I have to give credit, but it's still far from perfect

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2019)

We all know after watching this movie that Disney never had a roadmap for this trilogy. While I felt it was a bit of a cop-out to bring back Palpatine so late in the series, I doubt this was the original plan. There are several moments in this movie that directly counter things said and done in The Last Jedi (ie. Rey being a Palpatine, and Luke's force ghost telling her to treat her lightsaber with respect). Those parts I can appreciate since they are retconning some of the many "plot-subversions" TLJ is known for. Honestly it seems like JJ was trying to fit in his version of episode 8 and episode 9 into one movie, and the pacing suffers for it. The script was somewhat by-the-numbers, but nothing overtly bad that isn't immediately noticeable (I'll have to go and watch it again probably). But overall, I didn't HATE this movie, but I don't know it I LIKED it yet. There are many subplots set up in The Force Awakens that pretty much get abandoned here, Finn's arc being one of them. Now it's not like they never addressed it after Ep 7, but they never really moved past "yeah he's a storm trooper who defected, that's his character". Other than those, and I'm sure there are a few other things that I didn't catch, the movie is ok for a sit-through with some friends to make it worth it.