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By no means easy viewing, this is a gripping and profound drama that leaves you simultaneously craving more and begging it to stop as the raw brutality on display deepens and intensifies. Emotional performances make up the unshakable core as the story unfolds, one compelling revelation to the next, told with such a mastery for forced perspective as to have you questioning everything you see; and cleverly threading the story of our compelling lead through the narrative so sparingly as to have her seem as forgotten as she must have felt.

For as much ground as needed to be covered from a narrative perspective to satisfactorily wrap up this trilogy, Rise succeeds in almost every way, suffering only a first act bogged down by rushed exposition that tries to balance against equal amounts of action. Once it finds its feet however, the final act of the sequel trilogy is a passionate and loving send-off to the Skywalker Saga, rife with not only the stirring nostalgia of Awakens but the ground-breaking ambition of Jedi before it; and masterfully tying up all the loose ends and lingering questions left dangling by its predecessors without detracting from the glorious spectacle of the franchise's final battle.

There's a stark imbalance of tone and pace that can make it difficult to reconcile Jedi's light-hearted and action packed moments with those slower and more reserved, and make the film's second act feel as low on fuel as the Resistance fleet. At times more concerned with exploring the moralities of heroism, the consequences often unseen behind them and the grey areas between the Light Side and the Dark, it also embraces the explosive spectacle that made this franchise great; delivering some of the best action and most phenomenal cinematography Star Wars has ever seen.