An alright film - but a messy end to a messy trilogy

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2019)

Don't let the emotional YouTube commentators or your nostalgia-pandering family and friends convince you that the Rise of Skywalker is the best or worst movie of all time - it's just alright.
First off may I take a moment to talk about characters and their arcs. Palpatine's re-introduction seems like a cheap call-back to the OT, with little explanation given as to how he was brought back to life, or, kept alive (cloning was mentioned as a possibility by a Resistance officer but no more about that later), plus where did all these secret Palpatine supporters come from? Rey, Finn, and Poe's arcs were handled averagely. Rey's identity of a Palpatine and her temptation of the dark-side was a painful call-back to ROTJ however, even though it did satisfy concerns of how she is so powerful despite having supposedly no significant parentage; Finn and Jannah made a fine pair - more chemistry than Finn and Rose, however the ending neglected the two, opting instead for an out-of-place convo between her and Lando rather than Finn, also, Finn's secret was apparently that he is Force sensitive according to JJ, but this never came to use in the movie. Kylo on the other hand had a marvelous character arc completion if you ask me. Kylo's struggle had come to maturity and his experiences with Leia and the memory of Han creates a plausible reason for his final turning in moral standing, and I believe IX cemented him as my favorite character of the sequel trilogy. The new characters of Zorii and Babu Frik were nice additions. The scene-piecing for Leia was noticeable, but was a good job considering what they had to work with.
The biggest problem with the movie is that it feels like JJ tried to fit *his* episode VIII and IX into one episode. JJ most likely intended for Rey to find out her true parentage in his VIII, with adequate time to reflect on her findings, and that reflection time could not exist in the busy IX. Rey's short self-exile on Ahch-To and her interactions with Luke are not explored in detail enough. That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed many scenes, Rey and Kylo's interactions, and particularly the lightsaber fights, though I still prefer the aesthetic of the Kylo/Rey team up in TLJ to this one. Overall, ROS is an alright movie. It never really made me frustrated, but I didn't leave feeling satisfied either.