After Rian Johnson's horrible Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, I very little hope that the Star Wars series could end on a high note. To be honest, I originally had no plans of seeing The Rise of Skywalker. Johnson's film was so bad that I had written of this one before it had ever been filmed.
Sometime later I read that director J.J. Abrams had gone to Star Wars creator George Lucas for ideas on how to fix Johnson's mess and give the series a proper ending.
There was hope.
Okay, lets cut to the chase. When Rise of Skywalker begins it's a hot mess. I was sitting in my seat thinking "oh no here we go again." The movie starts off as a barrage of nonstop mindless action scenes.
Again, I was thinking to myself "This isn't Star Wars."
I had decided to just settle down and ride the movie out, feeling at the very least that I had seen it and that I could soon put the experience behind me.
That's when the pace and the tone of the movie started to change. I estimate that about a third of the way in it started to get good. It was as if the plot had finally gotten on track and the mindless action began to give way to some form of substance.
It would build from there and in the end the movie comes to a satisfying conclusion.
The ending was predictable, but it kinda had to be.
In the end J.J. Abrams made the best Star Wars movie that he could have considering all the pieces he was left to work with. There are the expected cameos, flashbacks and plot points that hearken back to the prior films in the series and Abrams ties up most of the loose ends nicely.
This is how I look at Star Wars movies:
Great Ones: A New Hope, Empire, Jedi, Rogue One and I'll thrown in The Mandalorian even though it isn't a movie.
Good Ones: The Force Awakens, Solo and The Rise of Skywalker belongs in this category.
Bad Ones: The prequel trilogy, the less we talk about these the better.
WTF: The Last Jedi and Star Wars Holiday Special
Bottom line is that I enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker and I will see it again. As a fan from all the way back in 77, I feel satisfied that Star Wars was given a good sendoff.