The Rise of Skywalker exposes how bare The Last Jedi was - but still manages to do the heavy lifting required.

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2019)

It's been said in some of the press reviews that the film is stuffed, overloaded and clunky and that it lacks the punch it needs to finish the saga.
IMO this is partly true - the film is jam packed with "things" happening. This is probably because it needs to set up a story that really should have been established in Episode VIII but wasn't. I enjoyed The Last Jedi but this film really does lay bare how little that film progressed the story and how it lacked the scale needed for this stage of the overall saga.
However, Episode IX is definitely not clunky. It breezes along quite smoothly I think; and it certainly delivers an emotional, impactful and thrilling finish to the saga. It is definitely a fan's film and in time I think may be seen as the best in this sequel trilogy.
SPOILERS FOLLOW SO DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE YET...
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The beginning of the film kind of took me by surprise. It's very heavy exposition-wise as it sets up the story for this film. The opening scroll didn't sit well with me - I thought JJ Abrams hit the nail on the head with this in The Force Awakens and Rian Johnson also in The Last Jedi.
But in this episode the film-makers are establishing a story that is quite a left turn from where we finished previously. The audience is straight into the action and straight into what is the essence of this episode - the return of Palpatine. That there was no subtle hinting and then great reveal kind of surprised me. But then, it highlights that this is the kind of thing that should've been set up in the previous film.
There will be inevitable controversy over Rey's origins. A Palpatine she is - his grand-daughter in fact - thus explaining her Force abilities and the reason her parents left her. I thought this was well executed - it dwelt on it only where it was in service to the story and it created a great tension in the character that reflected the wider theme of light versus dark.
Adam Driver was on the ball - as always - and the much vaunted 'Bendemption' was worth the wait. His death and joining with the Force - pulling the well known vanishing trick - showed how strong the character was in the light as well as the dark; and I do wish we could have seen more of Ben Solo towards the end of the whole trilogy. But then his arc was finished at the end of the film so the end for this character made sense.
The filmmaker's dealt with Carrie Fisher's passing admirably. The scenes with her didn't look out of place at all and she retained a central part of the story until the character's death at about the three quarter mark.
Chewie's howl grief suitably demonstrated his pain this time too - a criticism that the filmmakers were stung with after Han Solo's death at the end of The Force Awakens. It was equally touching that Chewie finally received a medal for his services in destroying the original Death Star at the end of this film, something that has rankled Star Wars fans for years.
Action-wise the film is jam packed - it never really stops but as the story moves along breezily, you never really notice. The scope and scale of the action is vast, and we've not really seen world building like this since the prequels and perhaps Rogue One.
The film introduces not only new worldscapes but some great new characters too.
There was no where near enough of Zorri Bliss, which is a real shame as the character's dynamic with Poe was something that would've played well across a number of films and stories. I must confess I am a fan of Babu Frik - there's some good belly laughs there if you catch them in the subtle interactions and dialogue.
Of the new characters, I'm not quite sure what the point of D-O, the new droid, was. The character doesn't actually serve any purpose that couldn't have been fulfilled using existing characters and the cynic in me tends to think it's there as a potential merchandising point. I'm quite certain JJ Abrams himself voiced the droid too - I'll stand corrected if we already know it's someone else.
Cameos from Mark Hamill as a Force ghost and Harrison Ford as a memory of Ben Solo (really touchingly done too) were welcome. I was expecting Lando to be a cameo role too but was really pleased that they made a proper use of the character and the actor. He's central to the second half of the film and isn't pushed on stage and then cast aside in some cheap fan service.
A few other things - the Sith "temple" was interesting, as was the idea of the Sith acolytes chanting the Sanscrit-esque lyrics that were introduced in Episode I. While it helped fill out and broaden the Sith story it really was something that felt a little crammed in and needed to have been introduced earlier in the series to hold any real weight in the overall story-telling.
Ian McDiarmind, though, was fabulously evil and the ending lifted the Emperor to a new level entirely as a character. As I've said before, it was a plot line that really should have come in at the end of act II in this trilogy, the end of The Last Jedi.
Visually the film is what you'd expect from someone of the calibre of JJ Abrams and his team. Cinematographically it was different to Episode 8 (which was visually a masterpiece of cinematography IMO) but that's down to the fast paced nature of the story. The special and visual effects wise were as flawless as one would expect but what really rounds off the film - and the saga - is the outstanding work of John Williams. Echoes of music from the whole saga are sprinkled throughout in a soundtrack that is a fitting end to 42 years worth of work on these films. The music helps round off a film that itself rounds off the saga wonderfully.
My only thought - less than 24 hours after seeing it - is that The Rise of Skywalker really does exposes how bare The Last Jedi really was in terms of progressing the story or adding l much to it (and I reiterate - I am a fan of Episode VIII).
In terms of story telling it would have made more sense to untroduce some of this material and these ideas in Episode VIII, which would have made for a more cohesive trilogy overall and allowed this film to breath a bit more.
As it is Episode IX has a lot of lifting to do - which it manages surprisingly well. It would be sad to see it derided simply for being what it is - part of the sequel trilogy - and there is some intimation of that already online. Because overall, The Rise of Skywalker is an enjoyable, exciting film with an emotional punch, reinforced by its own heritage. It fulfills its aim of delivering answers, action and thrills while managing to bring a definite close to that heritage.