Different Strokes, Same Story

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2019)

This film is not perfect. I MUST say that immediately. I will not pretend that every nuance is well thought out and perfectly planned. The story is a little lacking and I truly believe to execute this new trilogy, they needed to have a stronger idea of their narrative, goals and through-line. BUT....this is a Star Wars film that will not go down as being the worst or even close to a disgrace to the franchise.
IF you liked Episodes 1-3: script, story, character arcs, narrative....this might not do it for you. I found each of the them to be more painful than the last. Episode 3 infuriates me because of the globbed together story and plot points that make NO SENSE. "Force Awakens" was great. I enjoyed the continuation in characters, story, and the script didn't make me cringe. "Last Jedi" wasted so much potential that THAT was what irritated me. I wasn't mad...just disappointed. It did raise some great plot points though and develop some fascinating ideas.
RoS (to make things easier) expounds upon the best ideas and still doesn't deliver what we need, but in empowering "certain characters" we have a somewhat predictable, but emotionally moving finish to our epic saga of 9 films (spin offs not included, though "Rogue One" was inserted into the canon well). This was NEVER going to be the thing EVERYONE wanted. It was never going to be the Shakespearean epic like "Empire", but I am satisfied for the most part. Are there things I'd change? HELL YES....do I think this is 'painful', 'unwatchable', 'a mess' etc. Absolutely not. I am more satisfied now than I was at the end of 3, and that's saying A LOT.