A very divisive movie... but I enjoyed it a lot! (SPOILERS!!!)

Rating: 9/10 (22 December 2017)

Where to begin...
Star Wars has been, beyond the Skywalkers, about the force and the mythology... I had a lot of expectations regarding Luke, Snoke, Ben and Rey and what was going to be their arc... and after two years of avoiding spoilers and information and just imagining things, it was absolutely different from what I had come to expect... but different does not equals bad.
I know it has been terribly divisive among fans, but I believe there is more than meets the eye here... I did not buy somethings like Snoke being killed and Luke's arc just to end like that... I do not think Disney is going to be this stupid to just "kill" the two most powerful users in the galaxy like that in the middle of the trilogy without having thought what will come next...
I just hope Rian Jhonson is being hired to be the ultimate star wars twist in the saga... making him endure two years of angry fans just for the sake of the way the story needs to be told, making the fans talk and speculate in order to have a well deserved payoff on ep IX! (because if things turns to be the way they supposedly are right now, this review is worth one star and I am going to be pissed as 50% of you are right now!)
It was not a perfect movie, and I will start with the things I liked the least: Leia Poppins, Finn and Rose story and Luke´s unexpected background story...
On Leia Poppins: Don´t get me wrong, I believe Carrie Fisher gave a hell of a performance, and every time I saw her onscreen I was really sad she was not going to return for her bigger part on Episode IX... her interaction with Luke was amazing, as were her lines about being a leader to Poe´s character (another good surprise), my only complain is the way the Poppins scene was handled... her powers came out of nowhere (had she even really trained to pull something like that? or did her powers just come to her naturally just like Rey?) and, even assuming I had liked that display of power... How come it was not addressed after it happened? everybody was around just saying "Oh, General Organa was pulled into the vacuum but there she is at the other side of this pressurized door, can you open the door please?" Perhaps this scene was originally conceived to establish some of the things she was going to do on IX... but it felt just weird.
On Finn and Rose: I was reading a review which said that Rian Jhonson had so many characters and needed to still do something with them after the force awakens that some stories feel forced... and to me this is the biggest one (not counting the Mass Kanatta's jetpack one bit) their story didn´t add anything to the story, except by the critics to profiting on war (which I believe is one of the best critics star wars has ever made... come on guys... the excuse of war is putting our planet to sleep just for some coins!) and the little bit with the kid... but I believe it didn´t really add anything to the story
On Luke´s background story: as one IMDB user and Mark Hamill himself said: "I have known Luke my entire life but I did not recognized him on this film" and This is the turning point for me... how in the world does a Jedi Knight who has gone through hell, blowing one deathstar, losing a hand, rescuing a friend, becoming the last jedi, fighting the emperor, redeeming his father and being the HOPE of the OT just get to this??!!! for crying out loud! Luke would have never turned his back on Ben like that! (unless Snoke´s influence is actually THAT big to make Luke see the galaxy devastated by Kylo)
Now... to what I liked... and it´s got to do with the fact that even thought I did not get to see Luke at his prime (having a hell of a lightsaber fight, using the force in an action packed choreography against the knights of Ren, marrying Mara Jade and having his son, flying the millennium falcon in the best battle sequence of the whole saga, seeing him smile as he finally found peace with his Jedi identity - Man, this is becoming one hell of a parenthesis, but I guess you get my point and how hyped I was just for his character-), I did not thing his failure was that bad a thing... we just got the opposite of the Happy story we all wanted for him and for all of the characters after Return of the Jedi!
And if you look at it, it had been established during the force awakens... Han went back to do what he was best at, so did Leia... their lives continued linked to their decisions as does real life... with ups and downs... we just did not get the story that we had imagined with all of them happily ever after... but WE GOT A STORY WHICH HAS ALL OF US AGAIN STILL DEBATING ABOUT A FREAKING MOVIE! and this, to me, is movie magic.
I got to see Luke speaking about the force and the way he understands it, I got to see him talk to Yoda and Leia, I got to see him come to terms with his mistakes and decide to take action on a hell of a force display, I wanted to say "don´t get cocky" to him as he swept his shoulder after the attack, I loved the binary Sunset and the fact that even him finally accepted that the stupid battle between light/dark side of the force could only be finished through balance... finally accepting that the Jedi have made some terrible decisions during millennia!
I got to see also that the fate of the force is no longer linked specifically to the Skywalker family (which is a relief, since it has always being bigger than that!) and I got to see two sides of the force fighting side by side in one of the coolest scenes ever!
Now... the reason for my 9 stars and not 10 comes from the fact I hope that my expectations may be somehow addressed on episode IX... again, if the story that we see is just what it is without any more depth - which I refuse to believe at this point-, this review will go from 9 stars to 1 in two years... however, I do not think Disney will be stupid enough to do this... and here are some thoughts:
1: Why on the hell is the novelization coming out on MARCH for crying out loud? this is a very weird move, specially given the fact that all of the novelizations have been released before the movie!
2: After all of the background on Snoke from the visual dictionnaries... I refuse to think Disney will just let it go like this... it was conceived by JJ Abrams and thanks God he is coming back... also... the fact that TLJ was a back to back to TFA does not leave a lot of room to include new plots or situations (Rebels destroyed Star killer´s base, First order destroys rebels base, then almost obliterates all of the rebels) and that´s where we are... If there is a bigger plan it has been too short a period for it to unveil.
I believe Snoke is not dead... I believe at this point he is strongest than Luke and, if Luke could pull out such an illusion, so could Snoke just to tempt Rey or to Test Kylo, and I hope to see him be a badass
3: If Snoke tuns out to be the Badass I expect... the only thing that can confront him will be something more powerfull than he can possibly imagine... This was the first time I saw a force ghost affecting the physical world with a hell of a power - thanks Yoda!- and perhaps Luke will have a word on that.
4. If Disney pulls this con on all of the fans... they will become more powerfull than we can possibly imagine.
I just hopes this turns out this way... and that we can take literally Luke´s words: This is not going to go the way you think.
Help us JJ Abrams... you are our last hope!