I'll forget it like I forgot Episode VIII

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2020)

I got part-way through Episode IX and realised I couldn't remember Episode VIII at all. I do remember Episode VII. That sums up this trilogy pretty well. The Force Awakens was good. It felt like a new Star Wars Movie and it felt like it belonged in the series. I hardly remember a scene or a line from The Last Jedi.
In The Rise of Skywalker - inappropriately named - there are enough familiar elements and characters to feel like another Star Wars Movie. However, this whole trilogy has mostly been ripping off the original trilogy. Blowing up another Death Star (again) in VII, for example. Rather than new ideas and plots, they brought the Emperor back to life, revisited the scene in which he electrocuted Luke with lightning by having him do the same to Ben and Rey.
They also mess with the canon. There are rules for sequels and prequels, including that you have to be consistent with the original plot, characters, abilities and so on. In The Rise of Skywalker, as others have pointed out, people use the Force without training, Jedi can now heal people (that would have been handy in previous movies, but clearly that ability was invented for this movie), the dead spoke to people in previous movies, but they didn't move spaceships with the Force. The Empire's ships had star destroyers on them, undermining the reason Death Stars had to be so big only 40 years ago, in real time and in the timeline of the movie.
Rather than be fresh or new, this new trilogy, especially The Rise of Skywalker, just rips off familiar plots. It doesn't do anything new or interesting. There are no great twists like there are in the original trilogy. The way it breaks from canon ruin it. We can't expect a movie made now to be like one made 40 years ago. However, with Star Trek, Spider-man, Batman and so many other movies based on old movies, TV series and comics, there is always some consistency with the original text. In some ways, Episode IX feels a bit like a parody of the original trilogy, making a bit of a joke of the ending of the series. Another reviewer said Spaceballs showed more respect for Star Wars than The Rise of Skywalker. Not a bad point at all.
I'm glad I saw this. It's watchable and it's cool to watch another Star Wars movie, but it's not at all mind-blowing, like the original trilogy was. Episode IX is just derivative. Others have said that maybe if George Lucas had made this third trilogy it would have been better and felt more like part of the Star Wars story, universe and canon. Probably true.