Between 5-7 stars is fair.

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2019)

This film is no more cheesey, wafer thin deus ex machina plot than The Last Hope.
Take off the rose colored glasses and really criticize the first film and Jesus it doesn't stack up either. Just park your brain in neutral, eat popcorn and watch "a western in space".
The FUN AND JOY AND SPECTACLE you remember as defining Ep IV are present in all the SW films including this one.
This 'shoulda, coulda, woulda' been the best film trilogy of all time. Wrapping up a nine film odyssey. With mountains of money and an encyclopedia of themes and storylines to play with. This film started at a 10/10 for me, I went in with A New Hope of my own, then it's own internal star war began suffering loses for dizzying amount of wasted opportunity, lazy writing, disappointing character arcs and deflating great moments from previous installments.
Staggering production. Beautiful to watch. Solid acting. Crazy long action film to digest as you watch it. Don't think about it as a conclusion to a magical 40yr journey. Don't overthink it buddy. Just park your brain in neutral, eat popcorn and watch "a western in space". Like Lucas always wanted. Fun.