Rian Johnson ruined a potentially phenomenal trilogy. (Trilogy review)

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2019)

Let me be clear; I was entertained by both The Rise of Skywalker and The Last Jedi. Neither deserve a 1/10. Neither deserve a 10/10 (not even close). As a passive observer I can see how people thought these were "good movies". They may be "good movies", they are not good Star Wars movies.
JJ Abrams set Rian Johnson up with a perfectly teed up ball with The Force Awakens.. You had new interesting characters and enough plot to work with to color in some background for them. Rey, Finn, Snoke...all interesting. Rian decided that he was going to create the next Empire, and totally failed in every way. People called it bold. It wasn't. At every turn when SERIOUS risks could have been taken, they were avoided at all costs (think Finn's hero death, or Rey being asked to join Kylo), all the while ruining aspects of the film just to be able to say "gotcha" to the fandom (Rey's heritage, Snoke's irrelevance). TRS follows all of that up perfectly.
JJ basically had some duct tape and was trying to stick anything to this movie that he could. He was pulling stuff from TFA that were unopened questions that people were interested in (think Rey's heritage or Knights of Ren), but because of the execution of TLJ they fell totally flat and felt extremely forced. He basically included anyone alive from the originals. I am kind of surprised George didn't show up somewhere.
Moment upon moment is cheapened in this movie. Oh, your favorite character dies? No worries; we will either magically heal them or bring them back as ghosts. Talk about stealing moments. I understand Force Ghosts are a thing. But I had no idea anyone's ghost could come back (Hi Han!!!)
This could go on and on. I loved The Force Awakens. I thought JJ played it safe to give to a new generation what the original had provided. TLJ ruined that, and TROS tries to rectify anything that it can. This is not a trilogy. This is not a beginning, middle and end.
Not to mention that Star Wars now is on the front lines of politics. Much like Marvel has now gone "Woke", so has Star Wars. This most likely will be the last movie that I see in this franchise. The Rise of Skywalker, really? It honestly felt more like a funeral.