Extraordinary! What movie were you 1 stars watching?!?!

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2017)

(Extremely light spoilers ahead)
I've been a Star Wars fan since I was a little kid growing up in the 70s/80s. I was lucky enough to have a ridiculous number of Star Wars toys when I was a kid, and I remember actually crying tears of joy when my long backordered Wicket the Ewok action figure finally showed up in the mail one day. I've owned the original trilogy on every format from VHS to DVD with Laserdisc thrown in for good measure (Star Wars: The Definitive Collection, an insane $250 for 9 discs and a book when it came out in 1994 - and worth every damn penny!). I have literally thousands of dollars worth of Lego Star Wars UCS sets in my home office - including a UCS Millennium Falcon I pieced together myself which, truth be told, may be my most prized possession in the world. I gained (lost?) the respect of my wife when she found an old Star Wars trivia book and I was able to answer every question about Ep. 4 she threw at me. I even interned at Lucasfilm back in the '90s and spent a summer working on Skywalker Ranch - which was every bit as awesome as you would imagine.
Suffice it to say, I like Star Wars.
And with those as my Star Wars bona fides, let me tell you I absolutely adored The Last Jedi.
I'm not going to go into plot points since those are well covered other places, but I just wanted to hit on the feeling. For the third year in a row, the entire family went to the theater, spent a ridiculous amount of money, and sat down to bask in the glow of a new Star Wars movie. We loved every minute of it, especially my 9 year old son. We laughed when Luke brushed off his shoulder, we were astounded at the Rey / Kylo Ren / Snoke guard battle (and all of the other amazing set pieces), and we teared up in the appropriate places. It was fun and funny, thrilling and enthralling, exciting and scary. We got to spend time with old and new friends and loved getting to do it. It was everything I could want from a movie, let alone a Star Wars movie.
Could I nitpick? Sure, but I'm not going to. What's the point? I don't know what the Force is capable of any more than anyone else. Our entire audience - us included - cheered and clapped throughout the movie and especially at the end. We had a rollicking good time and I can't wait to go back and see it again. We talked about it the rest of the day.
For those who feel personally slighted somehow by this movie, I'm both surprised and saddened. This Star Wars fan thinks it's not just a worthy entry into the canon but one of the very best. Go in with an open mind and prepared to be entertained and enthralled.