Never even tried to go for the stars

Rating: 5/10 (26 December 2019)

The only ambitious aspect about this movie is how much stuff they try to fit into it without prolonging the run time. This movie feels bloated as hell and this is probably because of: A. Disney not sticking to one overall vision for the entire trilogy and B, JJ trying to steer it back from where Rian Johnson took it in episode VIII.
The main pull for Star Wars fans was the heart with which the universe was crafted. This feels like it was put together by a committee, which it most definitely was, but the interest behind it was money and not the love for the source material and genuine interest in making a good movie. This feels more like a generic Sci-Fi movie that happens to use laser swords and telekinetic powers than actual Star Wars.
Spoilers below:
If anyone, at any time, can explain to me why Disney keeps faking deaths in movies, I'm willing to listen. There are four fakeout deaths in this movie:

the ship Chewie is on gets blown up by Rey, only to reveal 5 minutes later that he was on another ship (undercutting an interesting arc where Rey would have had some actual struggle)
C3PO gets his entire memory erased. This was a good idea as well, since he could be the fish-out-of-water for comedic effect for the rest of the movie. No worries, R2 has a backup by the end of the movie, so he's as good as new.
Kylo is mortally injured, so Rey heals him immediately
Rey is mortally injured, so Kylo heals her immediately.

This is the emotional equivalent of the boy who cried wolf. By the time Ben Solo actually died, I was somewhere in between not caring and being annoyed at the only character who actually had an arc this movie. There are other smaller things that get on my nerves as a Star Wars fan (Force Ghosts interacting with real life objects being one, for example)
In retrospect, this movie had some really good ideas story-wise, but, for me at least, it took wrong turns at every single one of them.