Not terrible but...

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2019)

I'm not going to rave about this movie but I'm also not going to say it's the worst ever. It's a tough decision between rating it 7 or 8 but I'll bump it to 8. I do wish they would've went with one person to run all three movies in this trilogy. There is a bit of damage control it seems as the movie rushes through most scenes.
The spoilers that Palpatine was in the movie came out earlier in the week and those were fine. (MAJOR SPOILER): The reveal that Rey is a Palpatine was a definite surprise! I didn't see that coming at all and quite frankly, I'm still a little surprised! The only thing bad about the reveal is how it was revealed. It felt rushed as Rey was trapped into listening before jumping on the Millennium Falcon and rushing away. Rey struggles with that reveal but the emotional impact didn't seem to land with her or the audience. I would've liked to see her struggle with it with a possible turn. She didn't struggle at all. For her, she was more scared that the dark side would take over. (MAJOR SPOILER)
Honestly, I would've loved it if both Rey and Kylo would've had to die in order to destroy Palpatine. The finale and final outcome just seemed to be too easy. For a series where Darth Vader was taking care of business at one point... to see the enormous fleet in this movie, Palpatine, and Palpatine's demise all in a matter of 45 minutes... that is the disappointing part for me. It would've also been interesting if Rey would've taken over as a Sith with Ben switching back over to good. After all, it's all about a balanced force, right?
There are obvious plot holes and trilogy issues with this movie. For me, I can slot this movie into my 3rd or 4th spot of favorites from the episode movies. People are right with the pacing. It's fast and at times it feels like scenes are missing or that it's moving along so that you don't notice something bad with the movie. That pacing does help to send the movie along... it didn't drag for me at all.
One other side note is I wish the creators of this movie would've had some courage. They faked us out with Chewie, C3PO, Rey, and Ben(multiple times). Take a chance and end one of these characters.
It was obvious that the trilogy switched back to JJ. It's amazing how clear it is that this trilogy was JJ, Rian, and then back to JJ.
The last thing I'm going to mention is the humor. Some of it was your typical Star Wars humor and it was good. Giving lines to Poe, Finn, and a few others just didn't work. I found myself rolling my eyes more than actually laughing.
I'd suggest not relying on the reviews. Go in with an open mind and don't be so critical of certain plot holes and you should be fine. It'll be interesting to see how this installment holds up over the years. As much hate as Episodes 1-3 received... I still love and watch episodes 2 and 3 all the time.