Well, they did their best at this point

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2019)

Ok, let me start by saying this movie is not terrible. That said, it is far from great.
TFA was not a bad start, but also nothing special. TLJ was an absolute disaster, leaving Abrams little ground to stand on
This film helped reconcile some of the issues from TLJ. However, everything was still extremely rushed. Palpatine is alive with absolutely no explanation other than a passing reference to the power he learned from Plagueis. This totally ruins the entire 6-film plot of Anakin being the chosen one. I do not hate having Palpatine back, but this tarnishes the legacy of Anakin/Vader.
Ben is redeemed and I really loved that, but it was extremely rushed and took a matter of seconds for him to go from totally evil to being good again.
Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter?
Will someone please tell me who would get with Palpatine? Or why he would want to get with anyone? Also, this feels like a cheap rip-off of the big moment in Empire (although this entire trilogy is a cheap rip-off of the originals).
Rey claims to be a Skywalker? Sure it's a nice message that it's "not about your blood, but who you choose to be," but she simply is not the chosen one so it doesn't work.
Palpatine is suddenly MASSIVELY more powerful than ever before despite his extremely weak body. He could've used the abilities we see here in ROTJ and he would've won by a landslide. That said, it was fun to see the force used on a larger scale on the big screen.
Palpatine has the biggest fleet in history from...where exactly? Their planet-killing weaponry came from...where exactly? A few shots from a fighter destroys the cannon along with the entire ship?
Who does Rey love and who loves Rey? Ah, who cares?
On the positive side of things:
We finally see the true power of the sith on the big screen. We've seen it in games, books, etc., but never really in the movies. Palpatine finally feels like the most powerful sith ever, rather than lagging behind all the ones in games and books.
We finally get some development for Rey and Kylo beyond the surface level.
THERE'S FINALLY A DECENT LIGHTSABER DUEL
Overall, an entertaining movie that helps course-correct a bit after all the damage Rian Johnson did in TLJ. Still, at the end of the day, there wasn't much left to work with so we have a film where Abrams rushed to cover all his bases and control past damage (he denies it but we all know this film was damage control). The film is FULL of plot holes and problems, but it is still entertaining and has some enjoyable moments, which is much better than Johnson did.