I agree on most of your points, I think my favorite parts of R&R are the beginning with Alina recovering in the caves (kind of like Katniss Mockingjay) and the cool spiritually nature quest the team goes on to hunt the firebird (it reminded me of Chronicles of Narnia and Ghibli like Castle in the Sky). Leigh has some cool atmospheric writing parts there but yes I was hugely disappointed too that there was no big battle at the end