I thought the first half was an overstuffed, senseless mess but it won me round at the end. It’s pure fan service, there wasn’t an original thought in its head, but in the end it felt like a nice elegy to the original trilogy.
My biggest complaint is that virtually nothing in this film felt like it particularly built on what had happened in the previous two. Palpatine’s return came out of nowhere and made precious little sense, and the main plot was just an endless McGuffin hunt.
It really ret-conned Last Jedi to the point of rudeness too. Rey’s parentage (I’m still baffled as to when and how EMPEROR PALPATINE is supposed to have fathered a child...), Kylo rebuilding his helmet in the first 5 minutes, poor Rose getting the full Jar Jar treatment etc.
The Leia stuff was just sad in the first hour, it was painfully obvious they were just using stock footage of her speaking in context-less generalities. But I suppose it’s the best they could realistically do under the circumstances, and her ending was really nice, if abrupt. It’s just hard not to wonder what might have been
Positives - Richard E. Grant was a fabulous Imperial General, Lando’s return was nicely done, it was nice to see the new trio actually together for most of the film, Domnhall Gleeson continues to camp it up to ridiculous levels, and there is no sadder sight in cinema than a CRYING WOOKIE
5/10 for the first two thirds, 7/10 for the end.