No more fresh ideas but an enjoyable romp

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2019)

I was there when Star Wars first came out. It was huge nothing had been seen like it. In 77 it captured the imagination and I'm so glad I experienced it as a young child.
Nostalgia though in the modern marketplace only gets you so far. In fact the reviews for ROTJ in 83 were not stellar but I loved it because I wasn't even a teenager.
For some reason the original trilogy almost has a mythical status but they are as flawed as the current ones.
This movie only recycles what has come before because like James Bond it has to stick to cannon and various tropes. That's the sandbox!
Having said that this out of three reminded me more of the original trilogy than the first two. Driver and Ridley are great they carry the film.
Love the emperor he's just one of those classic movie villains. He and Vader can never be matched although Darth Maul wasn't given a chance to be fair.
Liked the twist on the lineage which added higher stakes for Rey. The action is awesome and the lightsaber battles between Rey and Kylo were finally great. TLJ had that one great sequence in the throne room when Snoke was killed.
My plea to Disney leave your plans alone let the past die to quote Kylo Ren. You are not going to do what the MCU did.
Star Wars is too interconnected to be able to play apart from the Skywalker saga. Even Rogue One was connected.
It was a great ride but you can only see so many Blasters, speeders, star destroyers and lightsabers!