Hard to love. This shouldn't have been the final product. Why didn't they take more time to get it right?

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2019)

The first act is rushed although visually gripping at times. Everyone has to find objects to get to a location so they can battle someone basically. A lot of scenes aren't all too memorable due to flashy spectacle and the sense that the film is trying to cater/play catch-up to an incoherent vision throughout the trilogy. The dynamic between Kylo and Rey has been one of the redeeming and most attractive character chemistry aspects in all of Star Wars for me; however they didn't stick the landing by the time they fought Palpatine. That whole action sequence was a letdown but the point being with how they had Kylo (now Ben by this time) force fade away after transferring life-force energy was unnecessary. They kiss for the first time and it works because the chemistry is just undeniably there. Although I could see it feeling off for some people just given that a lot of other things fell flat by the end of the movie. Anyway, Ben could have easily stayed alive and the romance/partnership of these two would have culminated into something grand. We waited to see how they'd transpire, and instead of a proper send off with Ben by her side in the end -- he just awkwardly lies down after resuscitating her via their somewhat innate ancient ability to use "life force" which was explained by one line from Palpatine. Maybe that particular shot of Ben passing just threw me but either way I hate their choice in having him die. Other notes: too much bickering between the squad, not really a joint feeling, Lando and many other moments came off as "member-berries". Kylo's helmet design looked like it was solely made for toy sales. Its ultra redness was distracting to look at. I enjoyed all of the lightsaber moments and duels aside from the dual lightsaber wielding face-off Rey had with Palpatine. Speaking of Palpatine, his entire plan was to have Rey succeed him by killing him? As I said before the whole final act could have been done far, far better. I was teetering around a 7/10 before the final act but it pretty much fell apart and genuine feelings were hard to come by given the looming, disjointed studio vibe throughout. So... 5/10 I liked half of it, but I'm letdown, so 5. Disney, word of advice from many fans: have a damn gameplan for a beloved franchise before crapping out a trilogy. The legacy of this trilogy will be muddled disjointed parts that could have been amazing if the proper time would have been put into it. Also, Kathleen Kennedy is the worst.