Nostalgic with a bit of cheese for good measure

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2019)

I really didn't know how the final chapter of the Skywalker saga was going to pan out. With J.J. Abrams back at the helm, I was holding out some hope that he'd restore some of magic and nostalgia he's known for.
Perhaps he went even further or even too far. We can come to that later.
JJ's debut Star Wars movie, The Force Awakend, was light hearted, refreshing and humourous. It was a safe execution to kick off the first of the Disney branded films.
When Rian Johnson was drafted in for The Last Jedi, I was excited to see where he'd take us. I loved his film Looper and hoped that if he could bring some of that Star Wars we could be in for a treat.
What he did was effectively ruin the course of the story. He went in a direction I totally disagreed with as a near life long Star Wars fan and admirer of his other work.
I tried to adjust my mindset to allow for his vision but it didn't wash. A long portion of the film is near irrelevant, slow and boring.
He made sure of my disappointment by killing Luke. I was left holding two scenes from the entire movie to feel "satisfied with.
So when Colin Trevorrow exited The Rise of Skywalker and Johnson passed on being incolved, I was pleased that JJ was returning. I just wanted to get back to where things were with Finn, Rey and Poe and hope he might even go a little further and he did.
There are a lot of nods to the previous films including characters, ships, planets, sets and even the plot. There was also some extra cheese which takes me back to the original trilogy.
There is still part of me that wishes the trilogy had gone another way but what was done in TLJ could not be undone. Having said that, I thought JJ did a marvellous job with Luke and Leia in this final installment.
I was never happy with killing off Luke and sadly Leia's character could only go one way but her story in this chapter is well done. I even enjoyed the return of Palpatine.
It could have been darker but given the wider audience, I see why they didn't. It's still pretty cool even if it does raise many questions.
Over all I'm pleased. JJ got us back to wear he began his take and it's a wrap.
Now we can look forward to a new future in the Star Wars universe.