"History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes," = Abrams' solid variation on the 'Return of the Jedi'

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2019)

It's an ENTERTAINING MOVIE - it's a GOOD STAR WARS MOVIE - It's a SOLID SKYWALKER SAGA MOVIE - It's the BEST POSSIBLE, given the circumstances, FINALISATION of DISNEY's STAR WARS TRILOGY - It's a PROBLEMATIC CONCLUSION of THE CENTRAL STAR WARS SAGA OF 9 MOVIES - It's TOO OVERLOADED WITH ALL KINDS OF THINGS that should have been DISTRIBUTED MORE EVENLY THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE DISNEY's TRILOGY. And YES, it is FULL OF SMALLER and BIGGER WINKS, NODS, HOMMAGES and TRIBUTES to Lucas' ORIGINAL SAGA and PREQUELS, but these elements and scenes are incorporated rather logically and rationally, so I would not, with all the respect to some reviewers, call it fan-service for the sake of fan-service or s comfort cinema food for STAR WARS hardcore fanbase.
Okay, let us start with a statement that the biggest problems of the Rise of Skywalker are stemming from the fact, judging by the entire trilogy, there a tangible ABSENCE OF ONE COHERENT CREATIVE VISION underlying all three movies. In sum, Disney could hire different directors and scriptwriters to execute such project - there is no problem with such studio-system way of producing films, but there should have been ONE PERSON IN CHARGE OF THE PROJECT with ONE CLEAR IDEA ABOUT THE TRILOGY. Abrams, Johnson or somebody else, it matters not, but there should be ONE DEFINITVE CREATOR. Clearly, as shocking as it may be, there was no such thing at the beginning, and given that the movies had been executed by two almost contradicting voices in terms of the approach to the source material and film-making in general, it is then no surprise that Disney's trilogy and its conclusion does not hold together particularly well. Firstly, part of the problem lies in the fact that Disney wanted to do basically remakes of the original trilogy updated for 21st century audience as a safe bet in terms of economics and etc. However, Disney understandably did not want to confess this to STAR WARS fans looking for the continuation of the original trilogy, and therefore they somehow try to make a VARIATION ON THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY with SAME BACKBONE FOR THE STORY with new young generation of characters, while using reducing the old and iconic ones as a supporting cast to be killed throughout the trilogy, so they could be, in terms of movies, discarded forever, giving space to Disney's new generation of heroes. Okay, it does make sense and there is nothing wrong with such approach, but Disney did not play it fair with fans, explaining their new trilogy in these terms. Rather, Disney intentionally let people believe that they are making a genuine continuation and culmination of the Skywalker Saga. It's sad because some fans have been disappointed, and the Rise of Skywalker can be hardly perceived as something more than a variation on the Return of the Jedi. In terms of the Skywalker saga, Disney's trilogy does not deepen, extend or elaborate on previous 6 episodes of Skywalker saga, it rather frames the saga in the Rise of Skywalker. It's a shame because the Force Awakens was a promising start and, at the time, I truly believed that the connection of Disney and STAR WARS was capable of producing films of similar qualities like LOTR series, aspiring to snatch several Oscars for my beloved space opera.
Nonetheless, as I suggested before, the Rise of Skywalker is a good STAR WARS movie, a good episode in Skywalker Saga and a good movie in general. The pivotal problem, however, is that much of its screen-time, the Rise of Skywalker is busy navigating the story back to the far far away galaxy of STAR WARS, so to speak. Let's face it - The Last Jedi was a very good movie and very good space-opera movie, but not a good STAR WARS movie and utterly bad and nonsensical movie in Skywalker Saga. Undoubtedly, Rian Johnson is a very good film-maker, but he was a right choice for the Last Jedi, which, does not mean that he was a wrong choice for STAR WARS franchise in general. But should have been tasked with doing something brand new within STAR WARS, perhaps a new trilogy from distant past with all his talent for twists, surprises and deconstructions. To put it differently, the screen-time of the Last Jedi largely used to show, do and solve things to venture into unexplored areas, while it should have been building bridges from the Force Awakens and extending its motifs to connect it smoothly with the Rise of Skywalker. Basically, trilogies does not work on the basis of thesis-antithesis-antithesis to previous antithesis, and the Empire Strikes Back or, say LOTR: Two Towers were not antitheses of their respective predecessors, buy they rather served as great second acts - thickening up both the story and world-building, preparing us for the ultimate ordeal and conclusion in third episode. So, if the second act does not play this role within the trilogy, you can hardly expect the Rise of Skywalker to do miracles, when, in fact, has to deal with largely missing second act, and is thus forced to use its precious screen-time to build ad hoc bridges, when, in fact, these bridges should have been constructed by the Last Jedi - and this has nothing to do with quality of the Last Jedi as a film in general sense. All in all, the Rise of Skywalker suffers, when it really suffers, from the failed function of the Last Jedi as a part of a trilogy - that is - being useful as a second act.
THE GOOD

