Loved it

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2019)

For the record I've been a life long sw fan, was involved in a fan movie (the empire strikes backyard - YouTube) and hated tfa and tlj. This was the first sw film for twenty years I didn't see at 00:01 on the day of release, so disenchanted was I with both its lazy, pc predecessors.
So I turned up at the theatre today with zero expectation and little optimism.
I was wrong.
This film was fantastic. I found it an emotional sledgehammer. Sure, there were clunky bits, but for the first time in this trilogy, the gravitas of its history was acknowledged, respected and added too.
It also gave the proverbial two fingers to tlj but also, poignantly and delicately to fan boys like me in its final scene, when it teased us over our surety about the trilogies' characters, their beginnings and their destinies.
I rank the two predecessors bottom of all sw films, yet I rate this at number 3, after tesb, and anh.
Yes it was silly, and clunky occasionally. But it remembered that Star Wars was always about characters, not technology. And most importantly it gave this trilogy heart. I'd go as far to say, it made tfa, and tlj better. And in that, for this life long sw geek, it saved star wars as a concept.
I am at one with the force, and the force is with me.