One day you'll realise The Last Jedi is one of the good ones..

Rating: 10/10 (23 October 2019)

...Or one of the best ones. Please allow me to explain why.
The first Star Wars saga is famously based on western movies and classic tropes: Han is the impulsive, lonely cowboy who tends to solve his problems by shooting at them (Han shot first!) without much consideration about the consequences; Luke is the naive nobody who finds himself on the adventure he always desired only to find out it's not what he thought it would be, for better or worse, and he will never be the same; he also is the moral compass of the story and he will always come to save his friends and do the right thing. What about Leia? We know she's the fierce leader of the resistance, only in the movies we mostly see her needing to be rescued from this or that peril. She is objectively the damsel in distress and the potential love interest for both our male characters, nothing more. Sounds about right?
Wonder why growing up I could never identify with any female characters in fantasy movies? The never ending story? No, the empress needs saving. Back to the future? Nope, Jennifer needs saving. She is also unconscious most of the time. Indiana Jones? The main protagonist is in the title, women need saving or they're traitors. Or both. And the list goes on.
We finally get to this new trilogy. JJ Abrams is a decent director but he's not very innovative, he operates on nostalgia. Look at Super 8 and Star Trek. He got to reignite the spark after the prequels, I'll give you that, but he changed the characters' names and kept pretty much the same equation: Poe is like Han, brave, always on the frontline, guns at hand. He switched things with Rey, like Luke she's the one with the force and comes apparently from nothing (with the hint of coming from more, like Dart Vader) and Finn is a nuanced rebel trying to find his place. Who they are got switched but what they do stayed the same to the original trilogy, Rey still needs saving, even if we get her to fight the final battle with Kylo Ren. Hey, it's 2019.
If you considered the macro plot of the Force awakens you still get "A New Hope"... oh my god, they even have to destroy a Death Star-type of weapon.
We are now arrived to The Last Jedi, thank you if you are still with me. So far we had epic battles with countless losses on both sides, but have you ever felt it? What do you think when x wing pilots keep dying before Luke arrives to destroy the Death Star? Nothing. You feel nothing. So when the movie opens we find Poe yet again ready to go all in, guns blazing and destroy the enemy ships no matter the consequences. This is his character core. Except this time you see the consequences of his choices and understand it's not always the right call. This time his arch is to shed his space cowboy persona and understand that sometimes you have to see the bigger picture, think about others and trust the line of command, they might be operating on everyone's best interests, and he shouldn't be so presumptuous as to be always in the loop, he has, simply put, to know his place and play his part in the resistance, if he wants to be part of it. The core of Finn's arch has always been his struggle to detach himself from the storm trooper he was and fight against his past life and not simply flee. You'd expect him to embrace this role in the end even if it costs his life. There's a much more interesting third way, though. He can learn to fight and not lose himself, assuming the moral values of fighting for what he loves and not dying for what he hates. These moral values come from Rose, she is the moral compass this time (everyone dislikes her, but I sense it's more because she's a woman than anything else, righteous women are petulant, men are just). That's why the major detour from the main plot exists. I agree that it changes the pace greatly, but it's essential nonetheless. Without it Finn would only act to protect Rey or run away. Without it Poe would always think his decisions are better than others'. (Besides, I don't get why the cantina scene it's funny but here it's ridiculous.)
And we finally arrive to Rey and Luke's arches. The Jedi. I don't know where the regular fanboys got that Jedi should be without fault, sure it says so in the code, but if you consider the story so far the path of a Jedi is the opposite, really. If you don't die you either fall to the dark side or end up a kooky hermit like Obi-Wan or Yoda. Why Luke should be any different? Sure he had great potential, but there's a far better story in a man that wasted his best years and manages to come back to himself and the force. History is full of people who once showed great promises only to amount to nothing. Why is so unthinkable to people? Does he always have to be in the right? The righteous one? Oh, it's fine when is he and god forbid he strains from the path you all think he belongs to, but when Rey and Rose share similar traits they're insufferable Mary Sues.
Finally we have strong female characters who are agents of their destinies and the destiny of others. I'm so glad there are finally little girls who will have the chance to see themselves in them, to play with and love their characters. And I'm glad we finally get to see Leia use the force! Even if it's a sliver of what her trained brother has shown. Leia and Luke are siblings, why should we be seeing the force only manifest in Luke?!?!
There's no telling where JJ Abrams will take us next, but I think Rian Johnson was leading Rey to new grounds, the dichotomy between good and evil and black and white of the Jedi moral code has to pass. That doesn't mean choosing to side with Kylo Ren, she still chooses good. I mean the stoic path of the detached, emotionless Jedi. It doesn't work, history proved it again and again. Again Johnson broke from tradition the smart way. Finally I love that Rey's parents are nobodies, just like the kid with the broom at the end it's showing generations of Star Wars fans that anyone can be special, that can be a hero, not because it's in your blood, but because you choose to, and you too, through trials and errors, can become one.
The only time I think he purposely defied fans' expectations was with Snoke.
Frankly I'm thankful for it; if he turned out to be exactly who everyone was expecting, the story would again feel trite, you exactly would know what to expect from the third final film and this second one would have just been a link between The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker.
No, the task of The Last Jedi was to defy expectations and bring us to uncharted territories for the first time ever, you had to sense it when you saw that giant spaceship in a cloud of steam, only it was just an iron.