This isn't attempting to be definitive or systematic. It is some notes I jotted in my journal after seeing the movie with my wife and father-in-law, and I share it for the sake of a friend. It's basically the same trouble to send it just to him as to publish it openly, so if anyone else appreciates it that is a bonus.
1/ A criticism I saw of the movie online is that it feels rushed, more like a music video than a movie. While I must admit the opening does have the feel of a music video, first that feeling moved by much more quickly for me than I would have thought based on the vehemence of those making the claim, and, second, I liked that feel. I think the audience can be assumed to have absorbed this style and speed of story-telling.
I feel the story had to move along briskly because the Last Jedi wasted quite a bit of its run time, but that only makes me more impressed to see this movie stick the landing and wrap up the trilogy.
2/ One of the only ways this could be done was to bring back Palpatine. At the end of Last Jedi the resistance was left with about a dozen people on the Millennium Falcon. I remember saying "how the hell do you win from there? . . and in one movie, no less?" Well, as I once read from treatise on the game Diplomacy, there is no better way to bury the hatchet than in someone else's back. Or, you can go with the more traditional "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Once Palpatine was established, I found Kylo's motivations believable. I think the machinations of the space wizards unfolded reasonably enough.
3/ This series has always been about overpowered space wizards, and the best way to tell stories about those space wizards is about their emotional conflicts and the struggle to gain self-mastery so they can be the versions of themselves that they want to be. Escalating them from space wizards to space demi-gods doesn't really change the fundamentals of telling a good story within the franchise. This movie deals with questions of identity, facing fear (including fears about identity, agency, and fear itself), and dealing with mistakes, even our most horrible ones.
4/ Being a child of this many years of special effects and in particular CGI, I can no longer be in awe of a power-set. Following from this, I am no longer interested in the level of power-set consistency. The text of the movie leaves some good answers for why the power-sets jump, but it really doesn't matter. Movies aren't consistent: Plot armor is a given in all modern action cinema, and you only have to a few episodes of Cinema Sins before you see how hallow these types of notes are. If you want consistency, study engineering, or consider reading Hard science fiction.
