No pleasure in this...

Rating: 2/10 (20 December 2019)

I take no pleasure in writing this. But the filmmakers should know why I also took no pleasure in experiencing this utter catastrophe of a film. I've been watching SW movies since I first caught Empire on TV when I was 5 in 1983. It blew my little mind. That being said, I'm no fanboy; I give credit where credit is due, but I look at movies with a critical eye. I'm also a film school graduate, but I'm not interested in pretending to know more than others, I'm just not a novice/casual movie goer. I am happy if people enjoy things that are flawed, even if it's not my cup of tea. That being said, Star Wars is my cup of tea, but some of the films are highly flawed and a bit disappointing. The Rise of Skywalker was more than a bit disappointing, and I'm left with even less respect for this than I have for the prequels, which at least attempted to tell a story.
I'm not mad about it, but I am a little sad. I've enjoyed some of the modern twists in the new trilogy. I appreciate having a female hero/heroine in Rey, but this final film was really just a cringeworthy waste of time and money. Seriously, I'm not a hater, but how can some people pretend this was objectively good AT ALL?? It boggles my mind that such a lazy, hackneyed film would be offered up for such a high profile franchise. I thought TFA was a watchable, entertaining re-hash of ANH, and TLJ had lots of issues but was still technically well-made...But TRoS feels insultingly apathetic, like no one working on this film even tried or gave a damn. Such a sloppy, amateurish script that resorted to explaining the trite plot in every scene with high school level dialogue, and then zipping along with slipshod pacing moment by moment to the inevitable, predictable, groan-worthy resolution. Hardly anything even happens, just people running around pretending there's tension until we're rushed to the next set piece or hollow "dramatic" moment. Most of the plot points and character turns have no logic, let alone emotional or thematic weight. No danger or risk or tragedy ever occurs, I never felt like things wouldn't work out for Rey and her friends. The actors do almost nothing aside from recite their empty lines. It was written, directed and edited like a two hour trailer for a story that goes nowhere, with a villain who was tacked on after the last movie left us without an antagonist. And he's staged to literally stand in the same spot for every scene he's in, like an enfeebled, geriatric Sauron.
I've rarely been so bored or disappointed in a film, and I only stuck around to the end out of respect for (some of) the previous films, but I was clearly not the only one who was eager to bolt from the theater. Seriously, this was a bad movie. Sad to say, but it's the truth.