A mess of a movie, a mess of a trilogy.

Rating: 4/10 (19 December 2019)

When Emperor Palpatine returns, Rey must face him & the truth about her past. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren makes a final effort to convince Rey to join him.
The end of a 40+ year Saga, TRoS promises an epic final battle & satisfying closure to our beloved characters.
Unfortunately, the latest episode of Star Wars marks a disappointing low for the franchise with a lazy script, full of aggressive pandering & fan service so condescending, it clouds any hope of a great concluding story. Oh how the mighty have fallen...
Disappointing signs from the get go, Episode 9's pacing is unnecessarily fast. We are constantly jumping from scene to scene without narrative cohesion. McGuffin after McGuffin is forced (no pun intended) onto our characters to get them constantly moving without letting the audience breathe. As this is the final Skywalker installment, there are moments where both characters & audiences need to process information for emotion when we can't. All attempts at pathos were absent. There was just apathy...
Unearned story revelations & plot devices seem to grant our characters God mode, as not a single threat seems to challenge our leads. Whenever a problem approaches them, it's inexplicably resolved within the next, or even the very same scene. The convenience of the plot will make you pull your hair out, as you expect this dumb-downed, uncreative story telling from maybe a Terminator film, but never a Star Wars film. This franchise is known for inventive storytelling, character investment & after The Last Jedi, subversive genre-play. This was stupidly safe.
J.J. Abrams' form of mystery story telling does this film no favours, as when he 'answers' fan questions from previous films, he just creates more with threads never resolved. Cramming random & unexplained lore, TRoS retcons its predecessors by abolishing its narrative structure over the last 2 films. This trilogy has no throughline, clearly no vision & makes a complete mess both as a film & a 3 part saga. What a waste.
It's not all bad for fans though. The visuals are still stunning, the music is great & Adam Driver proves he can give a great performance even when his source material is subpar. TRoS is a film made by committee to appease, not challenge fans. It's a film full of rushed, undeserving segments that thinks it's giving me what I want, but now, what I really want is my money back.