Clear attempt to fix TLJ issues

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2019)

When you look back on this trilogy, it is clear Disney made a clear error in not having JJ Abrams direct the whole trilogy. It is clear JJ is a true fan of Star Wars as both TFA and TRoS largely have the tone, look, and character approach of the original trilogy. It is also clear that he recognised TLJ was a misstep veering too far from the approach, mythology and tone of the original trilogy such that he scrambled to fix so many of those problems Rian Johnson crested. Hey, of course Rey is somebody - let's use Palpatine (even though there is nothing pointing to his return in the first two movies). Where were the Knights of Rdn in TLJ? Oh, here they are - they've been there all along of course! Rey didn't receive enough Jedi training to be so powerful in TLJ - hey, we'll add the training retrospectively in this movie ! Finn romance in the TLJ - of course that was unbelievable! So let's go back to him sort of liking Rey and hey here's another option with the other ex-stormtrooper! Luke the weak sourpuss in TLJ - of course he was wrong to be portrayed this way so we'll remake him to be the selfless, heroic and optimistic character he was in the whole original trilogy! No back story at all on Snope? No problem - it was Palpatine who created Snope (literally grew or bred/cloned him or many of him it looked like I believe?!)
If JJ had done all three he would have written a true trilogy story arc and not have to try and fix the huge diversions and holes TLJ made.
Put these crammed fixes aside, I actually enjoyed the movie. I'm a huge Star Wars fan, but let's be clear - none of the original movies were perfect. Some of the writing and acting was patchy and wooden. What elevated Star Wars (like the Matrix) was the original mythology, effects and originality of the universe it introduced us to. Plus interesting characters we grew to really care combined with exciting, ground breaking action. This movie harked back to that approach - heavy on the reverence to the Force/Sith mythology, honouring the skywalker family legacy, more fleshed out and fun characters (Po back story, good chemistry/humour between Po and Finn, etc), lots of general fandom. And there's nothing wrong with that - just that it wasn't consistent across the trilogy (TLJ again).
I know a lot of fans hate what Disney have done to the franchise with this trilogy, but actually if they had just taken the approach they did with the Marvel final Avenger movies they would have nailed it. There, they created great solo movies (introducing lots of new characters and sub stories) that still linked to the overall story arc culminating in a clear set of climatic movies. Those franchise phase ending movies rewarded all the hardcore fans by paying heaps of homage to the past movies and the origins of the characters while still being generally hugely entertaining for the casual fans. JJ could have done the same here by linking and paying homage to the original trilogy more naturally SPREAD over all three movies (excluding the additional Death Star!) for the long term fans but then creating additional new characters and stories to move the franchise to "phase 2" beyond episodes VII-IX.
So it's clearly a case of what could have been with one man controlling the vision and approach of the entire trilogy from start to finish (just like George Lucas did originally).