Something, something, something, Dark Side

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2019)

In fairness, my expectations were cautiously lowered coming in, which was perhaps the right preparation for the 155-minute run time. This is by no means a bad movie, like its predecessor. It's not a particularly grand finale to 40+ years-old saga, but at least it's not riddled with plot holes and dumb irrational characters like its predecessor.
Without going into spoiler territory, I'll just say the movie is all over the place. It felt like a really high-quality fan project that's trying so hard to check all the boxes on a hypothetical Star Wars Fanservice Checklist. The problem is that with all the nostalgia fuel, shout-outs and self-referencing, it somewhat neglected on telling a compelling story.
Let's put aside that there's almost zero continuity from the last movie. I kind of understand J. J. Abrams wanting to distance himself from The Last Jedi and pretend it didn't happen, fair enough. Even so, the storytelling is so scattered that i didn't really feel emotionally invested in the Rebellion.
There's no real sense of concentrated urgency, desperation or despair like in the original trilogy; it's all just so flashy and overdone that I didn't really care about the characters and their struggle. When all was said and done, I left with a profoundly 'meh' feeling-and it's the movie's fault for never really conveying any sense of danger or seriousness, and further cheapening this with the occasional death fakeout.
Again, the movie's not actively bad. It just tries to fulfill ridiculous expectations that the franchise itself had set. In trying to be everything to everyone, it just falls flat. Let's be glad it's over.