Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has the worst lightsaber battles in the nine-episode saga, and it isn't because of the fight choreography. Star Wars is a massive, galaxy-spanning franchise with dozens of different species, planets, and character archetypes to explore, but one of the biggest draws to the entire universe is undoubtedly how cool lightsabers are. A staple of popular culture for over 40 years, the lightsaber is simply one of the most original and captivating weapons ever introduced in fiction, sizing up next to legends such as Excalibur and Anduril. In-universe, they are weapons of precision and honor, and traditionally identify Force users to anyone with a keen eye.
Being science-fiction/science-fantasy action films, the main Star Wars saga's most exciting parts are the lightsaber battles and how they shape the fate of the wider universe. Fan favorites include Luke's (Mark Hamill) revelatory duel with his father in The Empire Strikes Back, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin's (Hayden Christensen) heart-wrenching battle on Mustafar in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, or even Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Rey's (Daisy Ridley) breathtaking first duel at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In any good action series, the fight sequences should drive the story and give depth to the characters, and Star Wars has traditionally been very good about this.
Except in The Rise of Skywalker, lightsaber battles serve more as mindless spectacle than informative action sequences. While the film was met with a divisive reaction from both fans and critics alike, a point of criticism that hasn't really been harped upon is how the film fails to provide engaging lightsaber duels with proper stakes for its central characters.
At the heart of the Sequel Trilogy is the rivalry and relationship between Kylo Ren and Rey and how it grows and shifts over the course of the three films. At the beginning of The Force Awakens, Rey is a scavenger from the planet Jakku who's desperately searching for some semblance of family and a place in the universe. Kylo Ren, on the other hand, is actively seeking to erase his connection to his family in order to reinvent himself as someone worthy of the dark legacy of his grandfather. At the conclusion of The Force Awakens, their lightsaber battle represents the culmination of their efforts: Rey is able to defeat Kylo because, through her usage of the Force, she has now become a part of something larger, while Kylo loses because he's been internally torn asunder by the murder of his father.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi uses its lightsaber battles sparingly, but to the same effect. Aside from the stunning visuals and impeccable camerawork, the throne room fight between Rey, Kylo, and the Praetorian Guards is integral to the film's narrative because it represents Kylo abandoning the expectations placed on him by Luke and Snoke, and it places a veil over the eyes of Rey and the audience by tricking them into thinking that Kylo is willing to lay down his arms. This is quickly reversed after the fight, shattering Rey's expectations but shifting their relationship into a push/pull of Kylo trying to lure Rey to the Dark Side.
This is arguably the reason for why The Rise of Skywalker's fight sequences fail on a character level. Because Kylo refuses to kill Rey, every conflict between them in the movie is devoid of stakes. The audience knows that Kylo Ren refuses to actually hurt Rey because he wants to entice her into joining him, and the movie makes a point to show us that when Rey does actually wound Kylo, she regrets it and heals him in response. Unlike the previous two films in the Sequel Trilogy, the lightsaber duels in The Rise of Skywalker are ultimately hollow and unimportant because there are no real stakes or consequences within them for the audience to care about.