'The Rise of Skywalker' tries too hard to be a 'Star Wars' movie — review

In the final installment of the sequel trilogy, J.J. Abrams wraps up the nine-episode Skywalker Saga as the Resistance faces the First Order one last time

Quick review: A series of poor story and character decisions take away any emotional impact The Rise of Skywalker could have, which ends the Skywalker Saga on a sour note.

There’s something very off about The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth and final film in the Skywalker Saga. It feels at equal times too big and too small, too overwrought and too emotionless, too fast and too slow. The movie, more than any other blockbuster this year and in the franchise, feels completely contrived. Like it was stitched together from disparate arguing ideas and landed on all of them and none of them at the same time.

From the opening scroll, it’s already apparent that the movie is trying to do too much. I’ll spare you the specific plot details, but one I can reveal off the bat since it’s the first thing on the screen, is that Emporer Palpatine (Ian McDia…