So after avoiding reviews, spoilers and comments for the past weeks, I saw THE LAST JEDI today...
...and I liked it.
Now as many of you know, I am a TREK guy. And while I am almost 50 years old, and grew up in the heyday of WARS, I was never a passionate hardcore fan. When my buddies were asking for Star Wars toys for xmas, I wanted Micronauts. Not to say I don't enjoy the franchise, I think ANH and ESB are perfect tens for me, but the rest of the movies are very mixed, take it or leave experience.
Anyways, after watching the film today, I went online to see what the general consensus was and why there was so much apparent controversy. I found it interesting that most of things people seem to be railing against, I liked.
I enjoyed that this one while still loaded with traditional SW tropes, at least tried to go in some new directions. The whole Canto Bight subplot, I thought was an interesting attempt to shed some reality on the nature of war profiteering, which I never would have expected from a SW movie. In a universe as Black and White as Star Wars, this was refreshing if not slightly forced and awkward. Will it have any real resounding impact on the nature of the franchise? Of course not. But "A" for effort.
The Luke Skywalker arc.... if I was in my teens or twenties, I probably would have hated this. But being much, much older now, and been worn down by many of life's hard realities, I thought Luke's fate felt believable. And I thought his final scenes were touching and beautifully executed.
The SW cynic in me finds it shocking Luke would think he was even able to train any future Jedi with true success. I mean he spent what... one or two days with Obiwan, and maybe a week or two with Yoda... and that makes him a Jedi Master?
Though I do agree with @"Gaith" the Thrawn trilogy, along with the first few expanded universe trilogies, were much better written than the current SW films.
I liked Rey's arc, though she felt a bit lost in the last act to me. I loved the reveal that she is just a "nobody"... not another Skywalker... no special parentage... to me this feels more real.
I enjoyed Rose and her viewpoint of the world.
I loved Leia's limited but powerful appearances.
Poe and the Laura Dern plot, generally worked for me. A leader does not have to share strategy with their underlings, especially those with a hot head reputation. But still.... a lot of wasted lives and time could have been saved.
Things that left me frustrated... no explanation how the First Order was able to track the Rebel Fleet? Was it a traitor? A tracking device? Why was no effort make by the rebels to figure this out?????
Snoke. No development or explanation. Nothing. Who was he? How did he become so powerful? How did he seduce Ben? What's his relationship to Luke?
It was interesting all the classic SW style villains... the dreadnaught Admiral, Phasma, Snoke.... are killed and we are left with two snivelling, whiny bad guys. Granted, at least Kylo Ren has a tragic element to him, but again totally undeveloped or explained.
On the whole, it was a very enjoyable ride. I smile through most of it. I even choked up a couple of times. Not perfect, with many underdeveloped plot points and characters, but a fun escape regardless. Upon a single viewing, I would probably give it an 8 out of 10.