Ian McDiarmid is fantastic, delivering Palpatine's lines with gusto in his iconic voice. Indeed, truly captivating performance. It's obvious that he is enjoying himself in this role.
Dark and haunting, horror-like atmosphere of scenes with Palpatine
Luke is handled very well by Abrams, though it only shows that killing Luke in the Last Jedi was completely unnecessary and it robbed the trilogy of Luke's further interactions with Rey. Here, Luke is even allowed to DO SOMETHING MEANINGFUL that he was not able to accomplish in the original trilogy - watch for familiar tunes by John Williams....
Given Disney's final decision to use footage of Carrie Fisher, Leia's scene are handled with respect and sensitivity.
Abrams uses some force abilities both for Jedi and Sith that had been already established long ago, albeit in less powerful manifestation, in STAR WARS classic computer games such as Dark Forces, Jedi Outcast or Knights of the Old Republic.
Abrams, in my opinion, manages to somehow explain the force connection between Rey and Kylo and makes the use of it in terms of the film's climax.
While I am still not a fan of Rey-Kylo Force Video calling , recently mocked as 'Force-Skype', Abrams serves it in more aesthetically digestible and less cheesy/pulpy form compared to the Last Jedi.
New designs of some vehicles, droids + stormtroopers with jet-packs
Music by John Williams is amazing... as always.
Visuals are stunning and there is also a good balance of practical and visual effects
Some scenes are truly emotional, so despite all the limitations, it sort of works and somehow manages to ooze several tearful moments.
Very beautiful ending - aesthetically, narratively, cinematically - framing the Skywalker Saga with respect to the legacy.
New planets and environments look fantastic
Episodic appearance and short cameos of some original characters and familiar faces associated with STAR WARS.
The return of the king of galactic suave - one and only - Lando

THE BAD

Lightsaber duels and lightsaber fighting in general. Okay, I know that after all the fantastic choreography in the prequels and precision-like sparring moves in the original trilogy, it is very hard to come up with something new and breathtaking. On the other hand, Kylo Ren's physique, armour and new claymore-like lightsaber design had been promising in terms of new fighting style focused on long and heavy strikes like armoured knights, and to some extent, the Force Awakens demonstrated it quite well, though, the Last Jedi abandoned this potential, giving us practically no real lightsaber duels or sparring, and, maybe, more importantly, wasted its screen-time, which should have been used to give Rey her own distinct fighting style, moves and a type(s) of lightsaber(s) corresponding with her agile, fast and dynamic skills with that metal stick from the Force Awakens. I still think that she should have been equipped with double-bladed (Darth Maul type) lightsaber, but two lightsabers would have worked as well, and, at certain moments, fighting with double-bladed and single lightsaber at once (check out SW: Old Republic cinematic entitled 'Arrival'). The problem is, Abrams can hardly do something about it in the concluding episode of this trilogy, where the character of Rey, story-wise, must work with what she has or to put it differently - with what she and Abrams have been left after the Last Jedi.

-Underdeveloped secondary characters that are interesting, but they should have been introduced already in second movie - the Last Jedi, to make their actions, decisions and links to the main protagonists relevant and important. Okay, I really like both new characters of Jannah (Naomie Ackie) and Zorii Bliss (Kerry Russell), but both should have been introduced much earlier than in the third episode of Disney's trilogy, giving their presence on screen more reasons and their interactions with the main protagonists like Poe or Finn would have more narrative layers and their decisions would feel more organic in terms of the plot of the trilogy. Part of the problem is that the Last Jedi did not give us anything in terms of the backstories of the central characters of the trilogy. It only gave us more more information about Kylo Ren and, to some extent, few tiny details about Finn, but the backstories of Ren and Finn were properly established in the Force Awakens, so the Last Jedi should rather focused on giving us proper backstories of Poe and Rey, but it did not, and therefore we, in fact, knew nothing about Poe and his past life, motivations and etc.