Refreshingly, unpredictably told, as a story should be.

Rating: 5/10 (13 March 2018)

I absolutely loved this movie. It has its faults, but all the good won me over, even when I didn't want it to. Ultimately, a movie should tell a story, not what people expect to be told. It should thrill and surprise and evoke emotions other than "Yess!! I knew it!!".
This movie managed to get me involved with the plot, the tension, the stakes. Way too many movies these days either give too much away in the trailers (which I avoid like the plague now) and/or like in Marvel movies, are often too predictable. The result is I end up sitting through them stoic because I know what to expect. But this movie had many unknowns, be it in the resistance members we never get to know, the code breaker, and even Rose. Even the known characters like Luke is someone you no longer know or can predict. Ben's conflict was similarly something that could have gone either way. I truly got to sit through the movie with bated breath, which unfortunately doesn't happen much these days. OBViously Thor is going to live, Super Man isn't going to be evil etc, which makes sitting through the action scenes become a chore. None of the action in this movie somehow came across that way (I don't fully understand why though).
To elaborate(further) I liked how they were bold enough to kill off Snoke (I think he might come back though), instead of making him another Palpatine figure. I liked how you couldn't tell why/how Luke is as he is and what he might/might-not do. I like how the Jedi tree(?) and books were just set alight. I liked Luke's new power to project himself like that. I like how Rey's (the main character's) parents weren't for once some perfect couple who did everything right (I suspect it might still turn out that way). I found it all very bold, new and refreshing.
The Last Jedi does all of this, although perhaps it sometimes goes to the nonsensical to do so. Which brings this review to the negatives. To get it out of the way, the obvious one first - the new rebel leader not disclosing her actual plan. What really stood out to me however was the character of Rose. She could have been avoided and nothing much would have changed. I can understand how liberating those creatures in Canto Bight let them do a good deed, while also getting a means of escape. But what was the point? It looked like they'd all be rounded up soon anyway, and those kids might even be in trouble for the whole thing. Her 'saving' Finn made no sense, nor did her sudden love for Finn. Also don't quite like how Finn seems to have been pushed to the background. Perhaps it is to give Poe more of an chance to shine, but could have been done better.
I was initially against the kind of Marvel humour involving Poe, but couldn't help but accept that things (and times) have changed and so must stories and story-telling.