Diminishes love for the Star Wars label

Rating: 4/10 (19 December 2019)

I was hoping for the best, while also expecting the worst. Now that I have seen it, I hope that others will come back from the cinema with a more positive experience than I had, because to me, this movie was disappointing.
I don't want to be too negative, because I love Star Wars, and many other may actually enjoy this movie. I don't want to be a hater, but I can't say I loved it because of a number of (big) problems.
To me this movie showed poor pacing (a ludicrous amount of scenes follow one another) often connected weakly by National Treasure or Jumanji-style clues (the book led to a ship which led to a dagger which led to a digital map which led to the Sith homeworld). New characters are introduced (Zorri Bliss) older ones are revisited (Hux, Rose, Maz, Lando, multiple force ghosts) but the movie could have done very well without many of them. The protagonist's challenges don't feel dangerous here all: the bad guys miss no matter the odds, and no matter the new color on their armor. When a sacrifice is made, that sacrifice is undone later (e.g., C3po).
The movie suffers from hyperbole, there is more of everything, everything is bigger, everybody can do new force things - even the ghosts. Not only do we have moooore Star Destroyers than ever, they also have big planet killing cannons under their belly!! I actually was reminded of Dr. Evil's Sharks-with-Giant-lasers-attached-to-their-heads here. This problem of scale makes Star Wars feel like a lemon squeezed too often.
Most problematic is however what they did to Ian McDermid's Palpatine. Star Wars movies work among others because of their great villains. We have had Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Tarkin and the old-school Emperor. That overarching menace from the prequels, that evil emperor we knew from RoTJ.. Well he's now a Cyborg-zombie with the powers of a Harry-Potteresque dementor, with limited screen time and weak dialogue. I found Snoke to be more imposing in TLJ than Palpatine in TROS. Palpatine - and Anakin's sacrifice - have been severely diminished.
I go to the cinema twice a week. The most recent movies I saw were Jumanji 2 and Midway - movies that provide an enjoyable passage of time without much impact otherwise because of their focus on amusement instead of impactful storytelling or hurting old lore. Elevator music so-to-speak. If this movie would have had the John Carter label instead of the Star Wars label it would fit right in that category. But it is Star Wars and has diminished things that were great about it. I feel that is this trilogy's legacy.