Good for what it had to work with

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2019)

Okay, let me start by saying, I was not a fan of The Last Jedi. I understand why some people liked it, but I feel as though it derailed the momentum of this trilogy. So that put a lot of pressure on this installment to basically carry it through and finish strong. There are pros and cons to this movie like any other.
My biggest problem with the movie is that everything feels shoehorned. All of a sudden Palpatine is back and he's just been pulling the strings this entire time. It just seems lazy to me. It felt more like a tv show when they randomly bring back a villain from an earlier season.
Secondly, even if you do go ahead and make the decision to bring Palpatine back, do it more creatively. For starters, they should've completely leave him out of if the trailer (the one where he laughs at the end). The surprise that he's still alive would've been better served. Then, the entire resistance finds out he's still alive early in the movie because of some random spy. Imagine how much better it would've been if the resistance was confused the entire movie, wondering who's behind this given that snore was killed. They would just assume Kylo Ren was the mastermind and would've been completely taken aback when they see the emperor is still alive. And, they didn't even give him a lot to do. All he does is give a couple of "bad guy speeches" and shoot a little lightening. He is literally beaten because Rey blocks his lightening with two lightsabers instead of one.
Lastly, this movie simply lacks creativity. One of the things everyone was saying was "I hope they don't use another Death Star." Well, congratulations, instead of one big ship that can blow up a planet, we got thousands of smaller ships capable of blowing up planets. And, the way they executed it doesn't make any sense. They just randomly decide to blow up one planet for no reason, just to show the audience that they are capable of blowing up planets again. But why would the first order randomly send one star destroyer out to blow up a planet while the rest of the fleet can't even take off because they need some kind of navigation tower? And the whole reveal of Rey's lineage had no weight. I'm happy that Rey is important and not just the daughter of "nobodies," but the reveal had almost no significance. I think it's due to the whole back and forth between the three movies of the trilogy, but like I said, this movie had to go with what it had to work with.
Just some other random gripes I had before I move on to the pros:
Give Finn more to do then just scream Rey every time there's a crisis.
Poe is supposed to be some crazy good fighter pilot, as seen in TFA when he went off and destroyed like 20 tie fighters in 30 seconds. We literally get nothing like that in this movie.
Finn tells Rey he has something to tell her that he never got a chance to say, and it's never actually said at any point in the movie.
Why does every movie in this trilogy involve the entire resistance standing in a room talking about the enemies newest method of destruction and everyone stands around acting shocked and confused?
Kylo Ren randomly decides to turn back to the light because his mom whispered his name right before she dies? He literally blew her up and sent her flying through space in the previous movie.

Okay, with all that being said, this movie does have pros. For one, I like how the cast gelled this movie. I like the decision to put them all together on one mission. The effects were really good once again, nothing seemed unreal. I like how Rey is not just some random scavenger but she fits into the puzzle. I like how the original trio makes an appearance in some way, shape or form.
Despite all of my gripes, this movie isn't bad. I do believe that a majority of its problems come from having to make up for TLJ. In my opinion, I wouldn't even mind if Disney scratches this entire trilogy and start over. This trilogy brought nothing worth wild to the Star Wars lore. The end of Return of the Jedi serves as a much better wrap up to the Skywalker story. I had and still have no problem with wanting to continue the narrative, but do it more creatively and make it seem less like a money grab.
All in all, not a bad movie. I saw another review that describes it as "safe" and I think that's the perfect way to describe it. It's not trying to blow anyone's mind, it just wants to wrap up a franchise as seamlessly and uncontroversial as possible. I put 6/10 in my review above but I would say 6.5 is more accurate.