Has anyone ever told you the tragedy of episodes 7-9?

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2019)

The Rise of Skywalker is the ultimate byproduct of two competing visions. In episode 8, Rian Johnson obliterated much of what JJ Abrams had built up in episode 7. And now in episode 9, JJ Abrams had to retcon much of what Rian destroyed in episode 8.
The emperor returns thankfully not in some idiotic way that I feared (time travel via force disturbance), but rather by the unnatural powers of the sith to control life. His existence serves as a motivation for Kylo Ren, which was sorely needed after Rian Johnson turned his character into some second rate Dick Van Dyke show. Kylo is hesitant to trust the emperor, and immediately begins plotting against him.
After that opening sequence, the movie is slow to gain momentum with the jarring Leia scenes that are clearly dialogue from Carrie Fisher meant for different purposes. And TROS doesn't really pick up speed until Kajimi, nearly an hour into the film, when we meet Zorii and Babu Frik. Though one exception is the explosive power of Rey's force lightning that gives us a taste of her dark side.
And that's the real strength of the movie: Rey's dark side, and Kylo Ren goading it out of her. This has always been their story, and the (only) genius thing Rian Johnson wrote in ep 8 was connecting them by the force. JJ employs that several times in TROS to delightful effect, and even expands on the capabilities of that force connection. Kylo and Rey receive an extremely satisfying arc by the ending moments.
There are several questionable moments, as in, "Are you sure the force can do that JJ?" The tragedy is that JJ had little else place to go. The main villain (Snoke) was quickly merked without even a single lightsaber battle in episode 8, so the emperor really had to ratchet up the sith powers. However, the reliance on the history of the sith, and the portrayal of them as a cultish religion, was extremely faithful to source material. So even the parts that made me question what I was watching still felt like Star Wars.