Ranks Up There With 4, 5, and 6.

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2017)

No, it wasn't perfect, but I have to give it ten stars. At this point, I think it's impossible to make a Star Wars movie that doesn't have a few flaws. When I saw the initial corny exchange between Poe and the red-haired general, my expectations tanked. But then so much of the movie was good, the corny parts were few enough, that I really, really enjoyed it and want to see it again. In fact, I think it stacks up with the original trilogy, and that's the most important part. Plus, hey, no spending one third of the movie with the Ewoks, am I right?
What I really liked about it:
* Luke - He was always a pure and perfect character, and I never expected him to have any flaws. I thought he was going to play the exact role to Rey that Yoda played to him on Dagobah. Instead, they made Rey a stronger character, and made Luke weak, though short of being a badguy.
* The communication between the Jedis to the point where things can materialize on the other end. - This is an expansion of the Jedi power, very psychological, but not involving gratuitous action, or hokey pseudo-explanation like the mitochlorians.
* The heroes don't always win. - Poe's plan fails. The conflict between him and the older female general was interesting. Yes, it was a slightly contrived conflict between two archetypes - the man of action versus the wise woman. But it was interesting nevertheless, and I think it worked pretty well.
* The scene with Snoke (what's his name again? Snoop, Snork?) and Rey and Kylo-Ren. Very well acted on everybody's part. I wasn't expecting it to resolve the way it did. I actually thought Kylo-Ren was going to kill himself (obviously Rey wasn't going to get killed). I just thought Snoke was going to survive until the third movie, and I guess I liked him more than Kylo-Ren (who was pretty annoying especially in Episode 7). I think what would've been really interesting at that point would have been for Rey to agree to rule the First Order with Kylo-Ren (in an effort to win him over to the Light). That would have made for a very interesting, different, political third movie. Also, I have to add, I really liked Snoke. The fact that they don't really explain him makes him more sinister, more of a primordial force, like Cthulhu.
* The movie teasing you with Rey's parents. - They kept bringing it up and teasing the audience with it. It's a testament to the series that so much suspense can be built with a trivial MacGuffin like that. They kept dangling it over your head, and, to me, there was only one logical thing it could be. I mean, obviously Kylo-Ren and Rey weren't brother and sister. But Rey is more powerful than Kylo-Ren, way more powerful. So I started thinking they were going to say Luke and Leia were the parents. But then, I thought, this is a Disney movie, they're not going to say that! Maybe Luke and Leia weren't actually brother and sister? Then who? Yoda? I think the way they handled it was really good, instead of having her materialize from the Force.
* The fact that there was not that much action. - In a time where special effects dominate, and character actors like you saw in the seventies are going the way of the dodo, it was refreshing to see less action and more dialogue and more tension.
* To conclude, I would rank it up there with 4, 5, and 6. It's hard to order them from best to worst, because sometimes you remember the best part from one movie, and that makes it seem like the best. Then you remember a flaw like the Ewoks in Episode 6, or the primitive special effects in Episode 4, and the movie seems worse.