I know... but wait. This is the Godfather pt.ii of Star Wars.

Rating: 9/10 (17 December 2017)

But "I have a bad feeling about this?"
Why? Something wonderful has happened: the people holding the purse strings on some of the most valuable intellectual property in entertainment history have decided to entrust this franchise to a writer with a vision. This was not Rogue One, which, however you felt about it, was stitched together by shareholders.
There was never going to be an issue of adequate spectacle here, it was going to boil down to the key questions the audience carried for the core characters. Like these answers or not, they poured the most amount of life into them. It bowed to them, rather than the franchise, and the franchise will be served for that decision in the long term.
Luke, Leia, and Han did not sneak into our hearts by giving us what we want- we took a difficult journey with them, and this is remembered by the people who sat in the cinema decades ago and witnessed Vader reach out his hand to Luke and turn his world, and their world, upside down. It is because of that type of confusion and hardship that those three characters will always be our companions, our friends, our family.
Rian Johnson recognized the soul of the Star Wars universe at some point, as many of us have, and this story is his reaction to that recognition. I get the feeling he looked into that beautiful void and saw his own fantasy staring back- his own wish fulfillment, tailored to his identity. An unseasoned artist would have taken that to the writer's room, but what he saw, he embraced, enjoyed for a moment, and then let go. He then sat in the writer's chair and set out to do something selfless, dynamic, difficult, profound to serve this world.
This is what good writers do: it may feel like a slap, or tease, but I promise you, it is a reward.
"No reward is worth this"
It will be, in hindsight. This film's take on the Skywalker legacy will divide audiences for years to come. This is certain. Hamill himself is torn. What I saw of Luke was very, very painful, but it was the right thing to do if this franchise and its fans are to remain dedicated to exploring the human spirit by finding it in a galaxy far, far away. That contrast is part of the magic.
I, like many of you, want Rey to discover who she is. She deserves it. Luke was raised in a loving environment, protected, privileged. Sure, he was lied to, and experienced great loss, but Rey had nothing. She came from nothing. Discovering who you are is a catalyst for the human story, sure, but authoring yourself with your own choices is the very heart of what it means to be human.
Rey will never be the most iconic character in this franchise, but what the world is going to gradually realize through this film is that she is the most important, with the most dynamic arc, and the most active, consequential choices paving the road to her destiny. Luke was born in the middle of a story happening around and to him, and no other intra-franchise character will be remembered for creating their own destiny as much as Rey.
I come from a broken family, and beyond being a great time at the movies, Star Wars has always spoken the emotional language of family and childhood to people like me. Star wars, at its best, is pop culture's altar of personal, familial, primal storytelling.
This film is a sacrifice laid on that altar.