A worthy ending. Well done.

Rating: 9/10 (12 November 2019)

I think you can't really say this was ended poorly, and its quite the feat to end (the trilogy) such a franchise. And it definitely got me emotional during the ending celebratory festivities. An extremely well done story, with beautifully done characters and in a fantastic fantasy rich world with a exceptional score. What more can you ask for? Harry Potter and Star Wars are the only two franchises in the world that have had such a strong influence, and they deserve it.
Now about this movie, now having completed my Star Wars watching journey, viewing all films from 1-6 as an adult, and not just childhood memories (primarily the prequels) I can definitely see that this movie showed a lot more of George Lucas's more ''out there'' ideas and decisions. From Chewbacca yelling the Tarzan call out to the super cute Ewoks. Compared to the previous movies this one felt a lot more ''prequel'' than the others as weird as that sounds.
Is that bad? Not really, perhaps having seen the prequels its a little less jarring, but I still found these elements to be enjoyable (albeit the Tarzan yell was a bit of an eye roll).
First this movie starts off in jabba's palace and I love that entire sequence, such a fun starter and with some nice twists to get everyone together again. Boba's demise was a bit awkward I think could've been handled more elegantly because he had quite a significant role in both films (mostly in the ROTJ). Him just rolling in the sarlacc pit was..eh. And this is honestly where another critique of my lays, Palpatine's death was incredibly underwhelming in my opinion, Vader just throws him into another endless pit (they should stop building those ;). Ofcourse before the prequels Palpatine had very little screen time so I guess they didn't care to give him a longer death scene.
Another thing I had with this movie that I felt that it moved a bit slow around the midsection, before/during the ewok scenes. The other 2 films never had a real slow moment in them for me, the witty dialog would keep me busy or something else. In this movie I also found myself laughing a lot less and not enjoying the dialog as much, there are some odd scenes where characters feel a bit robotic. A notable one for was where Han and Lando say goodbye and Han lets Lando use his MF to attack the new death star. The dialog there felt edited oddly and very wooden.
The directing was fine, I wasn't as amazed by the cinematography in this movie, I still think ANH has the best cinematography of the prequels and sequels.
Also, I loved the twist of the death star actually being operational, did not see that coming. Too bad they only use it once though and is never really seen being used again.
The fight between Luke and Vader when luke comes out of the shadows is amazing, the soundtrack there and how its shot gave me goosebumps, my favorite scene of the film, the entire confrontation with Vader and Luke are my favorite parts really.
Now what about the Ewoks? I loved them, I mean.. I succumbed to the cuteness of them, so that wasn't the issue, but fact like I mentioned before is that they should've shortened the Ewok sections a lot more. Also now that I remember it, the speeder section suffered from the same issue of just dragging on for a little too long.
All in all, I finished my journey watching all Star Wars movies and am super happy with how I feel about them, I was afraid I'd hate the prequels, and be overhyped for the OT.. But both of that didn't happen. Did the prequels have issues, yes.. a lot, were they still extremely enjoyable though, yes! Moving on to the OT from them just elevates that with better characters and better writing! If the OT has one thing its actor synergy/compatibility, thet mesh so well together and it just feels real.
My full rating for all six movies go like this:
1: 7.5
2: 6
3: 8
4: 10
5: 9
6: 9

For the sequels.. I fill need to see the finale for that but I don't think it will top either the OT or Prequels for me.
SIDENOTE: Regarding the OT I watched the 2011 editions, with added CGI and slightly edited scenes. Some added CGI was a little too much, especially the stuff on Tatooine, but regarding the rest I felt perfectly fine with it. I think it helped watching 1-6 in order because you are already adjusted to the standard of CGI in the prequels, thus there isn't really a visible transition to the CGI in the OT.
I definitely think some edits were needed and really good as well though compared to the original versions.