Masterful; 2nd time's the charm.

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2017)

2 weeks ago in a theater not that far away...
I hated TLJ. The reasons seems so ridiculous at this point but a lot of it boiled down to Rey's parents and what became of Luke. I was hurt. I felt betrayed. This was not what I expected. The second time however, those experiences actually fit right into the main themes of the movie and it not only led me to love it, but it elevated it to a level of personal investment I never could've imagined.
With a closer eye and a little more attention (and a lot of complaining for two weeks) the movie actually really did meet all my expectations, just not how I envisioned them. Everyone fails, even our greatest heroes. These are the moments when they become true heroes. Accepting their shortcomings, their failures, their mistakes, and learning from them; growing beyond them. Johnson masterfully manages to balance humor and fun with so much failure and disappointment, that at first it's jarring. Later he summarizes it all beautifully with a scene between Yoda and Luke.
Afterwards, when our heroes begin to look past themselves, their failures, and their expectations, things start to turn around. Our heroes begin to see that moving forward requires them to (sometimes painfully) change or leave behind parts of themselves that seemed so clear and useful before. While our main villain, somewhat ironically, continues to deny this, instead holding on to his pain and feelings of betrayal, and desire for revenge. What he receives for it is only more pain, failure, and betrayal. Ultimately being robbed of his revenge on his uncle and failing to destroy the last vestige of the resistance. While our small but hopeful band of heroes escape to fight another day as new and better people.
All the SW themes are there... Darkness, as Rey explains to Kylo, provided her with no answers, and while she heeds that experience, Ren refuses to hear it. In the end he's left in more pain and alone; no one left to believe in him, no one to guide him, and (probably worst of all for him) no one to love him. Rey on the other hand finds the family she'd been looking for her whole life. For the first time people believe in her, are there to support her, and love her.
I highly recommend watching it back to back with TFA also, they work so well together. I can't wait for Episode IX!