Plays it safe and is consequently very forgettable

Rating: 6/10 (19 December 2019)

I feel like if a film is 140 minutes long then it needs to have a lot of depth and layers to it. 'The Dark Knight' for example had about 5 or 6 story lines that all could have justified their own movie. 'Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker' felt like it had one story line that it just expanded out and bloated to the run time it got. I expect more from a 'Star Wars' movie. I feel like I should almost be overwhelmed by the end and need to see it again (and possibly again) to fully appreciate it. That was not the case here.
The films looks great. There is one location that features at the beginning and end of the movie that really looked especially terrific and perfectly sets the mood for the scenes that take place there. There are also some decent action sequences sprinkled in here and there, but they do feel too few and far between. The humour in the film rarely lands. It always feels very forced and just isn't particularly funny.
My biggest gripe with the film though would be how safe it decides to play it. I understand this is a Disney film and so it has be pretty formulaic, but come on at least through us a bone or two. There is no element of this story that I will remember a week from now. Nothing that blew me away or made me give it a second thought. I got chills when 'Star Wars' flashed up on the screen at the beginning of the movie and that was literally the highlight of my entire viewing experience. This isn't a bad film, it's just an extremely bland and uninspired one.