A solid recovery by JJ Abrams

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2019)

The Skywalker saga has been part of my entire adult life, and now it's finished. I feel a bit sad. It's actually all over, after 42 years.
The pacing of this film is DENSE, there's so much going on you just don't have time to blink. I don't blame JJ Abrams for this though - it's pretty obvious he had the huge task of fixing what Rian Johnson completely messed up with The Jedi.
There's a lot of patchwork happening here, especially in the first act of the film. Things settle by the second act, and round up by the third. But from the opening crawl, it's right into the action, there's no slow warm-up, it's blast-off at 0 seconds.
Performances by everyone are really quite stellar, especially Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver. They fill their characters quite well, and I felt connected to the new cast more than ever. I actually wished this was a second film in some ways, and that a final installment was yet to come.
The remaining footage of Carrie Fisher was used BRILLIANTLY. I was actually shocked at how much JJ Abrams got out of it and how he used it to weave into his story.
Visually of course, The Rise of Skywalker is STUNNING. The effects and the scale especially are MASSIVE. The lightsaber battles have the emotional weight we've been clamouring for.
A few events in the film had me a bit teary at points, and my mouth dropped open a few times. The character relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren is fantastic. I wish more had been invested into their connection throughout this sequel trilogy.
Is The Rise of Skywalker brilliant? No. Is it solid, am I satisfied? YES. Does it have plot-holes? Hello, doesn't just about every film? Am I still angry at Rian Johnson? Yes, even more than I was before because the second film in a trilogy is , in my opinion, potentially the most important one and he absolutely BLEW it with The Last Jedi by trying too hard to be different. It's forced JJ Abrams to almost have to fit two films into one with this final installment.
However, JJ Abrams HAS done well here. A huge responsibility is what he had, and he has delivered as well as he could. I'll be back to see this in the coming days a second time, and then a third, as I do with every Star Wars film.
My heart feels a bit heavy, but I'm pretty satisfied too. I can't wait to have a copy of this film in a few months time.