Went Places Die-Hard Fans Didn't Want To Go

Rating: 8/10 (18 September 2018)

After seeing The Last Jedi for a 3rd time I believe I can finally give my honest opinion what I believe to be one of the best Star Wars movies in general and my score 8/10 is based on that.
I am a Star Wars fan ever since I was 12 or 13 and watched the old Trilogy in the late 90's. As a kid you just can't help but falling in love with the Star Wars universe because in its core it's still a children's fairy tale. Kids just love the young prince to be (Luke), the warrior and politician princess (Leia) and naturally, the likable looks bad but is actually good thief (Han Solo) and the scary and cool Darth Vader.
Then I grew up waiting for the Prequels where Lucas actually wanted to do a real movie, where the characters went through trauma and actually looked scarred by events (unlike Leia which got her whole PLANET BLOWN UP and shrugged it off really easy, not to mention kissing her brother and stuff). There was never real character development apart from Vader/Luke and in general the characters didn't react naturally to emotions, but that was partly because THEY WERE POOR ACTORS! The only real actor out there was Sir Alec Guinness and it showed by a mile, but in all fairness, Lucas's Days of Our Lives kinda dialogue for every emotional scene which felt fake and just out of place.
So, the Prequels tried to be a much more serious movie which dwells on Politics, Espionage, Revenge and Friendship and after all these years, I still believe the Prequels to be superior to the original Trilogy which only had The Empire Strikes Back as a really outstanding feature and still perhaps the best Star Wars film to date. The only real problem with the Prequels was that Lucas never learned how to write better dialogue and we were stuck with much better actors who were fed awful and cheesy lines.
The Force Awakens had just too much to do and did it quite well as a Intro film with its major flaw being just too darn similar to A New Hope. At times even a blatant copy.
So now, Disney was faced with a choice, either to continue playing it safe with the next installment or try to take it a step further and actually focus much more on the new characters and their development instead of the ones from the Original Trilogy. For what its worth it worked great for me.
I'm not saying The Last Jedi doesn't have flaws like the too many gags, or the way Kylo turned on Luke or the almost entirely RESHOT Casino Planet part (yes, that was really not what was originally planned and you can tell).
Where it got things right is first and most of all REAL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND REACTIONS. Luke, Leia, Rey, Poe and Kylo developed into their own characters and it felt a seamless transition. Absolutely loved and support how Luke was portrayed and his line of thought, and that scene with Yoda was a master-stroke! Kylo and Rey or Reylo as the Internet now calls it really makes sense once you think about it and whoever thinks Snoke death was poor really needs to take another look at how the Emperor died in Episode VI. Snoke's absolute faith in his abilities and that all fear him led him to become way too overconfident and Kylo got the better of him at the right moment but producing a line of thought that actually fooled his master, because he wanted to hear exactly that only he didn't know it wasn't about Rey, but HIMSELF.
Luke's logic makes sense as he is left alone and knows a Single Jedi, no matter how good he is, can't take on the ENTIRE FIRST ORDER + Snoke and Kylo, even with Rey's help. So he plunged into despair and saw the Jedi for what they really are, an interpretation of how the Force should work and a selfish one indeed. Having been betrayed by his teachings and pupils Luke lost hope as he knew there was nothing he could do. But he saw how he could still be useful and most of all inspirational! The entire First Order + Rebels SAW that Luke Skywalker couldn't be killed by Blasters, Robots, Tanks and Kyle himself, that alone was worth far more to the rebellion than him actually raising his lightsaber and charging against them. In general, if you think about it, Luke is and has always been a pacifist.
The bottom line is that, Die-Hard fans don't care about the new characters! They just want Han, Luke and Leia to ride into the sunset together with the new cast just there to play second fiddle and get passed the torch in the end, but was just too predictable, childish and not taking the franchise forward. Rian Johnson saw past that and actually did. I know you may not like it, but I do and I am also a Huge Star Wars fan, so some of us, wanted something else, and Rian did great.
I am not thrilled to see J.J. directing the last installment because this means Disney is probably playing it safe now and we are back in fairy tale land, but I am still holding on to the hope that the final installment can make Poe, Finn, Kylo and Rey as Iconic sa Luke, Leia, Han and Vader were in the OT.