Second viewing review

Rating: 7/10 (6 July 2018)

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
I had already reviewed TLJ once here but I believe this is one of the few movies that requires another review after a second viewing. First, my score of 7 stands, which will be explained below.
I believe this is the most inconsistent movie in the Star Wars series. While The Force Awakes was a pretty solid 8.5, maybe 8.6 throughout, The Last Jedi moves from points of pure cinematic greatness at a 9.7 to head-slapping "why did they decide that" scores of 4. I've averaged it out to be around a 7. I'll break down everything below.
THE ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC:

The score, the cinematography, and the continued use of practical effects (except Canto Bite, which I'll explain later); I really applaud the use of practical effects in this and Force Awakens after the prequels.

Rian Johnson is a "filmmaker" in the full sense of the word and the callbacks to Kurosawa, among other great filmmakers, is refreshing. Snoke's throne room is still a sight to behold... something easily right out of RAN. The Rashoman "three different perspectives on the same event" flashbacks between Luke and Kylo I felt were a nice touch.

Although I completely hated it at first, I've come to accept and even like Poe's character arc going from a hothead who got reprimanded at every turn to someone who could lead the resistance when, at the very end, Leia says, "What are you waiting for, follow HIM."

There are some visual moments, like Luke's astral projection when standing in front of the First Order's ships and AT-ATs on Crait with the sun, orange and bright and bilnding behind them, that will go down in Star Wars top ten lists as most amazing visuals. Speaking of the astral projection, it was a stroke of genius to make Luke physically look how Kylo remembered, have the old lightsaber Kylo remembered, and also not leave any marks in the salt on the ground.

I can accept Holdo now. This was supposed to be Luke's movie, so Leia had to be gone from the narrative for a little while (the coma) so we could focus on Luke. But they still wanted a strong female leader. So Johnson wrote General Holdo, (as very feminine, from clothing to demeanor). But she's still a general. I get that and I kind of like it. It's kind of a nice new take on masculine leadership. No, her sacrifice at the end isn't as shocking as if it were Leia, but this wasn't supposed to be Leia's movie. I'm warming up to Holdo as the leader of the resistance in Leia's absence (also, how cool is it that the princess we met so long ago in a detention cell ends up being the leader of the resistance).

SOME CLARIFICATIONS:

The bomber dropping bombs downward in space: some people think this is a problem at the beginning of the film. The bombs are in a ship that has artificial gravity. Once the bombs leave the ship, they'll still be traveling in the direction that they were pulled when inside the ship. I think this is considered a goof but isn't.

The sacred texts: There's a quick shot of all the sacred texts tucked away safely on the Falcon. Rey took them. When Yoda ignited the tree (I'm still 50/50 on that scene), he says something to the effect of "Rey has everything she needs." He means that the texts are on the Falcon. They're safe.

Snoke's death: I'm still miffed that we learned nothing about Snoke. But many people say that he would have foreseen his death. Upon rewatching the film, Kylo is very careful to make it look like his intentions are to murder Rey. Snoke even narrates this when he says something to the effect of "I feel your hatred, I feel you turning the light saber." At that moment, Kylo turns BOTH his lightsaber and the Rey's, that's on the throne, so that he masks everything he does. He lets Snoke see his actions but not the full intent. So I believe, upon second viewing, Snoke wouldn't have seen it coming. And Kylo knew this, which is why he purposefully used Rey to achieve this-he probably couldn't have done it without her. (However, that space Skype stuff still seems like a ham-fisted way to get Kylo and Rey in the same room together).

Broom boy: I don't think this is meant to be "the next Luke." This is just meant to show there are many force-sensitive people in the galaxy and being myopic about the Sith and Jedi is too near-sighted.

THE MIND-NUMBINGLY STUPID:

Luke did NOT need redemption. The reason he's such an insufferable jerk is that Johnson wanted Luke to be redeemed and ultimately return to using the force and helping the resistance. Luke, as we knew him at the end of Return of the Jedi. I still honestly believe is in a place that in no way he would have fallen so far from that version of himself that he'd need redemption from ANYONE. He'd be a wizened, sure, version of the doe-eyed farm boy from Tatooine that found the good in his father and brought him back to the light. This is sill my #1 problem with this movie.

Leia's Mary Poppins space flight. This wasn't set up in any way. She should have moved a small object using the force. We should have been clued in in a small way she could do this. Or just cut it completely (I mean, she WAS on the bridge of a ship that blew up-her internal organs would be goo anyway). If they had to write her out for a little while so we could focus on Luke, there are a million different ways they could do that.

Admiral Ackbar: Should have been given a much better farewell. It's a person in a suit and could have been played by anyone. He could have gone out saying, "IT'S A TRA-" Bam. Again, sometimes I think Johnson didn't actually watch the original films or Force Awakens.

The super-slow space chase. I don't buy "we can't keep up with one resistance ship" for a moment. The First Order could have called in backup-I'm sure they have backup somewhere in the galaxy-to warp directly in front of the resistance. Or they could have warped one of their OWN ships light years away, turned around and then warped back. I'm still extremely disappointed in this plot device.

Rose: She was a NARC. I loved most of the female cast, and am warming up greatly to Holdo, but Rose still annoys the heck out of me. You're not a friend to someone (Finn) if, at every turn, you tell him that he's just messed up. She comes across as excessively annoying (not a knock on the actor Kelly Tran, who I think IS a good actor).

Space horses: Rose and Finn free a whole bunch of space horses but not the SLAVE KIDS that are standing right next to them? Still bugs me.

Canto Bite: I could go on about all the things wrong with this, BB8 TYING up guards, it basically looking like an extended prequel sequence, why did Finn and Rose park their ship on the beach when they're trying to be sneaky and spy-like, why do they trust Benicio, who's pretty much as shady as they come). I get that both Rose and Finn had to fail their mission to recruit the actual master codebreaker so that they could learn lessons about who to trust, but the entire sequence on Canto Bite looks, feels, and is even written like the prequels. It's cheesy, badly acted, and unnecessary.

C-3PO's lack of red arm: we're lead to believe Force Awakens takes place just minutes our hours before Last Jedi. Who fixed 3P0's arm? Again, did Johnson not watch Force Awakens?

General Hux and Captain Phasma: Hux is completely different, this sniveling little urchin, than the previous movie, which is supposed to show him as rising to be the galaxy's most dangerous right-hand man (like his speech to the huge army of stormtroopers in Force Awakes, straight out of a Nazi playbook). Hux, again, is underused, says a few lines then BAM, dead... or... so... we... think... Who knows at this point.

Re-using so many cues from episodes 5 and 6. This movie rehashes too many beats from Empire and Return of the Jedi. The throne-room "watch the good guys get blown up in ships" moment, Crait being Hoth but with salt, the "dark side cave" Luke goes into in 5 and Rey goes into in this.

Runtime. Shouldn't have been two-and-a-half hours. There's so much one could cut from the middle to get it down to a solid two.

So in short, this is a deeply flawed movie that's offset but astounding strokes of genius, absolute genius, and is one of the reasons it's so hard for me to score it. Some parts were high 9s and others were 4s. I give it a 7 as an average. I hope episode 9 is much more consistent.