Enjoyable but flawed - but this trilogy went wrong with Last Jedi

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2019)

Let's start with the positives (in what will be a negatives-heavy review). I enjoyed this movie. It was good to see the (cloned) Emperor who has real menace and Rey and Ren/Ben elevate the film whenever the focus shifts to them.
But The Rise of Skywalker is overlong which resulted in several lulls/pacing issues. Part of the problem is that these sequels have far too many characters that are nonentities. Rose, anyone? She should be an extra as she adds nothing. (This has nothing to do with this being a female character - Rey is an excellent character and worthy of centre-stage). Another example is Poe. It seems like they have made him out to be a Han Solo equivalent but he has none of the charm. He's a Wedge Antilles equivalent but with way too much screen time over the three films. There are many other examples of characters who could have been minimised or foregone entirely.
As we have come to expect, The Rise of Skywalker takes liberties with the force, building on the rubbish we saw from the Last Jedi such as communicating with each other over huge distances. Using the Force to teleport physical items like lightsabers? Give me a break. Heeling with the force was another new one. I went with it for the giant snake thing, and even when Rey saved Ren/Ben, but when he saved her it was a step too far. Why did Rey actually need to be brought back to life anyway? Why did her final confrontation with the Emperor kill her? She repelled his lightning blasts with her two lightsabers. What did she die of? Exhaustion? This seems to be a very stupid way for Jedi to die in the sequels. In the original films a Jedi could die from old age, lightsaber, Force lightning bolts or being thrown to their death. But in the sequels Luke, Leia and Rey all die of Force exhaustion. As does Ren/Ben. He gives his life Force to bring her back from the dead and expires doing so. A shoddy ending made worse by the fact that he is not given a proper redemption conclusion. Why was he not a Force Ghost at the end? It happened to Anakin - why not Ben? One of many inconsistencies that have plagued the prequels and sequels.
Luke gets yet another derisory cameo. He's the saviour of the Galaxy, the hero of the original trilogy, and yet it feels like he gets less screen time than anyone. He's been given the Alec Guinness role but with a tenth of the screen time. Given how little we have seen of him this trilogy - and The Rise of Skywalker is no different - I was expecting to see him make a defining appearance at the end of the film but, alas, no. I hope poor Mark Hamill wasn't paid by the word! The writers of the sequels cannot have liked Luke in the originals - (especially Rian Johnson). Is there another explanation for the character's shoddy treatment?
Finally, what about those big planet-killer guns underneath the Star Destroyers? They looked like great big (dogs). Amazed nobody pointed that out at the design stage.
After the promise of The Force Awakens this trilogy was then made disposable. That's Rian Johnson's fault with his abysmal The Last Jedi. One is left wondering what might have been had JJ Abrams overseen Episode VIII. This sequel trilogy should have had one writer in charge of the storyline across the three films. It is clear that when they began they had not worked out what the purpose of this trilogy was. It is hard to fathom why Disney allowed Johnson to depart so much from Abrams' initial direction. Johnson has no understanding of what makes a Star Wars film. Given the very poor card Abrams was dealt he has done well to do what he has with The Rise of Skywalker. Despite the many flaws I have listed above, this is still worth a watch. It's just not a patch on the originals.
How I rate the nine films:
* The Empire Strikes Back (10/10 - perfect)
* A New Hope / Return of the Jedi (9 - superb films from the original trilogy)
* The Force Awakens (8 - It's not perfect, the Force comes far too easily to Rey and its story covers familiar storylines but the new cast of characters are good, it has Solo, it's the least bloated of the sequels, has fewer non-entity characters and still holds out promise of what could come. You just have to do your best to forget that what happens next is The Last Jedi)
* The Rise of Skywalker (7.5 - Needs a repeat viewing but possibly edges Revenge)
* Revenge of the Sith (7 - The best of the prequels although that's a low bar to clear. Palpatine reveals himself and we have the birth of Vader)
* The Phantom Menace (6 - Darth Maul a highlight; Jar Jar the lowest of low points)
* Attack of the Clones (5 - A bit too much like a computer game and with shoddy acting but a couple of highlights - Dooku decent and Anakin showing signs of shifting to the Darkside although Yoda with a lightsaber bouncing around like a pinball is not for me).
* The Last Jedi (3 - Woeful. I have never watched a Star Wars film that left me so disappointed and angry as this one as I left the cinema. It poured a bucket of manure on what Star Wars was about. Ridiculous liberties with the Force, ruined Luke's character, built Snoke up and then disposed of him cheaply, ships running out of fuel, Marvel-esque jokes, and it was overlong - to name just a few of its problems).