Star wars the rise of Skywalker accomplishes three things that its predecessors struggled with. The first,is actually telling a story that everyone can follow, not just those who've seen all the movies before. Secondly, it actually develops characters, or in this case, substance over style. While there are obviously tremendous special effects, it relies more heavily on emotion. And lastly,it reminds you rather bluntly, simply, that normal people can rise up against tyranny.
What Star wars has always been about, since the very first movie, is extremely simple...GOOD VERSUS EVIL.
What this movie fails to do though, is actually anything different than its predecessors. The lack of imagination and creativity is on abundant display. To say this movie was dumbed-down, is an understatement. It's as if it was over simplified, because as usual, Hollywood assumes everyday, normal, working-class people aren't very bright. Hollywood makes that continuous mistake in almost everything it spews from the grinding machine of the movie industry. This is why there are so few truly oscar-worthy, intelligently written, directed, and creatively filmed stories.One of the few things this movie does not do well, is move from scene to scene fluidly. The last three movies all have in common this one effect. And I'm not sure why, there are thousands of close-ups that show no actual imagination in cinematography. Let's not forget, shall we...it is representing the vastness of space and billions of planets.
If the Star wars series were to end today, this was a fitting send-off. This is not a bad movie, it's just not a great movie.
I have seen every installment in the entire series since the original movie. So when you think about it, this movie really goes out of its way to reach that specific demographic, and it really doesn't care about those who are new to the series.
But it ties all the movies together really well, with all of the characters you've seen before, and many of the machines in a perfect story...and trust me on this, if you leave thinking it's over and missed the last two minutes, you will be very,very sorry.