Worthy addition

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2018)

So I finally got to chek out "The Last Jedi" last night and maybe because I had heard some of the more divided reaction to the film, or I still had some prequel hangover, I went in with a little more muted expecations than I normally do for a Star Wars film. I came out thinking that I was not very surprised that people had negative feelings towards the film, but that I personally thought it was great.
The last hour or so of this movie is probably the best hour of any Star Wars film that I can think of, personally. The first hour or so felt a little too episodic, but overall this one felt a little more organic, like it was confident in the story it was telling and it knew where it was leading. There were real ideas behind it, and because of that there was a purpose to the events far more than was ever achieved in the prequels (which face it, were based on one single event, Anakin becoming Darth Vader, and we took three films and about seven hours to get to a climax we all knew was going to happen).
There were many big time moments in the movie, my favorites all involved Luke, the shoulder brush, the green milk, tossing the lightsaber are all new classics, whose character has become incredibly interesting and complex. I also disagreed with Mark Hamill, who thought that his character acted in very un-Luke ways, I think that this keeps in line with the Luke that we saw him changing into during those three films, especially when confronted with events that mirrored his own father's turn to the dark side. There is an inevitability to the fight against the dark side, that as soon as it is defeated new enemies will spring up, that could easily turn someone that is so in tune with the Force to become disheartened.
Overall, I'm excited to see where the final episode takes us, and I honestly don't know where that will be, which is incredibly fun.
Rating ***1/2 out of ****.