The Critics are Wrong... This is the Best of the Sequel Trilogy!

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2020)

Yes, I gave it eight stars. No, the title wasn't a misprint.
I saw this film on opening day... before I even considered reading the reviews. As a diehard Warsie, I loved it! So naturally I was shocked when reading some of the hate that followed. I found that they all had some similarities though:
1. Too much fan service
2. Too much familiarity, and
3. Retcons and departs from what Johnson started with the Last Jedi.
Now that last one is the most interesting to me. I know the Last Jedi was divisive, but many people claim that director J.J Abrams turned basically the biggest parts of TLJ into just minor plot points. Does that sound familiar? Interestingly enough, Johnson did almost the same thing with The Force Awakens! So could we only criticise this film alone for this deadly sin?
Now, I liked the Last Jedi myself, it wasn't a perfect movie but it was good. My main criticisms with the film was that it was too long, the story was a bit all over the place and it was probably too ambitious. Naturally, walking out of the theater, I wasn't eager to watch it again. But I found myself wanting to rewatch the Rise of Skywalker. It was fun, action-packed and it felt a lot like 'Star Wars'. In fact, I saw this two more times in the cinema and just the other night on blu-ray. Contrastingly, I've only seen TLJ about three times since it came out two years ago. Familiarity isn't a bad thing. If people thought TLJ diverted everything we loved about Star Wars, what's wrong with making a movie which HAS everything we love about Star Wars?
Another complaint was the heavy amount of fan service. Yes, there are parts like the minor role of Rose, Chewie's medal and the Reylo kiss. However, franchise finales like Avengers: Endgame and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 had a lot, if not more, fan service as well. Did we criticise them for the same reason? What is wrong with giving the fans what they want either?
Rise of Skywalker isn't a perfect movie-it had several plot holes and tried to cram too much in for its short runtime-but neither was The Last Jedi. Neither was The Force Awakens. Really, this trilogy was doomed from the start. Little planning went into the overarching story. For example, why couldn't episode eight have ended with a cliffhanger where Palpatine's transmission is broadcast as mentioned in the crawl instead of Broom Kid? Why wasn't there a Luke, Han, Leia and Lando reunion? Despite these gripes, J.J Abrams did wrap this uneven trilogy and the Skywalker Saga up quite well in the end.
If you haven't seen this yet, don't let the reviews turn you away. The Rise of Skywalker is certainly entertaining and a good ending to this legendary saga. After all, we all love Star Wars.
And what's so wrong with that?