As Kylo Ren struggles in his loyalty to the Dark Side, Rey tries to find her way to a hidden Sith planet to confront her family legacy.

I'm getting whiplash as how this story changes scope and goals, the way Sith is turned on its head, including the introduction of the Clone Wars Sith magic, the laughable way the Final Order decided to control their fleet, and the implausible timeframe in which the good guys change the minds of the galaxy. Strangely, I liked Rey and Ben's storyline the best, as they tried to come to terms with each other and they way they can share visions and transfer objects through the connection apparently created by Snoke back in The Last Jedi. The return of Palpatine could have been great, except that they made it about soul transferrence. The cameo voices of Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda and so on was pretty cool though, as Rey realizes she has all the Jedi with her, to combat Palpatine's "all the Sith". It was good to see Lando, and he brightened all the scenes he was in. The search for the wayfinder was strange, though, as the dagger has been sitting there for who knows how long, but is based on the remains of a Death Star (which one? -were they close to Endor or Yavin, or did the thing travel through hyperspace?) on a planet with severe weather events that could easily modify its physical shape. Ah, well, it was cool seeing Wedge and the galactic citizens arrive (why didn't Wedge go save Leia in The Last Jedi?), though not to be overwhelmed by Force lightning -I can't accept the power Palpatine has amassed in his body. No wonder Luke decided to end the Jedi, but he should have tried to take the Sith with him. But no matter his intentions, people are born with the Force all the time, and so there will always be potention for Jedi and Sith; they need somebody to be watching for this.

There was a lot to like in this movie, but also a frustratingly large amount of things to hate, as well. Rey's powers come out of nowhere -she didn't have the time to train like Luke did in The Empire Strikes Back, and suddenly she has Force lightning and healing powers -not just to heal flesh, but to sew up Ben's torn organs. The movie jumps from one inexplicable place and situation to the next. Did they not see the festival as they landed only meters away from it? Why are they so surprised at the crowd? The dagger was obviously made after the Death Star explosion, otherwise the wreckage patterns wouldn't have matched. Why make such a thing, instead of taking the device and using it? Also, the crash site seems to be treated differently than Endor, where I don't recall seeing such a huge ocean. I still can't accept the concept of how they got into this mess, though. How do planets accept the First Order patrols, when they were previously protected (presumably) by the New Republic forces? However, I really liked Rey's healilng ability, and the final battle was visually spectacular -and I loved the rag-tag army. Rey's final confrontation with the Emperor was also amazing, as she takes up the two lightsabers. I wish she'd been stronger all the way through, though, since she was given so many powers.

Full of bad writing, poor acting and a lot of cliches, this is still the best of the new trilogy. Disjointed as it was, and I'm not sure about the big reveal that Rey was actually a Palpatine, the resemblance to Return of the Jedi was strong here, too. I don't like the planet-killing Star Destroyer guns at all, as it makes everything too easy (to hate the bad guys, for the bad guys to destroy everything, etc...). I felt like the writers were laughing at the fans when it was revealed that there was a single weakness, only in the middle of the battle have it change over to a backup. You'd think the Emperor would have learned his lesson, and had multiple redundancies... I liked the relationship between Rey and Ren, especially as they passed lightsabers between each other across distance. But I wish the movie had done more with the idea that the masses would rise up. It was such a waste, because they could have done so much more with it, instead of the ragtag fleet being a sudden way for them to win the day. It was barely foreshadowed in The Last Jedi, but that didn't make it any easier to accept the suddenness of it all. Wouldn't it have been wonderful to have Lando assembling everyone like in The Muster of Rohan? It wouldn't take much. And I loved the Wedge cameo!