Every generation has a Star Wars trilogy it can call its own. My father had the original three. I (unfortunately) had the prequels, and Gen Z has these sequels. “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” concludes three trilogies of stories surrounding the Skywalker clan starting with Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), later Darth Vader (David Prowse with James Earl Jones providing the voice), moving to Luke (Mark Hamill) and Leia (the late Carrie Fisher) and finally to Ben Solo/Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the son of Leia and Han Solo (Harrison Ford).

It’s a lot of pressure to try and conclude literal decades worth of storytelling from the films and the animated television series’ with a good chunk of the planet a fan of the saga to some caliber, many of them with very vocal opinions. No pressure for director and co-writer J.J. Abrams.

After the divisive, and some frankly toxic, discussions to come out of the previous installment of the franchise, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” there was a lot riding on this besides it being the finale to one of the most culturally impactful sci-fi movies of all time. Unfortunately, not everything in the galaxy far, far away lived up to expectations.

We pick up with the story after a transmission is heard across the galaxy of the voice of Sith Lord, Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious (reprised by prequel actor Ian McDiarmid) cackling the end of the Resistance is nigh.

Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) race in the Millenium Falcon with the aid of co-pilot Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) to gather a message from a spy within the First Order. They hyperspace skip to lose the tie fighters on their tail and reach the Resistance base where Rey (Daisy Ridley) is busy in training with her new master, General Leia.

Back at the base the Resistance hears the spy’s message and learns of Kylo Ren’s attempt to reach Exegol, the Sith world only found with the use of a device of which there are, conveniently, only two in existence. The trio of heroes (plus Chewy and C-3PO) head out to find the remaining device in order to fly to Exegol and destroy Palpatine.

Here’s where the story gets spoilery and also a bit convoluted. We go to so many new planets (and an old one) that we don’t really have time to set up what’s going on and more importantly who’s there. With each new world, a new character (and an old one, Lando Calrissian played by OG smoothy Billy Dee Williams) shows up, and no sooner does the character appear, and we’re whisked away somewhere else.

Not only are the new characters not fully developed, the ones we already know have little to no growth. In particular, Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) who was introduced in “The Last Jedi” and caused an onslaught of hate from internet trolls for her appearance, is criminally underused. Even new character Beaumont (who I had to look up because I’m not even sure they mention his name), played by Dominic Monaghan, got more screen time than Tran.

Some of the characters we already have a pretty good grasp on become almost caricatures brought on by poor dialogue and little else to do with their parts.

Star Wars has never been one for Oscar-winning dialogue (“I hate sand” comes to mind), but “Rise of Skywalker” seems to have headed down the path of “so bad it’s jarring.”

Moments that the audience should feel more depth or emotion in fall flat in part due to the whirlwind pace of the film.

All of these are not to say this is an entirely bad film. The fight scenes are great; John Williams’ score is gorgeous and fitting; there are fun moments, campy moments and cute new additions that may give Baby Yoda a run for his money. Easter eggs to previous films and the television series were fantastic. And there was a slice of Poe Dameron’s backstory I didn’t know I wanted so badly till now.

As a film, and even as a Star Wars film, it just falls short of what it could have been. The entire new trilogy felt rudderless, like there was little to no plan how each film would tell the story ultimately leading to the (sadly) predictable conclusion.

But hey, it’s still Star Wars, and something about it feels like you’re visiting old friends. Just maybe we don’t need to see any of these ones for a while.

If you need me, I’ll be bingeing “The Mandalorian” on Disney Plus.

— Makenzie Whittle, The Bulletin

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”

142 minutes

Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action

2.5 stars