The Sith won...

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2019)

Trying to put aside all the emotions and feelings that are soaring through me after last nights premiere of the Rise of Skywalker (RoS) I will only refer to my last two reviews of the sequel trilogy (The Force Awakens 9/10; The Last Jedi 10/10) which show a clear fondness for the sequel trilogy. This final instalment was supposed to wrap up the new trilogy and be a definite conclusion of the entire saga (not an easy task), and it failed in every single aspect. Not only is this a bad Star Wars movie, it is simply a bad movie.
1) The story/screenplay. Somewhere around 40 min into the movie I had a very distinct feeling that something was missing. It was almost as if I had seen the first part, am now watching the third part, but the middle is missing. It is a feeling that J.J. Abrams decided to disregard almost everything The Last Jedi set in motion (without a single explanation). It is clear that he had a vision of the new trilogy that he was not allowed to go though with, so he had to cram this one with enough story content for three movies. And the end result is a convoluted mess with so much side stories and characters that have no reason to be there or have a goal or are relevant to the story at hand in any way (e.g. despite the fact that I loved seeing Lando again, he was just there for fan service). The ending (the last 1/4 of the movie) was almost a remake of the Return of the Jedi - using almost the same lines and imagery but to way less effect. The absolute catastrophe, story-wise, is the implementation of the Emperor who was used in such a tragically bad way, without any explanation and reason for his existence and implementation into the story. The most insulting aspect of his being in the movie is his relation to the main characters. It came out of nowhere, went nowhere and resulted in an idiotic climax that was unrelated to anything the previous movies (including the original trilogy and the prequels) set up. Kylo Ren was underused, undeveloped, lost within himself and without a logical and reasonable way-point for his character. Even though Driver did a good job Kylo Ren suffered as a character in this move so much that his final depiction is in complete contrast to everything seen so far. Why was such an intriguing character destroyed in such a horrendous way is beyond me. Finn and Poe are useless and irrelevant to the story. Poe's "backstory" is short and insulting for the viewers intelligence while Finn is a character that should have died a long long time ago because he simply had nothing to do for the entirety of the movie (similarly to the Last Jedi). If watched closely, his character had so much unresolved elements in the movie that one wonders what happened to the rest of his story. Why did he say certain things, what is his relation to Rey, why is it so powerful etc. Other characters suffer the same fate story-wise. Also, the movie introduces new characters (some of them could have been more imaginative but all are flat and one dimensional) and rids itself of old ones so fast that it leaves the viewers wondering what exactly is going on. The amount of content that the screenplay had was impossible to put in a single movie. It resulted in a barely watchable movie with sequences trying to tell 15 min of a story in 30 seconds, and going on like that for 140 min... you do the maths. All in all, story-wise this movie is a blatant disaster that never should have left the storyboard.
2) The Acting. It is almost noticeable that actors know what they are working with. They were unmemorable, lacking flare and emotion (the one thing the Last Jedi did spectacularly), and simply trying to get this over with. Their dialogue resembled, in some cases, Wiseau's the Room - leading nowhere and relying on cliche so much that it barely resembled a human-like conversation. There is not a single memorable line in the entire movie. The ones that are there are simply dull, unimaginative and simply put - bad. When the actors just spit out the lines without believing in them (unlike the Last Jedi) one can be sure that there is something very very wrong with the movie.
3) The editing. Justice League had bad editing, but at the end it was a watchable movie. This was edited so badly that it was an unwatchable movie. As stated above, the movie consists of thousand of 30 second shots that are trying to tell 15 minutes worth of story. It is so fast paced and so chaotic that the viewers do not even get a chance to contemplate on what they saw because the story rushes so fast without stopping. This is a case example of a movie edited badly.
4) The music. I will just leave it tat this - not even John Williams could have saved it this time.
5) The ending. The ending is a profound and powerful attack on the viewers intelligence. It somehow wanted us to disregard the last two movies and the last two hours of the third one, outright lying to itself. I remember a time when being a Skywalker meant something. I am not sure what it means anymore.
All in all, this movie is terrible. I rated it 5/10 because it is a Star Wars movie. If it was something else it would have easily been a 3/10. The story is garbage, unimaginative, recycled Return of the Jedi without a logical flow with the last two films and with additions that have no logical reason for existence. The ending is outright insulting and dumb. The acting is mediocre at best and the editing is one of the worst I have ever seen.
I sincerely hope that this movie fails in every way imaginable. Something similar happened to EA with the Battlefront II and that lead to a powerful fan backlash. That backlash lead to Jedi Fallen Order (which is a phenomenal game). Maybe if this fails we will get the peace of mind we deserve somewhere in the future. Better yet, maybe Star Wars will get the peace it deserves. For now it seems the Sith have won. This is the worst movie of the year and the worst Star Wars ever made. Shame on all of the people that worked on this.