Rise of Skywalker: Review and Preferred Ending The Long Anticipated Conclusion

Rating: 6/10 (23 January 2020)

The Rise of Skywalker. Episode IX. The Finale. The end of an era.
The final film in the long anticipated series of Star Wars did perhaps bring the story full circle and to a close (which appears to be most temporary). But it did so in near the exact same fashion as the past.
And yes, it is good to end the story with a loop, and there were many great references to the originals that one is very much a fan of and which fit very well in their parts, but I feel they were not all they could be. You, of course, had classic lines, glimpses of familiar faces, reminders of past events, and I think, the best part of all, when Luke finally raises the old X-Wing out of the water just as Yoda did to Luke's disbelief before. All of this had me eagerly awaiting more. When Rey finally comes to the throne room of the old Death Star, why was she not bombarded with visions from the past? Why did we not see more attempts to connect to the force and be guided by past Jedi? How come we received no back story for all these sudden new fangled abilities? All of a sudden we can create wormholes to pass things, we can duel each other from different locations, and we can heal?!
I know there will be many people out there who will disagree with my opinion and many of the comments and ideas I state later in this text. Some will say I am a "fool" or "you know nothing about Star Wars." But I know, like many others deep down in the back of their minds', I was dreaming for a little more.
But the whole situation was a complete mirror of before. A team battling it out to save the galaxy from total annihilation, a Sith from the dark side (Darth Vader/Kylo Ren) in conflict with a Jedi from the light (Luke/Rey) while the exact same emperor is trying to influence the Jedi. Sound familiar? It goes on, you know the rest. Jedi turns Sith back to light, Emperor taken out, good guys succeed in blowing up bad guys, villain turned good dies in arms of hero, celebration throughout the galaxy!
I said it's good to have the story come full circle, but this is a complete clone. And this has been the case from the very beginning with this whole final trilogy. Same thing again and again. Evil people, people who rebel, giant weapon of mass destruction, crazy scheme to blow up weapon, over and over. Though everyone does seem to despise episodes I through III, you at least have to admit they had originality.
The thing that people always seem to say to me when it comes to Star Wars is: What is the lesson, where is the underlying message? Yes, it began with, say a revolution in film, a worldwide phenomenon that created the universe of Star Wars from a simple rounded trilogy of films. But then came the expectation for more. An expectation that has grown and been built upon for decades. Now it is here. But what did we take away from it? Where is the resolution?
This is my view. If you read further you can see my adaptation for the conclusion of the story of Star Wars. I do hope that George Lucas sees this so that he can tell me truly what I got wrong, and we can discuss his original intentions over coffee and how the final product turned out.