Where was Jar Jar?

Rating: 5/10 (12 January 2020)

The difficulty of relaunching the franchise in the hulking shadow of the carefully planned and continuity driven MCU is no more apparent than in this entry to the Star Wars series.
What began with the crowd pleasing if somewhat New Hope retread of The Force Awakens, before the divisive but entirely welcome change of approach with The Last Jedi is capped off with a retrograde and overall deeply disappointing finale.
Given the response to The Last Jedi which although flawed breathed much new life and bold ideas into the standard Star Wars formula I still found myself grimacing at the sheer amount of fanboy appeasement on display.
Ironically despite the wailing from the type of people who gleefully enter Jedi as their religion on any census or application form they get their hands on, they have been strangely silent on this films biggest slap in the face to the Star Wars legacy.
That occurs in the first five minutes when the return of Emperor Palpatine is confirmed. For any fans of the original films the moment of Darth Vader "killing" Palpatine is the culmination of the story's heart and truth. That Luke was able to redeem his father from the dark side is the emotional anchor of this universe. It is ruled null and void in what is the film's most misguided plot point. Obviously the film needed a big bad and Snoke had been killed in TLJ but for me the film never recovers from it. Also the wafer thin explanation for his existence (cloning??) Is laughable and poses way more questions than it answers.
In addition we have the awkward use of Carrie Fisher for whom some scenes work and some don't. Understandable somewhat obviously but surely a more heroic send off could've been written. There is an endless parade of greatest hits which the film seems built around serving rather than they serving it. Lando, Luke (disavowing his entire TLJ arc more or less) as well as smaller nods to previous films.
It's not all bad Rey and Kylo have some of their best moments despite some clunky dialogue and Poe gets a bit more to do but there never feels like any real danger and the film never really sizzles like the last two did in places.
The lack of stakes is again clearly so to not annoy anyone which means Chewy is only thought to have died but comes back, C3P0 permanent memory wipe is undone, Rey dies then doesn't, Kylo does, then doesn't, then does (also who knew the force could be sucked out like some kind of Sith Dyson?)
There are some great moments for sure but they are few and far, far between.
A sad end to a great franchise.