If you hated it, go see it again. Best since Empire.

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2017)

This is the best Star Wars movie since Empire, if not since 1977. The haters are just wrong - they got turned off by opening 90 seconds of admittedly not very good jokes, which I think jolted them out of the heart-felt brilliance of the remaining 150 minutes. I spent the second half of the movie either in a mess of tears at seeing old friends reunite and rediscover their heroic resolve or mentally punching the air with cathartic joy as Rian Johnson bought together epic visual (and vehicle) design, heroic self-sacrifice, and the most successful evocation of that 'Star Wars' vibe since the 80s (spoilers>): ramming the Snoke ship at light speed, the heroic lone bomber fighter in the opening battle, the falcon intervening in the Crait battle, those speeders, all of Mark Hamill (but in particular his emotionally devastating and surprisingly athletic final lightsabre showdown with Kylo Ren - the power of this duel is quite subtle and will take a second watch to sink in), fleets of ships desperately warping through the galaxy under imperial onslaught.
I even loved the middle section: my favourite childhood movie franchise showing some moral heart by raising a wish-fulfilling middle finger to the 1%, which is a really on point message during a time of shameless inequality. Full marks for Johnson for writing it into the film. Full marks also for killing off Phasma ('You're Scum! Yeah, but rebel scum' - freaking epic line!) and Snoke (what is with that terrible name), who were dead weight on the series and their absence sets up episode 9 a much cleaner Good vs. Evil final confrontation.
The humour was laugh out loud: BB8's impersonation of a mouse droid, C3P0 not being allowed to finish calculating the odds of survival, Finn playing up his 'resistance hero' status, Rey 'reaching out', Yoda rediscovering his original playful teaching methods, Luke's 'not-busy schedule'.
Great performances by everyone (Boyega, Ridley, Carrie Tran, Oscar Isaacs all have difficult parts in this film) but Hamill and Fisher steal it, with Fisher seeming much more on her game than in TFA. But this is Hamill's movie - he is oscar worthy (best supporting, plz), successfully conveying a heartbroken former warrior whose heroic spirit is re-awoken in time for a final showdown, and he even resurrected some youthful attitude, spirit and cunning in his performance.
If you hated it I challenge you to go back and see it again and forget about the opening minutes - I'm confident the star wars joy will sink in over time. Empire was pretty bad in places but is overall amazing (we seem to always forget about C3PO's constant whining, the stupidly repeated 'the hyperdrive is broken again' plotting, the boring parts of Cloud city). I love this movie.