a welcome return to the thematically challenging and irrevocable story turns of the original trilogy

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2017)

The Last Jedi is easily my favorite Star Wars film outside of the original trilogy (I'm a huge OT fan). When I saw the disparity between the glowing professional reviews and the damning fan reviews I expected to side with those who hated the film but in the end I thought the good FAR outweighed the bad. Yes, it suffered from lots of cringe inducing over-the-top moments, some generic Marvel-esque production values at points, and 45 minutes of distracting subplot, but it's core (the other 105 minutes which contained the major plot points) was magic, the simple and elegant story of Luke Skywalker and his two students, one representing momentous regrets and the other representing the possibility of redemption.
A note about the depth of some people's dislike for this film:
I hope that some of those who hated The Last Jedi are not so much reacting to the film's level of quality (though it's deeply imperfect) but more going through the stages of loss that the story itself intentionally and rightfully engenders: denial, anger, grief etc, and that some of these fans will end up changing their minds and having the deepest and most hard-won connection with this film (much the way I hated Return of the King at first for having Bilbo go senile and then later loved it as one of the few tales that recognizes and affirms the depth of life's imperfection). Sadly it's hard for stories that require long processing like this, to even exist in an age of test audiences and instant social media feedback. At any rate my fear is that from now on sequels might be dictated by the internet mob and that will be lame.
So yeah, story-wise, The Last Jedi returned to the irrevocably forward moving and self questioning spirit of the original trilogy but in order to do so, it had to decisively depart from the spirit of both the prequels and The Force Awakens and I understand why that may have alienated some fans. I also understand why some would interpret the film's philosophical questioning of Star Wars past as SJW cultural vandalism given the deep tribal distrust that characterizes this decade (in 2017 when a character is tragically humbled we tend to take that as an attack on the character's demographic group rather than a statement about the human condition). But personally I thought the film's self questioning was very much in the spirit of the original trilogy and of good drama in general. It didn't ignore, undermine, or mock the message of earlier Star Wars films, it took it seriously and showed another side which makes Star Wars more whole.
Some notes on me so you'll know whether my taste is relevant to your own:
As I mentioned I'm a HUGE fan of the original trilogy. and I've been disappointed buy every single Star Wars movie since then. My other favorite movies are Andrei Rublev, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2001, Gummo, Back to the Future, and Gimme Shelter (the Stones documentary).