Pretty Alright, Pretty Messy

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2019)

The Last Jedi left me without expectations or that much excitement for Rise of Skywalker. In my own personal opinion, I always felt like Star Wars had turned into a way to make money, and the actual movies and characters weren't given much effort creatively. But this one was pretty alright.
There were a lot of good and great aspects or smaller plot points, but the way they were all structured was a bit convoluted. I'll list the good parts first.
The last half was very good. The first was a bit messy and as I said, convoluted with many different names and McGuffins introduced in succession. Rey and Kylo Ren's arcs were done pretty well, together and separately, and the whole Rey having a potential for evil and Kylo having a potential for good was always an interesting dynamic. I'm glad that we got backstory for Poe, since he's the only one out of the four main characters that we didn't know much about for the past two movies. The whole force connection between Rey and Kylo was an interesting addition to the force in Last Jedi, and they only explored it more in this movie with the whole being able to pass objects between the two of them was interesting and had a good payoff. Hux being the spy inside the First Order was interesting, and I wish that had been explored more instead of him being killed the scene after he helped the rebels escape. Some of the sound design was really cool and memorable, like Palpatine using a massive amount of lightning on the rebels ships at the end. Also I liked that Kylo was redeemed, though it seemed like they weren't sure they were doing that until this movie, as Force Awakens and Last Jedi were steering Kylo pretty harshly towards being evil. And the little homages paid to the original characters and trilogy were comforting in a way. Rey with the twin suns at the end, Lando returning, etc.
So, the cons. I don't know that the force just being mainly telekinesis is a good addition? Not that is has to be exactly how it was in the original trilogy or anything, but in Empire, Luke struggled to get his lightsaber using the force and now Rey and Kylo are using it to low-key fly and pull a whole ship back and forth. The last half had a lot of great character moments and plot points that could've used some better set up in the beginning. The character arcs, for example, only had a pay off without much of a set up, aside from Rey maybe. Finn ended up meeting another ex-stormtrooper and went through this little arc of like, learning to use his Stormtrooper knowledge to help take them down and become a bit of a second in command, but there wasn't any indication of this until the end. And Poe had this whole thing at the end where he felt like he wasn't as good of a leader as he wanted to be, and he worked through it and led the Resistance after Leia died. We saw none of this worry in the first half of the movie. This was a lot of the character arcs. Similarly, the romance element of Rey and Kylo should've been established much more. They only really established the connection between the two, so their kiss at the end felt odd. Their force connection was already established in Last Jedi, so this movie would be the one to beef up the actual romance, and the kiss at the end would've been more satisfying.
There wasn't that much tension, due to things like Chewie "dying" and being brought back a scene later, and C-3PO losing his memory only to get it back at the end of the movie. Finn's force sensitive and can tell when Rey's in trouble but only at the end of the movie? He's been just a normal dude this whole time? Also Rey and Poe arguing at the beginning, seeming to set up that they're going to have to work through their differences and learn to work together, but them not arguing in any other scenes after that? What was the point? Along these lines, the main three didn't feel like friends, really. Finn and Poe felt like believable friends for the most part, but like, Finn and Rey? It was mainly Finn being concerned about Rey, her responding in a vague way, or them just talking about what they need to do for the plot. They really glossed over Kylo's death. I feel like it would've have a nice impact if Rey included something of Kylo's with Leia and Luke's lightsaber in Tatooine, or even have Kylo's ghost be with Luke and Leia since they literally showed Kylo turning into a ghost after he died. Also, not sure how to feel about the fact that Leia went through Jedi training, yet it wasn't shown or talked about at any point before now.
So, despite all the cons I listed, this was still a pretty good movie. A pretty good Star Wars movie too, it really felt like a Star Wars story, however that sounds. I think part of the reason there were so many aspects I listed, is because they did a lot of things in this movie. There were a lot of new characters, locations, and objects along with some of the older, nostalgic parts of Star Wars. It almost felt like JJ Abrams wanted to include some locations and plot points that would've been better established in the movie before this one. Establishing Palpatine as being alive would've been a good thing to have in the previous movie, if they had planned the whole trilogy a bit better. I dunno.
Anyway, enjoyable movie. Had some great individual aspects, could've used a bit more organization and clear storytelling. 7/10.