Fans will enjoy seeing the gang getting together again like this. But to find Palpatine, Rey and the boys first have to find a pyramid-shaped trinket. And to find the trinket they first have to find a special dagger. And to translate the inscription on the dagger they have to find a particular mechanic, Poe. It’s a video-game plot so contrived and ultimately pointless that George Lucas would have scrapped it when he was making his prequel trilogy. But perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Abrams and his co-writers have abandoned plotting altogether; all they’re interested in is stuffing their film with recognisably Star Wars-y material for two-and-a-bit hours. Remember how the original trilogy had a cute small robot called R2-D2, and so the new trilogy introduced a cuter and smaller robot called BB-8? Well, The Rise of Skywalker introduces another even cuter and even smaller robot, raising the question just how cute and small the sidekicks will be when Disney launches another Star Wars trilogy in a few years from now.

The film has so many different characters and worlds squeezed into it that none of them has time to make an impact. As gratifying as it is to see Richard E Grant striding along shiny corridors as a villain named General Pryde, he isn’t given any personality traits except the ‘pride’ in his name, and I’m not even sure about that. In place of memorable, distinctive moments, The Rise of Skywalker fobs us off with familiar ones. Here’s yet another desert planet; yet another planet being blown up; yet another lightsaber duel; yet another dogfight between a swarm of TIE Fighters and X-Wing Fighters. And here is yet more Harry Potter-ish mythology about the Jedi and the Sith, and yet more tiresome emphasis on which character is related to which other character. This fan service all leads to the supremely uncompelling issue of whether Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Palpatine can tempt Rey to embrace the Dark Side of the Force. Well, what do you think? Anyone who has seen Return of the Jedi will know exactly what’s going to happen because they’ve seen it happen before.

Having said all that, the film is well acted, it looks so good that there is bound to be a fabulous tie-in coffee-table book of concept art, and it has a positive message about never giving up hope. But the main feeling it instils in the viewer is a renewed respect for the imagination of Lucas. The Rise of Skywalker has been lovingly crafted by a host of talented people, and yet the best they can do is pay tribute to everything he did several decades ago.

★★★☆☆

Love film? Join BBC Culture Film Club on Facebook, a community for film fanatics all over the world.

If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.