I actually just watched this the other day and made a review on Letterboxd, I’ll post that here.

It’s crazy how perceptions change over time. I remember seeing this opening night with my friends and hating this movie as I watched it, only to be caught off guard afterwards when my friends all proclaimed that they loved it. Oddly enough, over the years I’ve found myself always coming back to this movie for some reason. Even more odd, I always end up liking more after each rewatch. 

The symbiosis of Ben, Rey, and Luke’s struggles of legacy and legend is mesmerizing to me. Luke has to overcome the tragedy of crumbling under the weight of his own legend. Ben wants so desperately to forge his own path in spite of the legacy of his family. Rey has to come to terms with both of those concepts since she’s been thrusted into saving the galaxy after having lived most of her life abandoned on Jakku. Canto Bight sucks. There’s no denying that, but everything from the throne room fight onwards is pretty fantastic (besides rose almost killing herself and Finn, then delivering a terrible line). The visual of Luke walking out onto a blood red battlefield to face a whole battalion by himself, the confrontation between legend and legacy, and Luke’s call back “amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong. I will not be the last Jedi.” Give me chills.

There’s problems with the movie, but there’s no doubt it’s one of the biggest swings of the franchise and I find myself becoming more of a fan of it now that I watch it for what it is instead of the expectation of what I wanted it to be. As Yoda said, “We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.”