IP, holiday release, junk movie

Rating: 3/10 (29 December 2019)

A pointless, unoriginal film with bad pacing, zero stakes conflict, flat dialogue, a borrowed ending from a well established cinema classic, weak score (somehow) and a massive rush of VFX and quick cuts that fail to generate drama, adrenaline, pathos, really anything - the film fails to connect emotionally and seems to occur at arms length from the viewer.
The story also fails badly due to a lot of Elm Street style "fantasy" confrontation between characters in different locations, and a Michael Bay inspired series of endless explosions and wide screen shots of fake scenery without a dramatic setup or powerful characterization. Most/many secondary characters die, then come back to life. Main antagonist has been killed and bought back to life previously also, making this eighth sequel his second onscreen death, repeated purely to suggest some legitimacy about this fairly disposable good-vs-evil VFX release. Star Wars has largely been a disappointing failure since 1983, and this entry confirms the lack of quality in the highly marketable visual production series.