It's Good, Hear Me Out

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2017)

I thought The Last Jedi was a pretty good movie, I enjoyed it. It had a decent story, fantastic acting, plot twists, better lightsaber battles, some tense moments, and good humor.
It does have a few unrealistic "how convenient" moments, and one that especially made very little sense and annoyed fans. However, those moments are no worse than the stupid moments of the other Star Wars movies. E.g., teddy bears akin to giant furbies (Ewoks) took down the Empire in Ep VI (it was really silly), Darth Vader actually fell down backwards off a ledge during a duel because he lost his step (it was a true facepalm moment), Yoda was this senile old man that couldn't even remember who R2-D2 was and pokes him with a stick yet he is still a master of the Force (how does senile idiot go together with Jedi Master?), the storyline of Ep VI was that they built another Death Star (unoriginal plot being recycled), and Darth Vader lost his duel to Luke because the actor literally sat down on the stairs and grabbed the railing to allow Luke to beat down on him (it's true, go back and pay close attention to realize how cheesy Vader's defeating moment was), etc. SO, the truth is people tend to forget the bad elements in the other Star Wars, or intentionally overlook them, to enjoy the rest of the story. So I promise you the handful of unrealistic or frustrating elements in The Last Jedi are no worse than any other Star Wars movie!
The Last Jedi also does not answer some questions people had about a particular character. Most importantly, many people did not like the character development of Luke. However, I thought Luke's character development was a) believable and understandable if you really think about the traumatizing event he went through, b) he has some fairly persuasive arguments for his disposition, and c) Luke's character is no different than Yoda when Luke found him (isolated for self-survival, a little discouraged by the dark side, and unwilling to train a new Jedi at first). Why do people complain about Luke's character in The Last Jedi when he acts nearly identical to Yoda's behavior in Ep V? Yoda himself hid his location from the Resistance and made no future attempts to battle Vader or Palpatine! What's most important is Luke remained a good guy, a symbol of hope, and a powerful Jedi Master in this movie. My only complaint is I desperately wanted to see Luke have some mad lightsaber skills, and we didn't see any lightsaber battle from him, and that was very disappointing.
The new director appears to be trying to take Star Wars a little bit of a new direction, which is necessary because Star Wars has always been the same old thing: Empire vs Rebels, good vs dark side, etc. So far there was not enough new content added or risks taken, but it's going that new direction. I'm not saying there's not room for some disappointment or frustration in The Last Jedi, I'm just saying it's overall still a pretty good movie. It may be different than you expect, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Try to watch it with an open-mind. I give it a 7.5/10.