This movie was definitely stupid in a number of areas, though given what Abrams was handed with the Last Jedi - basically leaving no real cliff hangers except good guy rebels need to kill big bad kylo ren, & having to wrap up this massive story in 2 hours - he did what he could. The Palpatine appearance was cool but definitely felt a bit desperate like they felt they just needed to toss him in there to appease the fans. It's definitely super odd that he wasn't even mentioned in the rest of the trilogy then suddenly he's the big bad main villain we need to strive to defeat. And no explanation as to how he survived after Return of the Jedi.

It definitely felt rushed and all over the place at times - almost made up as it went along - though you really could say that about this entire sequel trilogy. 

Hmmm, I don't believe I've ever seen someone rank Last Jedi as their #1 before (have seen a few ranked after Empire) but I suppose there's no accounting for taste.. You like what you like. I'm sure many "diehards" would shake their heads at my choice for putting A New Hope over Empire. Or Revenge of the Sith over Return of the Jedi.

To me, while there was plenty of cheese and head scratching moments, at least Rise felt like a Star Wars movie again, rather than some paint-by-numbers super hero film or something. Was fun to see the 3 main heroes just banding together and venturing out to get the job done, embarking on a mission in a number of different settings with escalating action. I liked the return to an emphasis on older characters like C3PO, R2, and Chewie. You could call it "fan service" or whatever but ultimately the point to me is to have fun watching it, which I definitely felt more entertained for far more of the film vs Last Jedi, which I tended to oscillate between boredom, confusion, and just a plain bad feeling overall. 

Rise of Skywalker felt more like an adventure (like past SW films) where real events of significance took place, vs Last Jedi's "big ship chases other big ship," oh and we get a rip off of the beginning scene from Empire (it's SALT!) and a pointless insignificant b-plot at casino world. I felt like Rian Johnson mistook randomly "subverting expectations" & hinging on emotional impact (at the expense of logic & sound storytelling) with cool, thought-provoking plots which isn't necessarily the case..

To me Rise was the most enjoyable since Revenge of the Sith but still a major dropoff from that film. While I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again like my top 4 favorites, it was at least interesting to see how everything hashed out and I was partly invested, which is more than I could say about the bottom half of my list.

My rankings: 

1. New Hope
2. Empire
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Rise of Skywalker
6. Rogue One
7. Force Awakens
8. Attack of the Clones
9. Solo
10. Last Jedi
11. Phantom Menace

Nah, understandable. In fact, I consider A New Hope and Empire about equal, and both by far the best ones of the entire franchise, but if someone put a gun to my head I’d say A New Hope wins. Revenge of the Sith is also great.

Overal your ranking’s similar to mine.

My ranking:

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. Return of the Jedi
5. The Last Jedi
6. The Force Awakens
7. Rogue One
8. Rise of Skywalker
9. The Phantom Menace
10. Attack of the Clones
11. Solo

I liked Rise of Skywalkwr a lot, it was definitely better then TLJ, and I enjoyed the last Jedi as well. Though I know it has its flaws.

My personal rankings:

1. Empire Strikes Back

2. Return of the Jedi

3. A New Hope

4. The force awakens

5. Rise of skywalker

6. Rogue one (Tied for 5th)

7. The last Jedi

8. Solo

9. Revenge of the sith

10. Attack of the clones

11. The phantom Menace

I got Return of the Jedi and A New Hope flipped and Rogue One my Clear number 5 with Rise of Skywalker 6 but other then that my list is the same.

You should really try using scientific surveys of moviegoers like the ones I pointed to in an earlier post on this thread, NOT internet-based "viewer reviews" that don't even verify that you saw the movie. According to the surveys of actual, verified moviegoers, The Last Jedi was widely received well (like with the critics) and The Rise of Skywalker got the worst reception of any Star Wars film to date (also similar to critical opinion).

In other words, don't just believe organized internet activists.

Also, can we please stop altering the titles of my threads so often?

I know my opinions are broadly unpopular here and everything, but does every disagreement we have really call for moderation?

To be fair, I believe both series dropped at once and long or ongoing games suffer from the same issue, since a lot of these reviewers are pressured to release their evaluation as quickly as possible without really reviewing the work as a whole. And some, of course, genuinely won't care after the first impression: I'd say that particularly the first episode of the Witcher has been fairly criticized in terms of pacing and acting, and that should reflect in the final score, but to take it for the entirety of the season? That's streching too far.

But that's straying a bit too much from the topic now.

I knew this movie was destined to be a mess after I saw The Last Jedi.

@bold

And this sentence just illustrates the problem with the trilogy, as a whole.  JJ started out the trilogy with a competent film.  It wasn't great, but I think most see it as an ok film.  There were some things he left out story-wise that shouldn't have been, but it did set up a few good mysteries that could have had interesting reveals in the following films.  Unfortunately, Kathleen Kennedy saw it fit to give the film to what was basically an internet troll. 

"Oh, you want something interesting to happen in the film, nope!  Subverted your expectations, didn't I?  You liked this character before?  Well, he's completely changed and for no real good reason, too."

And the fans of TLJ can say that most people liked it all they want, but the fact is they didn't.  Who knows this most of all? Disney.  There's a reason ROS tries to retcon TLJ, and throws a few jabs at Rian.  And Disney made sure this time, unlike with TLJ, the cast and crew weren't going around bashing the fans who criticized the negatives of the new trilogy.  Disney saw a film that was "guaranteed" to hit ~$1.8B, then supposed to do $1.6B after the big 2nd weekend drop, go on to hitting just $1.33B.  They saw their merch sales plummet.  A movie that could have rose the level that TFA ended up if it was a great movie with interesting reveals, just dragged the first film down with it.

Now, we have ROS, which turned out EXACTLY how I predicted it would.  A muddled mess of retcons, ones that are too little, too late, while also trying to tell its own story.  An original enemy that could have been interesting, instead was killed off prematurely, so they had to bring back Palpatine.  While it is a dumb decision, it really was the only one that they were left with.  The 3rd film is too late to introduce a new main villain.  It would be like if Sauron (in a stupid easily seen coming way, I might add) was killed off in The Two Towers, the threat is gone, even though he was made out to be the big bad of the series for two films.  Then, in Return of the King, out of nowhere there's a new villain that was never hinted at.  We have to learn his back story, motivations, and see his defeat in the span of an hour.  Just awful writing. 

It doesn't help matters that they gave the series back to JJ, who is an opener, not a closer.  He's pretty good at setting up mysteries, but is god awful at giving them any kind of meaningful payoff.  He served up the ball competently enough, but Rian spiked it into the net.  Then, JJ tried kicking it over the net.  A nice try, but it isn't how the game is played, so it doesn't count even if it went over, and the fans aren't happy.