprentice. "Ironic." Palpatine says at the end of the the tale. This was a great moment because we know that Palpatine also dies to his own apprentice! Except he doesn't because ROS said so! Also the prophecy and many other lines about Anakin defeating the sith are completely butchered by this decision. Honestly, this single choice kills the movie for me now because I can't watch the first 6 films without being reminded that there lines are rendered pointless. Finally, I just thought the film was a boring string of fetch quests, which is just bad writing. I don't have as much to say about this point, it's pretty self explanatory. Overall, this film is a mess and is constantly struggling to both end this trilogy in a satisfactory way and answer fan complaints about the Last Jedi.