Newer Hope

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2017)

To me, the theme of Star Wars cinema is hope. The first movie had it in the title, the 2016 film character Jyn offered, "Rebellions are built on hope", and to his credit Rian Johnson masterfully took hope to another level in The Last Jedi. His unpredictable plot and storyline elevated this story to the level of one of the greats, almost comparable to the caliber of Empire and Rogue.
Seeing Luke once again in lightsaber battle was mesmerizing. The humour of Chewie and what I've been calling the gophers on the Falcon was actually humorous, like the dialogue of the droid K2 in Rogue One, removing the cheese from the humour of the earliest droids and the silliness of the non-humour of Jar-Jar.
I would have scored this a 10, but I didn't find there was a scene that caused my adrenaline to race, such as in The Force Awakens, when Rei, engaged in battle with Kylo, becomes calm, embraces the Force, and becomes the stronger of the two combatants.
One other element of script writing and realization by Rian Johnson that is worthy of mentioning is in relation to his ability to create flashbacks to earlier films in the mind of the viewer. There were those moments in The Last Jedi, and that Jedi-like ability is admirable.