Disney did not have a plan

Rating: 4/10 (30 December 2019)

I'm gonna start with the good. I love almost everything with Kylo/Ben (I even don't mind the kiss scene, whatever). To me, he is probably the one character in this sequel trilogy that has a consistent arc all throughout. I love that he redeemed himself, his fight scene with the knights (even though they are USELESS in this trilogy) is great, his fight with Rey at the Death Star is probably my favorite moment of the entire movie. I like his scene with Han, and even with all we know about the situation with Carrie Fisher, I think they handled they relationship fine, the fact that her death is what makes him turn to the light side again is beautiful. Again, the only character that has an arc throughout, he is by far my favorite thing about this trilogy.
The movie is beautifully shoot. The score is amazing as always. The acting is phenomenal, Adam Driver kills it, Daisy Ridley is awesome, Ian McDiarmid is great, I mean, c'mon, the IS the emperor. Everyone is good in the movie, acting is far from being the problem here.
My biggest issue tho, might be that LucasFilm clearly did not had a plan when they did Force Awakens. I love Episode 7, I love Episode 8, and I'll defend them, for years to come, but man, looking back now, this whole trilogy doesn't speak at all within itself. Episode 9 feels more like a sequel to Episode 7, with random stuff to "end the entire saga" threw in there. No matter what JJ or LucasFilm say about it, they did retconned Rey's origin, Ryan Johnson set it pretty clear that they were nobodies, they were drinkers, and etc, do not tell that "for a certain point of view they were nobodies" or that "they choose to be like that" no, you did retconned JJ, and that sucks. Even if you didn't like TLJ, you have to agree that sticking with Ryan did in the movie was the only way to finish this trilogy some way cohesive, when you deny your own movie, you basically lost a bunch of time with something for nothing. You are trying to finish a trilogy with only two movies. That's the biggest mistake overall with the trilogy, they didn't have a plan initially, and even though I love TFA and TLJ, they finale is mess up because of the lack of communication between the chapters here.
Going into the specifics, I hated what they did with Rey specifically. I talked with some people that liked it, and I'm fine with that, I wanted to like it as well, I really did, and I'm disappointed I didn't. But man, it makes no sense at all that she's related do Palpatine, and I also, I just hate the move. I hate because of what I said previously, you took away one of the strongest messages from TLJ, which is "anyone, coming from anywhere, can do great things in life", that was powerful, and beautiful, and when you throw "oh, actually she's Palpatine's granddaughter", I mean, c'mon! Why? I really didn't need this connection at all, make her a clone or something, it would have been better, could explain why she is so damn powerful, and at the same time wouldn't erase what Ryan did in 8. And, it doesn't make sense when you watch the 9 movies as its own thing. You are telling me that the most powerful Sith ever had a son (at some point during the original trilogy I would assume...?) and that was NEVER a factor? Wasn't relevant at all? Wasn't he also powerful? Why in the hell would Palpatine to do all that with Anakin then? If he could only have a child that would be freaking powerful, or had the potential to? It's just a lazy explanation, that unfortunately comes with the backlash The Last Jedi suffered. "The end of the Skywalker saga" deserved more, way more.
Talking about the Skywalker saga "thing" then. That pressure they had to "wrap it all up in one movie"... was something they put on themselves, it's JJ and is Kathleen Kennedy who said over and over again that this movie would do that. We didn't ask for it, but you said you were going to do it, so... that's on you. I would charge you for what you promised me. To me one of the biggest issues I had with the movie is due to that try to wrap it all up (even though you aren't actually showing almost any characters from the other 6 movies...), it does some lazy choices (like "Rey Palpatine") and tries to have a huuuuge finale, that seems so shallow at the end. Palpatine went from hitting some people with lightning in Episodes 3 and 6, to... crushing a whole fleet? And the only thing Rey needed to stop him was... to hold two lightsabers...? They level up the threats so much, that when they good guys win with fairly less power it seems so forced, we definitely didn't need the huge blue lighting finale. Bigger isn't exactly better in this situation. Again, Ryan Johnson wrapped up his movie without actually having a fight scene.
The fact that Palpatine came back itself it's something I didn't like to begin with. Again, another proof that they didn't have a plan. Ryan killed Snoke, that was clearly supposed to be the "big bad guy" of this new trilogy, and now what do you do...? "Well, let's bring the emperor back". It seems really forced, to me it really it's a detriment of what Luke and Anakin did in episode 6.
A bunch of other stuff seems out of left field. Finn's arc it's the better exemplification of this movie trying more to be a sequel to 7 than to 8. He is force sensitive, fine, it was something some people assumed coming out of TFA, but there is nothing, literally nothing that continues this plot line in episode 8, and than... well, let's hurry up! The trilogy is ending, we need people to know he's force sensitive! Even though it doesn't influence at all the story of the film... (besides him magic knowing which ship to destroy at the end). Again, this in specific doesn't really make the movie better or worse to me, it's just an exemplification of how this trilogy as a whole doesn't speak within itself.
To wrap up, I was really disappointed with this movie, it did hurt my feelings about The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, and I thought it did a horrible job on wrapping the nine movies up. Well, to be honest, it couldn't even wrap the sequel trilogy up, imagine the nine movies. Anyways, now, 40 years after, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are my only hope. Let's forget about the Skywalker Saga for good now, Disney. Just give me the Obi-Wan series, and let's move forward now.
4,5/10