Expectations of Disappointment Confirmed

Rating: 2/10 (24 January 2020)

How you feel about this movie will depend a lot on how much you have emotionally invested in the franchise. I saw it with 3 very casual Star Wars fans and they loved it, even though they admittedly didn't quite understand it. They loved the special effects and the action. The plot and continuation of the "Skywalker Saga" was completely secondary to them.
I, however, as someone who has loved the franchise since the original film's (A New Hope) release in 1977, was disappointed in TRS...as expected.
This film, as with episodes 7 and 8, just doesn't "feel" like a Star Wars movie. Even though the entire plot was nothing but a continued rehashing of episodes 4 though 6. You can only play the Death Star (or Death Star like thing) so many times. And the, "I'm your ______ (fill in family relation), come to the Dark Side", has gotten so cliche it's laughable.
New characters were introduced as though I should have some deep emotional connection to them (Zorii), and legacy characters were only given very brief cameos (Wedge).
I was originally hesitant to even go see TRS because of the HUGE disappointment I had with The Last Jedi. But, ultimately, I knew I had to go see it because it was the last episode of the original saga. Kind of like going to the funeral of a dear friend...sometimes you just have to see the body in the coffin to get closure.