Miles ahead of The Force Awakens

Rating: 8/10 (13 December 2017)

I came into this movie not knowing much about it; I avoided most of the trailers and I wasn't keeping up with any of the theories and plot speculations online, and boy am I glad that i did. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is one of the most intense and unpredictable films I've seen in recent years, and it blows The Force Awakens out of the water in almost every aspect. The characters here feel so much more fleshed out and the writing is a lot more mature and interesting this time around. The dynamic between Rey and Kylo Ren is particularly intriguing, and it goes to places you would never expect. And of course, Mark Hamill's performance as Luke Skywalker is simply delightful. You can feel so much pain and regret in his voice, and he steals the show in every scene he's in (thankfully there are a lot). Overall the cast does an amazing job and the story takes so many fun and exciting turns.
*LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD*
But it's not a perfect movie. There are aspects of The Last Jedi that I genuinely dislike quite a bit, and they mainly come from story choices that I wouldn't be able to talk about without spoilers. First of all, the "side quest" mission that Finn and Rose go on feels very out of place and it definitely drags down the pace of this already very long film. There is some seriously questionable CGI in this sequence too (I'm talking phantom menace level bad), and I just felt like they should've executed the whole sequence in a different way that was less convoluted and less time consuming. Also the thing they do with Leia, yes, THAT thing, was very confusing and I didn't really understand why they needed to show us that. Finally, the way Snoke was handled in this film felt like a bit of a cop out. While Andy Serkis' performance is incredible, the character feels under-utilised considering how much they hyped up his role in this series. We don't really learn anything about him; where he came from, what his motivations are, nothing. That was really disappointing for me. With that being said it's not like I disliked his character in the movie, I just wish there was more of him. Also, I couldn't help but notice how much self sacrifice there was in this movie. There are a lot of characters that die by sacrificing themselves to save others, which i'm ok with, but they really beat you over the head with it by the end.
The story of Rey, Kylo, Luke and Snoke was hands down the best part of the film. It's beautiful and confronting; It asks you to question everything about Star Wars. The First Order, The Resistance, The Jedi, The Sith; What's it all for? Whats the point? Perhaps there dark side and the light side aren't so different? After all this time, what are we really fighting for? The Last Jedi will undoubtedly make you feel conflicted, not just on whether you like the movie or not, but on whether you even understand Star Wars. I'm so Glad Rian Johnson took risks and tried to give us something we haven't seen before, I think it paid off in a lot of ways, even if there were a few stumbles along the way.