Generic and Safe While Still Managing to Exceed Expectations

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2019)

I went into this movie with extremely low expectations given the recent press and preliminary reviews that had been released. While I was never the biggest fan of the new trilogy I didn't vehemently hate it as it seemed so many other passionate fans did online. With the Rise of Skywalker marking the end of this trilogy, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, I must say that in the end I walked away being thoroughly impressed despite the overarching generic feel to the film as a whole.
Pace was certainly an issue for the film. It felt as though there was a constant rush between the alternating plotlines in an effort to advance the movie forward. Too many times it seemed as though entire parts could have been expedited or skipped entirely with some careful rewriting. For example, the entire rescuing of Chewbacca and running into Poe's old fling did not feel like they contributed much to any sort of character development.
As others have pointed out, I think the movie had good potential but was unwilling to take some necessary risks to keep things interesting. Namely the Chewbacca death scene (only to see him fine a few minutes later), the emotional C-3PO memory wipe (only to have his memory restored by R2D2 a few moments later), and stabbing Kylo Ren (only to be revived with the force healing touch). If the movie had actually followed through with any of these points, I think it would have been better off. Instead seeing as though every potential twist and turn was met with a "safe" result was mildly disappointing and took away any edge of your seat feeling the movie had going for it.
Also I was slightly disappointed in the fact that the main villain for this trilogy ended up just being the Emperor once again. I get that he's an iconic character but with little to no foreshadowing throughout it seemed like a forced play to rehash a finally fight scene that we've practically already watched with the ending of the original trilogy. The Knights of Ren were also disappointing as they were hyped up to be elite killers and did little besides stand menacingly until they were simply wiped out altogether.
I did enjoy how Leia's character was utilized in the film, I think that her send off was more than appropriate (but the CGI with young Luke did look a little off especially by Disney standards). The fight scenes were all fairly solid. Decent humor throughout. While at times it seemed like a little too much fan service, I think that overall there was enough to provide a decent feeling of nostalgia without being overwhelming.