In 2017, the “Star Wars” universe was in a bit of a pickle. Writer/director Rian Johnson decided to put his own stamp on the franchise with “The Last Jedi,” happily dismissing a lot of narrative work created for 2015’s “The Force Awakens.” The picture was successful in a few creative areas, but ended up grossing half of the previous effort’s box office take while weaponizing “Star Wars” fandom, with many feeling he ruined a reasonably good thing started by J.J. Abrams. In a few key ways, Johnson did torpedo promising plot and characters, forcing the next filmmaker in line to rework nearly everything to get the overall arc back on track. Well, Abrams returns to the fold with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” and he’s ready to rebuild what Johnson torn down, putting all his faith in the power of fan service to help reignite brand name excitement. He’s mostly successful with “The Rise of Skywalker,” which is a bit of a mess (understandably), but remains as “Star Wars”-y a movie as possible, bursting with droid, aliens, lightsabers, heroes, villains, and old friends to send the Skywalker Saga off with a…well, less of a pronounced limp than expected. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com