More is less

Rating: 5/10 (27 December 2019)

Let me start of by saying that I liked the previous 2 episode, especially VII.
I was able to get over some of the flaws related to the story and enjoy the cinematography, sometimes cheesy humor, and especially the acting from Ridley and the incredible Adam Driver.
But the story went so wrong in this one, that I just couldn't get over it, it completely ruined the movie for me.
First of all, there is way too much going on in this movie: new, dare I say irrelevant, characters are introduced and the characters travel to so many different planets in so little time that there is no 'feel' to most of the settings.
Secondly, everything was blown out of proportians regarding the warfare: too much was going on in the space battles, this prevented me from feeling any tension, anxiety, hope that the characters might achieve their goals. It kind of turned into a superhero movie, like come on how strong is the force in this one? Too strong. Like, what is up with the back and forth force healing in this movie.
And finally the plot. Why they announce an incredible villain like Palpatine in the opening credits of a movie is beyond me. He is supposed to have been, at least according to episode IX, the main villain of the saga and they just bring him back in a bit of text. They should've kept Snoke or (what I think would've been fantastic after TLJ) Driver as the main villain, or introduced Palpatine's revival much earlier in the saga. Personally I find the return of Palpatine quite stupid, especially since he's become kind of a meme in the last decade.
Rey being Palpatine's granddaughter also didn't feel important or necessary to me. Leia's sudden death was also quite lame, etc etc.
The first half of the movie was OK, the battles and chemistry between Rey and Ren were great and they could've done so much with these two characters in terms of their struggle to find their side of the force. But, they didn't. And the second half of the movie is just a marvel/disney CGI fest with a complete overkill of everything.
This trilogy was visually stunning, incredibly acted and funny. But the story turned out to be a hot mess.