"Let the past die... Kill it if you have to"

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2017)

When I first left the theater on opening night, I was very mad and confused. I thought, "Was that really a Star Wars Movie, or a parody. " Everything just felt wrong about the movie.
My original score here on imdb was 6/10 stars. I didn't think the movie was awful (I could never give it 1/10), in fact, the visuals were stunning, the music was amazing, and there were several moments where I was on the edge of my seat. The issues I had were the same issues as many of the others who have been reviewing the movie on this site.
"But why are you rating this movie 9/10 stars?" you might be asking me.
The movie took some time for me to digest. It wasn't until I understood the Motif of the movie that I started to understand why Rian Johnson went the direction he did. As Kylo Ren/Ben Solo says twice in the film: "Let the past die, Kill it if you have to."
This is the theme of all the decisions made in and for this movie.
In the movie, we see several characters from the original trilogy die. This is one of the more literal examples of this theme. But the theme also describes the direction of the movie itself. Rian made changes to the traditional Star Wars formula. For example:
-This is the first main series movie that does not feature a lightsaber duel.
-This is the first Star Wars movie to use a flashback as part of the narrative rather than using a force vision.
-This is the first Star Wars movie that doesn't end on a shot of a Skywalker
Rian Johnson is telling us that we need to break out of this mold, because our expectations for what a Star Wars movie should and should not be are limiting what kind of a story Rian, J.J., and anyone else who directs these films, can write.
Finally, we are being told to let go of the Expanded Universe. Ok, this is kind of a stretch, but this is the main reason the movie is getting ratings of 1s and 2s. People are extremely overly religious (for lack of a better word) with Star Wars lore. This is why "The Force Awakens" was not well received by many lifelong fans.
OK, enough of my META review of the movie. What did I like about the movie?
It was fun. After going to see it a second time, I enjoyed the entire thing. I knew what to expect, so the surprises didn't take me away from what was happening.