Honestly, the Palpantine and Rey Palpantine reveals were very true to pulpy comics and short stories of the 1940s through 1960s.

It’s not so much these elements that drag the film down. It’s moreso that along with those elements there’s a total lack of cool factor and foreboding. Like why did they skim over the KoR fight with Kylo and Rey vs the Sith guards. Ochi and the opening stuff with Kylo needed more screen time. Most of time is wasted on false flag threats (Chewies “death”) and predigested motivational/friendship speaches/dialogs and flat/clean jokes. Those are what needs to go, really. I want a The Rise of PALPANTINE edit with a slightly less cheerful/quippy tone. Trim a good chunk of the generic rebel vs FO action too as it really caries no weight or novelty.