Incomplete as a Film. Fine as One Element of Lore.

Rating: 7/10 (22 February 2020)

The first time I watched TROS, I did not like it. I did not like the Emperor being back with no explanation. I did not like the Snoke clone business. I did not like Han Solo "appearing". I did not like the Jedi Jesus force healing. I did not like the incongruity with TLJ. I did not like the giant Final Order fleet rising out of the ground or the Emperor blowing ships out of the sky with lightning.
I have always watched Star Wars films multiple times at the theatre and many times after, but I read none of the expanded universe novels, very few of the comics, and played one LucasArts video game. After this film, I started listening to some Star Wars YouTube channels to see what they had to say. I was surprised to find that virtually all of the stuff I found arbitrary and unsupported in TROS is grounded in canon lore or in those expanded universe stories which have been relegated to non-canonical "Legends" status by Disney.
Do I think it's a good idea to make a finale to a film series that suddenly requires that you have familiarized yourself with previously unrelated books, comic and games to make any sense of it? No, I do not. It's completely ridiculous.
However, when I went back and watched it a second time, I really enjoyed it. It makes me want to read some of those comics. It made me feel that, rather than a pandering film that will do anything to be a crowd pleaser for general audiences, this is instead an intimate and geeky movie aimed at the hardcore Star Wars fanatic. I dig that. It pushed this film way up the list for me in my ranking of the saga chapters, and I'm looking forward to what comes next.