I gave this a 4/10 yesterday...

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2019)

But had to come back to revise and eat some crow.
I saw this a second time today, and tried to go in with the same outlook and total lack of any expectations that I did when I saw the original trilogy starting with the first when I was 7 years old.
This time I remembered that these movies were never meant to rise to the level of great cinema, and are essentially movies for kids, and always have been. With that in mind, I let go of what I wanted, an intricate or complex plot, deep and delved into relationships, and just let the space operas that they wash over me.
What a difference a day, and taking some good advice from positive reviewers here at IMDb can make. I went from disappointed, maybe bitter, to realizing I'm the 49 year-old geek wanting the same feeling I got when I was a kid, and blaming a great movie full of fluffy, but wonderful, fun that I couldn't recapture my youth. Just because this is the last of this particular saga the expectations I put on it were ridiculous, and re-reading my review from yesterday I realized I sounded like an older and more jaded Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons", "Worst. Star Wars Film. Ever."
Thanks to the reviews here that encouraged those of us who hated this movie to go give it another try without being so close-minded or worrying about things like proper amounts of fan-service... did I care or think about "fan-service" with the original trilogy, lol, which is where my love for Star Wars originated? Well, of course not, and neither did anyone else. I re-watched TLJ as well before catching a matinee and absolutely loved it this time, and to me at least, this is now my favourite of all the Star Wars films after Empire, and TLJ to me ranks above TROTJ as well.
Once I let go of my expectations and let the suspension of disbelief wash over me the rest fell into place and really did ironically bring me back to that childhood feeling that I was bitter about not being able to capture yesterday. Funny how that works! I may have to even give that last season of GoTs another watch, haha. I bet in a decade this whole sequel trilogy will be very loved by a new generation the way mine loves the original (and I think everyone can agree tos just forget about Lucas' prequels, oy yoy yoy, unless it's to check ourselves lest wishing George had anything to do with this one or it's sequel-mates before we check ourselves and remember what a mess those were).