I must have been watching a different film.

Rating: 8/10 (30 December 2017)

It's easy to forget that in 1977, Star Wars introduced all sorts of unusual elements and packaged them into an accessible mainstream film. Religion, mysticism, beliefs, strong female characters, banter, humour, flawed characters, failure, the unknown, the unexplained. It deliberately didn't explain everything and it deliberately confounded expectation.
It's pretty depressing seeing the ranks of one star reviews here. It's unusual for so many people to miss so much.
The Last Jedi definately isn't is a one star film.
It is also definately not worse than the Phantom Menace, which itself has some good moments.
I think what people don't like about the last Jedi is that things they wanted to hear explained were not. The film is also quite unusual in its angle, tone and approach.
The Jedi order was critically deconstructed for our viewing pleasure.
There were strong female characters throughout, who did not give or get answers, but carried on anyway.
Some strong male leads were emasculated for our viewing pleasure!
At first I thought the Canto Bight sidetrack was a mistake, but actually, maybe it wasn't.....
There were some bravely intimate and weirdly mystical scenes. Rey in the cave was amazing- a bit of Ingmar Bergman creeping in.
The close up face shots were really compelling. I haven't seen a mainstream film recently where an actor has to face act in close up for extended periods (Ridley and Driver manage this really well). Again, it was like Ingmar Bergman!
In fact, the film is unusual in that a strange surreal atmosphere hung over it, almost building to unexplained foreboding.
Kylo Ren was amazing, especially with Snope gaslighting him to make him more angry, just as Rey discovered more by Skywalker refusing to engage with her.
The scene where Ren focuses everything on Skywalker, like a furious Don Quixote trying to attack a windmill is memorable.
There were certainly a few tense Serge Leone stand offs in the film. The Rey / Ren fight scene is probably the most intense in the Star Wars series.
All the time, the rule book was being torn up. Often, we were made to laugh at the points where the rule book went up in smoke (in one case literally).
I was really happy with this film, I think it went back to the fact that we have forgotten that the original Star Wars was weird, intense, unsettling,unusual and original- unlike anything else that came before.
As far as I am concerned, Episode 7 was back to basics and getting us back on track. Rogue One began to blow the dust off the franchise, and Episode 8 has continued with this and thrown everything up in the air.
And yes. There are clearly alot of people who don't get it. And it's all the better for that. Because, as hinted at in the film, there will be kids who watch, who will get it and will be blown away, like when the original was released.