The Empire Strikes Back - Again!

Rating: 7/10 (22 December 2019)

JJ Abrams had a tough job cleaning up loose ends, making sure all the main characters can make a meaningful appearance and still developing character relationships. With that in mind, the film came out pretty good, about at the level of Episode VII, a bit better than episode VIII.
The film unfortunately has plenty of weaknesses, mostly due to scripting full of plot holes and fake emotional moments, pulling the viewer out of the story. Some examples:
It overdoes the "Oh Chewbakka is dead ... Oh, he's alive" "Oh C3-PO is wiped ... Oh, he's back" artifices. If we know tragically wiped out characters are going to be restored within minutes anyway, the writers might as well spare us the cheap emotional tug. At least in "Wrath of Khan," Spock was dead until the next sequel!
There are just too many plot holes that are critical to the plot and require heavy-duty apologetics to explain out of the way: If the Emperor's Plan A is to get Rey to kill him out of anger so the essence of the Sith goes into her, why tell her about it? She was coming to do exactly that, and explaining that this will seal his victory only deters her from doing what he needs to get done. After all, presumably he made himself hard to find via those Wayfinders to convince her that he does not want to be killed. It's like the bad guy at the end of old James Bond movies giving away the master plan, enabling Bond to push the self-destruct button.
The list of such gaffes goes on and on, putting a dent in the beautiful set pieces, solid acting by the ensemble cast. nice John Williams music as always, glimpse of a young Luke training a young Leia, cute robots instead of overly cute little animals, and all that good stuff the film has to offer.
A harsher judge might give it less than 7 because of the plot hole-filled script, or because of dissatisfaction that the Palpatine family ultimately pulls the strings, not the Skywalkers. A more effusive fan might give an 8 perhaps. For me, a 7 sounds about right: it was entertaining, it didn't do anything grossly negligent to the Star Wars Universe (besides suddenly making the Palpatines, not the Skywalkers, the ultimate driving force of the story), and I might see it again some day - but not too soon!