Last night as we were leaving Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker I overheard a boy, about 8-10 years old or so, and he says to his father “I wish Star Wars never ended.” That was by far the best moment of the whole night at the theater for me. I was that boy once. I wonder what happened to me where I don’t quite feel the same any more.

This movie was supposed to bring closure to The Skywalker Saga – 9 movies originally conceived by the mind of George Lucas some 40+ years ago. And it did that, I guess. While I don’t think Disney quite dropped the ball like George Lucas did with his overly-computer-generated prequels, I still think that these movies were poorly conceived. They seem very much like three movies that told their own stories, and had very weak threads holding them together.

For the most part, I liked Episode VII The Force Awakens when it came out. I was a little disappointed in how the First Order kinda just felt like the Empire II, all the way down to their Death Star-like Starkiller base. But other than that, I thought Disney started off on the right foot: using established characters that we all know to help introduce new ones to further the story. I will say I was disappointed in Luke Skywalker, who to me it seemed was out of character for him to be running and hiding from what was happening and leaving his sister to deal with it all. Seemed like an odd road to take us.

Episode VIII The Last Jedi has been argued over ever since it came out. Rian Johnson took some bold steps in this one, some hit for me, others missed. I still say the movie isn’t as bad as its biggest critics say it is and it isn’t quite as good as its biggest supporters. I got a kick out of the Rashomon-like storytelling of what happened between Luke and his student Ben Solo (although I do wish we had a little more backstory to build on than the three flashback perspective shots).

I remember when I walked out of The Last Jedi I wasn’t sure if I liked it initially, and I was leaning more toward not liking it. But one thought I did have, and as we now have the saga complete, was that the way The Last Jedi ended, with Luke sacrificing himself and fading away as Jedis do when they pass, and then that last shot of the boy with the broom looking out to the stars, THAT’S how I always thought these movies should have ended. THAT was the closing shot I wanted.

This last movie, to me, just felt unnecessary. Suddenly a character is back and now we’re told he was the one pulling the strings (why not give more hints to that earlier, or did they JUST think about it before this movie?). We didn’t need to know that Rey has the bloodline she has – I thought a more bold statement was that she was just like anyone else, and that it wasn’t a genetic feature that she has the powers she possesses. And while I liked Kylo Ren as a villan – and wish we would have had more Knights of Ren throughout the series – the redemption of Ben Solo didn’t do a whole bunch for me. I knew it was coming from the get-go, but compared to the redemption of Anakin Skywalker, this one just fell flat.

Disney had a great opportunity here to do something great. I just wish they mapped out their beginning, middle, and end a bit better. They say Carrie Fisher’s passing threw a wrench into their plans, and that may be, but I really don’t think they had it planned out very well from the get go.

So falling flat pretty much sums up the whole last movie for me. Maybe I’ve just seen too many X-Wing and TIE fighter dogfights over nine movies. Too many lightsaber duels. Too many jumps into hyperspace. Too many quirky droids and aliens. I’ve had enough. But I hope that kid leaving the theater last night holds on to it a little longer. It’s worth the ride, if not the destination.

Oh yeah, I can’t wait to see how the Season One finale of The Mandalorian turns out this week (they’ll always hook me back in again even after I’ve said I had enough).