Not the worst Star Wars film, but far from the best.

Rating: 6/10 (18 February 2020)

There are two ways to watch this film. You can read the negative reviews and go in with preconceived notions. Or, what I would suggest, watch it with an open mind. The choice is yours.
Episode 9 opens with the return of Emperor Palpatine, the big bad guy of Star Wars who was killed by the hands of Anakin Skywalker back in the original trilogy. The resistance sends Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, and C-3PO on a mission to find a Sith wayfinder, a device that should show them where Palpatine has been hiding this whole time. The mission escalates with Rey discovering that Palpatine is her grandfather, and that Kylo Ren thinks that together they can kill him to rule the galaxy together. The party is led to a moon of Endor where the wreckage of the second Death Star has fallen, and here, Rey and Kylo duel over the ruins. Leia creates a force connection with her son, which petrifies him for just a second, allowing Rey to stab him but sadly the connection deemed too great an effort and Leia was killed in the process. The climax of the movie is sadly not nearly as good as the second act. The final battle is split into two parts: the resistance pilots battling against Palpatine's fleet of planet killing star destroyers, and Rey and the redeemed Ben Solo taking on Palpatine himself. This battle ends with Rey defeating Palpatine, but losing her life in the process. Ben force heals Rey, sacrificing his life for hers.
I hate to say it but this movie does not do a lot of our beloved characters justice.
Rey does develop into a better trained Jedi, but we don't really get to see that in the film. It was nice to see her struggling with the dark side, although its not a concept we have never seen in the other trilogies, but it does make her character a little less perfect than she comes off in the other films.
Finn was great in The Force Awakens. His character was important to the plot, he was exciting and had a lot going for him, he was arguably one of the better characters in episode 7. It was clear Rian Johnson didn't really have any plans for him in The Last Jedi, and he was kinda thrown to the side, but in The Rise of Skywalker, it felt like even JJ didn't know what to do with him.
I do have to say Adam Driver has carried the sequel trilogy for the past half decade. Kylo Ren easily has the best character arc in the sequel trilogy, but also one of the best in the entire saga. It was clear to me that this was JJ's plan ever since episode 7 for Ben Solo.
Palpatine returning was a very interesting choice. Part of me really enjoyed having him back on screen, but the other part of me thinks the movie would have been more intense if Kylo remained evil and was the true villain of trilogy.
One thing I didn't like about The Rise of Skywalker, was that it introduced too many new characters. The problem with introducing new characters in the final installment of a series of movies is that it is impossible to become attached to them before the end.
Despite the fast pace, sloppy writing, and unsatisfying final battle, there were a lot of things I loved in this movie. Harrison Ford returning as Han was a pleasant surprise, even if it was just for one scene. The score did a great job at giving the viewers a sense of nostalgia. This is especially heard in the scene where Luke is lifting his old X-wing out of the water and we hear the same song heard back in Empire when Yoda does the same, and when Rey is venturing through the Death Star and we hear Vader's theme hidden in the score. One of the most rememberable scenes in the entire trilogy is when Rey hears the voices of dead Jedi. These voices include: Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), Obi-wan Kenobi (both Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness), Yoda (Frank Oz), Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), Mace Windu (Sam L. Jackson) and many more from the animated shows.
The action in this movie, sadly, wasn't anything special. The biggest fight was a duel between Rey and Kylo Ren on the ruins of the Death Star. This battle is particularly interesting because there is no score backing it up for almost half of the fight. This fight was also very cool because we never see Jedi blocking other lightsabers with the force and we finally got to see it in this battle.
While this isn't the worst Star Wars movie, it is far from the best. The critics tore this movie apart, but if you are a fan of Star Wars, you will enjoy it. JJ really made this movie for the true fans of Star Wars. While it's not the best film in the saga, it does offer a satisfying conclusion to those who have been with it since the beginning. I give this epic finale to the Star Wars saga a 6.9/10.