Wonderful and Refreshing

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2017)

I've seen it twice now. And I love it.
When it came out two years ago, The Force Awakens felt a little too familiar. It had ANOTHER Death Star (by another name, bigger and even more deadly, but still...yawn...) It didn't explain why the winners of Episode 6 are somehow still the underdogs in a fight against the New Order. It gave us some great moments but didn't feel like it made the universe any bigger than it used to be. However, it revived that old Star Wars feeling and introduced us to some wonderful new characters, especially a complex, conflicted villain named Kylo Ren.
The Last Jedi now takes those characters -- and the old ones that are left -- to new places. It builds on the mythology of the old movies (not the legacy books) and asks exciting new questions about it.
SPOILERS ahead:
I love that Rey comes from nothing. That means that a force user doesn't have to have a pedigree. It means that if someone were to snuff out all the Skywalkers, Palpatines and Kenobis in the universe, new force users can still be born.
Snoke was boring, so it's just as well that he's gone. That sets up Kylo Ren as the main opponent for Ep9 from the start.
I love Luke's character arc. He had stopped believing in the Jedi because he felt no one should own the force. Rey wanted to bring him back to the Resistance to give it hope. Instead, she brought him hope. And in the end, his faith is restored and he goes in peace.
I love how the movie undercuts the whole "Ambitious person defies authority and saves the day" trope. Poe, Finn and Rose actually end up harming the resistance with their shenanigans.
I love how, at the end, it's not about the heroes. They are just the catalyst for change, "the spark that lights the fire that defeats the New Order". In the end, the people in the galaxy will have to save themselves. By protecting what they love, not killing what they hate.
I hope, Episode 9 will show us how that happens.