Will C

There is so much to unpack with this movie, no single review could cover everything that comes up throughout its lengthy runtime. Thus, I have avoided to discuss anything in particular with the film (such as character arcs or specific reveals). This review, as a result, is 100% spoiler-free. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker answered many questions raised throughout the trilogy of trilogies, but in the end raised questions that were unexplained throughout the film. Given that J.J. Abrams only had one film instead of two to explain what he had planned, many parts of the movie, especially the first act, felt rushed. This amount of screentime that he had to work with was even further diminished due to his task of rectifying and fixing the mistakes that The Last Jedi made. As a result, the overall product, while certainly a crowd-pleasing and rollicking Star Wars adventure in its own right, could have been much better if High Command at Lucasfilm and Disney had kept JJ on the director's chair for the entire trilogy. Essentially, it was a good movie that could have been much better if the The Last Jedi had also had the creative direction of J.J. Abrams. Unfortunately this meant that many of the plot beats and story elements were handed to the audience and not given much explanation other than "this is how it is, accept it." This also meant that not every mystery in the 9-film saga was solved, which did leave some things open-ended. It still was, however, a mostly satisfying conclusion to the Star Wars saga and a film worth watching multiple times to pick up on everything that is mentioned in the movie. Again, if J.J. Abrams had directed The Last Jedi, this movie would be an 9/10 or perhaps even a 10/10. As it stands, however, I give this movie a solid 7.5/10. There were some issues of political and social debate that did come up throughout the film, but this review will not factor that into the final score.