Rise of Disney

Rating: 5/10 (18 June 2020)

From the moment I head Palpatine was going to be in this movie, I already had my doubts. Out of all the post-Endor EU material, the Dark Jedi comics, where Palpatine also comes back, was my least favourite. Rise of Skywalker still managed miss my expectations by a country mile.
The story is bland, uninteresting and entirely predictable, funnily enough kind of like Force Awakens. I sat down in my seat at the cinema, and I thought I bet the good guys win despite all odds and none of them die. That's exactly what happened. The story also managed to ruin Return of the Jedi's legacy. The narrative was full of plot holes, mainly everything about Palpatine and the 'Final' Order. I honestly enjoyed FA and LJ endings as a viewing experience but this ending was so Disney like, corny and unbelievable, e.g. horses on a Star Destroyer, that I actually hated it, which as Star Wars fan is not easy to say.
The characters were again disappointing when compared to the previous two instalments. Rey was the definition of a Mary Sue, she could do just about anything, having a grand master level of force power with a couple weeks of training. She's just so good at everything. The whole Dark side Rey was crap, she didn't give the slightest impression of actually being close to the dark side. Kylo Ren went from being a psycho maniac to apparently one of the greatest jedi ever, on the level of Yoda and Kenobi judging by his body disappearing. Nothing interesting was done with Poe, unlike in Last Jedi, and Finn, Rose and other side characters were just there. And don't get me started on C3PO's little adventure to the dark side.
The special effects were obviously great though I would say Rogue One is still the best looking SW film. The music was OK but unfortunately fairly forgettable.
Overall, a complete mess of film to end a mess of a saga. This is what you get when you have idea of where a trilogy will end. An inconsistent, plot-hole filled nightmare. Which is a real shame because the sequels had so much potential at the start with characters like Rey, Ren, Finn, Snoke etc. It all came to nothing.