Best film this year so far

Rating: 8/10 (7 January 2020)

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away......alright maybe not that far away, back in 1977, amongst the films of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "The Spy Who Loved Me", a relatively unknown director called George Lucas created a vast leap forward in the world of special effects by creating the film we all know and love "Star Wars". Ever since then, along with advances in special effects, the universe of "Star Wars" has advanced leaps and bounds in what we understand a great movie to be.
Travel forward, 42 years, OMG I'm starting to feel old now, and the "Skywalker Saga" has taken it's final bow, fired off the 21 gun salute, in what has become the most wildly anticipated film of the year, "The Rise of Skywalker"
Now, as a fellow cinema lover, I despise, with a hatred induced passion, almost reminiscent of the dark side itself of spoilers and leaks about up coming films, so I will keep this review spoiler free, and only refer to scenes we have seen in the trailers.
Ever since Disney produced the first, new film in "The Sequel Trilogy" back in 2015, die hard fans have had mixed feelings about what these films are really about, and do they still hold their own against the original trilogy, and are they just being made for the profits from the franchise. The new turn has not been welcomed with universal open arms, with fans being split on love or hate for the "Disney Trilogy" and people loosing hope on the franchise being recovered any time soon.
But luckily along comes J.J Abrams to direct, produce and part write this final installment, with hope to bring "...the spark to light the fire which will take the First Order down" (Po Dameron, Oscar Isaac, The Last Jedi) so sorry, couldn't help myself....along with film composer royalty John Williams, excellent as always music to hark back to film gone by, this film is one that is made for the fans as well as the "none believers" alike. So this is a film for all.
The storyline can be a bit slow at the start, there was massive hype after the first trailer as we are given a fleeting thought of the return of Emperor Palpatine, played to perfection by Ian McDiarmid, following other trailers and media interviews, it's no surprise that "HE" will return, as the hype was so large, I was expecting some large scene that will lead on the the unveiling of the thought dead Emperor, but it was all tied up in the first few scenes, so a small disappointment there. Another possible one that fans may see, is from the trailers, the words of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) "A Thousand Generations of Jedi Live in Your Now" a possible scene where all Jedi would come back in one form or another would be shown, but sadly it was not in the version I watched, maybe in the deleted scenes, I don't know.
Of course the films production was shadowed by the loss of Carrie Fisher, a much loved actress who's talent will live on in her films, much like the loss of Leonard Nimoy who played Spock in the series Star Trek and later films, both him and his character had a tribute on screen, and thankfully, TROS also had a touching tribute to both Fisher and Leia, one which, in my opinion done them both justice.
My final thoughts on the film, it was a fantastic final installment to a much loved franchise, with some excellent inclusions from all the sage, though, I think there could be many more questions on Rey (Daisy Ridley) back story, with her true lineage unveiled, the questions of what happens next will start to circulate.