Damage limitation at its finest!

Rating: 7/10 (28 December 2019)

It was always going to be damage limitation with this trilogy, especially after the calamity of 'The Last Jedi'. Whilst 'The Force Awakens' was by far from a masterpiece and certainly had its share of problems, at least it remembered to entertain. 'The Last Jedi' was extremely boring just as a movie (Star Wars, or otherwise), amongst its many worse offences.
'The Rise of Skywalker' at least keeps the pacing steady, and whilst definitely not always a rollercoaster ride of thrills, it's broadly entertaining and fun, and has a couple of decent story and character moments. No, I didn't ultimately care that much about the characters, but I was surprised to have even cared at all considering how poorly they'd been setup beforehand for this third and final act. Abrams at least nails a couple of crucial character moments, which would have been better served had the first two films (and participate TLJ) better handled the development of the story and character arcs with more care. There was simply too much nonsense in TLJ, and whilst subverting established previous characters and plotlines can work well, it needs to be explained. Subversion for the sake of it merely invites scrutiny and derision.
It's clear from this final it would've been best had Abrams helmed the entire trilogy. It would have been even better had they actually created a better overarching storyline and characters were could care about right from the first film, like Lucas did in the original trilogy. That's why so many people loved the original trilogy. Sure, they certainly had their own flaws which nobody can deny, but they felt fresh, fun, and gave us characters and a story we could invest in, and had pretty high stakes that has us on the edge of our seats.
This has been a trilogy plagued by poor creative decisions right from the beginning, that not even the greatest of directors, nor indeed the talented and capable hands of JJ. Abrams himself, being a very competent director, could save. But, at least he makes mediocrity about as good as it can possibly be in this final entry. 3.5/5*