JJ Abrams salvages the final trilogy in an entertaining finale

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2019)

I swore off the franchise after the Last Jedi, and judging from the turn-out for Solo, so did many other fans. Fortunately, JJ Abrams managed to come in and salvage the trilogy with this final installment, although that doesn't let him off the hook for the first movie.
Rise of Skywalker did all the right things to try to get the trilogy back on course, but had to cram two movies worth of story-telling into one movie and was constrained by some of the earlier decisions that unfortunately couldn't be ignored outright. You can feel this sense of being rushed throughout the first half of the movie.
Some folks will disagree with the choice of villain, but after tossing Snoke aside in the last movie like a priceless heirloom lightsaber and turning the First Order into the keystone cops, there were few options to introduce a villain that could instantly have gravitas. Po gets his moxie back, becoming the spice-running, devil-may-care fighter jock that he was meant to be. Finn develops into a much deeper character and shows that he has backbone in addition to his former simpering incarnation. And Rey actually has to work for once, struggling to master her powers and being challenged internally and externally (including a force vision that is actually meaningful rather than being a throw-away visual effect). Kylo's redemption arc is well played, if predictable. Leia gets an appropriate send-off, and the cameos are well done, even if they stretch incredulity quite a bit.
Overall, I would have preferred if the new trilogy had followed the plot of the Heir to the Empire, with the New Republic facing down Thrawn and the remnants of the Empire. But unfortunately, Force Awakens set things off on a hit-or-miss course, with Last Jedi taking the series completely off the rails, and leaving Rise of Skywalker only so much room to bring things to a satisfying conclusion. Given the constraints, I believe this movie does just that and is easily better than the prequels or Last Jedi, although the story-telling falls short of the original trilogy or Rogue One.