It's not a dud or masterpiece

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2019)

Whenever a beloved franchise is revisited with new films it has one job: Justify its existence in relation to the original content. Does it explore new themes? Does it expand the lore? Is it needed? etc.
Now that the "sequel trilogy" is complete I think the answer is too cloudy for there to be an overall general consensus on if VII-IX accomplish that...and that in itself is a problem. And this is from someone who does not even mind the newer films (except for a few woeful creative choices in episode VIII and now IX specifically).
I feel like J.J. Abrams really does care about this franchise, I do believe he wants to add something of value to this story, but where this sequel trilogy struggles is that there was no plan from the start...and it shows. Whether you liked Rian Johnson's interpretation of the material or not, his Star Wars voice and Abrams' is so different that this trilogy, taken as a whole, does not really know what or how it wants to communicate with its audience and as a result never really had any momentum. Celebrate the past? Forget the past? It's really too bad. This film feels like a reset in so many ways that some moments that could be quite poignant if they had room to breathe aren't able to shine because there is so much to do and see in the allocated run time. Given the circumstances, Abrams does what he can and I applaud him for it. Episode IX is not a total failure, in fact there are some truly great moments.
Here's where I land on this film, and this sequel trilogy: Star Wars is supposed to be fun. If these new films don't bring you joy, that's okay. For myself, The OG trilogy will always be the only necessary viewings of Star Wars, and I actually don't mind the prequel or sequel trilogy. In the future I probably will sometimes watch episode I-IX and sometimes I will only want to revisit IV-VI. This story can be taken in by watching the OG trilogy by itself, episodes I-VI, or the whole "Skywalker" saga. Whichever you choose, the overarching message truly is the same. Good wins.
7.5/10