A frenetic, shallow hot mess that does further damage to everything ennobling about the first six films while building nothing of its own

Rating: 4/10 (20 December 2019)

I wish I were surprised by this film. But after Episode 7's copy-and-paste plot and TLJ's wanton destructiveness, I honestly can't be. Instead I find myself empty, sad, and anxious to banish the sequel trilogy forever from my memory. Only Episode 6 qualifies as the Skywalker saga's true ending point.
After a promising start - I enjoyed TFA despite its unoriginality - the sequel trilogy took a nosedive with TLJ - straight into illogic, non storytelling, ideological hectoring, and intentional subversion.
TLJ obliterated legacy characters, diminished and demeaned new characters, destroyed old and new narrative arcs, and told OG fans like me we were stupid for imagining four decades of lore meant anything.
TROS doubles down on the destruction by rendering THE central figure of the Skywalker saga as worthless and pointless as so many other legacy characters are made to be.
Typical of the Mouse, the ST succeeds only as a contemptuous cash grab. It trades on nostalgia while simultaneously giving the finger to those of us who care about character, story, and the first six films.
By nullifying everything noble and successful that came before Episode 7, the PTB at Lucasfilm seek to make Rey - a character I cared about in TFA, but now regard with apathy - everything actual Skywalkers could never be.
Unfortunately for them, it's the true Skywalker saga (Episodes 1-6) that are everything their unintelligible, derivative, destructive, and hollow 'trilogy' can only weakly mimic.
Thanks for 1-6, George Lucas; Thanks for Mando and the wee baby Yoda, Favreau, Filoni, and Chow; Massive fail, KK, JJ, RJ, and Mouse.