Disjointed Skywalker never quite rises

Rating: 5/10 (20 December 2019)

For those who didn't like Rian Johnson's deconstructionist's approach w/The Last Jedi, good news. Rise of Skywalker does not continue that tack. For those who were hoping that JJ Abrams would be able to take the disjointed and seemingly rudderless story so far and bring it all together, bad news. He doesn't. Not even close.
Rise of Skywalker had a rather impossible task, so it's hard to fault it for not sticking the landing on a story that never took flight in the first place. Instead I blame Disney, who failed to learn the lessons of its success w/its Marvel Cinematic Universe and plan and craft this saga in advance.
Abrams was blamed or credited, depending on who you listen to, for basically cutting and pasting from the original trilogy w/his Force Awakens, relying on nostalgia and fan service to smooth over the cracks. There's some of that here as well, and no surprise the very best moments of Rise of Skywalker involve callbacks, characters and cues from the first trilogy. As for the new stuff...
Little here makes any sense. It starts off w/all the focus of a fly at a picnic and its attempts to take the elements and loose ends its given and tie them up are less than satisfying. It does feature some striking visuals, but set pieces mean little if you're not given a reason to care about the outcome, and here I just didn't.
It does get better in its third act, but it's far too little and far too late to save the film or the trilogy as a whole.