A good ending of the saga, lackluster in certain areas.

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2020)

As a big Star Wars fan I went into this movie with high expectations. Also as an added bonus, I had friends with me, that have watched most or all movies mostly together with me in the past. So I will voice some of their opinions at the end too.
Personally, I felt that the beginning was rather intriging the way Palps was reintruced into the franchise, however the whole premise of Palpatine still being alive feels like Disney milking the franchise and trying to play the old nostalgia card. It did however connect all the three eras conveniently. A great disappointment to me was that Hayden Christensen didn't have a bigger part in this movie. I would have loved to see him as Darth Vader or Anakin Skywalker, potentially in the form of a force ghost. Kylo's obsession with the dark side felt deep routed at the exposition of the movie, considering he is still attached to his grandfather. Rey's training felt useless since she basically was capable to do everything already, there is no clear progression or development curve to our hero, that we have seen with Luke in past. This is however rather justifyable considering her heritage.
Fast forward to the middle of the movie, which was rather abismal to me. C3P0 had to loose all his memory of the past (to decrypt the location of the emperor) making his goodbye speech to his friends. It would have been a very emotional and touching moment, however then in the next instance to simply resurrect him using R2D2, felt cheap and it ruined that scene. In the same scene Babu Frick was a rather humorous character and a nice addition to the cast, even though he was most likely a merchanise cash grab. In the next scene, the fact that Rey believed to have killed Chewie on Pasaana with her force lightning and then not, was also a kinda dumb plot twist. My friends agreed this to be confusing. Here everything felt like it was a joke or a lie and then it was. It however, served well to establish her connection to the dark side of the force. The Knights of Ren here, feel like a rather 'weak' enemy, having little or no impact on the story. This part of the movie only serves to amplify the tension between Kylo and Rey.
The climax and the final section of the movie was my favorite part of it all, even though it felt overly predictable. Kef Bir was one of my favorite scenes. It felt exciting to revisit the remains of the Death Star. I loved when they showed the throne room of the emperor, I had an instant flashback of Luke fighting his father. The fan service was definatelly present here. This was also my favorite fight scene between Kylo and Rey. When he felt his mother LeIa dying, being sick from what her son had become, it felt like a moment of awakening. Adding the last words of his father (when Kylo killed him), manifesting them to reinforce the good in him, felt like an ingenious move. However, I didn't like that Rey healed him and then fled. It felt rather useless, the scene should have been scrapped and reshooted differently. I would have preferred her taking Kylo with herself to fight Palpatine in the final battle, seeing him unfold as Ben Skywalker.
Coming to the final battle on Exogol. Through spies of the resitance, the concept of having portable Death Star alike weapons on every Star Destroyer is unveiled and it serves as a genuinely impactful addition to the story. A good culmination of the developements of the empire or now first order throughout the years. It extrapolates that the stakes are high for the resistance and portentially the galaxy. Palpatine's role in this movie, reaches new heights in this section. His full stature as a clone is revealed. This again shows the long ongoing developement of Palpetine's "Final Plan". A seemingly Nazi inspired name. Rey faces Palpetine head on by going into his temple and confronting him, here it is revealed that she is definatelly a Palpetine. He tells her, he wants her to strike him down and to take his place at the throne as empress Palpatine. This temptation feels comparetively similar to the one Anakin Skywalker went through, even mentioning that it would be the only way to save her friends. The movie also makes clear references to "Return of the Jedi" by showing the Resistance fighters dying, similarly as it was shown to Luke in the past. This again was great fan service to the audience. When Kylo joins the fight, this time as Ben Skywalker, he is met by The Knights of Ren. The fight scene here feels rather dull, it is established early on that the Knights are no match for Ben. Once Rey is joined by Ben they are both forced to fight the rather 'weak' guards of Palpetine. Again, the fight scene here seems poor. In a following scene Palpatine attempts to 'suck out their souls' or 'obtain their force powers'. This greatly weakens both and Palpatine takes his ultimate revenge on the Skywalker family by tossing Ben or Kylo down the shaft, just as Vader did with him. This reference was also a pleasing addition to the ensemble of this movie. Rey grabs Kylo's lighstaber and defeats Palpatine by blocking his force lightning and reflecting it onto him, annihilating his body. This in fact, was a rather predictable and unspectacular move. There is barely any struggle to defeat Sidius and this ruined parts of the scene for me. Officially defeating the strongest force user in the galaxy within mere seconds. Luke had to struggle to fight Palpatine, the fight was a long one. Here this wasn't the case and its where the move ended up feeling too fast paced in the wrong moments. Exhausted by this fight Rey collapses and dies. Ben rises from the shaft runs to her and decides to 'transfer' his life or force to her, in order to save her life. Unfortunatelly, predictable as well. However, the next scene was rather jaw dropping and expected. Rey wakes up and decides to kiss Ben, ultimately as a goodbye to him, as he vanishes as a Jedi. A spectacular ending of the battle on Exogol, redeeming the character of Kylo once and for all. The rest of the movie focuses on them reuniting in a rather unimportant way.
The very final scene of this is movie is where it shines a just a little more to make it a good movie. This scene reveals Rey returning to the planet of Tattooine, revisting her master's (Luke's) childhood home. Revealing, she has merged the lightsabers of Luke and Leia. Being asked by a stranger who she is, she replies by saying she is "Rey" and then waits, here the force ghosts of Luke and Leia appear reinforcing that Rey now is a Skywalker, proceeding by her saying "Skywalker". The next shot reveals beautiful cinematography of her standing towards the lowering sun of Tattooine, just as her master did when he was young. This scene ultimately rounds off the movie with a satisfying and memorable ending. The culmination of all of the nine movies, ending the Skywalker saga, ultimately bringing balance to the force through a Skywalker, is what the audience deserved and was dying to see.
My final verdict on this movie is that it a good movie overall. However, I felt that the biggest issue with it was the horrible pacing, making it feel oversaturated. It felt like the editor that cut it had ADHD. Every meaningful scene was too short, trying to cram everything in. This meant that a lot the scenes lost their meaningful impact. Even scenes where characters could have been developed further or were developing were cut way to short, meaning the audience had difficulties bonding with them. Even throughout the sequels we still cannot fully see that the characters Rey, Poe and Fin have gone through a developement, they feel stale and unrelateble at times. I felt that the movie should have been extended to three hours, just as Endgame was, since it was a similar culmination of a franchise. Another point that was critiqued, was the fact that Kylo and Rey had this interconnection through the force where they could pass objects to eachother. I have to voice that this felt like a useless and dumb addtion to the movie and other's agree.
What saved the movie for me was the fan service throughout and the ultimate battle at the end, with the reference to Luke gazing at the falling sun. Other's (my friends) felt the same way and found this a commendable idea on the story writer's side.
The movie is a good movie, it's no where near perfect. However, I can still recommend watching it with friends and family. Watching the final installment of the Skywalker saga is a pleasure at last.