Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019) Spoiler-Filled Review/Rant: ...Why?

So, I was never planning to see this film whatsoever, considering the fact that the last two Star Wars films (The Last Jedi and Solo) were pretty bad in my opinion. My family however convinced me otherwise and once again, I came out more than underwhelmed. Usually, with these reviews, I would have the opening paragraph about the story, tone and humour, followed by paragraphs about the characters, acting, filmmaking, etc. However, with films that make me really distasteful or angry about, I felt that this structure wouldn't gel as well. So, instead, I'm just going to list the positives and negatives of the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga. Spoilers will be extremely involved in this review.

Positives: 

• The visual effects, set design, on-screen locations, generally the look of the film and the environments are pretty nice to look upon.
• The score by John Williams. It's pretty good, though Ludwig Goransson has provided the best soundtrack in the franchise during the Disney era.
• Kylo Ren's story arc. I love Adam Driver's performance and some notable scenes such as him seeing a ghost of Han Solo, but I hate what happens to him in the end.
• I liked C-3PO in this film as well as the little arc and development they gave to him, with him losing his memory.
• And lastly, I did enjoy the intensity of the space battle against the Destroyers.

Negatives:

• Where do I even begin? First off, the direction by Abrams felt very uninspired, perhaps due to the lack of true passion behind the scenes as his vision has been very much destroyed by Rian Johnson.
• The action is pretty underwhelming compared to the rest of the franchise. It's not the worse, but "Return of the Jedi" and "Revenge of the Sith" had great action set-pieces for the end of their trilogies. This chapter has only one noteworthy action set-piece with the space-battle, but that's it.
• The introduction of new characters that do absolutely nothing. From Jannah, Zorii Bliss, D-O, and even characters that were established in previous films such as Lando, Rose, and Maz Kanata are just pointless in the plot. Like, why did we even waste time on them?
• Leia's idiotic decision to give all of her life force to say "Ben" in order to save her son, yet she almost killed him in the process. What a great mother...
• Rey never at once going to the dark side as well as being Palpatine's granddaughter all of a sudden. I wished that she sacrificed herself to kill Palpatine, but Kylo Ren kills himself in order to get a single kiss from her. Also, her taking the Skywalker name is really stupid.
• Finn being sidelined once again. He gets yet another love interest and refuses to tell anyone that he loves Rey.
• Poe is almost useless as well in this film. He also gets a love interest, since Disney refuses to allow main characters in their shows or films to be LGBTQ, outside of random background characters.
• Hux being the spy to the Resistance is pathetic. I hated this character since the start of the trilogy due to his personality and trying to have him redeemable is insulting.
• Finally, we have Palpatine. Every scene with him makes me laugh, just due to the absurdity that they resurrected him in this trilogy for no reason. His plan makes no sense and despite being the criminal mastermind, he's dumb enough to continue using Force Lighting against Jedi, even though he has been injured or killed doing it. Didn't this guy used be a badass lightsaber wielder? Why can't that be the climax rather than him being killed by his own lightning?

So, to sum up my opinions, I hate the story, characters and resolutions. Kylo Ren escapes from this list though as he's the saving grace of these elements, except for his untimely death. And I can't say this is a terrible film either, since the effects, visuals, score, and few noteworthy scenes do bring this film up a few points. Even if you remove the writing and go in to see the spectacle, it's not that fun. There are much more enjoyable and entertaining scenes in the other films that can make these set-pieces look as fun as a traffic jam. Regardless, there is a reason why this didn't make my list of the top five worst films of 2019, and that's because the elements that are done well were really good. It's not so much of the issue of the individuals involved, but rather the greedy, stupid producers and the studio that can't evolve to ensure a well-made product if it meant by delaying the film to make it good.

Verdict: 5/10. The franchise ends in a pathetic mess that makes "Dark Phoenix" more enjoyable as a conclusion to a beloved franchise. Just rewatch "The Mandalorian" instead of this crap.