Don't Let The Naysayers Fool You - The Last Jedi Is Outstanding!

Rating: 7/10 (17 December 2017)

The ONLY Star Wars movie that is pretty much above or beyond criticism is The Empire Strikes Back. Other than that, they are ALL flawed in one way or another. The original Star Wars being the least flawed (as in almost not at all, but still a little flawed with some stiff, stilted dialogue and a really whiny, annoying lead character).
But The Last Jedi improves on The Force Awakens in a lot of areas. Finn and Poe are much better developed as characters this time around. Poe has a personal struggle to deal with (to blindly follow orders or to do what he believes is right), while Finn is much less of the stereotypical black comic relief character and has some legitimate personal drama and carries a little more gravitas this time around.
Luke is still Luke. A lot of people forget how whiny and impulsive and UNWISE he was in the first two movies. Guess what, like a real person, even though he is older, has more knowledge (and is far more powerful in the force) he is still unwise. He is still wrong about some things. And the nicest touch is that it is yet again Yoda who splashes some cold water in his face and show him how and why he is so wrong.
And Kylo Ren is far less whiny than he was in The Force Awakens. Hell, his goal isn't all that bad - it's just his methods towards achieving that goal that are completely unacceptable.
For those who say that, "Well, the First Order ships could just jump into light speed for a second to get into weapons range." Guess what? Light speed doesn't work that way. A second at light speed would put them far ahead of those they are trying to catch.
Rian Johnson and the writers avoid the completely laughable physics that J.J. Abrams put in The Force Awakens (newsflash, a blast from the Starkiller Base would take at least days, if not weeks or months to hit it's intended targets, and you wouldn't be able to see a planet blowing up from another star system the way Abrams showed it - but then he showed his blatant disregard for science with his Star Trek movies, too).
The Last Jedi is fun. It's wildly entertaining. And it is a distinct improvement over the previous movie (which was still a really good movie, despite it's flaws).