Beautiful, Unpredictable, Exactly What We Need

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2017)

A beautiful continuation of the Star Wars saga.
Where Episode VII introduces us to the new trio who will be front and center throughout the new trilogy, it is Episode VIII that shows us who they really are. Each character is tested throughout the full length of the film, not only against their enemies in the First Order but, more essentially, against their own flaws and misgivings. We experience these trying moments alongside our newest and oldest heroes and the fascination we learned in Episode VII gives way to real love. As someone dear to me said, it is a movie about meeting our flaws and failures with courage.
Almost as critically, Episode VIII upends the questions Episode VII left us with and it does so by providing us with the answers we need, if not the answers some may want. This movie is nothing but answers earned after hard exploration and so the only question it leaves us with is "What happens next?" Which is, in a time where predictable twists whose sole purpose is to pander to an audience raised on having their most shallow theories held up as equal to actual creative work, exactly the question a story of this calibre should be leaving us with. It tells us everything and leaves us knowing nothing, with the promise of more to come.
Episode VII was a good Star Wars movie, truly a good one, but Episode VIII is the first truly great Star Wars film in a long time.