Really good for what they had to work with

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2019)

What I was most afraid of going into RoS:
1. That JJ would feel compelled to stay true to Rian Johnson's terrible vision.
2. That Rey would still have no backstory and her insane force powers would not be explained.
3. That the Emperor's return would be laughable and make no sense.
4. That Luke (my favorite character) would still have no respect for the Force and be completely lame.
5. That Leia's force abilities would not be explained and her character would be wasted like it was in TLJ.
6. That Finn and Poe would be totally wasted again.
7. That we'd be given more new characters who aren't well developed and who make infuriating decisions (Rose and Holdo).
8. That JJ would continue to ignore the rules of the Force the way Johnson did (I cannot and will not get over Force Ghost Yoda's lightning abilities or Luke's ridiculous Force projection battle).
What RoS did:
1. JJ doesn't give a crap about Johnson's vision. He even snubs it a few times. For example, when Force Ghost Luke catches the lightsaber that Rey is trying to destroy and says, "A Jedi's weapon deserves more respect." Heck yes, it does! None of this, "Hi I'm Luke and I'm gonna toss my lightsaber over my shoulder like it's trash" nonsense.
2. Rey's powers are explained in more ways than one. Not only is she powerful because she's Palpatine's granddaughter but because she's had help from fallen Jedi all along. Some people may take issue with her backstory and with the help she receives. Maybe it doesn't completely make sense, but good grief, it's better than, "Rey's a total nobody from nowhere but somehow she's the most OP force user of all time." I thought what they did with her character in this film was inspiring. When Yoda says, "Alone, never have you been"...I'm not gonna lie, I cried. And the fact that she's the emperor's granddaughter, but for all intents and purposes, Luke and Leia are her real mom and dad and she takes their name: that's awesome. I mean, the Emperor turns Anakin to the dark side by promising the ability to cheat death. Anakin's offspring (Ben) dies, while Palpatine's offspring (Rey) lives. BUT she takes the Skywalker name, so who really lives on? It's just all very poetic and inspiring.
3. The emperor's return was a little off just because JJ didn't have enough screen time to fully set it up. But for what he had to work with, JJ did a great job bringing old wrinkle face back. I really liked that we got to see Exegol and a lot of stuff from Sith lore.
4. Luke is the amazing Luke we all know and love and he's who he should have been in TLJ. In my head-canon, lame hermit weirdo Luke never existed.
5. Leia's Force abilities are explained and she's given the credit and attention as a Force user that we've been waiting for since Yoda's line in RotJ, "No, there is another."
6. Finn and Poe are back. They're finally getting the frontmen treatment they deserve instead of clueless, helpless side characters.
7. The new characters are excellent. What I wouldn't give to have had Zorii, Babu Frik, little cone head droid, and Jannah in TLJ instead of Rose and Holdo. Nothing at all against the actresses who play Rose and Holdo. Unfortunately for them, their characters were simply not written well. These new characters are written well, and frankly, Babu Frik is so cute, I want to adopt him. I also really enjoyed the cameos of old characters, especially Han.
8. JJ does continue to ignore the rules of the Force the way Johnson did. This was probably my biggest complaint of the film. How do Rey and Ben pass physical objects between each other despite being far apart? How does Force Ghost Luke lift the x-wing? Whatever. Johnson already messed this up, so I guess if this is the only thing JJ didn't fix, I can get over it.
Was RoS perfect? No. It was too rushed because JJ had to fit in a lot of stuff that should have been in TLJ. Some of the Force use was questionable, but nothing here was as cringe as in TLJ. Was this trilogy pointless because Anakin was the chosen one and he brought balance to the Force in RotJ? Yeah, probably. But if you can look past all that and just want to have fun watching Star Wars, this is a really good film. Thank you, JJ, for salvaging this trilogy remarkably well.