142 minutes of trying to fix Last Jedi

Rating: 4/10 (22 April 2020)

Lets get this out right away: Rise of Skywalker is not a disaster. Its actually a decent popcorn sci-fi movie and magnitudes better than Last Jedi; not that this is difficult to achieve, but still.
And that is its problem: Rise of Skywalker is facing the impossible task of fixing the apocalyptic disaster that Rian Johnson produced in Last Jedi. A few examples:
* Ren's mask is fixed
* Snoke is shown to be some weird science experiment by an insane Emperor, aka irrelevant from the start so his comical death doesn't matter anymore
* Phasma is gone for good, because why bother
* Leia got real-death'd this time (rest in peace Carrie Fisher, we will never forget you)
* Luke teaches Rey to respect the Lightsaber
The list goes on. In this regard Rise of Skywalker does a good job. It may even become known as the savior of Star Wars (next to the Mandalorian) after Rian Johnson practically destroyed the entire franchise in one movie.
However, with all the fixing of past mistakes, Rise of Skywalker struggles to become a movie of its own. Its a fan service that throws all kinds of things at the audience of which the producers thought we might like it. Oldschool Star Destroyers, the Emperor, R2D2 saving 3PO, Luke being a real Jedi again, etc.. It works to some extend, but the film never feels like a real chapter in the Star Wars saga.