The Force does not belong to you

Rating: 9/10 (28 December 2017)

Return of the Jedi was the very first movie I saw in a theater and while starting at the (at that time) end may have not been the best start, what is really? Every Star Wars movie can be somebody's first Star Wars movie. Since very little was accomplished in The Force Awakens other than introducing a few new characters, The Last Jedi proves itself in numerous ways to be the actual sequel to Return of the Jedi.
Since release, I have seen The Last Jedi five times. It gets better with every viewing. Characters feel better fleshed out, ideas are significantly bigger and deeper than anything in The Force Awakens or the Prequels and there's a far bigger personal stamp on the film from the director than anything since Empire for me. It wasn't a big surprise to see the "blow back" from some people who didn't like the film as it wouldn't be a true Star Wars film without fan reprisals against a Star Wars film.
If you think the Last Jedi, the Prequels or Return of the Jedi ruined your childhood - because in 40 years I've heard all of that, go make your own movie. That's exactly how Star Wars came about in the first place. Star Wars may live in your imagination, but it doesn't belong to you. And if you can't cope with the reality on film after 34 years of waiting I have nothing for you. Nothing made me happier than Rian Johnson trashing J.J. Abrams hollow mysteries, copy-cat characters and dead end narratives he made a career doing since Alias, Lost, Star Trek and Super 8 all the way into the Force Awakens (which is a dead in the water remake), in favor of something more original and nuanced. If you don't like it, you should just go make your own movies. That's exactly what George Lucas did when he realized HIS Flash Gordon couldn't be made - he went off and made Star Wars instead.
In his own words:

"I realized that Flash Gordon is like anything you do that is established," he says. "That is, you start out being faithful to the original material, but eventually it gets in the way of the creativity. I realized that Flash Gordon wasn't the movie I wanted to do; if I had done it, I would've had to have Ming the Merciless in it-and I didn't want to have Ming the Merciless. I decided at that point to do something more original. I knew I could do something totally new. I wanted to take ancient mythological motifs and update them-I wanted to have something totally free and fun, the way I remembered space fantasy."
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Excerpt From: J.W. Rinzler & Peter Jackson. "The Making of Star Wars (Enhanced Edition)."