Joshua Carranza-Vick

In retrospect, we really don’t give the prequels enough credit. Even if you put aside your feelings on The Last Jedi, the Rise of Skywalker is maddeningly inconsistent internally, but it makes even less sense after following the movie that came before. If Lucasfilm was so moved by the vocal outcry after TLJ, maybe a redo would have been better. This film is stuffed to the brim to try and address as many fan complaints as possible without actually writing anyone to the states naturally. Lots of screaming exposition at each other at 100mph. No scene has any room to breathe or feel anything, and almost nothing is able to truly make an emotional impact as a result. The decision to use extant footage of Carrie in particular leads to scenes that are, charitably, wooden, and probably more honestly actually offensive to her legacy. She deserved better. We all did.